Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

For more than 14 years I've had the honour of representing the electorate of McPherson in the federal parliament, and today I rise to give my final speech in this place. During my time as the member for McPherson, I've experienced firsthand the many challenges and the great rewards of serving the Australian people. I've had the privilege of representing those who live and work on the southern Gold Coast and of making a contribution to our nation as a minister of the Crown in areas that I'm very passionate about: industry, science, technology, skills and national security.

As I leave parliament, I do so with a deep sense of pride in what has been accomplished and with enormous gratitude for the opportunity to serve. The work that we do in this place matters—it matters a lot—and the impact that we have on the lives of Australians is something that I have always taken seriously and will never ever forget.

When I first ran for office in 2010, I did so with a great sense of commitment to my community, where I've lived and worked for many years, and to the values that have always guided me: hard work, integrity and a strong belief that government could and should improve the lives of ordinary Australians. During the five parliamentary terms that I've served in this place, I've seen the impact of good policy and the importance of listening, understanding and serving those who have put their trust in me to represent them.

To the people of McPherson, I say thank you—thank you for entrusting me with the responsibility of representing you and being your voice in parliament. Together, we have achieved so much. Around $2 billion of federal funding flowed into McPherson during my time as the member, including to upgrade transport infrastructure, especially the widening of the M1 south from Mudgeeraba; to help local manufacturers purchase new equipment; to assist Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to enhance their tourism offering, such as through the new Australiana-themed precinct, and to the wildlife hospital, to treat injured wildlife; to support our veterans and RSLs; to improve road safety by fixing black spots; to improve mobile coverage; to support our aspiring young athletes; to provide beach safety equipment to save lives; to provide much-needed funds to our sporting clubs and community organisations; and to help victims of family and domestic violence—and that is just to name a few. But none of this would have been possible without the backing of my community.

Now, whilst these achievements have all helped my local community, my greatest satisfaction has come from helping individuals, many who have tried multiple ways to solve the problems for themselves but have come up against roadblocks. One of those was Tammy Hamawi, who was fighting to save her daughter Bianca's life after Bianca was diagnosed with a rare and life-threatening blood disease, aHUS.

Ten years ago, the drug that could help Bianca was considered to be one of the most expensive in the world, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for an annual supply. Tammy had done everything possible to self-fund the drug Bianca needed to live, but time was running out. Financial support came from Bianca's former school and generous donations, but an ongoing funding supply was needed, and we needed an interim solution while we continued to fight to have the drug listed on the PBS. I made a call to a local hospital which gave us the breakthrough Bianca needed, and I'll be forever grateful to the hospital for agreeing to provide the life-saving drug that Bianca needed until we were able to secure its listing on the PBS. Many people played a part in helping Bianca and others with aHUS, and I thank them. To me, power and influence is something to be used wisely and for the betterment of our communities.

In my first speech I spoke about the importance of local transport infrastructure. Without a doubt, the most significant transport infrastructure I've been able to deliver federal funding for is the widening of the M1, firstly from Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes and then from Varsity Lakes south, where construction is currently underway and, hopefully, will be completed in the not-too-distant future. When the widening is complete, it will serve the dual purpose of enabling residents and visitors to get home faster and safer and enhancing the freight corridor between Queensland and New South Wales. I remain committed to the extension of heavy rail south from Varsity Lakes.

Whilst representing the people of McPherson has always been my priority, there is much valuable and essential work that is done by the parliament, often in a non-partisan way. I'm very proud to be on the Speaker's panel—so thank you, Mr Speaker. Over my time in this place, I've been on several committees and participated in multiple friendship groups. Today I'll speak briefly about a couple of those.

At various times through my parliamentary career, I have been a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, including as chair. As one of the oldest investigative committees of the parliament, it's responsible for inquiring into, and reporting back to the parliament on, public works across a wide range of portfolios to ensure, amongst other things, that the proposed projects are cost effective. Public Works is not a tick-and-flick committee, and we have demonstrated this on many occasions, including when the committee insisted on a rescoping of work that resulted in a cost saving of tens of billions of dollars to the Australian taxpayer. This, in my view, demonstrates the importance and value of our committees in delivering a good and better outcome on behalf of Australians.

I've co-chaired Parliamentary Friends of Science along with the Deputy Prime Minister since it was first established in 2012. It's a friendship group that I'm very committed to because of my love of science. The Deputy Prime Minister and I have always tried to find ways to inspire the inner scientist in all of our colleagues and, with enormous assistance from the Australian Academy of Science and Science and Technology Australia, Parliamentary Friends of Science was launched with a masterclass in astronomy by Australia's Nobel laureate Professor Brian Schmidt. Optical telescopes were set up on the roof of Parliament House and, at the allotted time, an eager group of parliamentarians and guests burst out of the lift onto the roof. They looked up and they saw cloud—not a star to be seen. But we were not perturbed. We were not deterred, even. The official speeches went ahead. Professor Schmidt was invited to speak. We looked up, the clouds parted and there was Alpha Centauri. I don't know who was the most relieved on that night, but I'm very sure that Professor Schmidt was very happy to be able to speak about Alpha Centauri that evening. It was certainly a fabulous night and, from there, Parliamentary Friends of Science has certainly gone from strength to strength.

In my view, when parliamentarians are engaged in meaningful dialogue with scientific leaders, we get better policy outcomes. Parliamentary Friends of Science plays a very key role in this. As a mechanical engineer, STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—has long been a part of my life. As a parliamentarian, I've actively advocated for more students to study maths and science at school for multiple reasons, including that many of the jobs of the future will require strong STEM skills. Empowering girls to see a future for themselves in a STEM career was a key part of my work to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from the jobs of the future.

I was first appointed to the ministry in 2014 and served as an assistant minister in industry and science then skills before being appointed to cabinet in 2018 as the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology.

When I was appointed to cabinet, I became the first female federal cabinet minister from Queensland. I also became Australia's 26th cabinet industry minister and the first female to hold that position as well as the 30th cabinet minister for science and the only female science minister to hold a STEM qualification. I was the seventh cabinet minister to hold the technology portfolio and the second woman. Whilst those figures are historically important, what was important to me was the opportunity to bring together industry with science and technology and build a strong industrial base in Australia that would boost our economy and provide the jobs of the future.

Highlights of my time as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology include the release of a road map to inform government's approach to artificial intelligence and the development of guidelines alongside industry to ensure that AI is developed and applied ethically in Australia and delivering the $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy, which was a whole-of-government strategy designed to support Australian manufacturers to scale up and become more competitive and more resilient. The strategy put manufacturing at the centre of Australia's post-COVID recovery. Six key priorities were identified where Australia had a comparative or competitive advantage, and these were targeted for support. They were resources, technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence and space.

Expanding the space sector to boost our economy and create high-value jobs was another highlight, including creating of the Australian Space Discovery Centre and Mission Control in Adelaide; the growth of the Australian Space Agency; strengthening of our engagement with NASA through the Moon to Mars initiative; establishing the National Science and Technology Council to bring science and technology together to provide independent advice to government on key science issues for the betterment of our nation; and appointing the first Women in STEM Ambassador and establishing the Boosting Female Founders Initiative to support women entrepreneurs.

COVID-19 was a global seismic event that challenged the status quo and disrupted lives right across the world. Here in Australia, we weren't immune to its devastating impact. As the industry minister, I worked closely with our manufacturers to assist where possible with supply chain issues and help them make the products that we so desperately needed. Many of our manufacturers pivoted their operations to produce invasive ventilators, PPE, hand sanitisers, vaccines and surgical masks.

Whilst there were many amazing stories about our manufacturers, the one that I'd like to speak about today is Med-Con and surgical masks. As COVID took hold, Australia needed surgical face masks, but our supply chains were cut, and we had only one mask manufacturer in Australia, a company called Med-Con, based in Shepparton, that was producing two million masks per year. Clearly, that was not enough to meet our pandemic demands. Many people told me we couldn't lift our capacity to produce more masks and that we just had to keep trying to source more from overseas. They were wrong.

At the start of the pandemic, Med-Con had three production lines. The first line was operating for eight hours, five days per week. The second line wasn't in use, and the third line just wasn't operational. I spoke with Med-Con several times, and, whilst they were prepared to do everything possible, it would take them time to scale up, and that was time that we didn't have. We sent an engineer to Med-Con to look at the equipment and advise us on timeframes and capability to boost production. It wasn't good news. We needed people and technical expertise, and we needed it urgently. I remember the early-morning call with our engineer when he returned from Shepparton, and it was clear that the only way we could do what we needed to do was to call on the Army.

It was a Saturday morning. I called the defence minister and asked her for assistance. That afternoon, the Army rolled into Shepparton and into Med-Con's manufacturing facility, and, when they left a few weeks later, all production lines were running around the clock, new staff had been recruited and were trained and operating the machines, the Army had scanned all of the equipment parts, and new machines were being manufactured in Echuca, where the original machines had been produced many years before. By year end, Med-Con's manufacturing output had lifted from two million masks to more than 59 million masks. Other businesses pivoted to mask manufacturing and, by year end, the advice I received was that Australia had produced around 400 million masks. Australia went from two million 400 million masks production in a year. What an amazing effort from our manufacturers. There are many similar stories about the extraordinary work done by Australian manufacturers during COVID, so I know that we have the capability to continue to grow our manufacturing and industry sector here in Australia.

But too many of the manufacturing success stories from COVID have a sad ending. When supply chains reopened and the market was again flooded with imported goods that were readily available at a cheaper price, contracts were cancelled, buyers bought elsewhere and Australian manufacturers slowed production, with some stopping altogether. Australia, we can do better than this. If we want to have an Australian manufacturing industry, we have to buy Australian-made products. Every day I wear something that is made in Australia. I read the labels in supermarkets looking for Australian made and I buy Australian products whenever I can. I urge everyone, whenever they can, to support Australian industry, manufacturers, growers and producers, because, one by one, we can make a difference.

Protecting Australians and safeguarding our way of life have always been the highest priorities for me, and it was an honour to be sworn in as the Minister for Home Affairs in April of 2021. It was a tremendous honour to lead the men and women of the Home Affairs portfolio, and I know from firsthand experience that Australia has the best operational law enforcement and security agencies in the world. During my time as Minister for Home Affairs, strong law enforcement action enabled by record funding and new powers saw record seizures and arrests by the Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force. Child protection arrangements were significantly improved. A new national strategy to prevent child sexual abuse was launched. The Australian-first technology detection dog program that trained canines to sniff out electronic devices hiding child abuse material was expanded. And the Stop the Stigma initiative to encourage victim-survivors to speak out was launched.

There were several significant cybersecurity improvements directly benefiting all Australians, including by supporting industries to grow online by launching the National Plan to Combat Cybercrime, cracking down on the cyber criminals by funding a dedicated AFP led cybercrime centre, securing landmark reforms to national security legislation to better protect our critical infrastructure, making all Australians safer through passage of important legislation to revolutionise the way Australian agencies investigate and prosecute cybercrime, ensuring our law-enforcement agencies have much-needed powers to combat crime on the dark web, cracking down and protecting Australians from ransomware through the ransomware action plan, facilitating the exchange of digital information with US authorities by signing the CLOUD Act agreement with United States, and launching a public information campaign to increase Australia's cybersecurity.

Operation Sovereign Borders was strengthened. I finalised the regional resettlement arrangement with PNG, signed an important agreement with Nauru to establish an enduring regional processing capability to protect our region from maritime people smuggling and reached an agreement with New Zealand to resettle refugees. Counter-terrorism arrangements were strengthened, and I listed the entirety of Hamas and the entirety of Hezbollah as terrorist organisations.

I would have loved another three years in Home Affairs but the outcome of the 2022 election meant that that was not possible. While my time here is coming to an end, my commitment to this nation, its people and its future remains absolutely steadfast. I look forward to what comes next, because I know that the values that I fought for will continue to guide me in whatever lies ahead.

So I conclude this chapter of my career with immense gratitude, pride and hope for the future. Serving the people of McPherson, working alongside some incredibly talented individuals and contributing to the shaping of Australian policy have been some of the greatest privileges of my life. But I could not have achieved this on my own. I was fortunate to have the support of so many people during my time as the member for McPherson.

To those who put their trust in me and selected me to stand for the seat of McPherson in the federal parliament: I thank you. To those who spent hours, days, months and years supporting me during five election campaigns, who worked on polling booths, doorknocked, did letterbox drops or helped at listening post and roadsides: I thank you. To those who have supported me in my electorate office and in my ministerial roles: I thank you. To the public servants at the departments and agencies I had responsibilities for: I thank you. To the Australian Federal Police close personal protection team that looked after me and kept me and my family safe: I thank you. I had the privilege of working with the best of the best. To our lifesavers, clubs and supporters, community groups and volunteers: I thank you. To those I had the great fortune to meet over the last 15 years: I appreciate and value the time you spent sharing your stories with me. I thank you. To the wonderful people of the southern Gold Coast: as your longest-serving member for McPherson, I thank you for giving me that honour.

My final thanks go to my family, who have been beside me throughout this journey. Without them, I could not have done this job. My parents, Bill and Moya, taught me the importance of hard work and persistence—that success is not handed to you but earned through effort, discipline and persistence. They taught me how important it is to do what's right even when it's difficult or unpopular. I thank you.

My sister, Ann, who was the first in our family to go to university and our very first STEM graduate, has been a consistent and steady source of support and encouragement throughout my life, and I've always looked up to her. I thank you, Ann.

My husband, Chris—his commitment to my political career has been exceptional. I did ask him if there was anything he wanted me to say in my speech. He originally said no. When I persisted—I said, 'Are there any memories or any highlights?'—his response was, 'I didn't think it'd be this long.' He was there, rock solid, for the best days, the worst days and everything in between. Thank you, Chris.

My final words in my first speech were to my daughters, and today my final words are to you, Emma, Jane and Kate. The life of political children is not easy, and I'm enormously proud of the way that you've navigated growing up under a spotlight. In my first speech, I encouraged you to grasp every opportunity that came your way with both hands. You've done that and more. I encouraged you to believe in yourselves, because I believed in you. But it was your belief in me that inspired me to never give up and always do my best. You've grown into capable, kind, generous women, and you stand up for what you believe in. I could not be more proud of you. So, Emma, Jane and Kate, I think the world of you. You are my world. I thank the House.

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