Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The seat of Banks was created in 1949. The forthcoming election will be the 24th election where electors have had an opportunity to register a vote. I first campaigned in 1974 when I joined the Labor Party, so this will be the 14th campaign I have been involved in. It will be the seventh that I have contested for the Labor Party. The seat is not an easy seat. In difficult times there have been some very close results. At the last election I managed to win with a majority of one per cent. After the redistribution it is now 3.2 per cent.

So I find it extraordinary that at this point in time the Liberal Party have yet to select a candidate against me. Apparently that is a phenomenon in eight other seats in New South Wales. That is treating their Liberal supporters in Banks with contempt. Normally you get into the field and you fly the flag on behalf of your party. Personally, I am relaxed because I regard it as an endorsement that a party that spent $300,000 at the last election and were confident that they could win are, as yet, not able to field a candidate against me. I have certainly put a lot of effort in over the years, and that effort has paid off. I think it is fair to say that polling shows that, but for incumbency, the seat might have changed hands. But this performance by the Liberal Party will be remembered by locals, and they will be held in contempt for it.

I saw the performance of the Prime Minister last night where he pleaded for another term because he had more things to do and he set a time limit on when he would go—something that I call ‘the High Court option’, that he would leave at 70, because now, with the constitutional change, High Court judges retire at 70. He did not quite say ‘70’; he said ‘well into the next term’.

Mr Deputy Speaker Causley, you are a countryman and you know that when you have a wounded animal you put it out of its misery. You do not allow it to continue, because it can inflict suffering on those around it. This Prime Minister does not want to leave, but could you imagine what he would be like if he were elected again for the next two years? He did not tell us about Work Choices before the last election. What is he going to do after the next election, if he is elected, in relation to add-ons to Work Choices and a whole range of other things—the ‘never, ever’ man? He tells us that he made this pronouncement last night because he believes in honesty and being fair dinkum with the Australian electorate. He was not fair dinkum on the GST when he said ‘never, ever’. He was not up-front with the electorate in relation to Work Choices. In relation to ‘children overboard’ he was not fair dinkum in telling the electorate what had actually happened, and there is a litany of other matters in which he was not fair dinkum. When you combine those factors, I think the electors of Banks will do one thing: they will help return a thumping majority for a Labor candidate and for a Labor government. (Time expired)