Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Here I stand on this hill, a newly elected member of this place, the Australian House of Representatives; the member for Hasluck; a representative. What is that? What is a representative? It is audacious, surely, to claim to represent 150,000 souls, even perhaps to represent anyone other than ourselves. What gall we have and yet here we are. Of course, it is a privilege and an honour. The enormity of the task entrusted to us is never far from my mind.

I am a proud Western Australian and spent most of my formative years in a beautiful regional Wheatbelt town called York. York is the oldest inland town in Western Australia, having been established in 1835. It is a pretty small place but it is full with arts, music and culture, and I immersed myself in all of it. The Balardong Noongar people have lived in the York area for more than 50,000 years, and I pay my respects to them.

My mother and father are here today. They moved us to York for a tree change when I was about nine and my dear, beautiful sister, Sophia, 11. We lived for a while, the four of us, in a small, tiny one-room cabin on a small property surrounded by nature, and we loved it. My mother, Glenyce—apart from helping Dad look after horses, sheep, goats, chickens and us—was a medical practice manager. From her I learned resilience and a strong work ethic. My father, Peter, had many jobs. His absolute favourite, like Ben Chifley, was being a train driver. From my father I discovered a passion for motorcycling and he taught me compassion and to see the world through an egalitarian lens. He also modelled dedication to the Labor Party and Labor values all of his life, and always pushed me to have a political career. Okay, Dad, I got the message! My parents provided me with a wonderful example of equal partnership and of a steadfast and loving relationship.

My husband and soulmate of over 20 years, Nenad Djurdjevic, is also here today. Everyone in this place will know how important it is to have family who support you in this work. I am more than fortunate to have his unwavering moral and practical support.

For the last 10 years we have lived in the shire of Mundaring, which today lies in the geographic heart of the electorate of Hasluck. I love the Perth Hills and our home there. We live near a creek surrounded by the Beelu forest where small groups of endangered red-tailed black-cockatoos will sometimes perch above us munching on marri tree nuts. If I am away from nature for too long I truly feel the lack of it. One thing certain about this job, and many others which I've had, is that there is a continual need to find balance and to return to the natural world. I need to reconnect with nature in some way every day.

The Wajuk Noongar people call the Mundaring area 'Minda-lung', meaning 'a high place on a high place'. I pay my respects to them, some 3,000 kilometres from home. I also pay my respects to the Ngunnawal people, on whose land I stand, and to their elders present and past, and their emerging leaders.

To the Speaker: I congratulate him on his election to the chair. The standard of conduct expected of us by our community is very high and we need to hold ourselves to that high standard. Above all, and more important than any policy or legislation, the Australian people expect us to be leaders with integrity. Leadership requires high standards. Through both legislation and our own behaviour we need to set and maintain those standards. I commit myself, Speaker, to that renewed effort.

I note the great community work done in Hasluck by the former member, Ken Wyatt, and I seek to build on his effort. He was the first Indigenous member of the House when elected in 2010. He was well liked across the chamber and he served with dignity as the Minister for Indigenous Australians. I hope and expect that this parliament will continue to listen to Indigenous people and will rise to the challenge to a full and constitutional implementation of the Voice to Parliament envisaged in the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017. The Uluru statement describes the difficulty facing Indigenous people as a structural problem, as 'the torment of our powerlessness'. The Voice to Parliament will be enshrined in the Constitution—the very centre of our power.

Hasluck today stretches from the bustling Swan Valley—communities like Caversham, Brabham and Ellenbrook, up the Darling Scarp into the hills communities of Mundaring, Kalamunda and Gidgegannup and as far as Wooroloo. Is it the most beautiful electorate in Australia? I don't know; I haven't seen them all. But perhaps it is. People choose to live in the hills and the Swan Valley for myriad reasons—for the national parks, for the farmland and natural environment; for the business opportunities; for the historic centres of Midland and Guildford; for the vineyards; for the active, wonderful and warm communities in each shire and locality; for the freedom; and for the challenges. And there are challenges. Moving around the electorate is one of them, with limited public transport options. Disaster readiness is always front and centre. Communications can be tricky and are patchy at best. The North-East Corridor, which centres on Ellenbrook, is one of Perth's fastest-growing areas and carries all the needs of a bustling mortgage belt. Access to health, education and social services is harder than in most metropolitan areas.

Campaigning in Hasluck also held challenges, and I cannot speak highly enough of the great team of volunteers who coalesced seemingly out of nowhere and helped me each and every day on what was a long campaign. They were many and varied: Labor Party branch members, young—and young in spirit—as well as valiant union members, fighting the good fight; students; pensioners; old friends; and quite a few locals who had just had enough. People like Jenny Elder-Green and Harry Craig sustained me through the campaign. They united to become the change makers.

But it's not the function of a first speech to name everyone, so I will wait and thank each of them as I meet them again. I must, however, thank Premier Mark McGowan, who encouraged me to run and whose support, together with that of Tim Picton and Ellie Whittaker at WA Labor, was crucial. I also thank all those in the great trade union movement for their steadfast focus and contributions in time, effort and support. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Peter O'Keeffe and Ben Harris at the SDA. I thank all my federal colleagues, who were there with me in solidarity every step of the way. I am also very fortunate to have six wonderful state Labor MPs within Hasluck, who were so generous with their time and guidance. I look forward to continuing to work with all of them in delivering for our communities.

I need to mention my mentors: the first member for Hasluck, Sharryn Jackson, as well as Alannah MacTiernan and Stephen Smith, for providing me with their support and sage advice at crucial moments. I particularly thank my campaign team, led by Gareth Thomas, who was ably supported by Ally Lewis, Russel McFarlane, Sam Rowe and Hannah Beazley. They sacrificed their personal time for 10 months, volunteering to ensure that we reached every corner of our 1,300-square-kilometre electorate.

I am here now to serve the people of Hasluck. I don't think there's any point in being here at all unless our actions in this place serve to make people's lives better, to reduce suffering, and to unlock the potential of our communities and so our nation. These are some of the many reasons I chose to run for office.

Another motivation for running was that I could no longer stand by and witness the abject betrayal of the Australian people. The previous government failed to act in our national security interest. They failed our LGBTQI community by recklessly creating divisions in our society and within families. They demeaned and even criminalised people seeking basic support through the NDIS, social security and asylum. They knew there was a need for an anticorruption commission and they failed to act. They presided over a decade of wilful ignorance and indifference to protecting our environment, and they continually failed to lead on a multitude of crises that Australians faced—pandemic, bushfires, floods, climate.

Is this the moment to speak truth to power? Is it? The previous government knew the truth. It was those suffering who were kept from knowing: the 30-year-old hills veteran, his body riddled with shrapnel, broken physically and mentally, asking me why he can't access the support he needs; the seniors in Aveley, borrowing money they know they cannot return to pay rates and bills, wondering to me why there is no action on cost of living; the young man in Swan View asking me why he had to quit his job to care for and to wash and clean his mother, as she lay, with cancer, in a nursing home. The truth—the sad, cruel, cold hearted truth—is that the previous government did not care. The previous government made me angry and motivated me, like my volunteers, to work to make change a national imperative. So on 21 May 2022 the Australian people voted for change. The new members here are a result of that mood for change, as is the new government. Of course, being the beneficiaries of a mood for change carries with it the onus to effect change. We need to deliver.

The experience I bring to this chamber includes work as an adviser for state governments of both persuasions on issues ranging from local content in government contracts to addressing insurance access and affordability, native title, counterterrorism and emergency and security management. From the resources sector, I bring experience in crisis and risk management, international business development and negotiating deals across cultures. From running my own business, I bring an understanding of the need for clarity and certainty from government, which provides the conditions conducive to investment, growth and employment opportunities.

Before all of that, when I was very young, I found the urge to travel, to see new places and different peoples. I began after-school work from 14 so I could save money to travel for a couple of months, backpacking across India when I was 16. My dad came along because he felt he had to. I was going either way. I also spent a year in Japan on Rotary exchange and, later, a time in Bangladesh with UNHCR. These were important experiences for me. I received the gift of understanding that there are many ways for people to live and many ways to approach the same goals. It also entrenched my curiosity in Asian politics, history, language and culture, leading me to study for bachelor's degrees in both economics and Asian studies. Education is so important. It needs to be of a high quality and accessible to all, not only to provide young people with a way to move forward in life but also to combat the racism, misogyny and elitism that a lack of good education foments.

The other thing I learned from my study and travels is the vital importance of government policies that support economic growth. Capital investment in modern times has opened the gates to economic prosperity. Capitalism alone, however, cannot sustain prosperity, because prosperity must also be measured in terms of environmental health and individual wellbeing, not just in gross economic transactional terms. In our complex societies the existence of a social safety net is paramount to ensure that no-one is held back and no-one is left behind.

I have met many people in Hasluck finding it harder and harder to meet their mortgage repayments as they face cost-of-living pressures. Others are caught up in a rental trap and have given up hope of ever owning their own home. Others, still, are homeless or facing homelessness. It is not possible in our society to be happy, healthy and productive when people face stress of this magnitude. This is a housing crisis, notwithstanding that we are one of the world's most prosperous nations. It is a matter of shame and a policy area that governments, at all levels, must address. My own parents benefited from affordable housing policy when they were starting out, thanks to the Whitlam government giving families access to land and housing at fair prices. Today, progress will require coordinated responses and novel, perhaps even courageous, unpopular solutions. I am glad that the new government is making this a priority and is taking the first steps. Shelter and security are human rights.

Equality is important to me. It is the foundation of our democracy, and a denial of equality on any basis—be it ethnicity, gender, sexuality or a lack of income, to name a few—is a denial of the rights of every person and a failure to have our nation realise its full potential both at home and abroad. We have a great untapped wealth of knowledge and experience in those Australians who have migrated here from the very cultures and political systems that we are now endeavouring to rebuild relationships with, trade with and work with. As Gough Whitlam said in 1972, we need to 'liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of the Australian people'.

Our representative institutions must be representative in order to be legitimate and to instil confidence. The parliament and the government must always lead in this respect, and I am proud of the gender diversity, the cultural diversity and the diversity of life experiences that this parliament is now increasingly reflecting.

Integrity and respect in our national institution is vital, and hasn't this taken a beating in recent years? In a pluralist democracy everyone brings their own belief systems to bear upon their decision-making. Sometimes these beliefs are political, sometimes essentially cultural and historic and sometimes religious. Errors and injustices can occur when one group tries to impose its own world view upon others. I believe in the ready defence of civil rights and a strong civics education to vaccinate us against bigotry and extremism.

I'm also eager to examine and vote on legislation for a federal integrity commission. My community of Hasluck demands more than words. They demand that I, and all of you, do the right thing by them in this place. Throughout my own career as an adviser in government I was always careful to keep my politics separate from my governmental role. This is how it needs to be. A politicised Public Service cannot instil confidence or have the confidence to provide frank and fearless advice when it's needed.

Another institution which needs to be independent is the media. I support the public broadcaster in all its iterations, its proper funding and its right and need to operate without interference from government ministers. I believe in a cantankerous press that the government cannot control and, at the same time, a free press that is not directed in its editorials by privileged moneyed interests.

The problems that confront us are often huge, global, longstanding, overwhelming. Denial, delays, short-term thinking, administrative paralysis, hiding reports: these are not acceptable forms of governing.

We need to come to terms with the many challenges that face us as a nation—economic, health, security and, not least, environmental. This new government has not yet had much time to enact legislation, but it has already started to deliver. New emissions targets; support for a wage increase for lower paid workers; building bridges again with international partners. It may be a new government but it is not shy.

Instability has been a hallmark of our political system for a decade. The Australian people need both to know and to feel that there is now stability at the top. I am proud to serve under this Prime Minister. He is firm but fair; reasoned and deliberate. And the best thing is we know he cares. I look forward to seeing the Prime Minister and ministers visiting Western Australia, particularly Hasluck, a fair bit over the next few years!

And so where will we be as a nation 20 years from now? I hope to see an Australia confident and secure in its place in the world, and well connected with its neighbours. A serious country that takes itself seriously, and one that our region turns to naturally for help with serious problems. A country that has invested just as much in protecting its people from the real risks we face—from fire, floods and cyclones—as it does on defence. An Australia that can look back over 20 years of sure action on climate change and be proud, and more than a little relieved. An Australia with a strong, circular economy in a world where having a few digital Australasian dollars is regarded as a good thing. A country where Australians are still a little cynical about politicians, for that is part of our DNA, but where there are fewer reasons they can point to for that cynicism. A country where politicians speak less of the need for cultural and gender diversity because it has become the norm. A country where the First Nations voice informs the work of the parliament on a daily basis, and where First Nations cultures and languages are flourishing. An Australia where the wellbeing of the nation is underpinned by the wellbeing of each of its citizens, who know that in times of need they will be able to rely on universal Medicare, child care, aged care, superannuation and the NDIS, and in a just and superb education system that is accessible and free. An Australia where a new flag flies over this place as the political centre of a young republic. And a country where, 3,000 kilometres away, back at home in the shire of Mundaring, perhaps still at the heart of an electorate called Hasluck, Nen and I have noticed that the red-tailed black-cockatoos have increased in such number that we sometimes find it hard to hear ourselves speak.

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