Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Governor-General in his address to the parliament at the beginning of this week commented on the change of government and said ‘how fortunate we are to live in a nation where governments change hands peacefully as a result of the free expression of the will of the people’. The smooth transition that there has been from the previous government to the new government, largely without great bitterness within the electorate, is indeed a tribute to our traditions and our democracy.

As a member of the outgoing government, I cannot say it was a period without pain. There was the disappointment, naturally, of having to say farewell to faithful staff, of meeting for the final time departmental officers who had served the government faithfully with fearless advice and assistance over the years, and of the knowledge that many of the people who had worked for the previous government would no longer have employment—all of those sorts of things were sad.

At the outset, I take the opportunity to thank my own personal staff, who made my role as a minister much more pleasant, enabled us to achieve some very worthwhile things and ensured that the government was also able to achieve worthwhile objectives for Australians. But there is a new government, and I congratulate them on their election.

There is a situation in Australia at present where, for the first time in our history, Labor is in government in every state, in every territory, and now in the Commonwealth. That of itself gives me concerns, because the absence of checks and balances is indeed a potential threat to our democracy. If Labor abuses its position of absolute power then the comments of the Governor-General about peaceful transition and the way in which we as a country go about changing our governments would indeed be at threat.

Labor has a particular responsibility, in view of its all-powerful position, to ensure that it consults effectively with the community and to ensure that it listens—that it does not just hand-pick an audience to receive an address from the Prime Minister and a few cabinet ministers, that when it chooses advisory committees it does not just choose the old Labor faithful but in fact obtains advice from people with alternative views. It will be particularly important with the sorts of issues that are potentially divisive in the community that it recognises that Labor comes from a particularly narrow base at the present time: 70 per cent of the frontbench are trade union officials. Labor is not just influenced by the trade union movement—it is a wholly owned subsidiary.

Substantial funding for Labor campaigns come from the trade union movement, yet only a handful of Australia’s workers are actually in the trade union movement, and it has been steadily dying over the years. It has a disproportionate representation within the policy-making processes of the Labor Party, whatever they might be, and certainly expects to be very powerful within the new government.

In this context I also refer to the funding imbalance that is becoming apparent in the electoral process around Australia at present. In state election campaigns, Labor can be expected to spend six, eight or 10 times the amount that its opponents are able to muster. In the last federal election, whilst the coalition and Labor spent broadly the same amount of money, there was a new player in the field—the trade union movement—that spent more than everybody put together. Our democracy, referred to so generously and accurately by the Governor-General in his speech, can in fact be put at threat if there is not a strong and healthy opposition and that opposition does not have the resources to be able to effectively question the government when issues arise. So there will be a close observance about the way in which Labor uses its absolute power.

There are concerns in the community that those interests that are legitimate and contributing to our country but are not highly thought of by the trade union movement and Labor will lose out. That will be damaging to our country. Labor and its newly elected members need to heed the advice that I think most of us are given when we arrive in this place: not all wisdom sits on the one side of the parliament. Useful contributions can be made by both sides. It is important that we seek to work constructively. Our government has accepted the judgement of the people. We acknowledge that there has been a change. We want the new government to govern in the interests of our country. I hope that they will be prepared to listen to the views of others when significant issues arise.

From a personal perspective, I thank the people of Wide Bay for returning me as the member for their area. It was a challenging campaign, but I am pleased and grateful to the people of my electorate for entrusting me with their confidence. My electorate was substantially changed. I particularly acknowledge the support received from the people of Noosa and district, who were added to my electorate this time. They did not want to be in the electorate of Wide Bay. It is a part of the Sunshine Coast. People of Hervey Bay that were moved out of my electorate into Hinkler did not want to be taken away.

We had a pretty dreadful redistribution in Queensland this time. I am not saying that it was particularly politically balanced—it was not. All Queensland members can draw attention to the ridiculous lines that were drawn on the maps. Almost every coastal city is split in two for no logical reason. That makes it very difficult for people to identify with their local member. Why were one or two suburbs taken out of Maryborough and put in an electorate with Bundaberg? Why was a bit of Bundaberg put into an electorate with Gladstone and, for that matter, with Longreach? It is just not logical. This was, frankly, the poorest redistribution I have ever seen. In the redistribution that comes up in Queensland again in the next couple of years, I hope that there will be a correction and that some of these illogical boundaries will be properly aligned.

In my own electorate, whilst my result was better than in most places, I really should have got every vote, because there were so many issues in the electorate where people were being very critical of Labor. I have three headline issues that particularly affected my electorate. The first was Labor’s local government amalgamations, forcibly amalgamating councils throughout Queensland into mega regional governments.

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

Ms Roxon interjecting

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Your leader, Mr Rudd, opposed what the Queensland government did before the election. Since the election he has done absolutely nothing to stop it. It was one thing before the election and another thing after the election. It is a classic example of Labor ‘me-tooing’ before the election but, when they get into office, doing absolutely nothing. In fact, Mr Rudd had form on this issue, because when he was helping to run Queensland he forcibly amalgamated other councils against their will. But this time we had referenda across the state: 85 referenda, jointly supported by both sides of the House.

The results of those referenda were absolutely overwhelming. Only in one council was there a vote for a merger, and that was only by about 0.1 per cent. In more than 10 local authorities there were fewer than 10 votes in favour—everybody else against. In one electorate there was only one favourable vote. In my own electorate, every referendum was overwhelmingly defeated, and yet the state Labor government has done nothing. Where is the Prime Minister now? Has he yet spoken to the Queensland Premier to respect the democratic wishes of the people and to make sure that he winds back this amalgamation process before it is too late?

The second major issue in my electorate is Labor’s plan to build a dam on the Mary River. I welcome the presence of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts at the table and I recognise that he will soon have to make a very important decision on this issue. I have welcomed his offer to come to my electorate, and I hope that he will do that, and I hope that he can make a decision in a genuinely bipartisan way based on the facts. I certainly offer to host him so that he can see what needs to be seen.

This is a devastating proposal for my electorate. It will flood something like 900 farms and private homes. It will be a multibillion dollar proposal. It has been imposed on the region against all engineering and scientific advice. There have been many reports on dam sites for Queensland; this one has always been rejected. It was rejected by previous Labor governments. It has been rejected by previous coalition governments. It does not stack up economically, it does not stack up socially and it does not stack up environmentally.

Brisbane is short of water. It is short of water because of the decision of the previous Labor government to abandon a dam proposal at Wolffdene, which would have been full through all this drought and left Brisbane people with little or no water restrictions. It would have been in a catchment area that has had generous rainfall and would have effectively resolved Brisbane’s water problems, but they did not build it. This neglect has resulted in Brisbane having a water crisis.

The government is building a desalination plant at Tugun, which I believe is a significant part of the answer to Brisbane’s water problems. It can do more in relation to recycling. It can build extra desalination plants. The dam will cost far more than many of the alternatives. It will mean Brisbane people will pay more for their water than they need to. If they had a desalination plant, it could be working and operational the day it is completed. A dam may wait years to be filled. The dam will not always have water in it when it is needed, so it will be an unreliable source of water. There will be a huge energy cost in pumping the water to Brisbane. It will be environmentally unsound and the government is already talking about acquiring large parcels of land to plant trees to try and make up for some of the greenhouse gas emissions that will result from this dam construction.

One of the key issues that the minister will need to consider is the dam’s impact on the environment. There are a number of truly remarkable species in this river that are not found anywhere else in the world. The lungfish is one of the only fish in the world, and the only one in Australia, that has lungs. It is an ancient species and it is thought that lungfish may be 30 or 40 years old before they breed and live perhaps as long as 100 years. It is a remarkable species because it is found only in a couple of other places in the world, and then in very small numbers. Then there is the Mary River turtle, which is another remarkable species because it is a turtle with gills, something that is also very rare in the world. So we need to make sure that the environment and the habitat for these species is protected, along with the Mary River cod, which is of course in no other river than the Mary. It is important for the future of the environment that these species be protected.

The minister will be receiving thousands of submissions from local people and the environmental movement unanimously condemning this proposal. It simply does not stack up on economic grounds, but unfortunately the federal government cannot intervene in that regard. That is just another bad decision by the Queensland state government. But we can intervene on environmental grounds and the environmental arguments are very, very powerful.

The third issue in my electorate that I want to refer to is the Bruce Highway. This is a dreadfully accident-prone section, rated the worst piece of the highway in Australia by road reports. There have been 34 fatal accidents over the last few years on the sections in my electorate. Before the last federal election, we promised to spend $800 million to extend the four lanes north from Cooroy so that some of these really serious accident-prone sections could be eliminated. There is no question that this is the worst accident stretch on the highway. There is no argument about that. That is simply a statement of fact agreed by state and federal governments. The $800 million would have made a significant difference. It is appalling that in the election campaign the federal Labor Party promised to take $500 million of that money away from the most accident-prone section of the highway. There have been several more fatal accidents on this section since the election and yet the Australian government, the Labor government, wants to take $500 million off this road.

The government is talking about an infrastructure led battle on inflation. That is economic nonsense in the short term. If you are serious about building infrastructure, surely you would deal with an accident-prone section carrying very heavy volumes of traffic that feeds the entire Queensland coastline. This must be a priority, and I appeal to the government to reconsider its announcement and to ensure that this road is returned to its proper priority.

The change of government will obviously result in changes of policy, but there can also be no doubt that Australia is very much stronger, more prosperous and more secure as a nation as a result of the 11 years of coalition government. In my own electorate of Wide Bay, unemployment has dropped to the lowest level that anyone can recall. We have had incomes growing and Australian government services are very much better than those we inherited in 1996. My job will be to make sure that the Rudd government does not upset the momentum of sustained growth built by the coalition government over these years.

I am concerned that the Labor government has been elected without any clear plan. It has lots of empty cliches and proposals which, at best, have been vague. We hear about an education revolution, but what is it—closing down the Investing in Our Schools Program and putting computers in schools, many of which already have a computer system? Those sorts of things do not make an education revolution. It talks about ideas to manage the economy, but clearly it has not got any of its own. There has been an economic ineptitude which has been quite staggering. Indeed, Labor, elected after 11 years in opposition, has so few ideas that it has to bring a thousand people in from around the countryside to tell it what to do—a thousand no doubt hand-picked people to give the sort of advice that the Labor Party wants. The man it has chosen to give advice in that regard is a longstanding friend of the Prime Minister and a longstanding Labor hack. That is the sort of person who will be chosen to give advice on those sorts of issues.

The reality is that this government does not know where it is going. Its plan to deal with inflation does not make sense. Many of these things it proposes are important. I strongly believe that we should have a budget surplus; that is something we should do. We do need to spend more on infrastructure bottlenecks, but, in the short term, that will actually increase inflation rather than decrease it. It is going to be a decade before you make a significant difference with infrastructure construction to actually put downward pressure on inflation.

The previous coalition government spent more money on infrastructure than any federal government in our history. We were the first to commit significant funding to roads. We were the first to commit funding to the national rail network in a way that has never happened before. It was a tragedy that, in the very first round of Labor government budget cuts, they cut $65 million off rail maintenance and construction in New South Wales and Victoria—not, as the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government said yesterday, from inland rail. Very little of it is off inland rail; nearly all of it is from getting rid of bottlenecks on the existing rail network. I cannot say that his answer yesterday was untruthful—I think that is unparliamentary—but he must have been inadvertently misinformed. If he cares to read his own budget statements supporting the announcement, he will see that most of this money was to be spent on existing rail lines.

We are going to do something about increasing skills; I am in favour of that as well. But building a few trade blocks, which were largely blocks that were taken away by a previous Labor government, is going to take years to feed extra trades men and women into the system. These are all important things; they are things that the previous government was doing. We were building trade colleges. Labor has chosen to do it at a high school level. Our trade colleges would have done the job faster but, for some reason or other, they are to be closed down, because of an ideological commitment by Labor with the state governments. The reality is that these are important priorities, but they are not a plan to tackle inflation in the next months. If this is an immediate crisis, as the government is choosing to say, then you need to take immediate action, and none of these things will deliver results in the short term.

The previous government inherited a government debt of $96 billion. We were in surplus when we left. Interest on government debt was over $8 billion. Now you are earning interest. Real wages growth under the previous government to ours was in the negative. It grew, without rapid inflation, by 20 per cent under our term. Average mortgage rates under Labor were 12.75 per cent. For us, it was 7.2 per cent. The unemployment rate was halved, the number of long-term unemployed was cut to one-third and the average inflation rate was halved. The net private investment was more than doubled and our tax burden was lowered. We lowered all of the tax rates. The number of Australians in work went up by two million—(Time expired)

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the member for Maribyrnong and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, Mr Shorten, I remind honourable members that this is his first speech. I therefore ask that the usual courtesies be extended to him.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations to you, Mr Speaker, upon your election to this very important office. I rise today in full recognition of the honour which the people of Maribyrnong and the Australian Labor Party have granted me by enabling me to serve in this parliament. I rise in full recognition of the responsibility that comes with this honour: to serve my electorate and the Australian people. And I rise in full recognition of the historic moment the parliament and the Australian people witnessed yesterday when we said sorry to the stolen generation. What a time to join a new parliament, what a time to be part of a new government and what a time to be part of the creation of a new and more hopeful chapter in the ongoing story of reconciliation with Indigenous Australians.

Maribyrnong is a diverse electorate in Melbourne’s west and north-west. It is, in fact, home to at least three Australian icons: Dame Edna Everage, the Cox Plate and the Harvester Judgement. Thus, Maribyrnong encompasses Australia’s most famous housewife and deflator of egos, Australasia’s premier weight-for-age championship and Justice Higgins’s 1907 decision which gave Australian workers the right to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. It is an electorate which tells the Australian story of the 20th and 21st centuries. A hundred years since the Harvester Judgement, Maribyrnong is home to a community of hardworking Australians from all over the world, for whom a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work is as important today as it was then. I believe the people of Maribyrnong are true-blue Australian optimists, seeking long, meaningful lives, with their DNA hardwired to seek even greater opportunities for their children.

I have had a fortunate life and I have been fortunate to have been surrounded by smart and capable people. I would like to thank some of them who have given me their kindness, wisdom and advice along my path to this great chamber. Above all others—and I can say this on Valentine’s Day—I thank my wife, Deb Beale, an endlessly intelligent, supportive and loving woman. I knew this instantly from my first outing, when she agreed to visit a picket line with me. I thank my family for their constant support and belief over the years: my mother, Ann, and my late father, Bill; my twin brother, Robert, and his family; my parents-in-law, Julian and Felicity Beale; and my great uncle Bert Nolan, a union man from the days of the Depression whose values inspired me. I mourn his recent passing.

I would like to thank the Jesuits and teachers of Xavier College for teaching me to question and debate. I would also like to acknowledge previous members for Maribyrnong—Bob Sercombe, Alan Griffiths and Moss Cass—for their distinguished public service; and, of course, my local branch members for their energy and efforts. I would like to acknowledge Bill Ludwig, the president of Australia’s oldest continuous union, the Australian Workers Union; Cesar Melhem, who arrived in Australia as a young veteran of the violence in Lebanon and who is now the secretary of the Victoria AWU; and Paul Howes and the AWU national executive, who I expect will steward my union to even greater heights.

I would like to thank all the unions, members, delegates and organisers linked and animated by the desire to help other people. They, like all modern Australian unionists, respect the employment relationship and the right to investment profits, but they would also seek mutuality of cooperation in the workplace. Bill Kelty, legendary Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has my gratitude for his mentoring. When I was a young and green solicitor learning about workers compensation from John Cain Jr, at Morris Blackburn, Bill invited me to join the union movement. I seized his invitation with alacrity, signing on to serve the cause of working people. It was an exciting, indeed electrifying, time. I spent each day meeting with and organising and empowering the unorganised workers of the farms and factories all around Australia. I once organised a wire factory, and 160 people wanted to join the union. We had to spend two years getting union recognition in that factory.

A man named Michael Chen became my friend and my delegate in that factory. He had economics degrees from China but was working as a wire bender at Tullamarine. He eventually came to work with me at the union as a financial controller, and now he is running his own fast-growing business. He is one of the smartest people I have met, and there he was—bending wire in a Melbourne factory. You see, when you are a union organiser—as people perhaps do not realise—you get the chance to see the full potential of individuals. On the boards of a woolshed, you know that shearers earn their pay. When you talk to steelworkers at the Port Kembla blast furnaces, to the underground miners at Mount Isa, to the oil workers in Bass Strait in winter or to those who staff the undertakers’ night vans as they deal with the grief and tragedy of a road trauma or worse, you know you are in the presence of greatness. When you come face to face with heroism, cooperation and fighting spirit in workplace tragedies such as the Longford gas explosion in Victoria or the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania, you know you are in the presence of ordinary people performing extraordinary deeds. Every company, every work site I have visited for the last 15 years, taught me the potential for greatness that individuals carry within them and showed me the limitless capacity of Australian workers and Australian businesses—and, thus, the limitless potential of the Australian economy and Australian society.

I have experienced the abundant goodwill of Australian workplaces, from both employers and employees. I know firsthand the many examples of cooperation, compromise and pragmatism which bring dividends for all involved. There are many untold success stories of business and workers that should be told and should be celebrated. I thank the many businesspeople with whom I have worked cooperatively over the years. They include some of Australia’s most successful and imaginative enterprises, headed by those who understand that success in the economy is underpinned by leadership, legacy and consistent values. I have learned from them that business is hard work. Australia needs business. It is the principal ‘doing’ arm of our society. It creates wealth and jobs. But in the real economy, as union organisers know, building a business, running a farm or constructing a road is a really tough thing to do. There are no shortcuts—trust, openness, fairness, partnership, a bit of flexibility and compromise all round. Where you find these qualities, in my experience, you will spot a successful growing business and business leaders who understand that people are the most important feature of their business.

I believe much more can be done to harness the capacity of Australian people. To do this, we need to confront the realities. Business and government must stop their periodic blame shifting. The old class war conflicts should finally be pronounced dead. The real conflict today, I suggest, cuts across the old divides. It is reflected within business, unions, the community and politics. The real conflict is between those who are stuck in a business-as-usual routine and those that pursue innovation, knowledge and creativity. Those are the drivers of economic growth around our world. Those are the drivers that can unlock the full potential of our fellow Australians. Now, more than ever, we need Australians to be educated, skilled and motivated. And we need them to be healthy and engaged.

I am honoured that my Prime Minister has appointed me as a parliamentary secretary with special responsibility for people with a disability. I am excited by the opportunity to help empower another section of the community, not so people with disability receive special treatment but so they receive the same treatment as everybody else—the rights which are theirs, with the dignity that they deserve. I believe the challenge for government is not to fit people with disabilities around programs but for programs to fit the lives, needs and ambitions of people with disabilities. The challenge for all of us is to abolish once and for all the second-class status that too often accompanies Australians living with disabilities.

In this great country, if I were another skin colour or if I were a woman and could not enter a shop, ride a bus, catch an aeroplane or get a job, there would be a hue and cry—and deservedly so—but if I am in a wheelchair or have a mental illness or an intellectual disability then somehow the same treatment is accepted. Why should I be told to be grateful to receive charity rather than equality? It is not enough just to rely on the existence of laws to prevent this treatment. It is something that, with every fibre that we have, we should cry out against. It should go without saying that all of us demand equal treatment for those living with disabilities, as we would for any other Australian. This argument, for me, is a natural progression and parliament, I believe, is a place where real change can occur.

I respect the institution of parliament and the crucial role that it has played in our national development. This is what has driven me to become a parliamentarian. At the close of the 19th century and the great debates of Federation, our forebears shunned the laissez-faire, master-servant views of the far Right and the revolutionary tendencies of the far Left. They went a middle way, creating unique institutions with both egalitarian and entrepreneurial tendencies. For me, the Australian parliament is the keeper of the middle way—labour and capital working together, metropolitan centres and strong regions in balance, prosperity, cross-subsidising growth and need across our large and diverse continent. I believe parliament operates best when it promotes tolerance and diversity. When political parties drift to extremes, the patient electorate makes it clear, through the ballot box, that they expect parliament to reflect the native Australian gradualism and pragmatism. I believe parliament is a moderating institution that is helping Australia to adapt to the big issues of the future.

Previous parliaments have said that they did not want the White Australia policy. Previous parliaments have said that they did want to protect our environment. Previous parliaments have said that we do want to have an old-age pension. Previous parliaments have said that we want an open economy, a national superannuation scheme and an end to the legal discrimination against women. I want to belong to a parliament that will deal with the big, over-the-horizon issues facing our nation for the next 25 years. I aspire to be a Labor member who helps our parliament to be a moderating force for change in a complex, changing world.

I hope to be a consistent and persistent Labor parliamentarian. I shall apply the lessons of my first four decades: the lessons of my family, the lessons of my education, the lessons of business, the lessons of my union days. All of these lessons, I believe, can be distilled into one phrase: never give up. What I want to accomplish in my time in parliament rests upon understanding what lies ahead for Australia in the next three decades. I am here because we must wrestle with a raft of issues. I am here because I do not accept that dignified aged care is somehow optional. I do not accept that quality healthcare should be determined by the size of your wallet. I do not accept that women should be paid less than men. I do not accept that Indigenous Australians should lack economic power. I do not accept the inevitability of an unfair and complex tax system. I do not accept that the collapse of Australian manufacturing is a foregone conclusion. I do believe that politics can sometimes lag behind individuals, communities and business. I do believe that Australians need lifelong learning to prepare for their many careers over their lifetime. I do believe in closer engagement with India and China in the spirit of the longstanding great Labor internationalist tradition. I do believe in national infrastructure building greater capacity for economic growth. I do believe our teachers deserve more than they currently receive. I do believe that we should be saving more for our future. I do believe that we can and we must support our regions. I do believe that we can combine a sustainable environment and a sustainable economy. I do believe that governments should decrease the regulatory burden, promote competition and provide regulatory certainty. I do believe an Australian republic will arise.

How to achieve a long, meaningful life in a rapidly changing world is one of the great themes of our new century. I believe our institutions will have to rethink the way they do things, coming up with new ideas for extracting the maximum social and economic value from the advances in medical technology which offer us the potential of a century of life. What I want to accomplish for working people is about aspiration—not for material wealth and plasma televisions alone but for 100 years of health; for education and skills to do quality, interesting work; for living in decent and supportive communities; and for leading a rewarding and meaningful life.

There are many paths to this end. I advocate no rigid road, for I am sceptical of absolutes. Australians are—by nature, history and geography—pragmatic, and we are gradualists. Sometimes I think in the public reporting of Australian politics the desire to highlight conflict overlooks the clear Australian preference for compromise and consensus. Let me clarify this point. In every federal election since Federation, nearly half the nation has voted for either Labor or the conservatives; yet within days we reunite around the fundamentals of our society. I am an optimist. I believe Australians are optimists. We see few problems that cannot be solved by reason and debate, and we are confident that most problems can be solved. We are egalitarian. We do not believe in a static and confining social order, so we have no profound passion to uproot and destroy it. Yet, for all this convergence, there are serious and meaningful divergences.

The American historian Arthur Schlesinger described in the following terms the 19th century philosopher Emerson’s view of the differences between American progressives and American conservatives:

Mankind … is divided between the party of Conservatism and the party of Innovation, between the Past and the Future, between Memory and Hope.

In Australia, Labor is the party of innovation, the future and hope. So it is a great privilege to be here right now in this place in what feels, after the last election, like a different country. Our national leadership is young, vigorous, intelligent, civilised and innovative. I believe it will spur a re-emergence of public faith in our leadership, in our diversity, in contention, in nonconformism and in imagination. My vision of the Labor Party is that of a humane, insightful, pragmatic agent of change—not dogmatic, not utopian, not wedded to a belief that fundamental problems have only one solution. My experience of Labor is the unequivocal rejection of extremes.

Our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has made Australia a proud member of the international community again by ratifying the Kyoto protocol. And I think everyone will remember where they were the day that he apologised to the stolen generations. Julia Gillard, our first female Acting Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, is the driver of our much-needed education revolution reforms. Wayne Swan, our Treasurer, knows that getting the economic settings right is vital for our nation to grow; but he will pursue these priorities with a sense of fairness and compassion.

From industrial relations to Indigenous affairs, from nation building to community renewal, Australia is reasserting itself as a nation of the future, a nation of hope and a nation of the fair go. This will be a nation that values its people, whose capacity for achievement is irreplaceable. We need individuals; they are fundamental to the progress of our society. It is the existence of free choice, of equal opportunity and innovation which drives the capacity of individuals. I believe that the audacious pursuit of creative innovation can expand our choices and enhance our lives. That pursuit lies at the heart of my commitment to this place.

In closing, I think of the thousands of people I have met around our nation. I think of passionate advocates; inspirational shop floor workers; people with disabilities, whose courage and determination are awe-inspiring and business leaders whose contributions enrich our nation and our community. I have always been struck by how united we are by our common desire to see every individual enjoy the longest life, full of quality and meaning. I am inexpressibly proud to be here as part of this new, fresh and hopeful Rudd government—a government that has already shown itself to be socially inclusive, a builder of bridges, a dissolver of divisions in society. This week has shown us all the real meaning of the politics of hope, and it is a privilege to be part of this. I hope my role in this parliament will serve to assist and support these ideals and advance a fair Australia.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations to the new member for Maribyrnong, the previous speaker, and to all those who have joined this parliament as a result of the last election, particularly my colleagues on both sides of the House from Victoria. I look forward to a constructive working relationship with them all and wish them all the best for the future.

For me it is truly an honour to be representing the people of Dunkley again, to be rehired for a fifth term after the recent election. At a local level, there is no greater, no more humbling and no more demanding role than being the advocate for a community as diverse, as full of optimism and as rich in character—though not without its challenges—as the electorate of Dunkley. It is a community that I grew up in, that runs through my veins. As I listen to the first speeches of the new members, I reflect on my first speech nearly 12 years ago and think what an extraordinary journey it has been. A chance for a fifth term to make possible through action on the ground, supporting, collaborating and partnering with the local community and providing leadership, direction, optimism and hope for the future is what being rehired is all about. The people of Dunkley have again given me the opportunity to work with them and for them to make our region a better place—and I grab that opportunity with both hands.

It is important that I acknowledge a number of incredible people who have helped make that possible. Once again I have been blessed with an outstanding campaign team of tirelessly committed, community-minded and very gifted individuals. I sincerely thank my dear mate Greg Sugars, who was again volunteered by me to be campaign chairman at a time when his own business was demanding much of him and his family. I thank Virginia, Mason and Reilly for lending him to us once again. To Natalie Fairlie, Norm Branson, Bill Beaglehole, Arthur Rauken and all those in the campaign team: thank you for your dedicated efforts. And thank you to the many hundreds of people who volunteered—not only on election day. There is something character building about being at the Frankston railway station at 5 am and knowing that there are volunteers with you, so committed are they to our shared endeavours.

At a local level I must also acknowledge the team in the Dunkley electorate office as well as the staff in the ministerial office. They have been tireless in their efforts. I thank them most sincerely and value their friendship, their advice and their wise counsel. Noelene Warwick, Vincent Sheehy, Cameron Hill, Raeleigh Speedie, Judith Donnelly, Kristy Spena, James Sampson, Hayley Najim, Cameron Hooke, Claire Mackay, Brice Pacey and my former chief of staff Phil Connole are all remarkable individuals, and I wish them all the best for the future. To some of the new members and those in new offices: one of the character-building things of a change in government is that the team thins quite considerably in opposition. Thankfully all those people are doing quite worthwhile and meaningful things, and I wish them well for the future.

I would also on this Valentines Day like to pay a particular tribute to my sweetheart, Kate. As many in this House will know, spouses endure much in public life. Kate is certainly well known in our community and is often viewed as a nice segue in raising issues with me. Her contribution is tireless—it is immense—and her forbearance as we travel around the country and very regularly within our community is quite remarkable. I again want to place on the record my devotion to and admiration for her—and hopefully, through her, pay a tribute to all the spouses and families of members of parliament. It is a team effort, and they make an enormous contribution. I would also like to thank my children, Alex and Zoe. They are quite young. Alex is 10. I thought my election was exciting, but I acknowledge his election as vice-captain of Diamond house at Viewbank Primary School. He campaigned well and got a good result, and I congratulate him on that. He and Zoe were great supporters during the campaign, being co-drivers in the campaign bus, enthusiastically offering material to those who were interested. Their support and encouragement are very much valued. It is a reminder of why we come to this place.

I will not recount my journey here, but it is important to know that it has inspired an outlook that I carry with me every day: your postcode does not determine your potential. Right across this continent there are people in communities for whom success is perhaps less familiar, but we should never allow that to diminish people’s optimism about the future. The community that I represent is very diverse, and, for all those who are a part of it, their postcode is neither a roadblock nor a meal ticket to success. All of them have what it takes to live a successful life. I hope that through my campaign motto, which has survived many elections, of being positive, passionate and persistent we can embrace a positivity and optimism about the future and go about our work with vigour and enthusiasm but recognise that important things do not always come easily and that you need to stick at them. Hopefully through that work I can achieve the benchmark that I have set for myself of being handy to have around for the local community.

It is also important that we pause and remember that a vast number of people—millions of Australians—voted for the return of the former government. They had been touched and encouraged by the prosperity and the opportunity and the greater sharing of those opportunities across Australia. They recognised that many achievements of the Howard government era stand this nation in great stead and provide the foundation for future achievements. It will be important, certainly in the coming months as the new government seeks to position itself, to not allow what was a very good government to be vilified needlessly. You would expect me to say these things having been a member of that government and a minister, but one only needs to look at the very masterful and artful campaign of the Labor Party, where they sought to position themselves as closely as they could to the work, the policy agenda, the goals and the programs of the Howard government and then just differentiate on a few particular things. Clearly the strategists and the thinkers in the Labor Party thought that things were not all that bad and that the nation was on the right pathway.

For the community that I represent, that is evidenced in a number of ways. For the first time in most people’s living memory, our unemployment rate is either at or below the national average. For those in this House who are not familiar with the Mornington Peninsula, it is some 40-odd kilometres, through to many more kilometres, away from the Melbourne central business district. If the economy stumbles, we fall flat on our faces in our community. Employment can be very difficult when opportunities contract. For too long we were exporting our brightest, as they left the community to try and find opportunities elsewhere. Thankfully, with the change of government—that is, with the introduction of the Howard government—more and more local people could be a complete part of their local community. They not only could engage with their family and friends and their social activities, their sporting interests, their religious pursuits, their communities but also had a chance to actually work in the community. You see unemployment rates now that had only been dreamed of in the past. You see people who were previously denied the opportunity to work, perhaps because they did not offer the skills that some others may have had, also able to gain employment. They have a chance to show what they are capable of, perhaps after a long period of unemployment or of different priorities—raising a family or the like.

When we talk about employment we need to realise that it is a very personal thing. Labor has made much of employment relations and that is understood. The election has encouraged us all to recalibrate some of the industrial relations laws. That is recognised. But it is very important that people have a chance to be employed. We hear much about the role of unions. My role is to be the union for people who do not have a job, to try to make sure that policies and decisions in this parliament mean the environment is conducive to more employment and that there is more investment so that everybody has the chance to gain a job and shape their future destiny. We achieved that over the course of the Howard government. I hope we do not lose that, as we move forward. I hope that productivity is improved not by simply excluding the least productive from the labour market. That is no solution. We need to make sure everybody has the opportunity to be involved.

It was quite a masterful campaign by the ALP to align themselves so closely to the Howard government. In fact, we have heard it said that there was only a cigarette paper between the two parties. It was a very interesting campaign, yet we often hear now in this place that it was so different. It is interesting. We wonder and the nation will look to see just what kind of government the Rudd government offers, to see whether it lives up to those reassurances or whether the hubris that you have already seen in these early days sees a completely different agenda brought forward. I acknowledge the member for Kingsford Smith at the table. The areas that were very important to the community that I represent could be pursued not only at a national level through the enabling policies of a national government but also through the translation of those opportunities into particular initiatives for our community. Sadly, many of these will not move forward unless the new government recognises the importance of them to the Dunkley community. It is worrying because in 1996, when I was first elected, the Labor member I replaced acknowledged that our community had been forgotten about by the Hawke-Keating governments. I think that in part played into why there was a change of member. I hope, now that there is a Labor government back, my community is not forgotten again as the focus moves elsewhere. There are some worrying early signs. The member for Maribyrnong spoke eloquently about his journey and the importance of his community to him and in the context of the nation. I feel equally strongly but do not see the same investment in the west and the north-west of Melbourne as in the south and the south-east.

We remember how our community was punished with a tollway after being promised the road would not be one. The south-east and east of Melbourne are the only ones who pay to use an arterial ring road; the northern and western suburbs do not pay. One of the consequences of this tollway is an enormous increase in traffic congestion—25 per cent is the estimate—on an already clogged highway network that ends its journey at the corner of Cranbourne-Frankston Road, an intersection already choking under the traffic. During the election campaign no remedy was offered, except from the Howard government. It offered financial support for the Frankston bypass, a project so important not only to relieve and to address the current and forecast congestions but also to make sure that our community is not disconnected from the rest of Melbourne purely because of travel journeys. For those listening who know the peninsula well, imagine a 40-minute trip from Main Street, Mornington, to get to Thompson Road in Carrum Downs. This separation by time of our community from other parts of greater Melbourne is a worry. I hope the Rudd government recognises that the enormous commitment that was made by the Howard government, if it were re-elected, is something it needs to carry through on. Those funding commitments were important because they were about showing that research into the direction, the grade separation and the EES process was not purely an academic exercise but that some action would flow from it.

We also had the promise of an Australian technical college. Under the former Labor government, the Hawke-Keating government, you very rarely heard about skills. In fact the Australian public and young people were fed a diet that success was only achieved by a university pathway. We know that to be nonsense but we also know that there is a concerted effort required to re-engage people who are perhaps disconnected from their education and that Australian technical colleges were achieving that. The Australian technical college that was to be established in Frankston would have been an enormous boost for our community. Alas, that now looks like not being achievable either. I can assure the House I will persist. I am positive about this project and passionate about its need, and I will persist to see that that infrastructure is available.

Other election commitments are very important to our local community. They include the $2 million contribution towards the construction of an environmentally compatible sea wall to support the boating facilities in Frankston and the vision for our city. It is very important, but we had not a noise about that from the Labor candidate. The ongoing work to enhance community safety and security, the incredibly successful CCTV programs in Mornington and around the railway station in Frankston were going to be rolled out even further, as was mobile technology that would address the scourge that too many Australians are experiencing—that is, the scourge of the doof-doof hoon in a souped-up VL Commodore at the front of houses, terrifying neighbourhoods.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Doof-doof!

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Member for Paterson. That is the bass sound of the vehicle as it drops a burnout out the front of someone’s house. Speeding in local neighbourhoods is really affecting the humanity of those areas, but it is incredibly hard to police.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a national disgrace.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a national disgrace and it is a trend. When I look back on my Mazda 808 super deluxe coupe when I was of that vintage, it could not pull the skin off a custard, so underpowered was it. I still felt cool, although others had another view. Today those entry-level vehicles are high-powered vehicles. We see too many young people losing their lives, too many neighbourhoods compromised by bad driving behaviour, albeit in passing. It is a small minority, but it is enough to cause a real impact, to have a detrimental impact, on people’s quality of life and the quality of their neighbourhoods.

We had a commitment to fund movement activated CCTV systems which you could mount on a power pole or sit on the back parcel deck of a car to capture some of this conduct so that the vehicle confiscation laws would actually have some evidence to push off from. That was a very important initiative but one that we have heard nothing about.

Other initiatives included the revitalisation package for the Seaford RSL car park, the area around the foreshore and the lifesaving precinct, which would have provided a chance to enjoy the Seaford-Edithvale wetlands through all seasons, through the re-establishment of the pathways. These were important local projects, along with the Eric Bell Reserve redevelopment and upgrade project in Frankston North and support for the Langwarrin footy club and the community basketball stadium in Mornington. These were local issues that the local community, I felt, embraced.

The trend in voting patterns away from—dare I say—my kind was less obvious in my electorate. I think that was perhaps because these local projects mattered. Having said that, I also add that, for those like me who are advocates of Tip O’Neill’s motto ‘all politics is local’, Tip was away from my electorate during this election campaign. The national mood certainly was embraced by many of the local voters and that was evidenced by a very low-profile, almost stealth-like campaign by my Labor opponent. But, still, we persist and we work on.

I would like to add some further comments about the challenges ahead. We have heard much about a broadband agenda. We have seen little about the detail of it from the Labor Party. We saw yesterday a bill introduced into the House that will allow a stripping of the Communications Fund, the very future-proofing tool that regional and rural Australians are concerned about. We are going to see those taxpayer resources drawn away from where there is clearly an underservicing and a difficulty in providing commercially funded broadband services. They are to be made available for the metropolitan area, where there is no such problem. The logic of that astounds me, but this is what seems to be moving forward. I will talk more about that at another time.

I want to pay tribute to those that I had the good fortune of working with as a minister. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs is a remarkable organisation. It carries an extraordinarily special duty to a very special group of Australians who have served our nation and given all that they have. It was an honour and a privilege to be the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, to work closely with Mark Sullivan and his department team and with the ex-service community, many of whom are often vilified by some characters that offer much in the way of commentary but very little in the way of constructive agendas for the future. I wish all those in Veterans’ Affairs the best future. Alan Griffin, the new Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, is already benefiting from the momentum that we created, but I hope that he also has a sense of the challenges that are ahead.

To the serving men and women of the Australian Defence Force: my role in assisting the humans in the ADF was a great honour and a privilege. Our people are our greatest capability. We can buy aircraft and ships and all the kit under the sun, but it is our people that make those items of technology, that implement doctrine, that use their creativity, their judgement and their personalities to bring about the military and strategic objectives that they are tasked to carry out. To Angus Houston and all of the service chiefs, to Nick Warner, to the defence enterprise—all of the civilians and uniformed personnel who work at Russell and at many installations across the country: I salute you. You are a remarkable bunch of people. I admire what you do, and it was an incredible honour to work closely with you.

To the people of Dunkley I pay my highest compliment and pass on my sincere thanks. To be rehired by you, a group of people I have grown up with, is an honour. Your challenges, ambitions, hopes for the future and moments of reflection run through my veins as well. I hope I honour the trust and support you have placed in me for a fifth time. I hope I represent you with vigour and advocate your interests well in this place.

I should apologise because it seems as though I will need to be here on a Friday. I do not shirk from that role; I am happy to be a contributor in parliament any time. But parliament ‘lite’, as it is proposed on a Friday, is a bad move. When I come here and talk about the grievances of my community, I expect the people who are in a position to remedy them to be here as well. Rostered days off, or Rudd days off, are not good for our parliament. Parliament is valued. It should be respected. If being removed from this place for one hour is an important sanction for bad behaviour and being removed for 24 hours is a bigger sanction, not being required to turn up at all is an insult. (Time expired)

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the member for Charlton and Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, I remind the House that this is the honourable member’s first speech. I ask the House to extend to him the usual courtesies.

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and congratulations on your election. It has occurred to me, I must say, in my naivete as a parliamentarian, that your role is somewhat akin to a judge on a new reality television show called So You Think You Can Talk! But of course there is somewhat more gravity associated with the role and I wish you all the best in it.

I have committed my working life to the cause of fairness and justice in our society. I believe very strongly in a fairer distribution of wealth and opportunity. I have been an advocate for the rights of working people and I have campaigned against injustice. I believe that a strong economy is an essential foundation for social progress and I profoundly believe in our democracy. I am proudly Australian and I believe that, as an independent nation, it would be appropriate to have an Australian head of state.

My values and beliefs have informed my decision to stand for election to the House of Representatives. But the achievement of change, of course, requires more than individual belief or personal effort alone. It requires the collective action of those with common ideals. That is why I have been committed to the labour movement for many years and that is why I am a member of the Australian Labor Party.

As former Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley put it in 1949, Labor is ‘a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to ... the people’. I am grateful for the opportunity that Labor provided me to stand as a candidate in the electorate of Charlton and I am very proud to have been elected. I am also honoured to have been appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement in the Rudd government. I wish to thank the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, for my appointment to this role and to congratulate him and all of the Labor team for the tremendous achievement of winning government.

Many people contributed to my election but I would like at the outset to thank my wife, Petra, for her personal support and sacrifice; and our children, Clara, Anna and Yannis. It has been a major upheaval for my family. I also sincerely thank my mother, Aida; my stepfather, Vic; and my sister, Jennifer—and I acknowledge my late father, Todd—for all that they have done to support me through my life.

Charlton is in the Hunter region of my home state of New South Wales. The electorate is named after former Labor leader and coalminer Matthew Charlton. It encompasses the western areas of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, a region of considerable geographic beauty in which live very diverse communities. I respectfully acknowledge the work of the previous member, Kelly Hoare, and, before her, Bob Brown. They represented Charlton since its inception in 1984.

While there is growing prosperity in many parts of the electorate, there is also significant disadvantage. Charlton has a large retired population, many of whom depend solely upon the age pension. The electorate has lower than average income levels, a large proportion of people who attended school only to year 10 and youth unemployment which still stands at around 16 per cent, so there is much work to be done. There is also a large Aboriginal community in Charlton, and I extend my respects to the traditional owners of the lands within the electorate, the Awabakal people, and their elders. I respectfully acknowledge the Awabakal and Koompahtoo land councils and affirm my heartfelt support for the apology to the stolen generations. I will cherish the opportunity to work closely with Aboriginal people in the electorate.

Service industries are large employers in Charlton but manufacturing, coalmining and electricity generation are important economic drivers. The failure of the former Howard government on climate change has created uncertainty for the future of the coal and electricity industries in the region. There is apprehension amongst workers about their jobs and uncertainty about investment in the electricity industry. This is a problem area which I will take a keen interest in on behalf of the electorate and the Hunter region generally. In my view, a national trading scheme which effectively prices carbon emissions will be important for my electorate as well as for the country. Not only will it create an incentive to reduce emissions; it will provide greater certainty for jobs and for investment in all forms of energy.

Charlton residents have also suffered from insufficient investment in infrastructure. One of my main priorities will be to campaign for a new integrated rail, road and bus transport centre at Glendale, in the demographic heart of the electorate. Also high on my list is the implementation of the Rudd government’s commitment to a new GP superclinic in the area. The ratio of GPs to the population is now 1 to 2,000, making it far too difficult for many people to see a general practitioner.

I would like to thank not only the voters of Charlton for their support but also the members of the Labor Party and the local community who made a significant contribution to my campaign. There are, as usual, too many to individually name. However, I would like to acknowledge a small number who dedicated very much of their time: Kelly and Lynne Lofberg, Angie Sidonio, Janelle Smee and her family, Yasmin Catley and Megan Montefiore. I also received great support from businesspeople and many unions, and I particularly wish to thank the ACTU, the Maritime Union of Australia, the CFMEU mining and energy division and the Newcastle Trades Hall Council. I have very much appreciated the warmth extended to me from people in the community and I have had some great experiences while campaigning. My great-grandfather, who migrated to the Hunter from France, once owned a wine bar near Cardiff in the electorate. It closed, I think, in the 1950s. Imagine my pleasure when a very elderly and frail man came into my Cardiff campaign office and, after seeing my name on the window, asked if this was where the wine bar had moved to. He did say it was a long time between drinks!

I bring a variety of experiences to my new role. I grew up in Rooty Hill in Western Sydney. At that time it was a diverse, semirural community and a settlement area for many postwar European migrants. My father was a winemaker at Penfolds at the Minchinbury Estate. He died when I was 13 and this remains perhaps the most formative experience of my life. He instilled in me a sense of community, and I recall spending much of my time with him at community service and fundraising events in which he participated as a member of Rotary. Like many of my generation, I was influenced by the major political and cultural events of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the tumult over the Vietnam War and the excitement surrounding Labor’s political ascendancy under Gough Whitlam—although, I have to say, in Rooty Hill these events were almost eclipsed by the shock and outrage over the nude scene in the rock musical Hair.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are some of my generation here. Following school I worked for some time and then studied mining engineering. As part of my studies, I worked in underground coalmining at Lithgow and joined the coalminers union at the age of 19. My early working and industrial experiences helped crystallise my commitment to the labour movement, where my heart and my passion could find expression through my work.

I left the mining industry and worked in a variety of community organisations, including the Workers Health Centre in Lidcombe in Western Sydney. It was there that I broadened my involvement with unions and first began what has extended now to 25 years of campaigning on behalf of asbestos victims. I studied economics and by 1987 became an official of the Waterside Workers Federation, now the Maritime Union. Tas Bull, the head of the union at the time, influenced more than anyone else my development as a union leader. He had the capacity to balance strength with pragmatism and the courage to advocate unpopular positions when it was the right course of action. I have missed him in the years since his death.

The experience I gained in a national role at the union prepared me for work at the ACTU, where I was privileged to work with one of its most outstanding and intelligent leaders, Bill Kelty. I was elected his successor in October 1999. My 14 years in Melbourne at the ACTU involved me in major events such as the 1998 waterfront dispute, and I shared those tumultuous days with my close friend and colleague John Coombs, who courageously led the Maritime Union. At the ACTU, I also led the successful campaign to rescue $700 million of Ansett employee entitlements following the collapse of the airline, and I worked to achieve justice for the victims of James Hardie asbestos products. The James Hardie campaign resulted in a commercial settlement worth billions of dollars in compensation payments over the next 40 to 50 years, and it is unique internationally. But it is a settlement which will, rightly, forever be associated with the late Bernie Banton, a genuine fighter for justice and a person who enriched my life and inspired countless others, and I am proud of what we achieved.

Over the last 2½ years, I have also been proud to be a leader of the Your Rights at Work campaign, conducted by the union movement. This campaign achieved widespread opposition to the former Howard government’s workplace laws and it undeniably influenced national politics. The former government’s arrogance and its unwillingness to listen to legitimate concerns about its Work Choices laws were part of its undoing. I vividly recall a meeting I had as ACTU secretary with former Prime Minister John Howard in May 2005. I explained how his proposed reforms would allow some employers to use AWA individual contracts to cut take-home pay and the damaging impact this would have on the most vulnerable people in the labour market. Mr Howard was unmoved.

In my role as a union leader, I learnt the importance of considering and balancing competing views and to respect the legitimate interests and concerns of business. Mr Howard’s failure to extend this respect to the interests of employees hardened my resolve to mount a concerted campaign against the Work Choices legislation, with television advertising at its foundation. When the ACTU began its TV campaign, our research showed that about 35 per cent of Australians opposed the Howard government’s planned industrial relations changes. Within months of our advertising, opposition to the laws had risen to 65 per cent, and it essentially remained at this level all the way through to last year’s election. While advertising was important, the foundation of the Your Rights at Work campaign was its support in the community and the grassroots activism of many thousands of people. I want to take the opportunity in this place to thank each and every one of them for their contribution to achieving change.

The Rudd government’s workplace relations changes will restore fairness and balance to the workplace and they will not harm the economy. In fact, the High Court has now cleared the way for industrial relations jurisdictions to be rationalised on the basis of a national system and this will significantly reduce the complexity of regulation for business. Furthermore, the constitutional path is now clear for legislation to establish a simple and consistent safety net of employment rights, obligations and entitlements. Pay and employment conditions over and above the safety net will be the subject of genuine workplace-level bargaining. The only fair workplace bargaining system is one which respects the right of employees to collectively bargain. The fact is that individual employees rarely have comparable bargaining power with an employer, and that is why the right for employees to collectively negotiate with their employer is crucial. It is also why employees must be genuinely free to join, associate in and be represented by a union, if that is what they wish. Fighting for these rights has been a cornerstone of my working life and I shall stand up for them in this place. Basic rights such as freedom of association and the right to collectively bargain should, ultimately, in my view, join other fundamental democratic freedoms in a codified set of human rights in Australia. I believe the absence of such a code, perhaps in the form of a human rights act, to be a weakness of our democracy.

My particular interest, though, is in economic issues. I maintain strong relationships with members of the business community and I have enjoyed serving on the boards of a large superannuation fund and a bank, Members Equity Bank. From the shop floor to the boardroom, I have witnessed in recent years the emergence of serious impediments to Australia’s future economic prosperity. We have as a nation experienced a prolonged period of economic expansion, low inflation and strong employment growth. This strong economic performance has yielded historic fiscal dividends to government. However, serious skill shortages and underinvestment in infrastructure, poor preparation for an ageing population and a failure to encourage investment in research and innovation threaten our prosperity. The failure of the previous government to adequately address these issues is constraining GDP and productivity growth and therefore constraining future improvement in real living standards. It is a contributor to the inflationary and interest rate pressures we are now experiencing. As we well know, and as I know from my role representing working people, inflation hurts those Australians least able to afford it. The tragedy is that the former Howard government had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in future prosperity and it failed.

I strongly support the Rudd government’s plan for investment in education and skills development, leadership in infrastructure, and new policies encouraging innovation and research and development. I have been an advocate of these policies for some time. The government’s focus on education is particularly important for our country. Universal access to quality education is central, in my view, to any decent democracy. For many children, public education in particular is the only vehicle to overcome social and economic disadvantage. In my own electorate, I look forward to the improved availability of trades training in schools, broadband access and the availability of computers to students in years 9 to 12, and the government’s emphasis on early childhood education. These initiatives will make a huge difference. They are foundations for social equity.

Addressing the challenge of an ageing population through better retirement savings is also an area in which I have a keen interest. There are important reasons for boosting retirement savings. The current average superannuation account balance is around $39,600 and only $27,600 for women. For low-paid, casual and part-time workers it is much less than this. In the hospitality industry, where many thousands of people are employed, it is around $8,000. At the current contribution rate, this will not be enough for many people to have an adequate standard of living in retirement. That is one reason to boost superannuation savings. Another is that our superannuation system is the main mitigating factor against wealth inequality in our society. Indeed, for many people it is the only form of savings that they have. Boosting super also increases the quantum of national savings available for investment. It enhances the capacity of retirees to finance the escalating cost of health care. By encouraging savings rather than consumption, we can diminish inflationary pressure. This issue, in my view, should not be confused, as some have done, with the tax cuts to be delivered by the government, because these are sorely needed by working families, but it is a longer term issue demanding public policy consideration.

While I look forward to involvement in these policy areas as a parliamentarian, much of my immediate work will involve the honour of supporting the Australian Defence Force through my role in defence procurement. I have already met many dedicated and talented people working in Defence and the Defence Materiel Organisation. Procurement is, many would say, a fascinating challenge, with almost $10 billion to be expended this year on the acquisition and sustainment of material for the ADF. There are many unheralded successes in defence procurement, but it is well known that there are a few difficult issues as well. Together with the Minister for Defence, I have started reviewing some of the problem projects which are over budget and beyond their schedule. I also aim, with the minister, to continue the process of reform within the Defence Materiel Organisation.

It remains for me to thank the union movement, because it has provided me with the greatest opportunities of my working life, including a foundation for my election to parliament. I have received tremendous support and met wonderful people who deserve respect and recognition for their work, not vilification. I am especially grateful for the years spent with my colleagues at the ACTU and in the leadership with Sharan Burrow. Of the many whose friendship I enjoy, I would like to thank in particular Pirjo Laine, who worked with me for 13 years, and George Wright, who also worked closely with me over a long period of time.

As I embark upon this new beginning, I draw strength and inspiration from the achievements of the Australian Labor Party. From wartime leadership to postwar nation-building, from our pioneering role in the United Nations to the forging of our regional relationships, from Aboriginal rights to universal superannuation and Medicare, from opening access for people of my generation to tertiary education to economic modernisation, Labor has shaped this nation for the better. Labor is a builder, a creator of opportunity, a driver of social and economic progress and equity. Only Labor would take the unifying step forward for this country of an apology to the stolen generations.

It is time to find greater unity in our society, to turn the page on the recent years of division and intolerance. We are a diverse society, and my greatest hope for the future is that we evoke in our community greater tolerance, compassion, decency and respect towards one another. I am very proud to be a member of the House and a member of the Rudd Labor government.

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start my speech on the address-in-reply by congratulating the member for Charlton and all the new members of parliament. It is truly a great honour to be elected to this place. I also congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your elevation. It is a great honour for you. I know you personally and I know your integrity. I also rise today in this new parliament delighted to have been re-elected as the representative for the seat of La Trobe. My first task is to thank the voters in La Trobe for re-electing me and giving me the honour and privilege of being the federal member for La Trobe. It is a great honour for me. I again thank my supporters and all those who voted for me for their support.

I am determined to work harder than ever before, to ensure that the newly elected Rudd Labor government keeps to its promises in La Trobe. I recognise that in La Trobe a number of people voted for the Liberal Party for the first time and gave me personal recognition from my position on issues such as supporting the Kyoto protocol, opposing the pulp mill in Tasmania and opposing nuclear reactors. The Liberal Party have learnt a lot from this election and I know we will go into the future learning from our mistakes.

There are many people that I would like to express my thanks to for their dedication to my campaign and for their tireless commitment to ensuring my re-election. It takes a team effort and I would not be here today without support from a number of people. First of all, I must thank my parents, Bob and Jan. They are not traditional Liberal supporters, but they have actually come on board. It is really good to see my parents do that. I thank them, because, as a member of parliament, it is actually your family who cop a fair bit of the burden for your decisions and your policies. I also have to get the name of my dog, Moejoe, into Hansard. Moejoe was a great support for me after hours.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You didn’t lose your mojo!

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I haven’t lost my mojo. Moejoe, hopefully, is with my parents as I speak. Like everyone, I love getting back home, and I get inspiration in after-hours time spent with, believe it or not, my dog, Moejoe. At two o’clock in the morning he would love a good walk.

When it comes to dedication and persistence, I must thank my Liberal Party supporters. In no particular order but first of all I must thank Peter and Chris Smith—they are here to see me as well as all the new members being sworn in, and I thank them for making that trip. Peter is also my FEC chairman. I thank Andrew McNabb, who campaigned tirelessly; Sue McMillan; and Stan and Steve Davey, who I cannot thank enough—they are not actually Liberal branch members but they campaigned for me for a month. I thank John Shipp, David Jancik and Michael Basset, who brought their youth and enthusiasm into the campaign; David Menaham; David Holmes, who was the first person in 2004 who said I should stand for parliament; Brad Battin; Julie Hughes, Carol Porter, Sheila Purcell, Margery Nowack and all the ladies from Berwick Women’s section. I thank my branches in La Trobe, including Berwick, Fern Tree Gully, Emerald, Boronia, Dandenong Ranges, Gembrook, Upwey and the Berwick Young Liberals.

I also must thank the members of the Malvern Young Liberals club, who came out and campaigned with me; the Berwick-Ranges 500 club for their strong financial support; Tony Snell from the admin committee for his leadership and dedication during the scrutineering process, which dragged on; the Wildes family for their assistance; Sharon Verschaeren; Brian and Pauline Hetherton; Betty and Peter McLaren; and also Mick Morland and Kay for their assistance.

To those I have not mentioned: I apologise but I can never thank you enough. One thing I try to do is thank all my supporters. I thank the Victorian state division for all their support and especially the state director, Julian Sheezel: you were great when I needed you to make phone calls to make things happen. Again, I also thank the Liberal Party for their trust in me as their candidate in 2004 and again last year.

In 2004, I made some election commitments and I must again thank the former Prime Minister, John Howard, for all his support in the electorate of La Trobe. Projects such as Fernlea House palliative care received  funding; Fernlea House received $800,000. This is a state government responsibility but the former Prime Minister, John Howard, recognised the need and committed the funding—I thank him for that. With this commitment anyone in the seat of La Trobe can go into Emerald today and see Fernlea House and the way it is being managed. This election commitment has been delivered. Bryn Mawr Bridge in Berwick—I am sure there are a few people who may be listening to this speech as they are driving across this bridge in Beaconsfield—is again a state Labor government responsibility, which we committed $10 million to and which, again, was delivered in my first term.

In last year’s election campaign, La Trobe voters saw Labor’s ‘me too’ strategy in full flight not at the national level but at the local level. I am delighted that, in the election campaign, the Labor Party were forced into matching three of these commitments. Labor matched my election commitment of the substantial upgrade to Clyde Road in Berwick to ease traffic congestion. We initially promised $25 million for this project and we are seeking the second half from the state Labor government. My Labor opponent Rodney Cocks—and I congratulate him first of all for his tireless efforts—tried to trump me by announcing $30 million for the grade separation. We committed this in the May budget, which I believe was also matched by Labor. I hope they stick to their promises.

Just as importantly, I was at the Beaconsfield Progress Association in a debate with my opponent Rodney Cocks. He made it very clear to all those present that Tim Pallas, the roads minister for Victoria, had agreed and he was able to successfully negotiate an agreement that the state Labor government would match the funding of $30 million, so I will keep the Brumby government accountable to this promise.

Labor matched my election commitment of $2.5 million for a performing arts centre for the Emerald Secondary College. First, I must congratulate all the students who participated in last year’s rock eisteddfod, where they came third—they were my inspiration for pushing this project to see whether it was warranted. The students worked so hard for this project and they must be congratulated for their persistence and especially for coming third in the whole state. It was an amazing effort. But there is one person in particular who must get all the accolades for this, and that is Wayne Burgess, the principal at Emerald Secondary College. He was the one who invited me to the rock eisteddfod that night and put the plans and the concept together. He put an amazing application together. He was strongly supported by the school president, Doug. Wayne, you did an amazing job.

Wayne wrote me a letter dated 30 January. It states:

On Thursday 11th October 2007, Emerald Secondary College received a commitment that a re elected Howard government would provide $2.5 million for this community facility.

And, as I said, we heard the echo from the Labor Party in Wayne Burgess’s letter:

On Tuesday 16th October 2007 Stephen Smith, Shadow Minister for Education and Training made a similar commitment.

In actual fact it was an identical commitment, and we are now calling for the new Rudd government to honour this commitment to the students at Emerald Secondary College. I believe the decision on the day was that it would be in this year’s federal budget in May. Let us not start breaking promises; let us commit to this project. It is so vitally important.

Labor also matched my election commitment of $2 million for a new sports stadium in Timbarra. The history of Timbarra is this: initially the state Labor government was planning to sell the land but after a large, strong local campaign, it was decided that the land would be held onto. I must congratulate the former Liberal candidate for Narre Warren North, Councillor Mick Morland, for pushing this issue with Brian Hetherton and also the Casey council for their commitment. In the last state election a promise was made by Luke Donnellan, the state Labor member for Narre Warren North. I congratulate him for getting the funding for this—I will be honest about that—but where is the school? It has not been built. There are no plans. There is nothing happening, so it is one of those empty and vague election promises. Unless we actually see something done, it was not worth making the announcement in the first place.

That brings me to my point: not only do we need the school to be built; we need the funding for the new $2 million sports stadium to be allocated, just as the Howard government’s commitment was to be allocated in this year’s May budget. The Labor Party has assured the voters of La Trobe that will be the case, so I look forward to seeing the May budget and to seeing these announcements being made. It is only fair and just.

Labor also made some of their own commitments. They made a commitment to a childcare centre for Sherbrooke, which will be placed in Upwey. I look forward to seeing that. I have always been a strong supporter of the Sherbrooke Children’s Centre. We were looking at getting funding for that under Regional Partnerships, working with Christiaan O’Dea. I congratulate him for his tireless work on this proposal.

Again, I look forward to the opening of a $2.5 million GP superclinic in Berwick, although I am still of the view that it should be closer to Lakeside and Pakenham. That is where the services are actually needed, because that is the fastest growing growth corridor. Plus we also have a GP superclinic right next-door to the Casey Hospital, so you are going to have two superclinics right beside each other.

There was also a promise to build a technical school in Berwick. I congratulate the Labor government for making that announcement but, alas, I have been told recently that their commitment to build a technical school at Dandenong has been scrapped and the next one they are looking at cutting is the one in Berwick. I would hate to see this scrapped. It is one of the fastest growing growth corridors in the area. Education is so vitally important. We have heard the Prime Minister talk about the education revolution, so let us actually make this happen. We had an election commitment on this too. The difference is that, as with Bryn Mawr Bridge and Fernlea House, we delivered these in a cycle. I really hope this is actually committed to. I put the Labor government on notice that I and all La Trobe residents expect to see each and every one of their promises fulfilled.

Further, I have been disturbed by reports that Labor is considering scrapping projects to which the former coalition government allocated funding well before last year’s election. For instance, last year the Shire of Yarra Ranges was awarded $2 million in Australian government funding to expand and enhance the Burrinja arts and cultural centre in Upwey. This is a project that the council has put a huge amount of work into getting. There was an SOS for us to come through and commit to this project. The state Labor government had committed to this project.

We get people being very cynical, saying this was all about votes. If you look at the polling booth results in Upwey and Tecoma, these are not hardcore Liberal support bases, but these people were desperate for this performing arts centre. They have worked long, hard and tirelessly for it. The state member for Monbulk, James Merlino, has also been pushing for this. It will be a slap in the face not only for the residents of Upwey, Tecoma and La Trobe in general but also for your state Labor counterparts if you scrap this project. The entire $10 million project will be in jeopardy if this commitment is not abided by. I understand that since the election the Shire of Yarra Ranges has had preliminary discussions with representatives of the relevant Commonwealth department, yet the Labor government has still not announced whether funding will be allocated. This is a disgrace.

Further, over the past three years I have worked with the CSIRO to develop a proposal to conduct a biological control into Wandering Trad in the Dandenong Ranges. For those who do not know, wandering trad is a creeper which goes into creeks. It sucks up the water, it prevents wildlife such as platypuses from moving around and it also causes great skin irritations to all pets, including my dog, Moejoe. I was very glad to see that the No. 1 issue of the Howard government and the former Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Malcolm Turnbull—and I congratulate him—after coming and meeting all the local environmental groups was to get a biological control of $450,000 over three years to target this weed. I was so glad that, prior to the election, I was able to get this as a commitment—not during a campaign but before the election was called. So it was all being delivered under the previous government—under the Howard government—and allocated in existing funding. I have with me a front page from the Ferntree Gully, Belgrave Mail. The heading is ‘Forgotten hills’. It is from when the now environment minister, Peter Garrett, attended the area. It states: ‘While many had expected Friday’s event would have been the ideal opportunity to unveil a vote-winning commitment to the weed battle, neither speaker’—neither my opponent nor Mr Garrett—‘would make that a commitment’. The article quotes Mr Garrett as saying:

We will have a policy to address that question in an amplified form on the way to the election.

The amplified form appeared after the coalition, the Howard government, made a $30 million commitment to weed eradication in the Dandenong Ranges. This is the largest commitment ever made by any government. If you compare the state Labor government’s commitment of $15,000 with that, it is an absolute disgrace. We made this $450,000 commitment, and yet I have heard this is one of our previous election commitments to be cut by the current government. Minister Garrett, I plead with you not to cut this project, because it is of such significance. It would also be contradicting what the Labor Party was actually saying to residents in the seat of La Trobe. A media release from my opponent, Rodney Cocks, from Monday, 12 November 2007, states:

LABOR’S $15.3 MILLION PLAN TO TACKLE WEEDS

In actual fact, the coalition had $30 million. The media release goes on to say:

A Rudd Labor Government will invest $15 million over four years from unallocated departmental funds to:

• Establish a comprehensive national applied research program to investigate and solve the most serious invasive plant problems—

including Wandering Trad, Bridal Creep, Ivy, et cetera. The Labor Party put in their press announcement that they will commit to tackling this problem of Wandering Trad, and yet the first thing they do when they get here is look at reneging on a commitment to the voters under the previous government. That is a disgrace.

On one hand, you are saying you will commit to tackling this problem. We made the election commitment under the previous Howard government, thanks to Malcolm Turnbull and the great fight and support of all the local environmentalists, all of whom want to see this weed eradicated, and the first thing you are doing is looking at not only breaking your own media release but also reneging on our commitment to tackling this Wandering Trad. It is an absolute disgrace and I really hope—I plead with the minister—this decision will be revisited because of its importance. We are so desperate in this area to solve this issue. It is interesting, too, that Rodney Cocks, the Labor candidate for La Trobe, said in a press release:

... it is clear that the Howard Government has no national plan to tackle this issue, as they recently announced that the highly successful National Weeds CRC will be abolished in June 2008.

Guess what! The National Weeds CRC was one of the groups who wrote a letter of support saying you need to get rid of Wandering Trad, and it supported the proposal. I think it is a disgrace that the first thing that the Labor Rudd government is doing is looking at breaking previous election promises made by the Howard government and not honouring them.

Again, I thank all the voters in La Trobe for their support. Whether you voted for me or not, I will be your representative and I will work tirelessly and hard for everyone from every political persuasion.

Mr Speaker, I congratulate you on your elevation. I am a bit disappointed that having just come into the chamber, you missed the final sentences in my speech about my concerns over weeds, as I understand you are a passionate weed ambassador too.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did note the member got on to weeds. Feral weeds, yes. Before I call the honourable member for Cook, I remind the House that this is the honourable member’s first speech and I ask the House to extend to him the usual courtesies.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with humility and a deep sense of appreciation to the electors of Cook that I rise to make my maiden speech in this House. Today I wish to pay tribute to those who have been instrumental in my journey and to share the values and vision that I intend to bring to this House. I begin by acknowledging the first Australians, in particular the Gweigal people of the Dharawal nation of southern Sydney, who were the first to encounter Lieutenant James Cook, the namesake of my electorate, at Kurnell almost 240 years ago. I also commence by expressing my sincere appreciation to the people and families of the Sutherland shire in my electorate of Cook for placing their trust in me on this first occasion.

The shire community is a strong one. It is free of pretension and deeply proud of our nation’s heritage. Like most Australians, we are a community knit together by our shared commitment to family, hard work and generosity. We share a deep passion for our local natural environment and embrace what Teddy Roosevelt called the vigorous life, especially in sports. It is also a place where the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit of small business has flourished, particularly in recent years. In short, the shire is a great place to live and raise a family. As the federal member for Cook, I want to keep it that way by ensuring that Australia remains true to the values that have made our nation great and by keeping our economy strong so that families and small business can plan for their future with confidence.

At a local level, families—in particular carers—will come under increasing pressure because of the inability of local services to meet the changing needs of an ageing population. The character of our local area is also threatened by a failure to deliver critical state infrastructure such as the F6 extension for our current population, let alone the population growth targets set by the state government for the future.

On the Kurnell peninsula, the modern birthplace of our nation, we must reverse 150 years of environmental neglect, most recently demonstrated by the construction of Labor’s desalination plant—a plant that New South Wales does not need and the shire community does not want.

We must also combat the negative influences on our young people that lead to depression, suicide, self-harm, abuse and antisocial behaviour that in turn threatens our community. We need to help our young people make positive choices for their lives and be there to help them get their lives back on track when they fall.

For the past nine years, the Hon. Bruce Baird has ably represented the Cook electorate. Bruce Baird is a man of achievement, integrity, faith and, above all, compassion. He has set a high standard. I thank him for his service, his personal guidance over many years and for being here today.

My colleagues and I would not be here without the support of the Liberal Party and the thousands of volunteers who believe in our cause. They provide the ultimate in political support—they show up. And, as we know, history is made by those who show up. I thank them all, especially in my electorate of Cook. I particularly thank my good friend Kevin Schreiber; my campaign team, led by Michael Douglas and Scott Chapman; our local Liberal shire councillors; and my local, state and federal parliamentary colleagues, especially those here today.

For almost five years I had the privilege to serve as the State Director of the Liberal Party of New South Wales. Then, as now, I was surrounded by people who walked the journey with me. I thank them all for their support, especially Chris McDiven, Rhondda Vanzella, the Hon. Shane Stone, Senator Bill Heffernan, David Gazard and the Hon. John Howard, the greatest Prime Minister since Sir Robert Menzies.

In addition to working in politics, the great bulk of my professional experience has been working with industry. I thank the many staff, colleagues and industry leaders I worked with during that time, in particular Peter Verwer and the Hon. Tim Fischer, who provided great guidance and support.

From my early days at the Property Council of Australia to my many roles in the tourism industry, I have developed a healthy respect for the passion and commitment of Australian businesspeople, especially those in small business. It is business that creates jobs and it is business that drives our economy. This is achieved through the initiative, enterprise and sacrifice of business owners and the hard work, skill and professionalism of the employees they lead.

In this parliament, let us make laws that encourage businesses and their employees to excel. Let us ensure that business is not unreasonably burdened by our efforts but, rather, empowered to grow and create more jobs, especially locally. Let us also make sure there are strong incentives, as well as protections, for all employees—not a one-size-fits-all approach—and ensure we preserve the right of the individual to negotiate their own conditions directly with their employer, should they wish to do so. Furthermore, let us acknowledge that we live in a highly competitive global economy and not deceive our constituents that we can tame these forces. Rather, let us protect our way of life by ensuring our economy is strong, equipped and positioned to perform.

I turn now to the most significant influences on my life—my family and my faith. Family is the stuff of life and there is nothing more precious. I thank my family members here in the gallery today for their support. It is my hope that all Australians could have the same caring and supportive environment that was provided to me by my parents, John and Marion Morrison, and my late grandparents, Mardie and Sandy Smith and Douglas and Noel Morrison, whom I honour in this place today. My parents laid the foundation for my life. Together with my brother, Alan, they demonstrated through their actions their Christian faith and the value they placed on public and community service. In our family, it has never been what you accumulate that matters but what you contribute. I thank them for their sacrifice, love and, above all, their example. To my wife, Jenny, on Valentine’s Day: words are not enough. She has loved and supported me in all things and made countless sacrifices, consistent with her generous, selfless and caring nature. However, above all, I thank her for her determination to never give up hope for us to have a child. After 14 years of bitter disappointments, God remembered her faithfulness and blessed us with our miracle child, Abbey Rose, on the seventh of the seventh of the seventh, to whom I dedicate this speech today in the hope of an even better future for her and her generation.

Growing up in a Christian home, I made a commitment to my faith at an early age and have been greatly assisted by the pastoral work of many dedicated church leaders, in particular the Reverend Ray Green and pastors Brian Houston and Leigh Coleman. My personal faith in Jesus Christ is not a political agenda. As Lincoln said, our task is not to claim whether God is on our side but to pray earnestly that we are on His. For me, faith is personal, but the implications are social—as personal and social responsibility are at the heart of the Christian message. In recent times it has become fashionable to negatively stereotype those who profess their Christian faith in public life as ‘extreme’ and to suggest that such faith has no place in the political debate of this country. This presents a significant challenge for those of us, like my colleague, who seek to follow the example of William Wilberforce or Desmond Tutu, to name just two. These leaders stood for the immutable truths and principles of the Christian faith. They transformed their nations and, indeed, the world in the process. More importantly, by following the convictions of their faith, they established and reinforced the principles of our liberal democracy upon which our own nation is built.

Australia is not a secular country—it is a free country. This is a nation where you have the freedom to follow any belief system you choose. Secularism is just one. It has no greater claim than any other on our society. As US Senator Joe Lieberman said, the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not from religion. I believe the same is true in this country.

So what values do I derive from my faith? My answer comes from Jeremiah, chapter 9:24:

... I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, declares the Lord.

From my faith I derive the values of loving-kindness, justice and righteousness, to act with compassion and kindness, acknowledging our common humanity and to consider the welfare of others; to fight for a fair go for everyone to fulfil their human potential and to remove whatever unjust obstacles stand in their way, including diminishing their personal responsibility for their own wellbeing; and to do what is right, to respect the rule of law, the sanctity of human life and the moral integrity of marriage and the family. We must recognise an unchanging and absolute standard of what is good and what is evil. Desmond Tutu put it this way:

... we expect Christians ... to be those who stand up for the truth, to stand up for justice, to stand on the side of the poor and the hungry, the homeless and the naked, and when that happens, then Christians will be trustworthy believable witnesses.

These are my principles. My vision for Australia is for a nation that is strong, prosperous and generous: strong in our values and our freedoms, strong in our family and community life, strong in our sense of nationhood and in the institutions that protect and preserve our democracy; prosperous in our enterprise and the careful stewardship of our opportunities, our natural environment and our resources; and, above all, generous in spirit, to share our good fortune with others, both at home and overseas, out of compassion and a desire for justice.

Australia is a strong nation. It is the product of more than 200 years of sacrifice—most significantly by those who have served in our defence forces, both here and overseas, and by those who have fallen, particularly those who have fallen most recently, and to whom I express my profound gratitude. But a strong country is also one that is at peace with its past. I do not share the armband view of history, black or otherwise. I like my history in high-definition, widescreen, full, vibrant colour. There is no doubt that our Indigenous population has been devastated by the inevitable clash of cultures that came with the arrival of the modern world in 1770 at Kurnell in my electorate. This situation is not the result of any one act but of more than 200 years of shared ignorance, failed policies and failed communities. And we are not alone: our experience is shared by every other modern nation that began this way. There is much for us all to be sorry for. Sadly, those who will be most sorry are the children growing up in Indigenous communities today, whose life chances are significantly less than the rest of us.

We can choose to sit in judgement on previous generations, thinking we would have done it differently. But would we? Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Nor can we compare the world we live in today with the world that framed the policies of previous generations. So let us not judge. Rather, having apologised for our past—as I was proud to do in this place yesterday—let us foster a reconciliation where true forgiveness can emerge and we work together to remove the disadvantage of our Indigenous communities, not out of a sense of guilt or recompense for past failures but because it is the humane and right thing to do. Having said this, we cannot allow a national obsession with our past failures to overwhelm our national appetite for celebrating our modern stories of nationhood. We must celebrate our achievements and acknowledge our failures at least in equal measure. We should never feel the need to deny our past to embrace our future.

On 29 April 1770 James Cook landed at Kurnell and so began the modern Australian story. James Cook was a man before his time. He embodied the true spirit of the Enlightenment age. Against a backdrop of brutality and ignorance, he displayed an amazing empathy and respect for his own crew and the people and lands he visited. He should be revered as one of the most significant figures in our national history. On 29 April 2020 we will mark the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing at Kurnell. This should be the most significant national celebration since our Bicentenary. This will require federal, state and local government to overcome decades of neglect of the Kurnell Peninsula and a failure to manage the site with the respect it deserves, particularly at the state level. The time has come to truly respect and rehabilitate our nation’s birthplace at Kurnell.

Australia is a prosperous country. Our prosperity has produced significant dividends—in particular, jobs for millions of Australians. The reason we have working families in Australia is that they have jobs. They have jobs today because of the strong economic management of the Howard government, which provided an environment for business to grow and prosper. After 11½ years of the Howard government the Australian economy is the strongest it has ever been—no ifs, no buts. I would like to honour today the member for Higgins, the Hon. Peter Costello, for his leadership of our economy over this time. He is our finest Treasurer ever and that position is in no present threat.

Yet the storm clouds are gathering. We must cast our eyes forward and embrace a new round of economic reforms. Of particular significance is the need to reform our federation. However, we must proceed carefully. The realignment of our federation, particularly in priority areas such as water, taxation and infrastructure, must be about delivering a better system of governance for our population and our economy. It should not be done to cover for the inability of state governments to do their jobs, especially in health and education. There is a remedy to the incompetence of state governments that requires no constitutional change—vote them out, especially in New South Wales. We must also give attention to local government and give them a direct voice in how our nation is governed. They should be given a clear and mandated role in service delivery and the means to do their job. Commonwealth, state and local government should operate like a three-legged stool, each supporting the other. At present it is more like a three-legged dog.

We are a prosperous people, but this prosperity is not solely for our own benefit; it comes with a responsibility to invest back into our communities. Our communities are held together by the selfless service of volunteers. We must work to value their service and encourage more of our community to join the volunteer ranks and assist local organisations engage and retain today’s volunteers, particularly from younger generations. We must also appreciate that our not-for-profit sector has the potential to play a far greater role in the delivery of community services than is currently recognised. As global citizens, we must also recognise that our freedom will always be diminished by the denial of those same freedoms elsewhere, whether in Australia or overseas.

Social entrepreneurs such as David Bussau, our Senior Australian of the Year, have shown the way forward. Our attention in this area cannot be limited only to areas of strategic self-interest. It must be pursued as the responsibility of our common humanity. In Africa, 6,500 people die every day from preventable and treatable diseases. Over just six weeks that is more than the 250,000 people estimated to have tragically died following the tsunami tragedy that evoked such a compassionate and generous response from Australians—and I commend them for that. Africa, though, is a humanitarian tragedy on an unimaginable scale. It is a true moral crisis that eclipses all others. The African tragedy is driven by war, poverty, disease, famine, corruption, injustice and an evil that is robbing generations of Africans, our fellow human beings, of their future. Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, said:

There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames.

... when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for ... what we did—or did not do to put the fire out ...

We must engage as individuals and communities to confront these issues—not just as governments. We have all heard the call to make poverty history. Let us do this by first making poverty our own personal business.

The Howard government increased annual spending on foreign aid to $3.2 billion. The new government has committed to continue to increase this investment and I commend it for doing so. However, we still must go further. If we doubt the need, let us note that in 2007 the total world budget for global aid accounted for only one-third of basic global needs in areas such as education, general health, HIV-AIDS, water treatment and sanitation. This leaves a sizeable gap. The need is not diminishing, nor can our support. It is the Australian thing to do.

In conclusion, it says in the Book of Joel, ‘Your old men will dream dreams; your young men will see visions.’ Let us have in this place a vision of young men and women that realises the dreams of generations past—the dreaming of Dharawal elders of ancient times, the dreams of Cook and his era of discovery and enlightenment and the dreams of my grandparents’ generation, who fought wars, survived the Great Depression and gave birth to our great Liberal Party with the dream of a brighter day for those who came after them. May God bless and guide us all in this place as we serve those who have had the good grace to send us here on their behalf.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the member for Brand, I remind the House that this is the honourable member’s first speech. I therefore ask that the usual courtesies be extended to him.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land. I honour the prior occupation of our continent by Indigenous peoples before the great European migrations. I am of part of those migrations. In June 1966, Mum and Dad packed our bags and a trunk and, along with my brother, David, and sister, Carol, we sailed from Southampton, England, on the ship Fairsea. I was eight years old. Our destination was Adelaide. We were a family of £10 Poms, part of the migration that filled the steel mills, the manufacturing plants and factories of Kwinana, Newcastle, the Illawarra, Geelong, Adelaide and the Iron Triangle of South Australia. Although that was more than 40 years ago, the smell of diesel fumes still makes me feel seasick. The voyage took us first to Western Australia, where we spent the day visiting the city that many years later became my home town. Then we sailed to Adelaide, disembarked, boarded a bus and travelled north for 400 kilometres to Whyalla. We stayed in a migrant hostel before settling into our state housing commission house, this would be our home for the next 13 years. My dad, Gordon, worked at BHP’s Whyalla steel mill.

In 1976, I graduated from Whyalla High, having been taught along the way by wonderful teachers such as Ken Harrington, Dale Dodderidge and Bruce Wilton. They taught me well and they taught me much. Today when I meet teachers, principals or education specialists I think of the teachers who gave me the tools to shape my views. Teaching is a vital and invaluable profession. I will not forget the work of my teachers, their educating, their mentoring and their generosity. In this place, I acknowledge them all.

Throughout the 2007 election the government promised an education revolution—a revolution that will end the technology gap, the digital divide. That is why the government will put computers in schools for all year 9 to 12 students. I am committed to using my time in this place to do what I can to strengthen our schools and support our school children and teachers.

The education plans of our new government are vital to future generations of Australians. It is important that we invest in education. The future of our nation depends upon it. We all know education is not just what we learn at school. From my teachers I got the educational foundation for building a career. From my parents and my friends I learned the principles that underpin the two forces in my life: Labor politics and love. I learned my first lessons in politics from dad. He has an uncomplicated approach to life and a simple view of fairness. From my mum, Olive, I learned about love—love without complexity or condition. From mum I also learned about family.

First, let me speak of Labor politics. I joined the Australian Labor Party in 1974 at the age of 16 and met a wonderful influence in my life, Laurie Wallis, a former boilermaker who was elected to this parliament in 1969 and retired in 1983. As I studied for my degree in economics at the Australian National University here in Canberra, Laurie would invite me up to parliament to watch the theatre of politics. After graduating in the early 1980s, I travelled to the Northern Territory. I taught a little and did a few odd jobs that took me around the Territory. Eventually, I got a job with the late Bob Collins. In Darwin, generous people gathered me in and helped me to understand their world. I will always remember Barbara James, the Gerritsen family, Dawn Lawrie and of course Bob.

In the Northern Territory I met people who were deeply committed to building pathways out of poverty for Aboriginal people. We were also focused on getting Aboriginal people into parliament, a cause which is no less important today. Politics may be a difficult life choice but, at its best, it helps form enduring experiences and strong friendships. A cynic may believe politics is about acquaintances, alliances and transient friendships. I have never thought that was true. In any event, it makes us what we are and it makes me what I am. Politics brought me back to Canberra in 1986 to work in the national office of the Australian Labor Party, where I was fortunate to meet Robert Ray. Robert taught me the importance of courage and that principle and politics are comfortable bedfellows. He was a real mentor. From Bob Hogg and Bob McMullan, who were great national secretaries of the Australian Labor Party, I learned about patience, carefulness of thought and generosity of spirit. I also learned a vital lesson for politicians: we should never get too far ahead or, indeed, too full of ourselves.

My mission as I followed them as the Labor Party’s national secretary was to continue the work they had begun: to build the ALP as a truly national organisation. From all these people I learned, and will forever strive to master, the greatest lesson: always seek to learn from others.

I will speak now of love. I met my wife, Deborah, when she worked for the Australian Labor Party in Western Australia. Deborah is now my closest friend. She is the person on whom I rely, the strength that holds our family together, the one to whom I turn as we set the principles of life for our three young sons. At almost 50, I find my beautiful, bright and wonderful boys, Riley, Darcy and Toby, are a constant source of pride, joy, love and fun. I stand before you as a new member of parliament but I am first and always the father of my boys and husband to my wife. My family will always come first, and I thank Mum for this lesson.

Just as a strong economy is the essence of a strong nation, loving families and sustaining relationships are the essence of a strong community. From a young age it was clear to me that principles are the central value of politics, that the language of democracy is discourse and debate and that the most important element of all is compromise. Without compromise we lose cohesion and risk progress. Life in politics has taught me the importance of liberal democracy, of a strong economy and of the central importance of social cohesion.

In winning the seat of Brand for the Australian Labor Party, I acknowledge and pay tribute to Kim Beazley for his contribution to my local community and to Australian public life. Kim was not just a politician. He is a statesman. He is our former leader and Deputy Prime Minister. He epitomises the notion of public service, giving a great part of his life to the party, to politics, to parliament and to the Australian people. I am honoured to continue in his footsteps as Labor’s representative in this place for the people of Brand.

In acknowledging the privilege that I have been given, it is impossible not to recognise the support and help I have received and continue to receive from my family—Deborah, Riley, Darcy and Toby—and also from Rosalie and Peter Walsh and the broader Walsh families, who are, by nature, much more forgiving than the former senator. Many of us are lucky enough to have friends who have become family. Thank you, Lois Anderson.

I acknowledge and thank friends and local ALP branch members Rob Millhouse, Joy Stewart, Barry and Jerroldine Gilbert, Kath Gallop, John and Peg Cotter, Esther Grogan, Margaret and Max Duff, Sandra Lee, Coral Richards, Peter Kane, Andy and Margaret Mitchell, Brendan McShanag, Gus Riggs, Kelly Harman, Guy Morgan, Ray Thomson, Aleta Johnston, Natalie Machin, Terry Healy, Briony Sefton, Ron Hassell, Lee and Rita Gunn, Senator Glenn Sterle and, of course, my campaign manager, Renay Sheehan. I also thank Renay’s husband, Aaron, for his tolerance and generosity and Chloe, their daughter, for her sacrifices.

None of us in this place can win election campaign without the help of many people. I thank all of our branch members. I thank my local MPs, David Templeman, Mark McGowan and, especially, Paul Papalia. All of these people deserve the credit for my being here. I trust I will do them justice.

The electorate of Brand covers about 430 square kilometres along the Western Australian coast from south of Perth to Peel Inlet. It includes the cities of Kwinana, Rockingham and Mandurah. These are significant centres and major sources of industrial activity, housing and employment. Fleet Base West at Garden Island is also strategically central to the nation’s defence capability. In 2008, the electorate of Brand will generate about $20 billion towards the Australian economy. The Kwinana industrial area will contribute most of that amount.

For our economic and strategic capabilities, Brand is one of the most important electorates in Australia. It is where increasing numbers of people come to live, to work, to raise families and to retire. It is where young people find that the Kwinana industrial area can provide the trades and skills which are tickets to the world. It is where we build ships, generate energy, smelt metals, make fertiliser, liquefy gases, produce agricultural products, process chemicals, export grain, build houses and even turn seawater into drinking water. It is where industry and environmental protection go hand in hand. It is where we have made industry good for people because it creates wealth and it creates jobs, and work creates dignity and pride for people and their communities. It is also good because profitable industry can afford the highest environmental standards; indeed, it is a virtuous cycle.

In keeping with this theme, Kwinana is where the success of one industry depends on the success of its neighbours. Kwinana is one place in Australia where we lead the world, trading in and reusing the by-products of industry for greater energy efficiency, water conservation and lower emissions to the soil, air and water. Kwinana industries share more than 120 synergies, a great example of which is the sequestration of 70,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which is now mixed with mining residue to lower its alkalinity so that the residue can grow trees. It is where we keep our industry clean, productive and protected by a green buffer zone.

Such interdependence is unique and a credit to those who own, manage and work in businesses in Kwinana and Rockingham. These industries directly and indirectly pay the wages of 26,000 Australians every year. Innovative industry sits comfortably with modern and effective trade unions. Professional and flexible workplaces are supported by insightful unions. Increasingly I see growing confidence between employers and organised labour, a confidence which I hope continues.

Australia has many rapidly growing coastal regions and growth corridors like Kwinana, Rockingham and Mandurah which need federal support, particularly as we experience unprecedented demographic change. By way of example, in the Rockingham, Kwinana and Mandurah areas, industry expects that about half of their current skilled workers will retire in the next 15 years. Only six per cent of their workforce today is under the age of 24. Western Australia’s industry is reporting the imminent retirement of a large cohort of skilled workers. It also reports great difficulty in recruiting trainees, trades professionals, plant operators and project managers, safety personnel, accounts clerks and receptionists. Unless we, as a nation, respond to our skills crisis, we risk the sustainability of economic growth. This is not special pleading for my electorate. Western Australia and the nation need to deal with this dynamic. Kwinana and Rockingham are where we take the lead in educating our children and creating the pathways to industry, jobs and the future.

Providing the best skilled workforce makes our economy resilient. It makes communities strong and gives opportunity to thousands of future Australians. It is why we need a coherent and sustainable training plan. Kwinana and Rockingham have every ingredient we need to create the best model for training workers. It is one of the nation’s largest industrial areas; it is crying out for people. It has 18 secondary schools. It has technical and further education institutions and university campuses. The massive industries and growing communities of Rockingham and Kwinana are where Labor’s plan for skilling Australia will come to life.

Of all the democratic nation-states created in the 20th century, none has been as successful as Australia. We have created the most effective democracy and a strong economy. But democratic processes are always a work in progress. We have done some things well. The secret ballot, for example, is a unique Australian creation. We have led innovation in parliamentary processes, yet it took 60 years to extend the franchise to Aboriginal people and a further seven years to include them in the census. Our robust institutions, strong public sector and sense of nationhood have helped generations to build a wealthy, capable country. Along the way we have allowed differences of opinion to surface and be discussed and yet we are still able to get along. This is an endearing and enduring legacy to all of those who perform public service for this country. But it is also our duty to support the emerging fragile democracies in our region. We have not been good at exporting our model nor at engaging hearts and minds in the seeding of democratic institutions. When we look to Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, the Solomons and Fiji we see the need for these nations to build a robust democracy. But it is not easy, and emerging nations such as Timor demonstrate the need for a strong economy when building a strong democracy. My friend President Jose Ramos-Horta is a great man—honourable, hard-working and true to his task. As he lies in a hospital bed in Darwin, wounded by a bullet from a rebel’s gun, we have cause to pause. The struggle to build a strong and sustainable democracy must be theirs, but their struggle to build a sustainable and resilient economy is also ours. Without a strong economy, democracy will not survive. Without a strong economy, there is no capacity to protect the environment, to create civil order or to protect property rights. It is clear to me that we must work to build sustainable economies, capable governments and jobs in our region. Democracy will thrive amid affluence, as it does in Australia.

In this context we cannot usefully discuss sharing the fruits of economic growth unless we have first created wealth and sustained its creation. Getting the economy right is at the very heart of nation building and at the heart of our national interest. A robust and sustainable economy allows for a surplus to be distributed to those in need. I believe that for a liberal democracy to survive it must be underpinned by a strong economy and continually improving living standards. By continually improving the productivity of our economy we create economic wealth to support our greatest purpose: the sharing of its benefits. These benefits include better education, shelter for everyone, environmental protection and better opportunities for the poor, the dispossessed, the disadvantaged and the homeless. A healthy economy allows us to best respond to present and future challenges and is central to our success as a nation. Indeed, a strong economy is in my view the central pillar in our mission to define and determine our national interest and to give life and meaning to the values of Australians.

As I begin my term as the member for Brand I commit myself to unwavering support for the human, physical and financial infrastructure which allows our economy to grow. By definition, this involves consideration of our national interest and our national values. This is my aspiration and I accept it will draw criticism from time to time. Indeed, Australians enjoy criticising their politicians. That is how it is. It is part of the discourse and debate of a vibrant democracy. It is also something I welcome. It nurtures my desire to learn from others in my quest to do what is best and what is right for our nation. This is what I have learned from the influential people in my life. I hope I can make proud the people who put me here. I hope I can always do what is best and right for our nation.

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I add my congratulations to the new member for Brand, somebody who comes into this place with a very big reputation. I have not had the opportunity of meeting him yet, but he is very well regarded in the business community in Western Australia and I wish him luck in representing the point of view of that community within the new government. If I might just make an aside: the new member for Cowan was due to give his maiden speech at this time. For anyone who is waiting for him to speak, he has been detained and will be speaking at about 1.15 pm. I am very much looking forward to hearing his contribution.

I now want to take the opportunity, in giving my speech in the address-in-reply debate, to talk about the thing that is dearest to me: my electorate. I begin by saying that I am very pleased to be here, still representing the electors of Stirling. I had a very hard fought campaign in Stirling. I think it was equally difficult with, if not more difficult than, the campaign I had in 2004 to win the seat from the former member, Jann McFarlane. I want to take this opportunity to thank some of the people who were responsible for making sure that we won that seat and who helped me to be returned to this place.

Firstly, there is my campaign chairman, John Franklyn. He has been my campaign chairman for the past four years. He came to the role without any particular political experience. He learnt the job extraordinarily quickly. He worked on it practically full time for the six months in the lead-up to the election. I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. He is somebody who has my deep and abiding respect and I look forward to working with him over the next three years to make sure that we also secure this marginal seat in 2010.

Fay Duda is somebody who has worked for me on previous occasions and continues to play an enormous role in my campaign, particularly as finance chairman. She is a very good friend of mine. I appreciate the enormous efforts that she put in, on behalf of the Stirling campaign, in the lead-up to the election. I want to place on record my enduring gratitude for everything she did.

And then there is the rest of my campaign team. My treasurer, Doug Dougall, is an excellent man who did his job. He has a very quiet manner. He did his job with very little fanfare but extraordinarily efficiently. I thank him for all the effort that he put in. It would not be right if I finished without mentioning my mother and father, who were an essential part of my campaign team. I again thank them for all of their efforts. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of my sisters, Jennifer and Catherine, who are not part of the natural Liberal constituency but nonetheless put aside their own political preferences and helped me throughout the campaign. Very importantly, I would like to acknowledge my partner, Georgina Bower. As well as working tirelessly on the campaign, she put up with a rather irrational and difficult person at home on various occasions during that campaign.

I will now come to my office. My electorate staff is led by Liz Behjat. She has just been preselected in a winnable position to go into the upper house of the Western Australian parliament, which I am very pleased about. She worked incredibly hard. She is an amazing on-the-ground campaigner. She worked with my other electorate officers—Erin McGrath, Sylvia Norton and Amy Yelash, as well as Stephanie Power and occasionally Katie Brooks. They worked incredibly hard. I thank them very sincerely for all of their efforts and I am looking forward to working with them over the next three years.

I had very good support from some Young Liberals in Western Australia. I want to quickly acknowledge Dan Hyde, John Pawley, Matt Dawson, Lauren Gregan, Caiden Gray and Michael Storozhev. They were the ones who came with me to the shopping centres. We really campaigned for the whole of 2007. They often came with their hangovers but they were there nonetheless and they worked extremely hard, and I thank them for that. The Stirling division again really put in a fantastic effort for me. I particularly acknowledge Ann Johnson, Marie Grout and Mal and Glenyse Holmes, who are at this time actually getting a tour of this House. I am very pleased that they have been able to come over for the start of this new parliament. I would also like to acknowledge my patron, Senator Christopher Ellison, who is an extraordinarily good mentor and did a lot to help me succeed in 2007.

The campaign was extraordinarily hard fought, as I have said, and I think it is only right and proper that I acknowledge my opponent on this occasion. I actually saw him in the House yesterday. His name is Peter Tinley. He worked very hard and he ran a very good campaign. I would like to place on record that we had an enormous duel and that he came very close to wresting the seat from me. We were able to hold it in the end through our very hard work over the three years, but I would like to acknowledge that he ran a fair and very good campaign and he was a very formidable candidate.

I am very keen to concentrate in my speech in the address-in-reply debate on the promises that were made to my electorate, both by me and by the Labor Party, during the campaign. Part of the Labor Party strategy in Stirling was to match any promise that we made. So, as far as I am concerned, the new government have committed themselves to honour every promise that the Liberal Party made to the electors of Stirling in 2007 and I will be holding them to account for the promises they made in matching the commitments that the Liberal Party had given. Those promises were not always on the record. I cannot necessarily produce written evidence that the Labor Party promised them but certainly every time we announced a policy they were on the phone saying that they would match it, and I would certainly be able to provide evidence from some of the community groups in my electorate to say that is what was occurring. That is fair enough, and I do not have a problem with it, but I do very much expect the new Rudd government to fulfil those commitments.

Since becoming the member for Stirling in 2004, I have been very privileged to work with the community to secure important projects, such as vital infrastructure for schools, incentives for small business and money to upgrade some of the more dangerous roads and black spots that affect my community. I am determined in this term to continue that work. As I said, we made promises on all of those particular issues and I expect the new government to fulfil them. I would like to go through some of those promises. These promises include the promises that we made to the electorate and the promises that Labor also made, and I think it is reasonable to expect that, now that the Labor Party has won the election, they will fulfil the commitments that they made to Stirling residents.

Crime is probably the No. 1 concern of Stirling residents. I know that from talking to people. You only have to go out on any Saturday morning to a shopping centre to feel the sense of frustration that people feel about what they see as uncontrolled crime rates. The reality is that it is very difficult to get a clear picture of where crime is at in my electorate because the state government are not up-front in the way that they publish crime statistics. Sadly, they are more interested in protecting their own backs than in providing serious information about the state of crime in Stirling. There is absolutely no doubt that it is extraordinarily difficult to get a police response when you require one. The police do an extraordinarily good job. They work very hard, but they are underresourced. Officers are leaving the force at a far greater rate than the Labor government can recruit other officers. That is a serious problem. At any given time in Stirling, which falls within the west metropolitan police district, the police are about 20 per cent undermanned. That makes it virtually impossible for these hardworking police officers to do their job.

One way that we can alleviate some of the pressure on the police is by enhancing the services that the City of Stirling provides for community safety. The City of Stirling is the only local government area within my federal seat of Stirling. It already has a very effective community safety patrol, with four cars and a number of officers, and we promised to enhance that service to the tune of $1.6 million. This was part of a seven-point plan that we had for the electorate, and we wanted the council to use that money to deploy extra patrols and make the local community safer.

Funnily enough, after we made this commitment, Labor announced the $1.6 million Safer Suburbs Plan—that is the same amount of money and the same plan but with a slightly different name. The Safer Suburbs Plan includes personal alarms for residents and four extra security officers for patrols to be done by the City of Stirling 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I would like to know when this $1.6 million Safer Suburbs Plan will be funded. I want those four extra security officers patrolling our local streets as soon as possible. They will be welcomed by my local community.

It is everybody’s right to feel safe and secure in their own homes. Fear of crime has become a cancer throughout the suburbs that I represent. I have collected thousands of signatures as part of an ongoing crime petition, and I coordinated crime forums across the electorate where concerned residents were able to talk to local police and safety patrol officers about personal and home security. I was very privileged that the then Minister for Justice and Customs attended a number of those forums, as did Senator Chris Ellison.

The previous Liberal government was tough on crime. The federal government is not traditionally the primary responder to this issue, but there is a huge gap in the state government’s provisioning of this service. I understand it is like that in other parts of Australia, and I can certainly confirm it in Western Australia. We tried to address this issue through the National Community Crime Prevention Program, in conjunction with the City of Stirling and my local police and local action groups. We were able to fund closed-circuit television cameras at some known hotspots within Stirling: particularly the Carine Skate Park in Mirrabooka and the Nollamara Shopping Centre. I would urge the new government to continue that program because it is a very worthwhile program that is making a difference to what is a very serious problem.

Probably the second major issue that was raised with me through my first term as the member for Stirling was road safety and the condition of local roads. I worked very hard to get the former government to fund an overpass for a highway called Reid Highway, which runs through my electorate. The original plan for it would have been that it would have operated as a normal highway, across overpasses where it intersected with other major roads. But at the time the highway was built, as a temporary measure—and, I assume, to save funds—they instead stopped the highway at various intersections and put traffic lights there. That creates an extraordinarily dangerous situation at two particular trouble spots in my electorate. I have been working very hard to address those issues and to secure funding for those two overpasses. If they had been built at the time the highway was built, they would have cost about $2 million each. The cost continues to rise every time we look at it. The latest estimates that we have had is that it would probably cost about $25 million for each of those overpasses, and the longer we delay it, the more expensive they will get, but they are vitally important. People are literally being injured and dying there on a regular basis, so it needs to be addressed.

I secured a $20 million commitment from the previous government to fund these overpasses. I had the privilege of taking the former Prime Minister out there during the election campaign. I secured $20 million to build these overpasses where Reid Highway intersects with Mirrabooka Avenue and Alexander Drive. Federal Labor also promised unconditional funding through the AusLink II program for the Alexander Drive overpass and, in what could only be described as classic weasel words, said that they would consider building the overpass at Mirrabooka Avenue also. The Labor government in Western Australia refused to accept the funding from the Howard government but was pleased to accept the funding commitment from federal Labor. Such is the state of the Labor government in Western Australia that, during that election campaign, it completely ignored the interests of the people of Western Australia in order to campaign on behalf of its federal Labor colleagues, which I think is shameful. Regardless, this commitment has been made and it needs to be fulfilled. Road safety is not something that should be trivialised in the context of an election campaign, and these projects are extraordinarily important for local families. I have been overwhelmed by the support that our commitment to build these overpasses has generated, and I expect the Rudd government to fulfil its commitments on both of these projects.

The Rudd government also promised a number of other things. Time is rather short, so I will go through them rather quickly. The then Leader of the Opposition and now Prime Minister came out and kicked soccer balls around with some young soccer players at Macedonia Park, home of the Stirling Lions Soccer Club. He said that he would upgrade the facilities at that club to the tune of $1 million. That was a commitment made by the Prime Minister and I do not doubt that he will fulfil it; it was a personal commitment from him. I would like to see that happen sooner rather than later. The club makes a very big contribution in my electorate. It formerly catered specifically to the Macedonian community. As is the case with a lot of these soccer clubs, it now caters to the much broader community. That is a very worthwhile project and I will be making sure that the new government delivers it.

We committed $464,000 to upgrade the women’s change rooms at a number of reserves in Stirling. Labor matched that funding, and I expect them to deliver on that promise. We promised important upgrades at the Butler’s Reserve in Scarborough and the Grindleford Reserve in Balcatta, home to the Balcatta Soccer Club, of which I am privileged to be the No. 1 ticket holder. These facilities will be able to encourage women into sport. I expect the government to deliver on that promise also.

A number of sporting facilities were promised funding during the campaign. Carine Senior High School is an excellent facility—a very good high school—in Stirling and one of which I am particularly proud. We promised that we would join with the state government or another funding partner to provide $82,500 to upgrade their tennis and netball courts. I would like to see the new government consider this. I do not have it on the record that they did equal that funding promise, but I will certainly be asking them to consider that request.

Every school in my electorate has already been severely disadvantaged by the axing of the Investing in Our Schools Program. This was one of the first actions of the new Rudd government—an extraordinary decision considering that Mr Rudd made education such a core part of the Labor Party’s platform. The money from the program went directly to building infrastructure in my local schools, and I am astonished that they would be targeted for savings. Labor promised $10,000 for rainwater tanks at both the Trigg Island and Scarborough surf lifesaving clubs. They are vital community institutions in Stirling. As patron of Scarborough and as vice-patron of Trigg Island, I am very keen to progress this initiative and get these rainwater tanks installed as soon as possible.

Labor also made a commitment to provide $300,000 on an annual basis to the Stirling business enterprise centre. That is a project that was built by the former government. We provided almost $1 million for that project to go ahead. It is a wonderful business incubator in Stirling. It contains about 32 fledgling businesses, and it is always full. They have an opportunity to be mentored by people who are in residence there. They get cheap rent. They are expected to use it for a year and then be in a position where their business is viable enough to go out into the community and get premises at commercial rates. It really is a wonderful incubator for small businesses. I know a number of businesses that have graduated from there and have gone on to greater things—$300,000 per annum, I will be making the government accountable for not providing that money.

Labor also committed $1 million for a multicultural centre in Stirling. Stirling is extraordinarily diverse. All of the major ethnic groups that are represented in other parts of Australia are represented in Stirling. It is an absolute microcosm of a multicultural Australia. We have communities that have come from all over the world, and now we have new arrivals from Africa. This money was promised to provide outreach in education for new migrants. It is vitally needed, and I expect the Rudd government to live up to that promise.

Time is very short. I was born and raised in Stirling. It is one of the best places in Australia to live, work and raise a family, and an enormous sense of community exists there. I want to know that people in my community can get the best possible future for their families and for themselves. Keeping our local economy strong, lowering the rates of crime and antisocial behaviour and educating our young students will be my priorities in my second term as member for Stirling. (Time expired)

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the member for Fremantle, I remind the House that this is the honourable member’s first speech. I ask the House to extend to her the usual courtesies.

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Ngunnawal people, and the traditional owners of the land in Fremantle, the Nyungar people, and I pay my respects to their elders past and present.

In life we tend to remember moments rather than hours or days or years. I will surely remember this one, as I also remember the moment when I learned that my friend Jean-Selim Kanaan, one of the UN’s best and brightest, with whom I had worked in Kosovo, was killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad on 19 August 2003. The year before he was killed, Jean-Selim published a book called Ma Guerre a l’Indifference , ‘My War Against Indifference’. I dedicate this first speech to Jean-Selim and to all the others who have served in the cause of peace and in the war against indifference.

Politics is a war against indifference. Like many people who have sought or who seek to make a public service contribution through politics, I cannot be indifferent to the millions of Australians who have been left behind during the resources boom and who struggle with rising costs of living while their incomes remain static, or who cannot gain access to housing or health services when needed. I cannot be indifferent to the massive underinvestment in public education, skills training and infrastructure that has occurred in the past decade, or to the trebling of the HECS debt in that period. And I cannot be indifferent to the homeless, or to those suffering mental illness, or living with disability, or to the one billion of our fellow human beings who live in extreme poverty. Politics is also about service. It is about the service we give to those ideals that inform our present conduct and that shape our vision of the future. It is about the service we give to the people who have chosen us to represent them and the service we give to all Australians through our contribution to the work of this national parliament.

As a new member I am deeply humbled to have been elected by the people of Fremantle to be their 10th representative in this place since Federation. And I am at their service. Fremantle was named after Captain Charles Fremantle, a man of somewhat dubious reputation and doubtful seafaring skills, who nonetheless had the foresight to declare Fremantle ‘a place of consequence’. Fremantle might properly be regarded as Australia’s Ellis Island—the first landing place for migrants arriving by sea. Today it is a hardworking, multicultural community made up of men, women and children who are Australian by birth and Australian by choice. Based around a major working port, whose efficiency owes much to the Maritime Union of Australia, Fremantle has developed a unique charm and character, being home to what many regard as the best-preserved 19th century cityscape in Australia, the busiest regional airport in the Southern Hemisphere, at Jandakot, one of the fastest growing local council areas in the country, at Cockburn, and the greatest football team in Australia, the Freo Dockers. Fremantle also supports a precious natural and Indigenous heritage—for example, the Bibra Lake and Beeliar Wetlands—as well as a rich cultural, artistic and intellectual tradition through its many artists, writers, musicians, students and academics.

I am happy to say that indifference is anathema to the people of Fremantle. They are engaged, politically conscious and have strong and ‘sometimes bolshie’ views, as Carmen Lawrence noted approvingly in her valedictory speech. They also have high expectations—not surprisingly for an electorate which has been represented since World War II by four outstanding Labor members: Australia’s great wartime and nation-building Prime Minister, John Curtin; Kim Beazley Sr, who, as acknowledged in a condolence motion this week, made critical contributions to education policy and the quest for justice for Indigenous Australians while serving as the member for Fremantle for 32 years and as a cabinet minister in the Whitlam government; John Dawkins, a cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating governments during a period of tremendous economic reform; and Carmen Lawrence, the first woman Premier in Australia, a health minister in the Keating government and the first popularly-elected National President of the Australian Labor Party. I honour the very significant contributions of my predecessors in the seat of Fremantle, and I want to take this opportunity to thank Carmen Lawrence for the support and wise counsel she has given me over the last year and pay special tribute to her extraordinary contribution to state and federal politics. Carmen used her peerless intelligence, compassion and strength to promote the cause of women in public life, to protect the environment and support the arts, and to assist vulnerable members of our society, such as people with disabilities, carers, seniors, Indigenous communities and refugees. I know that she continues that work today.

I also want to thank my family for their love and support, especially my parents, George and Lorraine; my sister, Georgina, and her husband, Chris; my brothers, Aaron and Justin; and my grandparents, Henry and Beryl Burge and Jean and Jesse Pat Parke. I never knew my Grandfather Parke, who, like many veterans, continued to suffer the effects of war after returning home; and he died when my father was only a teenager. I would like to thank my dear friends, some of whom are here today and some very far away. I also thank the Western Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party and my federal and state colleagues, with special thanks to Jim McGinty and Alannah MacTiernan. I thank the hundreds of local members and other volunteers who worked incredibly hard on my campaign under the guidance of my wonderful campaign team. Finally, I want to acknowledge with gratitude the support of EMILY’s List.

I note the Labor Party’s success in selecting and promoting women as parliamentary representatives. Women make up approximately 35 per cent of the Labor parliamentarians in this new parliament, and women constitute 36.5 per cent of all state, federal and territory Labor parliamentarians. This is compared with 23 per cent and 13 per cent for the Liberal and National parties respectively. To those who say there is no great value in proactively addressing the representative imbalance, I say: look at those numbers.

Like many of my predecessors, I come to the task and the honour of representing the people of Fremantle as a relative newcomer to Fremantle. I am like many Australians who trace their personal and professional development, their sense of identity, through many places, here and abroad. I am, at the outset, from my family’s orchard farm near Donnybrook in country Western Australia. My great-grandfather, John Stanley Parke, and his son George were the first people to export Granny Smith apples to the world, and they did so in 1922 through the port of Fremantle. My family were unusual among farmers for being Labor supporters, and they instilled in me a passion for social justice, for the environment and for the welfare of animals.

I grew up and was educated at public schools in the beautiful south-west of WA, where I later returned to work as the solicitor-in-charge at the Bunbury Community Legal Centre. It was while acting on behalf of the legal centre’s clients that I learned the value of strong local representation and advocacy. As Margaret Mead observed:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

I am from Kosovo and Gaza and Beirut and New York. These are the places where I worked for the United Nations in a number of roles: peacekeeping and reconstruction in Kosovo and humanitarian affairs in Gaza. In New York I helped establish the UN Ethics Office, and in Lebanon I was part of the UN commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was killed exactly three years ago today. I am, like many Australians, from many places. But I have come home to Fremantle. I hope that my capacity to act as an effective parliamentary representative has been enriched by my experiences in both Australia and abroad.

I began this first speech talking about the war against indifference. I now want to set out three of the most important areas in which I intend to wage that struggle. The first is Australia’s place in the world. We are living at a time when everything is more connected than ever before, and we are surrounded by change and uncertainty. Advances in information technology, increased levels of migration and displacement, and the integration of nation states into free trade and single-currency collectives are, variously, key trends of 21st century globalisation. It is imperative that Australia transform its education and training systems, communications and transport infrastructure to ensure that we can participate fully and to the highest level in the global economy.

The Rudd Labor government’s commitment to an education revolution, with its strategic emphasis on maths, science and technology—as well as its program to significantly upgrade Australia’s broadband infrastructure and foster innovation—will assist in this transformation. While our connection to the world brings us unprecedented opportunities for international trade, travel and communications, it also presents us with an altered risk and security environment. Scientists and economists have warned about the impending catastrophic impact on the natural and human environment of climate change. Even the head of the Australian Federal Police has declared climate change to be the greatest security threat of this century.

With regard to global terrorism, there can be no justification for the pursuit of political objectives through an accumulation of shattered bodies and destroyed lives; yet our response to such acts of violence must be resolutely long term and proactive, rather than last-minute and reactive. As noted by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, you cannot fight a war on terror without also fighting a war on disadvantage, discrimination and despair. Security, development and human rights are inextricably linked. Tackling poverty in our region through the Millennium Development Goals is part of a wider strategy to deal with terrorism, climate change, pandemics and refugees. The tragic and profoundly anti-democratic events in East Timor this week highlight the importance of supporting our neighbours in their struggle to uphold democracy, stability and the rule of law. In my view it is crucial that the global community returns to a law based system of international engagement and action. We know the consequences of abandoning that approach. They include the war in Iraq, the use of torture and Guantanamo prison. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an instrument with a bipartisan legacy that goes back to Australia’s critical role—when ‘Doc’ Herbert Evatt was President of the UN General Assembly—in drafting the declaration. I would respectfully submit that one of the pressing tasks for this new parliament as a whole—as we remember that anniversary—is to rescue Doc Evatt’s legacy.

I would like to relate, at this point, a recent experience. In July 2006 I was working in Beirut when the war started between Israel and Hezbollah. Three days earlier, the main concern for ordinary Lebanese was the World Cup soccer final between France and Italy. Suddenly, to their immense bewilderment, these life-loving people found themselves in the midst of a war. UN international staff and Lebanese people with a second passport, including many Australians, were evacuated by ship to Cyprus. We enjoyed a warm welcome on board from the Australian Federal Police officers who had volunteered to work on the evacuation, but it was a gut-wrenching experience to be sailing away to safety while our local Lebanese staff stood on the quay and waved. These were just ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances over which they had no control.

My experience overseas has shown me that, but for an accident of time and place of birth, any of us could be facing war or persecution or genocide. Any of us could find ourselves needing a place to go and be safe for a while. I am proud to say that Fremantle has been, and continues to be, such a place. It is now home to people who have come from Africa, often escaping the gravest circumstances. Just as in the past, Fremantle has received migrants from South-East Asia, the United Kingdom and southern Europe. To all these people, Australia represents a new hope and, for many, a new experience—the experience of life without fear. As Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said: ‘The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.’

Australia’s international focus must be on revitalising our engagement with the Asia-Pacific region and on consolidating our important bilateral and regional relationships. I also have a particular interest in seeing Australia once again play a positive role within the United Nations. In light of Australia’s longstanding place as one of the founders and champions of the UN and of multilateralism, it has been distressing to witness the damage to Australia’s international reputation during the past decade as a result of the treatment of asylum seekers, the refusal to ratify the Kyoto protocol, our involvement in the Iraq war, and the Australian Wheat Board scandal. These things also served to distract attention from the excellent work performed by Australian peacekeepers and AFP personnel around the world, as my colleague the new member for Eden-Monaro attested in his first speech yesterday.

I look forward to working with my parliamentary colleagues to ensure that Australia renews its cooperative and constructive participation with other nations in international and regional fora to address global challenges such as climate change, poverty and capacity development, nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, refugees, migration, security and pandemics. And, very importantly, I believe Australia can play a key role in the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

The second area to which I intend to devote special attention is the issue of sustainability. Once upon a time, if you were not an environmentalist, it might have been said that you did not have a heart. Today, if you are still not an environmentalist, it must be said that you do not have a brain. The deadly serious challenge of global warming means that we must now contemplate the limits and conditions of our long-term existence on this planet. We have to acknowledge that the way we have been going is not sustainable. We must make up for a decade of national inaction by taking steps to reduce our dependence on oil, to develop renewable energy sources and energy efficiencies, and to accept that demand management is part of the equation, and we need to protect our biodiversity and our water resources.

You cannot have a strong and sustainable economy without a strong community and a sustainable environment. I am happy to say that strength of community and the pursuit of sustainability are well established in the Fremantle electorate. South Fremantle Senior High School has set out to be the first carbon neutral secondary school in Australia. The Southern Metropolitan Regional Council, which serves the recycling needs of several city councils in the electorate, is an Australian leader in sustainable waste management. Indeed, if the national emissions trading scheme is designed effectively, organisations like the SMRC will be carbon creditors, able to fund the further research and development of their technologies by trading the contributions they make to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

On the seabed off Fremantle there is a company trialling a simple wave-power technology that is designed to generate clean power and produce desalinated water. Inland, the rapidly growing south-eastern part of the electorate is now linked to the city of Perth by a state-of-the-art train service that the Western Australian Gallop-Carpenter government has brought to completion. All the while, there is a range of community groups fighting to protect the Beeliar regional wetlands, to rehabilitate injured native animals, to protect Indigenous heritage, to protest against Japanese whaling and to push for sustainable transport, housing and industry.

Finally, as the sum of my ideals, I believe in the promise of good government. Government can reflect the best in us and it can, by the collective power we vest in it, be a creative and enabling force for positive change. Democracy is not something that only happens every three years on election day; it is a living thing and it must be nourished, tended and maintained through greater openness, access and interaction between government and the wider community. In launching my election campaign last year, Kim Beazley noted that one of the consequences of a change in government would be the reopening of the space for public debate. To that end, I welcome the Prime Minister’s initiatives to hold community cabinet meetings; to depoliticise the Public Service, the boards of statutory bodies and the system of funding grants to research centres and community organisations; to strengthen FOI and bring in federal whistleblower protection legislation; and to restore ministerial accountability.

On other issues of governance, let me say that I will add my voice to the arguments in favour of longer, fixed-term Commonwealth parliaments and greater transparency in disclosure of election donations, in favour of a federal bill of rights, and in favour of a requirement for parliament’s consent before Australian troops are committed to war in the absence of an immediate security threat or a UN Security Council mandate. I say also that I look forward to that special moment, in the not-too-distant future, when Australia will finally have its own head of state.

I began this first speech with a dedication to Jean-Selim Kanaan and his war against indifference. Let me end by acknowledging another inspirational person, Heather Vicenti. Heather is a Fremantle constituent and she travelled from Coolbellup to Canberra this week as my guest, on behalf of the people of Fremantle, to be present for the apology. Heather, who is now 72 years old, was born in the goldfields east of Kalgoorlie, a member of the Wongi people, and she was taken from her mother when she was two years old. She spent most of her childhood at Roelands Church of Christ Mission outside Perth, where she was trained as a domestic servant. During her challenging life she, in turn, had children taken away, and four of her seven adult children died in tragic circumstances, including a son who was shot by prison guards while in custody. Heather has written a book about her life and her experiences as a member of the stolen generations. Its title is Too Many Tears.

As Sir Ronald Wilson said in the Bringing them home report, ‘The process of storytelling was itself the beginning of a healing process.’ It is my hope that the stories of the stolen generations, and of Indigenous dispossession more broadly, will continue to be told and heard together with a celebration of the cultural diversity and richness of Australia’s Indigenous heritage as one of the key strands within the new national curriculum. I know that Heather’s experience, energy and indomitable spirit are a kind of irrepressible magic that will remain a touchstone for me as I join with my fellow parliamentarians in seeking to bridge the unacceptable chasm in quality of life and life expectancy that still exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Finally, while I acknowledge that there is an aspect of our democracy that is necessarily and even usefully adversarial, I also believe there is greater scope for cooperative, consensus politics. We have seen this week what can be achieved when parliamentarians leave aside the us-and-them approach in favour of a joint commitment to the welfare and dignity of our fellow Australians. I hope that my work in this place on behalf of the people of Fremantle can be part of an ongoing cooperative effort towards more such victories in the war against indifference.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the member for Cowan, I remind the House that this is the honourable member’s first speech. I ask the House to extend to him the usual courtesies.

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the commencement of my first speech in this place, I would like to record my thanks to the people of Cowan for their confidence in electing me. I am humbled by their endorsement, and I will not let them down. I am the fourth member for Cowan and also the first MP in some time who does actually live in the electorate. Before proceeding, I would like to acknowledge the service of the previous member for Cowan, the Hon. Graham Edwards, and before him Mr Richard Evans, who was our last member for Cowan.

For many years I have focused strongly on serving the people of Cowan. For enabling me to work for the people and to win the election, I owe a great debt of thanks to my wife, Kelly, and my children, Emily and Rebecca, who are here today. They knew that I had embarked on a mission and that a lot of things needed to be done for the people of Cowan. With my family’s support, I sacrificed much of our family time to pursue that mission. They also know that the future for our family will have its challenges, so I thank them for their ongoing support. I thank my mother, Connaught, who is also here today, for her unconditional support. I know that, should my father have lived to see this day, he would have been very proud.

Although my family gave me time, a lot of very hard work was done by the Liberal Party, by volunteers and friends, some of whom are here today. I would especially like to thank the Liberal Party, which has given me the opportunity to stand in this place, and in particular the state president, Danielle Blain, the state director, Mark Neeham, and his assistant, Zak Kirkup, for all their support. I would also like to place on record my thanks to Colin Edwardes, my campaign chairman. He was always there for me during the tough times. I would also like to thank my dedicated team for Cowan, which included Jonathan Daventry; the Hon. Cheryl Edwardes; Tim Brooks; Kate Taylor; Sherryl Paternoster; Peter and Norma Tyler; Geoff Paddick; and many Young Liberals, including Matt Dawson, whom I thank for being here today; Alex Butterworth; Ryan Blake, who is also here; Heidi Brooks; Douglas Brooks; Matt Blampey; Ange Wills; and my friend Sue McDonald for her efforts in the 2004 campaign. I would like to especially thank Scott Edwardes, who was courageous on election day when he faced up to the aggression and intimidation of employees of the Your Rights at Work movement at Noranda Primary School. That was an interesting morning. In addition, I greatly appreciated the support and guidance provided by the Hon. Julie Bishop MP; Mal Washer MP; Senators Chris Ellison, Mathias Cormann and David Johnston; former Senator Sue Knowles; the Hon. Peter Collier MLC; and the Hon. Ray Halligan MLC. In particular I owe a debt of gratitude to Chris Ellison for his advice and encouragement over the last three years. Chris is a man of great honour and integrity and I respect him for his strength of character. I also thank those members of the former government who were there for me but were not themselves returned, particularly the Hon. John Howard and the Hon. Mal Brough, who did such great work for this country.

During my election campaign, one of the most frequently asked questions of me was: ‘Why do you want to be the member for Cowan?’ The answer is quite simple, really. I have put myself forward because I believe that I can make a positive and dedicated contribution to providing the people of Cowan with better lives. I strongly believe in better community safety, better road safety and greater opportunities for the families in Cowan.

As a resident of Cowan and a father of two young children under the age of 10, I worry about their safety and their futures. I believe that the vast majority of parents in Cowan have those same feelings about their own children. Yet, sadly, there are some places in Cowan where graffiti, hooning and antisocial behaviour are at near epidemic proportions. There are also places where crimes such as drug dealing, burglaries and assaults are far too common. Those crimes particularly impact on children where their families are both victims and, in some cases, perpetrators.

For my own part, I believe that parents or carers who provide their children with examples of crime, drug addiction or illicit drug use clearly demonstrate that they are poor role models. I believe in intervention where necessary and the removal of children where necessary from the threat of these dangers. It is my view that children in these circumstances are better off with a couple where a man and a woman truly appreciate their responsibilities and can provide appropriate examples of behaviour and respect for society.

At the centre of this situation is, arguably, the great scourge of drugs. Unfortunately, the number of police in Western Australia has been in decline for years now. Subsequently, they have a reduced capacity to deal with these critical problems. The situation is made worse by the soft drug laws introduced by the current state government in Western Australia. The incapacity to act, coupled with these weaker laws, leads to toleration. The use of misnomers such as ‘party drugs’, ‘soft drugs’ or ‘recreational drugs’ tends to normalise drug use. In a similar vein, terms such as ‘harm reduction’ and ‘harm minimisation’, I believe, are very dangerous indeed. It is my strong view that the only path is to work towards a life without illicit drugs, an abstinence approach.

We are in good times at the moment, where hard work is being rewarded, and particularly so in the wonderful state of WA. It is a great situation where just about anyone in WA who wants a job and is prepared to work hard can get one. Since the last election, in this place the majority view has become that the economic success of this country is due to luck and international demand for resources. This view of course denies the influence of economic and waterfront reforms that have made this country and particularly Western Australia reliable trading partners of China and other developing countries. My reason for raising this point in this speech is that it has never been my view that a belief in luck or other superstitions adds any value.

I have a background of highly competitive sport and 15 years as an Army officer. From these backgrounds I have come to realise that it is only through hard work that success can be assured. When I was at school we prepared for such events in our rowing calendar as the Head of the River. At school we would train only three times a week for four or five months. I recall being defeated badly through many a rowing season, and yet on the day of the main event we would still have hope for victory. We would of course have a blind disregard for the facts and reality, but we thought that if we wore our lucky socks we could still pull it off on the day. Yet the same result would always occur: if not last—and I know my mother remembers these days—then very nearly last. So I describe my school rowing days as days when we rarely won anything.

Once I left school and began rowing at club, state and—in a brief period—international level, we used to train anywhere from eight to 13 times a week. Within the club competition we were rarely defeated because we used to train harder than anyone else. Based upon these experiences, I have come to realise that in politics, just as in sport, nothing will be all right on the day. We cannot wear our lucky socks or pray for victory when the work has not been done. Often it takes years to achieve goals. I think we know that after the last four years of this campaign. When people talk about a particular set of circumstances and describe comprehensive success as being a result of luck, I say, ‘Look to the past to see how this future has come to pass.’

Along with rowing, the other great defining period of my life has been my 15 years of service in the Army as an officer. From this period I have come to realise that in order to truly achieve one must live every moment to its fullest. It is simply not enough to plan to make it to the end of a challenging activity. One must try to maximise the level of performance, knowledge and experience that you gain from the whole activity. Simply put: one must try to be the best person one can be.

I therefore bring my experiences of failure, struggle and, ultimately, success to assist me to achieve both in this chamber and in my electorate of Cowan. It does, however, remain important for me to say that I stand here with these friends around me not because I was born into my political party; nor did friends introduce me to that political party. I joined the Liberal Party of Australia only after reflection and thought, when I came to see that the philosophies, beliefs and approaches represented by members on this side of the House provided the best ingredients for progress in Australia.

When I talk of progress it is progress for the benefit of the people of Australia and particularly of Cowan—which brings me to the centre of the world: the electorate of Cowan. My mistake: I mean the centre of the civilised world. The electorate of Cowan bears the name of Dame Edith Cowan, who lived between 1861 and 1932. She was the first female member of an Australian parliament and was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly as the member for West Perth between 1921 and 1924. This great lady also holds the distinction of having a university named after her for her service to the community.

The electorate itself comprises 195 square kilometres of the outer northern suburbs of Perth. Economic confidence and the resulting growth in the last decade have seen a substantial increase in the number of houses and businesses in Cowan. Unemployment dropped in the late 1990s and has dropped even more in the last seven years, so there are now many more working families in Cowan as opposed to the high percentage of non-working families before that time. The growth of the Cowan suburbs in terms of both homes and businesses is a testament to the great Western Australian spirit of working hard for a better future.

That spirit is particularly clear when you consider the number of organisations in Cowan that work well for their members, organisations which I have personally had some association with. Firstly, I would like to mention the RSLs and, in particular, Ron Privilege and the members of the Wanneroo-Joondalup RSL sub-branch, who each Anzac Day hold a dawn service, a march and then a very popular district commemoration in Wanneroo. I am particularly pleased to mention them because I too am a member.

I would also make mention of the Ballajura RSL. They maintain a very fine war memorial and peace park adjacent to the Ballajura Community College. Scotty Alcorn and the dedicated members of the sub-branch have found a great place in their local community with the peace park, and I am proud to have helped them get a federal grant of $125,000 a couple of years ago under the Regional Partnerships Program, which at that time did not have bipartisan support in Cowan.

In relation to the veterans community, I would also like to mention the Extremely Disabled Veterans Association of Western Australia, of which I am the patron. They are a dedicated, effective and hardworking association serving the interests of World War II and Korean War veterans. I would particularly like to pay tribute to the long years of work in the association by Sue Plane and Ruth Down. These two ladies know only too well the adversity that life can grant.

Within Cowan there are also two large and vibrant business associations. I am a member of the Malaga and Districts Business Association, which works closely with the City of Swan to serve and advocate for almost 2,000 member businesses—that is a big organisation. The president is my good friend Rod Henderson. Up in Wanneroo, the Wanneroo Business Association works closely with the staff of the City of Wanneroo. Peter Newbound is the president there and I look forward to working closely with the WBA as a member.

I want to make mention of a number of ethnic groups within the electorate of Cowan that have made a positive contribution to the Australian way of life. These groups understand, respect and embrace the institutions and values of our society. They understand that the people of Australia have no issue with race, colour or religion but, rather, regard a person by their actions. They have integrated into this country and have placed their loyalty first and foremost with Australia and its laws, above and beyond all others. Yet they still have an understandable concern for their former homelands, and it is on this point that I wish to concentrate.

Firstly, I would like to mention the people of Vietnamese heritage; they number many thousands in Cowan. They are hardworking people who are strong with a sense of family. I would like to thank Dr Van Phat Nguyen, Mr Tung and Mr Troung for their assistance and support. I know that many Vietnamese who came to Australia as refugees remain concerned about human rights issues in Vietnam.

I would also like to mention the assistance and support of Mr Zoran Coseski of Marangaroo, who is the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Macedonia in Perth. Although born in Australia, Mr Coseski is a great advocate for Macedonia.

I would also like to make mention of the situation in Cyprus, where the island remains divided following the invasion in 1974 by Turkish forces. Land was seized, families separated and many Greeks are still missing. As part of future negotiations, I look forward to Turkey providing compensation or restitution for the land of Greek Cypriots seized during that invasion.

Next, I would like to mention that great and enduring concern of the Jewish people in Cowan—namely, the Middle Eastern peace process and the rightful pursuit of a two-state solution in Palestine. The great problem with the pursuit of lasting peace and harmony is that it is difficult to identify a Palestinian authority willing and able to speak for their side. It appears even more difficult to see a Palestinian authority that would be capable of delivering on negotiations, thereby ensuring a peaceful future.

Before I conclude, I also want to make mention of two very important local issues in Cowan—namely, the school closures in Girrawheen and Greenwood by the state government. In Girrawheen, the state Labor government is closing Blackmore Primary School, against all reason and sense. Despite the vocal and well-justified protests of the parents and local community, ably led by Tory Clerke, it is still going on. Sadly, it appears that the resale value of the Blackmore Primary School site of some $17 million is just too high to be passed up.

Just over in the next suburb, the Kingsley and Greenwood Residents Association, together with local parents such as David and Robyn Bertolini, are fighting to stop the sale of one hectare of the Allenswood Primary School site. While the sale of the nearby East Greenwood Primary School site is already a sure thing, the site of the rebuilt school at Allenswood will be reduced in size so that more money can be made from land sales. While the priority should be an effective educational precinct with appropriate infrastructure, the emphasis seems to be on cash flow into the coffers of a state government that is consistently unable to manage projects on time or to budget. It is no wonder that the people of Perth are cynical about that government.

Earlier in this speech I made mention of why I became a candidate. However, every reason needs to be accompanied by action and I have relentlessly pursued the interests of my fellow residents. I have, in the last few years, won or helped to win a number of grants and extensions of services for the suburbs of Cowan. Yet, as I spoke to increasing numbers of people in the electorate, they told me their concerns about community safety, road safety and opportunities for themselves and their families. Those concerns have driven my successful advocacy for the grant of road funding for the Ocean Reef Road extension, as well as the road funding initiatives concerning the upgrade of Wanneroo Road and the upgrade and extension projects of Hepburn Avenue and the Reid Highway interchange at Alexander Drive. I note that the latter of those two initiatives was picked up in the election campaign by the Labor Party and therefore I look forward to their delivery via the election promises legislation that I would imagine we will be seeing soon.

In addition, I recall our being promised a superclinic of GPs in Wanneroo, $1 million of CCTV for the City of Wanneroo, $1 million for a footbridge overpass in Banksia Grove and $500,000 for a youth drop-in centre in Ballajura, so I will look forward to also seeing the detail on those projects in the same legislation. Should the government be interested in improving the quality of life of people in Cowan, I have other initiatives that could be added to the list.

Over the last four years I have walked along hundreds of roads in Cowan, spoken to thousands of people and looked into the lives of my fellow residents in order to understand them and their issues—all that in order to make a difference. I have seen great hardship, yet I have also seen great courage. At times I have found weakness in spirit but also strength of character. But, in amongst it all, there is a clear need for a representative dedicated to building a stronger and more secure community in Cowan. I asked for that role and I am now humbled to have been granted that responsibility by my fellow residents of Cowan.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Childcare, the member for Bennelong, I remind honourable members that this is her first speech. I therefore ask the House to extend the usual courtesies to her.

Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak for the first time in this House as the new member for Bennelong. In line with the historic importance of what has been said in the parliament this week, I wish to acknowledge, first and foremost, the original Bennelong. Along with another resident of Sydney Cove, Colbee, Bennelong was captured, taken from his family, but befriended by Governor Arthur Phillip. Bennelong eventually travelled to England and met King George III, a trip which can be reasonably described as the equivalent in today’s terms of a trip to Mars.

It is a complex story, the story of early European settlement. The historian Inga Clendinnen refers to a brief period in those early years where there was a ‘springtime of trust’. She talks of the honour and courage of the men of the First Fleet and the creative resourcefulness of the ‘Australians’, as she calls the Indigenous population. This is something about our history that should be known—that there were individuals and there were moments when trust and goodwill ruled hearts on both sides of the divide. The universal disaster did not have to happen and it does not have to happen now.

For Bennelong there was no happy ending. When he returned to his own land after three years in England, he was scorned by the Europeans and by his own people. He was the first of tens of thousands of Aboriginals who have attempted or been forced to straddle both worlds, only to end up lost between both. The brewer James Squire provided shelter for Bennelong in his last years, which is why he lies buried in an unmarked grave near the site of the old brewery in Kissing Point in Putney, in the electorate that now bears his name.

A question for us all as we start out on the road to reconciliation is to ask: what was Bennelong trying to do in forging a friendship with the British? At the very least, we can say he was making a connection, attempting to build a bridge. And that is what we need to do. It is my sincere hope that in offering an apology for the suffering and injustices experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, we can make a new start and work together in a meaningful way. As Martin Luther King said nearly 50 years ago:

We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

What I have learnt from a lifetime of reporting is that we are at our best when we work together and when we appreciate difference. Diversity enriches us. It lifts the spirit.

First of all, I would like to pay tribute to the work and extraordinary commitment to public life of the previous member for Bennelong, John Howard. His service to the community and representation in the federal parliament for 33 years is a great record and a fine achievement. Mr Howard was a hardy warrior for his beliefs, and that too should be acknowledged.

I come to this place with the firm view that the contest of ideas matters, belief matters and knowledge matters. While it is true that the great ideological struggles of the 20th century are behind us, the ground has shifted in this new decade and in this new century. The sheer complexity of modern life bewilders many, but the new century is a rich one and there is much to appreciate. The monocultural Moorooka that I recall from my girlhood in the 1950s and sixties has vanished. These days the place is enlivened by the presence of many African families. As my mother Mary, who is in the gallery today, often says, with a more than disapproving nod about my irregular attendance, ‘These families are filling the pews at Sunday mass.’

The seat of Bennelong, which I am proud to represent, provides a near perfect snapshot of how the country is changing. Join the throng on the weekend in the Eastwood mall and you will find that Rowe Street is both a modern-day Babel and a dynamic part of cosmopolitan Sydney. While parents race around to fit in 101 chores, the teenagers have mobile phones strapped to their ears and the younger ones are plaguing their parents and saying, ‘When do we eat?’ The body language is clear, while the verbalising is as likely to be in Chinese as in English or Korean.

There are other changes. The Kims are forming partnerships with the Kellys. The Lis are walking down the aisle with the O’Farrells. For some, these changes are unsettling. But there is a younger generation that is entirely at ease with who we are and what we are becoming. Exceptionally well educated, many have secured a second degree from an international university and are multilingual. Some will be in mixed-race marriages. What they all have in common is that they will see their professional lives as crossing borders. They will be citizens of the world, trained here initially but orbiting around the world and working and playing in those places that will enrich them.

They will still call Australia home, but when they are in Delhi, Hong Kong or London, what story will they be telling about home? How do we want the Australian story to look for the coming generation? I think it needs to be a big story and that it is time to revive some big ambitions about how we build sustainable cities, how we restore our rivers, how we recreate a first-rate education system that elevates excellence for all and how we treat everyone with dignity and equality, regardless of physical ability, race or sexual preference.

What we need is a new imagining, a revived sense of what is possible. The negativity and the tedium of the culture wars will not get us there. But look at our history with all its warts and all its failures and you will still find plenty to inspire wonder, hope and optimism. You will also find that, if there is a common animating principle in Australia, it is that we look forwards, not back. Survey the suburbs, towns and farms of this country and you will find the desire to assure the happiness and independence of the next generation is inextinguishable. This altruism is in the nature of most human beings—it is one of the better angels, to which all good governments should listen. How hard we work to satisfy that desire and how well we succeed is a measure of our progress as a nation and as a democracy.

What people want now, I think, is an intelligent national conversation. The prevailing orthodoxy, to this point, has been that, because we are enjoying such bounty, we are indifferent, to the point of being somnolent, about the bigger societal questions. Well, I happen to think that 2007 demolished that idea. Most of the commentators missed the mood shift. But it is there. It is real. All sorts of people know that politics and policymaking matter. Our national spirit matters. The lesson for me from the past year is that there is a great reservoir of goodwill that lies untapped beneath the surface of our national life, and smart governments will find ways to liberate and direct it.

Many of us lead charmed lives. I am one of them. It was not always thus. I had a good deal of unhappiness in my early years, which is why I identify with scratchy teens. But at some point I just got on with it. Being curious helped. I am also convinced that any success I have enjoyed in my professional and personal life has come about because of the generous embrace of friends and mentors. What they have in common is a well-developed joie de vivre and, importantly, a deep appreciation that no problem is so great that it should not be tackled over a decent lunch—at some length.

So, along with many people in this chamber and many others who helped get me elected, I have been the lucky beneficiary of rich opportunities. But in recent years many of us have been feeling something else—an unease, a stirring in the soul, a sense that things are not quite right, that too many are missing out, that, far from leading charmed lives in the lucky country, too many Australians are leading pinched lives. What it is, this stirring in our souls, is a realisation that our famed egalitarian spirit is more talked about than real. This is the paradox of modernity: alongside the exceptional economic prosperity the country has enjoyed, we are also seeing what Professor Fiona Stanley calls an increase in the social gradients. When we look at the key indicators for the development, wellbeing and health of our children and our young people, the gaps are not shrinking; they are widening.

The experts all tell us the same thing: that 50 per cent of a child’s educational performance is determined before that child even enters the formal school system. Yet still, today, 20 per cent of Australian children do not have access to a quality preschool. Among Aboriginal children, as with so much else, the reality is so much worse. Only 46 per cent of four-year-old Indigenous children receive a preschool education. Regrettably, the Commonwealth has been the missing player in this most critical area. We know that those children who are missing out on an appropriate early learning experience will struggle in the first years of school. So this is where the education revolution begins. It begins before school with significant fresh investment and a new approach that integrates care and early learning. I am proud to be part of a government that has put this issue at the very centre of its policy approach. How successful we are will determine whether or not in future publications Professor Stanley can remove the question mark that she currently has in her title Children of the Lucky Country?

For this to happen, we also need to see a revival in the capacity of governments to do things, to get on with it. Part of the sheer thrill of being elected to this chamber at this point in our history is that it coincides, I think, with a revived belief in governments as active players and navigators of our national life. For too long, governments have suffered from withered imaginations and from a collapsed will. For our grandparents it was so different. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was constructed at the peak of the Great Depression. The planners had the foresight to put in eight lanes. The same could be said for the Storey Bridge, an iconic part of the Brisbane landscape and a piece of engineering that is part of the McKew family history. I come from a family of builders, and my grandfather Joe McKew ran the Evans Deakin plant which built the bridge in conjunction with Dr John Bradfield. As the family story goes, every time a new span of the bridge was due to be manoeuvred into place, all the McKew boys, including my father, Bryan, were marched off to mass. Divine help was deemed necessary to assist with the engineering. The point is, these were big projects, undertaken when the country was smaller and poorer. But there was nothing small about the enterprise.

When we consider our major cities today, particularly Brisbane and Sydney, and how the metro infrastructure can struggle to get people to work on time, surely it is time to reconnect to the enterprise and ambition of the past. We need nothing less than a return to nation building—but in a modern way. We need to recruit the talents of our innovators and our technologists, our teachers, our writers and our best policy thinkers. In my own electorate we have significant research and educational institutions—Macquarie University, the CSIRO and the Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE. There is also an emerging technology corridor of leading global companies in ICT, medical devices, media and environmental technologies. But the potential of this corridor is yet to be realised. We need an innovation economy, one that recognises that comparative advantage in the modern world is underpinned by those things that the private sector cannot provide: a workable tax system, first-rate health and education systems, and strong research networks. That is the 21st century role of government.

I come to this House as a proud member of the Australian Labor Party, a party that has always had as a core belief the view that active, reformist policymaking should be directed towards maximising equality of opportunity. I like the way the Melbourne philosopher John Armstrong puts it:

The proper goal of power is civilization. And civilization depends, crucially, on spiritual prosperity: upon what we care about, on what we admire, what sorts of ideals and hopes we have.

Part of what I care about—friendship, beauty and the life of the mind—was nurtured by my teachers at All Hallows Convent, a school that sits high above the Brisbane River and overlooks the bridge built by my grandfather.

The older I get the more I appreciate that I was taught by women, by lay and religious staff, who seemed to me to know what was worth knowing. When one considers the deep provincialism of Queensland during this period, this seems extraordinary. But the best of these women were not bound by borders or prejudice. They did what all good teachers do: they took their charges on a journey and fired the imagination.

Wherever you look across this country you see the work of women. It is a particular joy for me to come to this place as one of 40 female representatives. From the time of Federation, it would be 40 years before the first two women, Dorothy Tangney and Dame Enid Lyons, were elected to the federal parliament. One could say that things have moved at a glacial pace. Part of the explanation is that in Australia, never an easy country for women, it is still too hard.

For most of our history the value of labour has been split on a gender basis. The institutional die was cast at the beginning of the 20th century when the basic female wage was set at 54 per cent of the male rate. For decades, Jessie Street, Edna Ryan and others fought to correct this historic injustice, but it would take until the 1970s and three landmark equal pay cases to remove gender classifications from job descriptions. It remains a continuing disgrace that, 30 years on from these cases, we still cannot say that pay justice for women has been achieved. Women’s workforce participation now stands at 58 per cent and the educational achievements of women have never been higher. Yet, whether you are behind the counter of a cafeteria or in the executive suite, if you are female, wage parity is not guaranteed.

When we consider the wider economic picture for women, it is not what it should be. Australia remains one of very few developed countries to have no national system of maternity leave, and returning to work and negotiating flexibility is still problematic for mothers. Is it any wonder that women find themselves in midlife agonising about their limited retirement savings following a life of interrupted work? It is time for this country to junk its historic ambivalence towards female workers and embrace once and for all a set of policies that recognises the real worth of everyone’s labour. A few years from now I want to be able to say to the young women graduating from Ryde Secondary College and Marsden High School or those on the campus of Macquarie University in my electorate and their equivalents across the country that Australia is closer to being the meritocracy it should to be.

I am here in this place first and foremost as a representative of my local community. If you look inside the suburbs that make up Bennelong, you see the real, contemporary, rather amazing Australia. And it is not the same as what you see on TV. It is much more complex, subtle and wonderful. As I said on the night of 24 November last year, I spent 30 years interviewing Australians—often the most admired and most powerful Australians; many of them in this place—but now I know I missed the best of them. To get to know them you have to knock on front doors and listen to them in the street—and you find out so much more when you are not carrying a camera and a microphone. It is the stories that are so compelling, stories that cry out for greater attention.

I thank the House for the courtesy of listening to this first speech, as I thank the many, many volunteers and ALP branch members, without whose help and belief I would not be here. Throughout 2007, the women and men, and the boys and girls of the ‘purple army’, as they called themselves, were united under a simple banner: nothing is impossible. The foot soldiers of the purple army are among the finest and most selfless individuals I have ever met. I would like to thank in particular Lucienne Joy, John Range, Trish Drum, Michael Butterworth, Sally Sitou, Richard Ho, Marie Faulkner, Louise Rose, Tim Quadrio, Senator John Faulkner and the Hon. John Watkins for their friendship and guidance. And to my partner, Bob, a political legend if ever there was one: you are to me the reason for everything.

I hope my time in this place validates and vindicates the faith you have all placed in me. Like all members, I come here wanting to make a difference. To the people of Bennelong, your needs come first. I will not let you down.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in this address-in-reply. I know I have limited time but I will be seeking to continue my remarks at a later time. Listening to the Governor-General’s speech, something struck me in his opening comments about this great democracy that we have. The decision of the Australian people was that we saw a change of government, and that change, from the coalition to the Labor government, was a peaceful transition.

I want to talk about another level of government where democracy is also very important. I believe our whole democracy starts at the level of local government in our local communities, which are the cornerstone of this great nation of ours. I want to particularly focus today on the leadership that has been displayed by local councils, local mayors and the community in general during the extraordinary floods that we have recently seen and continue to see in the state of Queensland.

In western Queensland, out in the Murweh Shire Council headquarters on the Warrego River, we saw the leadership of the Mayor, Mark O’Brien, coming to the fore and the important role that local government plays when you have a state of emergency without warning, without notice. You have to have a response if you are going to save communities and prevent the further damage that would occur without great local leadership.

Through Mark O’Brien and other councillors in North and Central Queensland, I saw the importance of local government and local leadership in a time of national emergency. When they responded to the emergency in Charleville, they needed to put up a levy bank quickly because the one that they had partly constructed was not complete. It was quite invigorating and inspiring to see the speed at which the local community acted in putting up a temporary levy bank to protect the town from what would have been devastating floods.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 2 pm, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 97. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. I thank the member for Maranoa for his forbearance when the chair was unable to get an orderly House for him. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.