Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Goodenough, congratulations on your appointment to the panel. Thank you to the people of Cooper, an incredibly progressive group of constituents. At the last ABC survey, or the one before the last ABC survey, my electorate of Cooper was named the most progressive in the country. I believe it's been pipped at the post by the good people of Wills, ably represented here by my friend Peter Khalil, the member for Wills. The people of Cooper have told me what they care about. They care about climate change; they care about refugees; they care about decent jobs and the cost of living; they care deeply about the troubled aged-care sector; they care about homelessness and, of course, decent public education, health care and Medicare; and, importantly, they care about integrity in politics.

I'm proud to say that I have one of the largest First Nations communities in urban Victoria in Cooper, and so the Uluru Statement from the Heart, voice, truth and treaty were first and foremost among the things they wanted me to progress here as their member. I'd like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria, working towards treaty alongside the Yoorrook truth-telling commission, and congratulate Aunty Geraldine Atkinson and Marcus Stewart as co-chairs of the assembly. We are learning from them in Victoria, watching as we move towards advancing the Uluru statement, with the largest number of First Nations parliamentarians in the history of this parliament. I'm proud to say that they are led here in the government by Minister Linda Burney and special envoy Senator Pat Dodson, and I'd like in particular to acknowledge my very good friend and fellow Victorian Senator Jana Stewart on her election. My electorate, Cooper, is named after William Cooper, a First Nations activist who was brave and relentless in the fight for self-determination, spearheading the struggle for a voice to parliament all those years ago, albeit via a petition to the then king.

What a wonderful start to parliament we've had, with that welcome to country by Dr Aunty Matilda House-Williams and her son Paul reiterating the urgency around the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Last weekend at Garma we heard a wonderful speech from our Prime Minister, a speech that spoke of generosity and gracious acceptance of that offer. He spoke of manners, of this being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk with our First Peoples, and said that, whilst acknowledging the atrocities of the past, we can create a better future—one we can look back on at the end of the day with pride.

At the end of your life, you want to look back. You want to look back and think you made a difference for the better. We all try, of course, in our own way: raising our kids right, helping our neighbours, volunteering, being as good a person as we can. But, my goodness, here in this House we have been given a great opportunity, a privilege not afforded to everyone, to make a difference—to make a difference as a government for the ages, even beyond our mortal selves. It is Labor governments that do that.

The Prime Minister has said his will be a government that leads with heart. I want to be here with him. I'm proud to be here with him and this government to do just that. The first day's legislative agenda did show what we mean. Changed standing orders to create family-friendly hours was one of the first pieces of legislation tabled in this House, responding to the Jenkins report in full. This place should be an exemplary workplace and set the standard.

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy introduced his comprehensive bill, the most comprehensive plan supported by all sectors of society, setting up the architecture for us to launch our future as a renewable energy superpower, and a big call-out to all the climate activists in my electorate who are passionate about this and committed to saving the planet. Aged care, with years of neglect—so many of my constituents begged me to convince the previous government to act on aged care, and I am so proud to tell them we will. We stood here and tabled legislation to abolish the cashless debit card—a racist, punitive invention of the previous government. We will help seniors with the cost of living.

Yet to come is a wonderful agenda: universal childcare support, protecting the environment, and paid family and domestic violence leave. It was incredible to sit here in the House and listen to the minister introduce that legislation, something that I personally have fought for for decades. We are strengthening Medicare, fixing the GP shortage and assuring our exhausted health workforce that we are here to make things better.

We're going to have a jobs and skills summit to make sure that we are prepared for the future, looking at insecure work, women's participation, all-ability-inclusive workforces and skills shortages. We will look seriously at the role of immigration for skilled workers as a pathway to permanency as well as improving productivity for this country. We will look to abolishing indefinite detention and getting rid of punitive temporary visas for people seeking asylum, making sure there are pathways to permanent residency and safe resettlement. Of course, as I mentioned, there is the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

My electorate of Cooper is a vibrant, diverse electorate. It's home to ten-pound Poms and their families. It's home to post-war families who moved into Reservoir before the roads were sealed. It's home to a marvellous mix of migrants from Italy, Greece, China, Vietnam, Macedonia, African countries, the Middle East—you name it; we have them here in Cooper, and it's wonderful. It's home to artists, manufacturers, brewers, thousands of small businesses and, of course, the wonderful La Trobe University and dozens of fantastic schools. It's home to sports nuts of all types, from roller derby world champions to lawn bowlers. It is a large and vibrant First Peoples community, home to the Aboriginal Advancement League, the legacies of William Cooper and Sir Doug Nicholls, and Aunty Alma Thorpe's Gathering Place at Dardi Munwurro. I stand here privileged to be the member for Cooper.

See this speech in context