Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I want to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land we gather on it here today, the Ngunnawal people. At the beginning of this speech, I also want to acknowledge and thank the traditional owners of the land on which I live and the land that I represent in this place, the Wadawurrung and the Dja Dja Wurrung, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

Representing the people of Ballarat is an honour of a lifetime. It's something I have never taken for granted, and it's something I never will take for granted. I have said that at every election. We have to deserve people's votes, and that starts the minute you're elected, not in the 33-day election campaign. To have the people of Ballarat, my hometown, place their faith in me over the course of a few elections now is something for which I will always be both grateful and enormously proud. To the people of Ballarat who voted for me to represent them, I thank you very much. I wouldn't be here without the tireless support of so many in the wider Ballarat community. To those who didn't vote for me, of course I also represent all of you with all of my heart.

In every corner of the electorate, from Ballarat to Creswick, from Trentham to Linton and from Clunes to Shelford, our positive campaign and our plan for a better future was given a ringing endorsement, and it was heartening to see this replicated right across the country. In particular, I want to acknowledge the new communities that I represent for the first time, largely across the Golden Plains shire. Your part of the region is incredibly beautiful. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you over the past 18 months, and I look forward to getting to know you even better over the years to come.

For the communities that have left my directorate—Blackwood, Bacchus Marsh and Ballan chief amongst them—thank you for the many years of support. I will miss engaging with you on a daily basis, but I think you might still see me at the occasional Easter woodchop and autumn show and especially the cherry festival. I know that in the new member for Hawke, Sam Rae, you will continue to have an engaged and dedicated local representative for years to come.

The election result in Ballarat was a terrific outcome—a 2.7 per cent swing, something for which I am very grateful. But not a single point of that swing would have been possible without the immense amount of hard work from a dedicated group of staff and volunteers. Any election campaign is the combined work of hundreds of volunteers, supporters friends and family. The list is exhaustive—thank you—so I will just name a few, starting with my family: my husband, Mark, and my son, Ryan, who were out there every day. Ryan also accompanied me on the election day itself and handed out for me.

Next are my dedicated staff in the electorate office and the portfolio offices. Thank you for the late nights and the early mornings. It was certainly all worth it. To the volunteers and branch members, the people who put up garden signs or handed out how-to-vote cards, who stood in the cold at the Ballarat showgrounds on prepoll: I certainly could not have done it without you. We had so many people out there, including someone who volunteered to provide food and hot coffee for us every single day, which was very kind. And of course I want to give a particular thankyou to Craig Fletcher, my campaign chair, and my entire campaign committee. Thank you again for all your help and your support.

Campaigns are built on commitment and sacrifice, but that commitment and sacrifice is always easier when you know what you're fighting for and that you're fighting for a good cause to build a better country—and build a better country the Albanese-Labor government will. Whether it was our commitments to Medicare, our promise to take real action on climate change or our commitment to make child care cheaper, our message of hope and an ability to imagine a better Australia resonated with voters across the country. Our government has focused on making the lives of everyday Australians better. We haven't waited. We're already delivering on that commitment. Cheaper medicines took effect on the 1 January, making life a little better and a little easier for Australians who rely on prescription medicine. From July, 1.2 million families will benefit from cheaper child care. Our May budget will deliver electricity-bill relief, easing the stress faced by many around the country. We're training Australian workers and tackling the skills shortages that are holding back businesses, with 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. We've established 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave. We've established Jobs and Skills Australia and a royal commission into robodebt to fully understand the government's and public servants' role in what is a pretty shameful period of our social services history.

We've passed a climate change bill and updated our climate targets. We're setting up the National Anti-Corruption Commission. We've delivered a pay rise for aged-care workers and others on the minimum wage. And we've passed legislation to get wages moving. We've repaired Australia's standing in the world, which has been incredibly important for us both economically and in our capacity to have a say at the table at major security forums across the world. We've ended the cashless debit card and expanded the seniors healthcare card. But perhaps most importantly, we're taking the next steps on the long journey of reconciliation by delivering the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and initiating long-awaited constitutional change.

We can't fix all the problems that were left over from the previous government overnight, but we're certainly not wasting a day. We want to deliver these changes, not for our own good but because we don't want to waste our time here. I've spent long enough for the other side of the chamber to know that the halls of government are not something to be taken lightly; nor are they to be taken for granted. We have only a short amount of time here in this place and we can't waste it. I don't want to waste it in my local community and I don't want to waste it in a portfolio I represent.

I have the absolute honour of having responsibility for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government, a portfolio that is focused on improving the lives of everyday Australians. Every day, we commit money to projects where we look at the multitude of areas across the transport portfolio as well, nation-building portfolios that can and do make a real difference in the lives of all Australians, portfolios that reach into the heart of every community around the country.

Good infrastructure and transport projects are key enabling forces to drive economic growth. They create jobs, they boost productivity and they improve people's lives. Particularly as we look to build back better after COVID, effective transport policy and targeted infrastructure investments can help build equity into the hearts of communities across Australia. We want to build infrastructure so that transport is not a constraint on people's lives but, instead, an enabling force allowing them to thrive. Investing in transport means those in marginalised suburbs and regions can take advantage of opportunity. It allows wealth to spread, it allows people to live where they want to and it builds a better, more connected region right the way across our nation.

On our side of politics we don't see infrastructure as simply bricks and mortar or—even more cynically—to attain votes or sandbag seats. We see infrastructure as a means of genuinely improving people's lives, creating secure Australian jobs and delivering a better life for working families. When we were last in government we invested in nation-building projects, in partnership with the states, like the Pacific Highway duplication, Cross River Rail and metro projects in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

In our first months, we've picked up right where we left off. This is clear in our actions to review Infrastructure Australia, turning it back into the expert advisory body, to the Commonwealth, advising Commonwealth investment that Australia really needs. It is clear in our actions to establish the national High Speed Rail Authority as well as a $500 million down payment to start works on the important corridor between Newcastle and Sydney and the Central Coast. It's clear in our ongoing commitment to the Western Sydney airport and the Inland Rail project, particularly to get the latter—the Inland Rail project—back on track so that it contributes to our national freight task.

While infrastructure and transport projects are vitally important to the future of our nation, they are particularly important in our regional communities. As a regional MP, I am particularly delighted to have overall responsibility for regional development. I have a keen understanding of the issues faced by the seven million Australians who live outside of our capital cities. Those of you who are lucky enough to live in our regions, I am committing to elevating and supporting you.

Those of us who call our regions home understand that our national story is as much about the contribution of our regional centres, towns and villages to the economic growth of the nation as it is about our capital cities. It's a story of incredible diversity, of richness of culture, heritage and place. This has continued over the course of the pandemic, with many being drawn away from the cities to our regional areas.

Importantly, we cannot review our regions as one—for, as many similarities our regions may have, no two are the same. Our regions are defined by their diversity and their difference. Each and every region has different strengths, weaknesses, needs and possibilities, and that's been the story of this country. Government's role is to identify what those strengths are, invest in them, build on them and support regional Australia to reach its full potential.

The people of Australia overwhelmingly voted for an Albanese government and the bold commitments that we brought to the election, but they also sent a clear message that the privilege of government should be given the respect that it deserves, that we need to govern in the best interests of all Australians. Australians want integrity, accountability and transparency back in their political system.

We saw it with commuter car parks. We saw it with road upgrades. We've seen it with the Community Development Grants Program that the previous member referred to. We've seen it most recently with the audit reports of the Building Better Regions Fund. We saw it with the way in which sports grants were allocated. We didn't talk much about it but, if you look at it, the infrastructure investment pipeline had a fair bit for the previous government to answer to as well.

Our government is committed to building a better future for all regional Australians, because it doesn't matter whether you live in Burnie or Broome. Our communities' potential is worth much more than politics and it's vital for the future of the country. When Australians see a need for a vision and for a big picture view of the future in our economy they turn to Labor governments. From the city to the country, I'm determined to see these key economic portfolios play their role in helping to build a better future for all Australians. That's the commitment I make.

We took the promise of a better future to the Australian people and we've already taken steps to turn that vision into reality. I thank all Australians for the opportunity to govern and I particularly thank the people of Ballarat for their continued support at the last election and those proceeding. With that, I commend the address-in-reply to the House.

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