Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

This morning I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. Together, Australians stand on the shoulders of 1,600 generations of First Nations people, and that is our shared history.

It has now been 1,229 days since I rose in this place for the first time and delivered my first address on behalf of the people of Lilley. Had you told me on that day what the next 1,229 days would have in store, I don't think I would have believed you. The Black Summer bushfires scorched the east coast of Australia; 100,000 women marched for justice, demanding action from a lethargic federal government who refused to listen; a global pandemic broke out and fundamentally shifted the way that we live and work; and northsiders battened down the hatches through waves of lockdowns, border closures, business interruptions, homeschooling, vaccine and RAT shortages, and an omicron summer that disrupted our desperately wished for plans to resume normality.

The February floods ravaged South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales, and many of my constituents, like Mary from Deagon and Sarah from Sandgate, lost most of their possessions and were displaced from their homes. Northsiders showed resilience and many showed up to help their neighbours, like the infamous 'tinnie man' of Finnie Road in Deagon, who was ferrying Deagon residents through the floodwater to safety. On a personal note, last term, my first term in parliament, I gave birth to twins, Ossie and Dash, who turned two last month.

The past 1,229 days did not just create new challenges for all of our communities but turbocharged existing weaknesses and left the country crying out for a government with a vision for a better future. Despite the challenges of the last three years there have been many happy moments that have given us hope and propelled us forward. In my community the beginning of 2022 saw many much loved local events and traditions make their return across Lilley. The Bluewater Festival in Shorncliffe, the Einbunpin Festival in Sandgate, Banyo Diwali, Zillmere Festival, Nundah Festival and the Sandgate Youth Festival all returned with full force. In April we welcomed 120 babies born during the pandemic at Lilley's annual Welcoming the Babies event commenced 20 years ago by my predecessor Wayne Swan. At that event we commence my personal passion project, the Lilley Pram Pro Am, aka the running of the babies. In May the Lilley Honours List made a triumphant return, with a ceremony at Burnie Brae, where we recognised local flood heroes who went above and beyond during the floods in Northside. Moving forward the green-and-gold runway to the Brisbane 2032 Games paves the way for significant socioeconomic benefits that will last generations and help to drive Australia's post-COVID-19 recovery.

Perhaps the greatest conduit was the 2022 federal election. They say rain on your wedding day is a good omen, signifying a lasting marriage to come. Judging by the volume of rain that teemed down in Lilley during the last two weeks leading up to election day in May, hopefully it will prove to be a very good omen for what would become the Albanese government. Voters in Lilley backed federal Labor in record numbers in every suburb, from Brighton to Everton Park to Zillmere to Nundah. Voters turned out in record numbers at prepoll, with some queueing for two hours in the dark and rain to cast their ballot. This persistence highlighted Lilley's determination for change, with almost half of our electorate having cast a ballot at prepoll or via postal vote before 21 May.

When times are uncertain, people often cling to the familiar. They're reluctant to change governments or to take a risk or to try something new. But the voters in Lilley and, as it followed, in the rest of the country had realised in the wake of three years of challenge and turmoil that the Morrison government was not on the side and was simply no longer up to the job. They could not count on the coalition to deliver a better future for their families after a decade of rorts and failures. So, despite the appalling weather conditions, Lilley Labor volunteers showed up at the booths, in the mud, in their jackets, brollies up, drenched how-to-votes in their hands, never wavering in their commitment to rid the country of the tired Morrison government and elect the Albanese Labor government. We proudly campaigned on Labor's economic plan, from our commitment to rebuild Australian manufacturing to boosting wages and helping families with the cost of living by making child care cheaper. On aged care we promised to put security, dignity, equality and humanity back into aged care for older Australians, and I'm proud to now have been given the opportunity to deliver on that as the minister.

After three years of fighting for the people of Lilley on the Northside and in the parliament, we achieved a 9.92 two-party preferred swing and a 6.2 per cent primary swing to the Labor Party in Lilley. Our results would not have been achieved without the unwavering support of the Lilley Labor rank and file. Day after day members volunteering their time and energy turned up to campaign events to keep Lilley Labor but also with the hope that retaining Lilley as a part of the Northside Labor effort would help to secure an Albanese Labor government. Together, Lilley volunteers completed hundreds of home-baking sessions, hundreds of street stalls and 57 doorknocking sessions across every suburb in Lilley, having over 10,000 conversations with local residents. This was only possible thanks to the work of hundreds of volunteers and supporters.

My state and local colleagues, member for Aspley Bart Mellish, member for Sandgate Stirling Hinchliffe, member for Nudgee Leanne Linard, member for Stafford Jimmy Sullivan, and councillor for Deagon Ward and leader of Labor in the council Jared Cassidy, I thank you for your camaraderie and your support. To my staff—my beautiful, beautiful staff—Cath, Justin, Deanne, Summer, Marian, Rhyana, Sophia, Shayne, Saxon and Declan, thank you for sticking by me and seeing it through. You deal with some very complex and shifting sands in the Lilley electorate, not least because of my three young children, and you do it with grace, with dignity and with passion. I could not do any of this without you. I thank you so much.

To my campaign manager, Bisma Asif, who helped drive our phenomenal field campaign to new heights and ensured we delivered our message right across the north side, I thank you.

To the Queensland Labor Party office team, particularly to Mitchell Kingston, who was the driver of strategy behind our campaign to take Lilley from the most marginal seat in Queensland to a hard-fought 10.5 per cent margin—I thank you very much, along with Julie-Ann Campbell and Zac Beers.

To Faye Clark and Anne Marlay, Warren Derrington and Kate Derrington, Matt Fortey and Russell, who braved the cold and rainy conditions day after day for the entire two weeks of prepolling—you know I love you.

Usama Shafiq, Aamna Asif, Emma Babao, Frank Scattini, Scott Macleod and Luke Richmond formed the core of the field team who made all of those calls and knocked on all of those doors. I thank Tom Hinchliffe, Quinn Storrie, Saxon Kliendienst, Will Henderson, Graham Appleton, Walter Kuhn, Jared and Rod, who worked extremely hard to ensure operation yard signs was efficient, getting 150 signs erected in various parts of the electorate at very short notice and in very short time frames.

I thank to the stoic volunteers who spent election eve setting up voting booths in the rain only to back it up the following day by staffing them. My thanks to the hundreds of people on election day who staffed the booths from before 8 am to after 6 pm, handing out how-to-vote cards and talking to the voters about a better future under Labor.

I thank my family, particularly Finn—I'm going to lose it now—who has been an absolute pillar in our lives. None of this would have been possible without everything that you do with your continuous sacrifice, your love and your support—I thank you. To Celeste, who is very upset she is not here with us this week, but who now has her own commitments with prep and her own diary program to adhere to—I love you, my darling, and I hope you are proud.

There are many people who have not been singled out for a mention in the speech—however, that does not diminish the contributions that they have made. It goes to show the sheer scale of the community you need to run a campaign, and that goes for every single community in the 151 electorates that we represent here.

I will touch briefly on the budget process because this is my first opportunity since we handed down the budget. It's the first federal Labor budget in nearly a decade; a budget that feels like a breath of fresh air, I hope, after a decade of waste and rorts; a budget that delivers on our promise to build a better future for all Australians; a responsible, family-friendly budget that helps Australians with the cost of living; a budget that helps deliver cheaper medicine, fee-free TAFE and a future made in Australia.

For the first time since the coalition government scrapped it in 2014, the Albanese government brought back gender-responsive budgeting. The Albanese government knows that for real economic change women need to be part of the policy-making and part of the decision-making, and I'm very proud to have a seat around that table now. Australian women will no longer be an afterthought when planning Australia's economic future. The Albanese Labor government is extending paid parental leave and cutting the cost of child care. These are crucial economic reforms that we are doing that will boost workforce participation for women and make things just a little bit easier.

I couldn't be prouder to be part of the federal Labor government ready to build a better future. We won't let down the Australians who have put their faith in us, and I will continue to do my best to reward the trust that the people of Lilley have placed in me for this, my second term.

It would be remiss of me on this glorious day not to congratulate the Socceroos on their stunning victory, their iconic victory, their very deserving victory in the early hours of this morning. Australians have copped quite a lot of chat about our soccer ability in recent months, but I never lost the faith and neither did any of the thousands of people that gathered in places like Federation Square in the early hours of this morning. The twins were asleep in two travel cots beside my bed in the hotel room, so I was watching it in a very different manner to the first game I got to see in Doha against France. While the two different experiences have formative and lasting memories for me, I note here in this place a moment in the first game against France when Awer Mabil and Garang Kuol were subbed on in the late end of the second half. You could see, as they waited together to run on, what a special moment it was for them. I got to see them later at base camp. They said they were just so proud that they got to do that for their communities in that moment, and I got to say to them, 'To me, your community is Australia, and I hope you know how many Australians felt that magic and that pride in that same moment, watching and waiting for you to run on and represent us all on the pitch.'

This morning, that Mathew Leckie goal in the 60th minute was one of the goals of the World Cup. Then there's Mat Ryan and the pressure that he has to withstand as goalkeeper. It is astounding what he does both as goalkeeper and as captain. I got to meet his family in Doha. They are good people. Eight of them travelled from Sydney to Doha to support our captain. I send a shout-out to Megan, his sister, who does good work for us in community sport.

To Harry Souttar and all the defensive players, who withstood such ferocious attacks from Denmark last night and in our earlier matches against Tunisia and France, I say: you might not get the glory of the goal, but we recognise your efforts and we are so proud. To Arnie, JJ, Mark and Team Australia, who are based over at Aspire Academy, led by national icon Timmy Cahill, I say: thank you for everything that you are doing to bring our boys home and to give us these opportunities that have really captured the imagination of the nation today.

I think it is worth noting here in the federal parliament the national significance in Australian sporting history of what they have now achieved. We are through to the final 16 for only the second time in our history, and they are the only two consecutive wins Australia has ever managed in our World Cup history. It is an iconic and deserving victory from a young side, and we are so proud of you. I hope you are not watching the federal parliament. I hope you are getting some sleep and some Weet-Bix. I hope you are not listening to me, but, just in case you are: 'Hello, legends! We are so, so proud of you. Thank you for everything that you have done, and thank you for giving us all, like I said to you at training, these moments of magic that light up the whole nation. Thank you for doing that for us on an average Thursday morning here in November. We can't wait to support you against Argentina on Sunday morning. I am already seeing that Adelaide Oval will go live. I am hearing perhaps the Sydney Opera House will go live as a site for supporters to gather. You have the whole country behind you. Congratulations on everything that you have achieved, and good luck.'

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