Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In what might be the last sitting week of this parliament I would like to take the opportunity tonight to speak about why, in my electorate of Gellibrand, we need a Rudd Labor government. First and foremost, for the thousands of workers who live in Gellibrand, we need a fairer industrial relations system. We need a system that brings back the balance between employers and employees and restores the basic protections that Mr Howard’s Work Choices have stripped away.

For a region like mine, which has seen a steady decline in Australian manufacturing, we need to look to the future. While there are some great manufacturing success stories in my electorate, with Toyota and Quenos being just two of them, there are others that have downgraded and closed up shop, leaving behind many who work in the manufacturing industry. I want to support a manufacturing industry in Gellibrand, and Labor outlined a number of ideas for the future of industry at our recent manufacturing roundtable. Central to the rejuvenation of manufacturing is innovation, research and development—moving into new areas that provide opportunities for the community.

To support this focus on research and development—and, importantly, to give our kids the best skills in life—we also need an education revolution. I want our education system to be the best in the world, and a Rudd Labor government will invest in education to make that happen. From early childhood development to Labor’s plan for trades training centres in all local high schools, right through to tertiary education and vocational training, we will invest in the future generation. Currently, over 35,000 people in my electorate have an educational qualification of year 10 or lower. To turn that around for this generation of kids we need to provide opportunities that ensure all of our children can reach their full potential.

A national high-speed broadband network is integral to improving innovation, and the education that I have been speaking about, yet there are still broadband black spots in my electorate, in the suburbs of Altona Meadows and Seabrook, just 15 kilometres from the CBD. These black spots are hampering small and medium businesses and they of course disadvantage local students. We need a high-speed, fibre-to-the-node broadband network—which we have committed $4.7 billion towards—not a half-baked wireless proposal like the government’s.

We need to act urgently and decisively on climate change. Much of my electorate is on the coastline of Port Phillip Bay and will bear the brunt of rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions predicted due to climate change. Under Labor, Australia would join the global fight against climate change by ratifying the Kyoto protocol. This is the first step in showing that Australia is serious about climate change and ready to join the rest of the world in addressing this truly global challenge. Labor will set targets for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, increase the mandatory renewable energy target and help people become greener in their own homes through the green loans plan.

The Howard government’s only response to climate change is nuclear power, and the Prime Minster has refused to rule out Newport, in my electorate of Gellibrand, as a possible location for one of the 25 nuclear reactors he wants to build across Australia. Labor believes we can and must tackle climate change, but we will do it while keeping Gellibrand nuclear free.

We also need to end the blame game in health care and make sure that every health dollar spent by both state and federal governments is used to improve the health of our community. Labor has pledged $2 billion to kick-start this reform of our health and hospital system and to improve hospital care. This is particularly important in my electorate of Gellibrand and in the electorate of my colleague the member for Gorton as Western Health, Western Hospital and Sunshine Hospital have seen a dramatic increase in demand for their services over recent times.

To ease the pressure on the hospital system, we have to ensure that older Australians are not languishing in hospital beds because they cannot find a more appropriate aged-care place, and we have to take action to help prevent hospital admissions for preventable conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The truth is that in electorates like ours these conditions are very prevalent. We know that one in three Australians—and my electorate would be no exception—have not had the medical or dental care that they need because of cost. We need to make sure that people can continue to get access to affordable health care, and we need to reduce many of the other cost pressures that families bear so they are not forced to choose between dental and health care, childcare costs, groceries or petrol prices—not to mention housing affordability.

Since 2001 there has been an increase of over 100 per cent in the number of households in mortgage stress in my electorate of Gellibrand, yet the Prime Minister tells us that ‘working families have never been better off.’ For working families in my electorate of Gellibrand to be better off we need a Rudd Labor government. We need new leadership that will take the country in a better direction. I hope this plan will be supported by my constituents in Gellibrand because, if we are successful at the election, they will benefit from the policies of a Rudd Labor government. (Time expired)