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

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

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I come to this place as the first female to represent the people of Page, and I come to this place as a fighter, having first fought my way out of the housing commission estate where I grew up. I do not mean the locality, which is still a nice place to live; I mean the thinking that confined and constrained me. We never went to university or did things like that. That was not our world. Although I lacked confidence, I always had a yearning, an intellectual curiosity, that drove me to seek something more. I have achieved some good things—great things, really, for a girl with no education who went up the ladder, so to speak. My instincts and therefore my responses to situations are still very much rooted in the working-class girl from One Mile, Ipswich. I have to say these instincts have served me well.

Ipswich was my stamping ground for the first two decades of my life, and I accept membership of the parliamentary Ipswichians, Shayne.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Neumann interjecting

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ipswich formed me, and Lismore, my home for more than 30 years, gave me the substance that makes me an effective representative for the people of Page. So you see, I too can say: ‘Hello. My name is Janelle Saffin. I’m originally from Queensland and I’m here to help.’ And I truly am. It is my mission in life to serve and to serve well. Today in this great institution I pledge to do just that: serve all the people of Page, just as Kevin said he would serve all of the nat-ion in his acceptance speech on election night.

I said I was a fighter. I fought my way into university without the credentials, into jobs without the experience and into politics without the network but with the passion to make the world a better place, to make a difference—and it was very much locally driven—to get women who were victims and sur-vivors of domestic violence and rape access to services not available, to get laws created and laws changed, to get housing for home-less young people not old enough to be eligible for public housing, to get recognition, services and a voice for the mentally ill and for people living with disabilities and to change laws and policies so that they reflec-ted and responded to our entire community.

The first time I went to our then local MP with some other women of action from our local community—and he was someone I respected—it was to ask him if we could get a house on a peppercorn rental for women escaping domestic violence. He said he did not see the need. That motivated me. It got me going—or, as my mum would say, it got my goat up—and we got the house, and it is still in public use today. We then went to open a bank account, and we were told that we needed some men of means to be our trustees or some such nonsense. We got our bank account open in our own community name. We could not get solicitors to effectively represent women and children, so we set about finding some and educating others, and I became a lawyer myself. I thought: ‘I’ll show them.’ As Edna Ryan used to say, ‘Don’t get mad, get active.’

At the local level, I have fought for and secured many services, many firsts, and I am proud of it. I say this in full recognition that I was never alone and took up many issues collaboratively but always with the determination to get us what we needed and a better deal. I got millions when others could not for the Summerland Way, the regional baseball stadium, the establishment of the North Coast Community Housing Company, the North Coast Breast Screening Program and the Far North Coast Domestic Violence Liaison Committee; policy firsts: internet in schools—I wrote it; community justice centres in our region; regional domestic violence coordinators; and many more. This experience as a community advocate has equipped me well for this job.

I am here to make a difference, to make our patch of Page a better place for all of us lucky enough to live there. As federal MPs, we are charged with local leadership, we are charged to listen and we are charged to be community facilitators. During campaigning, especially when doorknocking in Grafton and Lismore, it was evident to me that people felt abandoned and taken for granted by the coalition government, by National Party representation and by not being listened to on any score. I pledge to listen no matter what, and I have been doing my best to do that since I was elected.

I know my way of working puts a bigger burden on my staff—Carmel, Lee, Paul, Peter, Maryn and Sarah—and for that I say, ‘Sorry, but that’s how it is.’ I am not one to let things sit idle. If I see a problem, I hop to and help fix it. There has been so little listening over the years that people are literally coming out of the woodwork. People expect us to be compassionate, and we are, and they expect us to be good economic managers, and we are. This is a challenge—a challenge we are up to.

I was very motivated to run as a candidate for Page for two compelling reasons. The first was that John Howard’s coalition government had taken Australia to a place I did not like. I was working and living in Timor Leste—or East Timor, as we call it—and coming home to the Northern Rivers every few months. I had the advantage of looking through another lens at my beloved community and homeland and did not like what was happening. Mr Howard played wedge politics on so many issues. His brand of ruling, not leading, encouraged us to give vent to our most unkind view of others. He never managed to lead us and inspire us to be better human beings. I never thought I would see attack dogs and men in black balaclavas on our wharves, locking out workers. I saw it with my own eyes the first night it happened. I was then a member of the Legislative Council in the New South Wales parliament, and we went down to express our solidarity with the workers on the wharves. I was stunned. ‘Children overboard’ was the last straw. This was not the Australia of the fair go.

I marched in Sydney, along with what seemed to be hundreds of thousands of others, against the war in Iraq, along with Judy Reid, a long-time friend of mine from Ballina and previous member of my staff, who is here with me today, and also Cameron Murphy, who is another previous staff member of mine—he is here as well. Thank you both for being here. I also thank my staff members Lee Duncan and Peter Ellem—they are up in the gallery—and my good friend Susan Conroy. Thank you all for being here.

John Howard dismissed us as a rabble, taking no notice. It was amazing though how many Aussies, those who marched and those with whom I have a beer on Friday night at the local pub, knew that we were going to Iraq on a lie to find WMDs that were nonexistent, yet we still went in. Aussies are basically a kind lot and would give a neighbour a helping hand before they would turn them away. John Howard’s coalition led us into a more selfish and aggressive way of doing politics. Every issue became a battleground.

This brings me back to why I stood and why I was singularly determined to win Page. Like other community members, I watched as we got less of the pie than we needed, after being continually told that we were in times of economic prosperity. But, worse than that, our representative was not even discussing the issues with us—not saying, ‘Okay, let us talk about it.’

Before I turn to the attributes of Page—and there are many, primarily the good, down-to-earth people—I want to say thanks to Kevin and to Tony for listening to us in Page regarding our floods in January, the worst in some areas in over 50 years. In Kyogle they are still talking about the first-ever visit by a Prime Minister. We got some extra dollars in Page and so did the people of Richmond.

My friend Harry Woods held Page for Labor from 1990 to 1996. He went on to become the state member for Clarence. Harry now lives in Yamba with his wife, Sandra, and I am pleased to say that he came with me to the declaration of the polls on 17 December last year. I want to place on record my thanks to Harry for his engaged and tireless representation and also for his wonderful sense of humour.

Page comprises over 16,000 square kilometres. It is rural and has a significant coastal community. It stretches from Ballina in the north through Wardell, Broadwater, Woodburn, Evans Head and Iluka to Yamba in the south. These coastal communities are under pressure from development and climate change. I live in Bundjalung country, the original nation of the Northern Rivers, and we have about twice the number of Indigenous people in Page as we do country wide. Our industry base comprises agriculture, beef, dairy, sugar, oilseed, horticulture, aged care, retail sector, hospitality and construction, and 42 per cent of all voters in Page are seniors. We have many sea changers as well, who are all coming to find a more relaxed but stimulating lifestyle.

Page goes from Lismore, my home town, to Casino, Coraki and Kyogle, up to Woodenbong on the Queensland border, back down through Tabulam, Bonalbo, Old Bonalbo, Urbenville and Baryulgil—and what a tragedy has beset the people of that village. James Hardie mined asbestos there, and friends of mine are still pursuing their compensation claims now. Down at the southern end we have the North Coast’s first city, Grafton. We also have Rappville, Mallanganee, Mummulgum, Copmanhurst, Lawrence, Coutts Crossing, Nymboida, Tyringham and Dundurrabin through to Hernani. It is a poor seat. About 13 to 14 per cent of people living in it are at or below the poverty line—and I am not sure what the National Party were doing about that. They have held the seat, in some way or another, for nearly a century. I want to do something about reducing that number and later this year will run a poverty forum, marshalling some of the best and the brightest to help.

I now turn to some of the concerns of young people, particularly those that my son, who is 23, raises with me all the time. He keeps me honest and keeps harping at me about issues of concern—issues, he says, that we do not talk about but that concern many people. I look at their websites and I look at their blogs, so I know some of the things that they are seized with. In general, they are concerned about things like corporate power, particularly that of the chemical industry, with its vast empire stretching out across the world. Most of the chemicals that we find in our food—and there are many—were not made for such use and are not necessary.

Other issues of concern—and they are ones that concern me—include the death penalty. I remain an active campaigner against it, having worked for a long time with the Asia-Pacific anti-death-penalty coalition. I am concerned about child abuse in any form and how to give better protection to children. There is child pornography and the violence that has permeated our daily lives through our films and our television—our media. There are the late hours that pubs and clubs are open—and I am not a wowser—when many of our young people spill out drunk, out of control and have more fights, more violence and more sexual assaults. Another issue of concern is why, in 2008, we do not have paid parental leave. That just seems ridiculous to me, when our economy depends on parents making their contribution to the economy. We do not have childcare rebates for all types of child care; public transport is not available in rural areas; and dental care is not covered by Medicare.

Mr Speaker, our first sitting week was a momentous week for me in two ways. I came to parliament, this great institution, after having won the seat of Page in a fiercely contested election battle, wresting it from the increasingly out-of-touch, lost-touch Liberal and National Party coalition. What a privilege it was to be part of a parliament that said sorry to Indigenous Australians. How humbled I felt to be in the presence of people had been wronged so cruelly yet found it in their hearts to accept the apology and to forgive.

For me, that first week was momentous for another reason: events in Timor Leste. Mr Speaker, it is known that I lived and worked in Timor Leste from 2004 to 2007 as His Excellency Dr Jose Ramos Horta’s senior political adviser. Jose is a man of peace, a man of vision, a pragmatic man, an international statesman, a diplomat and a leader. I was with him in foreign affairs and cooperation, in defence—I learned a lot about defence; he was the Minister for Defence—when he was Prime Minister and then when he became President.

On the first day of parliament I had just arrived and done a brief doorstop, announcing myself, as proud as punch, as Janelle Saffin, member for Page, dah de dah de dah, and was walking down the hallway when I got a call telling me that Jose had been shot and was in a critical condition. Jose is my friend, my colleague—or amigo and kolega, in his language. I was devastated. That week I maintained focus on my duties to the people of Page, feeling delighted but also devastated at the same time. I was with Jose when the crisis broke out in East Timor in 2006 and witnessed his heartbreak and determination to make things work. For me, it was a singular and unique experience, one that was formative, and it made me fearless.

I have to say that Jose inspired me to ‘go for it’ in the election campaign, although he told all publicly—also in the local media—that he hoped I would lose so that I could continue to work as his adviser and for his country. I can see my colleague Gary Gray laughing; he knows him well too. When I worked in Timor Leste, I used to see Gary quite regularly, so I know he understands just what I am saying. Timor Leste is a country I love with a people that I miss, but it is one that I am happy now to support from within the framework of our government, the Rudd Labor government. I have faith that they will make it, and I am so pleased that Jose will resume his duties as President in the not too distant future. He is healing well and sends his thanks to all of us in this place—and I mean all of us—because he knows that we support him. He is back to SMSing me, so I am getting messages; I know he is healing.

I have faith in people, particularly in the people of Page. They are not demanding more than their fair share. They just want a fair go for their kids and their families, and they want their communities to be safe and sustainable. I have faith in our representatives, our government led by Kevin, and I have faith in politics. I have to say that on our side we are blessed to have such talent on the front bench and on the back benches. So watch out, Justine; there is a lot of talent here. We are very lucky. I also acknowledge my colleague the Hon. Justine Elliot, who represents the electorate of Richmond, which is next door to mine. She is the first female to represent Richmond. Justine goes before me and is someone who also has inspired me.

Mr Speaker, let me recount, in brief, just some of the legacy of the coalition that has impacted on services in Page. Up to $1 billion was taken out of the public health system in New South Wales alone. There was the axing of the Commonwealth dental scheme, causing untold misery for people—some in Page have waited years for treatment and dentures. The coalition also ripped the guts out of public housing—a huge disinvestment.

In coming to the close of my first speech in this place, I will cite the monetary election commitments that I gave, supported of course by the leadership. There was $780 million for Pacific Highway projects from Ballina to Ewingsdale—covering the two electorates there, Page and Richmond—$90 million for the Alstonville Bypass; $23 million for Grafton Base Hospital to upgrade the operating theatre and emergency department and for a GP superclinic with no strings attached; $15 million for radiotherapy services at Lismore Base Hospital to accelerate its opening; $3 million for the Casino community centre; $2 million for the Casino town centre revitalisation; up to $2 million for the Yamba Sport and Recreation Centre; $1 million for the South Grafton town centre; $250,000 in recurrent funding for the Northern Rivers Business Enterprise Centre; and $200,000 for the Lismore homeless shelter. That was the first commitment that we made, showing our concern for homelessness. There was also $125,000 for the upgrade of the Grafton saleyards and about $2 million spread across the region for community projects under the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy so that they could have continuity for the next three years. I will be working over the next three years to add many more much-needed projects to my list of priorities.

I would like here to make some acknowledgements. First of all, to the Your Rights at Work campaign, spearheaded by the ACTU and Greg Combet, I say well done. Greg Combet’s uncle lives in my seat. Greg has family in my seat, and his uncle talks to me endlessly about Greg. They are very proud of him. To the local Your Rights at Work campaigns and the two people I most interacted with, Graeme Flanagan and John Hickson: thank you. Thank you to USU, Craig, CFMEU, Bluey, LHMU, Carmel, CPSU, ASU, AWU and AMWU. When I say thank you to the AWU, I thank my now colleague Bill Shorten. He campaigned with me in Page when he was still the National Secretary of the AWU. They campaigned hard on Work Choices, as did I. It was very unpopular. It was a big issue in the seat of Page. To my Page campaign team, thank you. I thank Elma Stewart, whose blood pressure I caused to rise but who stuck by me through every day of a relentless campaign; Doug Myler; Felix Eldridge; Colin Clague; Kevin Bell; Liz and Richard Adams; Marg Barden; Glenys Ritchie; Jenny Dowell; Rick Smith; Ron Tinker; Wally Mulgrave; Don Blackmore; all the boys from Ballina; Melanie Doriean; Eric Kaiser; Andy Moy; Therese Shier; the Iluka Maclean mob; Mark Kingsley; Ron McGeorge; Cave and Ray Emily; and Megan Lawson, who is in the gallery today and now works in this place. She worked in my Grafton office. There are many, many more, and I know I have forgotten some.

I want to give two personal significant acknowledgements: firstly, to His Excellency President Jose Ramos Horta, whom I have already mentioned; and to Brigadier Mick Slater, who was the force commander of the joint task force in East Timor in 2006. Over a cuppa one day at Camp Phoenix—I used to go there to get better food—I was considering whether to run for parliament and just chatting about it. He said, ‘Janelle, if that’s what you want to do, do it. You only have one life’. He had no interest in the politics, and it was a personal chat, but that one really made me sit up and take notice and I never looked back.

I will finish by also thanking my husband, Dr Jim, as he is known; my son, Ned; my sisters, Denise and Donna; my mother, Oriel; and my dad, Phil, who is over 80 and came out and doorknocked with me. My father was the only person I allowed to have a beer while he was doorknocking. No-one else was allowed near it. I know that they are very proud of me. In closing, I will speak of a remarkable woman I know, one who has great strength of mind and character. It is Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still under house arrest. Suu is a beacon of hope for over 50 million people who are held prisoners not by any occupying army but by their own military dictatorship. Suu is a Buddhist and there is an enlightened principle in Buddhism which Suu refers to in her writings. It is instructive for all of us in public life. She says: ‘Just continue to do what you believe is right. Later on the fruits of what you do will become apparent on their own. One’s responsibility is to do the right thing.’

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

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

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I rise to speak today, I congratulate the Speaker on his election and all the other members on their success in the 2007 election. I would like to thank the people of Swan for putting their trust in me, and in return I pledge to represent you with the same determination as I and my dedicated campaign team of volunteers displayed during the campaign. I will ensure your voices are heard loud and clear on this side of the Nullarbor and, most importantly, in parliament. Last week I was fortunate to hear the former Wallabies Captain John Eales speak, and he reminded me of some good advice I received from friends before I entered the political arena: be yourself and don’t change. I will do that today and give you some of my and my family’s history and the values and beliefs that have helped lead me to be here today.

I would like to put on record that I actually live in the electorate I represent and that I am extremely proud to represent the federal seat of Swan. I acknowledge all the previous members of Swan—particularly the three previous members: Don Randall, the member for Canning; Kim Beazley, a former Deputy Prime Minister; and Kim Wilkie—and recognise their contributions. I am going to tell you about the electorate of Swan and, with respect to the other new members who have spoken before me, I will state that the electorate of Swan is a great place to live in. The people who live there are fantastic and as diverse as you will find in any electorate in Australia. I will not lay claim to the electorate being heaven or paradise but there is no other electorate that I would rather live in or represent in this place.

The electorate of Swan is east of Perth and takes its name from the famous river which forms one of the electorate’s boundaries. The Swan River was the birthplace of European settlement on the western coast of Australia. It is the scene of much cultural and community activity, the site of festivals and concerts and a meeting place for family and friends, with sailing, skiing, restaurants and barbecue and picnic areas along its foreshore. Swan has many landmarks, institutes and buildings that add to its character and give the residents plenty of opportunities for various education, entertainment, lifestyle and family recreational activities. We have the Belmont and Ascot racecourses; the Perth Zoo; the Burswood Casino; the Curtin University of Technology; the Cannington greyhounds; the Clontarf Aboriginal College; three golf courses; the Perth Football Club; more than 50 primary and secondary schools, including a TAFE college and three Islamic schools; the Perth domestic and international airports; the state tennis centre; and many more clubs and associations that the constituents in my electorate participate in. Another popular waterway, the Canning River, provides a natural border on the southern side of the electorate, which spans over 108 square kilometres and encompasses a variety of industries, small business and professional offices.

Swan has about 21,000 businesses—far more than any other electorate in WA—which include the intrastate and interstate freight and transport terminals, both road and rail. These are vital to the Western Australian economy, as are all businesses in our great state. After being involved in small business for more than 25 years, I understand the commitment and sacrifice that the small business people of Australia make to strive for and achieve their goals in life. They are a major employer in Australia but are treated with indifference by the vast majority of Australians due to the demonising of them by the ALP and union advertising during the election campaign and past decades. No doubt the new government will wind back the clock to make it harder to run your business, with draconian compliance regulations and the reintroduction of unfair dismissal laws, which will act as a disincentive to employ staff. As an ex-small-business man, I know that just means small business men will work harder and longer hours to make sure they do not have to bear the risk of financial ruin under unfair dismissal laws, which is exactly what they will be—unfair. The Liberal Party in opposition will continue to support small business in Australia and fight for them to ensure the government provides the necessary framework for them to prosper and run their businesses with a minimum of interference.

The demographics in Swan are broad, with diverse ethnic groups: Asian, Middle Eastern, European and Indigenous Australians. The issues in Swan are just as broad: crime and antisocial behaviour, road infrastructure problems, health care, mental health care, aged care and protecting our unique waterways and natural environment. These are the major concerns which feature prominently across the electorate. On the matter of health: the state Labor government is planning to close the Royal Perth Hospital, which services many of my constituents. There is a groundswell of support to prevent this from happening, and I have joined that fight. The airports and access highways could be described as infrastructure bottlenecks due to the lack of commitment from a state Labor government bursting at the seams with budget surpluses. The airports and highways in Swan are the gateways to Perth and Western Australia for both interstate and international visitors and can only be described as inadequate when compared to those of other cities around the world. I urge the government to bring forward the commitment it made to Swan during the election to upgrade the Great Eastern Highway.

During the election campaign, as I have in my life, I met people who inspired me and helped shape and mould my values in life. In the gallery today as my guest is a gentleman I met during the campaign. In 2007, this man had his and his father’s medals stolen from him, and they were not recovered. I approached the Minister for Defence of the day, Brendan Nelson, to replace them. He arranged to have the medals reminted and then personally presented them during a visit to WA. This man’s name is Fred Harper. He lives in the suburb of Redcliffe in Swan, and he is a remarkable man.

Fred was born in South Australia on 4 April 1907. His family moved to WA, and, at the age of seven, he was removed from his family by the state and placed in the Clontarf Boys Home. Fred tells me that he escaped from Clontarf with another 25 boys and, once they had been found, he was placed with the Christian Brothers. Fred served with the ADF during World War II and left Fremantle in 1941 on the Queen Mary. Fred was stationed in the Middle East, serving in Palestine and Egypt. He also served in Java and Ceylon. Fred has many stories which I would love to tell the House, but maybe he should put them in a book as he seems to have time on his side. Fred and the men and women of Australia who laid their lives on the line so that all Australians could continue to live the lifestyle and have the freedoms we now enjoy are the true heroes of this nation and must never be forgotten. I honour you, Fred, and it has been a privilege to have been able to bring you to the Australian Parliament House. Please enjoy the rest of your trip and your visit to the War Memorial and museum.

In a similar vein, at the tender age of six months I was removed from my family, placed in a babies’ home and made a ward of the state in Victoria until I reached the age of 18. Nearly 50 years on, it is remarkable to reflect on just how far we have progressed as a nation in our short but proud history and that I can stand here amongst Australia’s leaders as an equal. It has set in concrete my belief that we are the land of a fair go, where we are not afraid to back the underdog with that sense of hope that he or she may achieve something special. I know that not all people who have been through an experience similar to mine and those of the Fred Harpers of this world during their childhood will go on to stand in federal parliament, but these experiences in life should not stop anyone from achieving their goals in a nation such as ours. I hope that our stories can inspire young children going through the same experience now that they can still achieve great things with their lives and that there are plenty of good people out there willing to back them.

My first priority as the member for Swan will be to pursue the Rudd-Gillard government to make good on all the promises it made to the Swan electorate during the recent election campaign. These include upgrading Great Eastern Highway; more than $1 million for crime prevention initiatives in the city of Belmont; the installation of lights at EFTel Oval, home of the mighty Demons, who won their first premiership in 1907, the year Fred Harper was born; funding for the restoration of the historic Old Mill in South Perth; and a Medicare office in Belmont.

I was born in Melbourne as the sixth child of 10 in the Dix family. As I mentioned previously, my mother and the state had me placed in a babies’ home at the age of six months. Two of my elder siblings were also in foster care and a younger brother was adopted out, who, to this day, I have never met. I did not meet my father until I was 23 years old and some of my siblings until I was 35. I was fortunate enough to be fostered by the Irons family at the age of three. My foster father, David, was a church minister and went on to be a social worker, and my mother, Mary, was also a social worker. Because of their commitment to helping people who were going through tough times, I was given a start that many other children in my situation never had.

I grew up in Box Hill in the federal electorate of Chisholm, then known as Deakin, in what would be described as a middle-class area, with many of its residents working in the manufacturing sector or as tradesmen. There was a perception that bosses, no matter whether they ran small or medium sized businesses, were wealthy and were tight fisted towards their workers. This perception still exists today and is promoted by the ALP and the unions. It was not until I operated my own small business in Perth many years later that I found out just how difficult it was to be the boss. Contrary to what I had always been told, I found that being the boss was not a licence to print money. It was hard work, there were plenty of bills to pay, and every one of your workers’ livelihoods relied on the decisions you made on a daily basis. This was my introduction to Liberal politics—where people are rewarded, not envied or chastised, for their initiative and where enterprise and the rights of individuals are valued and respected, as is the freedom of association.

It probably would not surprise you then that both sets of my parents were Labor supporters. My biological dad was a member of the old painters and dockers union and my uncle, Bob Dix, was actually the secretary of that union for some time. He was believed to be one of the few secretaries of that union who died of natural causes. I am still sure that, even though three of my parents have passed away, they would be extremely proud that their son is now a member of parliament.

After finishing my apprenticeship I left my employer and did various jobs, which included digging sewers, shovelling chook manure out at a farm in Hastings, working a jackhammer at an abattoir in Dandenong and then travelling on the roads for 18 months for the Gas & Fuel Corporation in Victoria. In 1981, I packed my bags and headed to Western Australia to play Australian Rules football for East Perth—a great club steeped in tradition and full of the values and principles that I still carry with me today. While my football career did not end up the way I had imagined, the move to the west has been fantastic. I have enjoyed mentoring and supporting young footballers for the past 10 years in my role as a junior coach at the South Perth Football Club and as the Director for Junior Development at Perth Football Club. It is one way of giving back some of the support I received as a child. I believe sport has an important place in teaching our children the value of teamwork and discipline. With the rising incidence of obesity in our children and throughout the community, I encourage all parents to make sure that their children are active and scoring goals—not just on PlayStation but out on the field of sport as well.

Another epidemic which we must seriously address as the nation’s legislators is the growing binge-drinking culture which we have inadvertently encouraged over many decades. When the rest of the world labels us as heavy drinkers, we wear it as a badge of honour and brag about how many we had the night before. We have fostered the development of a culture which looks to the weekend as a time to get smashed. It is a culture that we have accepted as a nation. While most of the community has condemned the use of illicit drugs in society, getting blind on the weekend is an accepted part of being Australian. We might be losing the war against illicit drugs, but at least we are trying to mount a fight. We need a sustained assault on the binge-drinking culture. I support the Alcohol Toll Reduction Bill, and I urge the government to make responsible drinking part of its education revolution.

A report released by the WA Department of Health last month found that Western Australians were now drinking 30 per cent more than they did 10 years ago. According to that report, 3,975 Western Australians died from alcohol related causes between 1997 and 2005—and that does not include road deaths. One of those people who died during that time was my sister Margaret Dix. My younger sister Margaret came to Western Australia about seven years before her death, and we were able to develop a strong bond as brother and sister, which had not been possible earlier. On 12 August 2004, Margaret was drinking at the Rendezvous Observation City Hotel’s lobby bar, catching up with a friend from Victoria, before she fell to her death from the balcony of the 15th storey of the hotel. Toxicology analysis indicated that Margaret had a blood alcohol level of almost seven times the legal driving limit. The bartender, bar manager and licensee of the hotel were charged with four counts each of supplying alcohol to a drunken person. A magistrate later ruled that they had no case to answer. Unfortunately, Margaret is not the only sister I have lost to an alcohol related incident. My older sister Jennifer was killed in a hit-and-run accident by an alleged drunk-driver in Victoria more than 35 years ago.

I am not a wowser, and I am certainly no saint when it comes to alcohol. I enjoy a few beers on a warm day and a couple of glasses of wine with friends. But I strongly believe that we all have to work together in this parliament, with the states and with the community to make binge drinking un-Australian. Changing the nation’s attitude towards binge drinking cannot be achieved in the short term, but it must begin. It will be a long-term battle that has the potential to change the very nature of our national identity, but it will help save relationships, marriages, jobs, sporting careers and lives. I dedicated my victory in Swan last November to my sister Margaret, and I am committed to making sure that all Australians understand the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption.

Someone else who has given me inspiration since the day he was born is my son, Jarrad. Jarrad was born in 1992 during one of the toughest business periods of my life, coming out of the recession we had to have. He gave me a new purpose in life, and since he came to live with me three years ago we have become great mates in our home in South Perth. At a young age, Jarrad has given me great support during the campaign and has been a constant reality check for me since he came to live with me. Jarrad is in the gallery today. I salute you, Jarrad, and I hope that we have many years of mateship ahead and that you achieve all your dreams in life.

I would also like to thank my mother and family for all the love and support they gave me while I was growing up and for the support they offered me during my run for federal parliament. I have heard family mentioned many times in this House and would join in the chorus of how important families are to Australia and our way of life.

There are many people who I have to thank for their assistance during the long and arduous election campaign. Some of my campaign team and mates are in the gallery today, and I thank them again for their support and for travelling all the way from WA to be here. I am sure to miss some people, but I will never forget the fantastic and enjoyable ride to achieve the remarkable victory in the 2007 election in Swan. My thanks go to Keith Ellis, a small business man with six kids—Keith turns 66 this month; Travis Burrows, also a small business man; Jim Crone, an Irishman who insisted we use the campaign motto of ‘Refuse to lose’; Gordon Thomson—the boss; Richard Basham; John and Karen McGrath; the Tyler family; Adrian Lawson and my brother Rob Dix; Sandra Brown; Anne Jones; Sue Chown; Dawn Stratton; Helen Leslie; Collette Wiltshire; Helen Lesley; Collette Wiltshire; Paul Everingham; Robyn Nolan; Danielle Blain, the Liberal Party State President; Mark Neeham; Jason Marocchi; Zak Kirkup and all the staff at Menzies House in WA; the local chambers; and the CEO, Charles Bellow.

I thank all the federal ministers, members and senators who visited Swan during the campaign—Senators Eggleston, Cormann and Johnston. I also thank Darryl Lathwell and Lindsay Albonico, a couple of mates of mine who are here today; all my mates from the Floreat Aquatic Recreational Cricket Club; all the members of my golf club who assisted with my campaign; Rob Dunn, who mentored me and gave me an opportunity in the early eighties; and the people in the Swan division of the Liberal Party, who had confidence in me as a candidate. Finally, my thanks go to John Howard, Peter Costello and members of the previous government, who left this country in a better shape than when they inherited it in 1996.

On 13 February this year I was in parliament when the apology was given to Indigenous Australians, and I think it was an important initial step in the process of resolving the real problems Indigenous Australians face today. However, I believe this apology disregarded the good that can come from removing children from abusive situations. Perhaps one day we should apologise to all the young children of Australia who were not saved by being removed from abusive or non-caring parents. I mention the case of the seven-year-old girl Shellay Ward, who died last year after being seriously neglected by her parents, and I call on all communities to make a concerted effort to bring cases like this to the attention of the proper authorities. We should have also thanked and congratulated all foster parents and staff of institutions who have cared for these children during the past century. The efforts and sacrifices they make are underestimated and should be recognised officially. On the matter of compensation, which continues to be debated throughout Australia, I call on the Rudd-Gillard government to establish a compensation fund which all Australians can donate to. This will give the population of Australia the opportunity to show their level of commitment to compensation.

In finishing, I would like to voice my concern about reports that the federal government plans to change the requirements for provisional voters to prove their identity on polling day. Surely a country that sends delegates overseas to observe the fairness of other countries’ elections would not introduce a system where someone could easily vote without proof of identity. Our citizens need proof of identity to get a passport, a motor vehicle licence and many other licences and registrations just to perform normal day-to-day activities. But we have a government that is promoting the idea of ‘Don’t bother to register; just turn up and vote and, while you’re at it, vote early and vote often.’

I look forward to the next three years in this House with a fantastic opposition team with the sole purpose of gaining back the role of government—not because we were born to it; we are just better at it.

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

Order! Before I call the member for Leichhardt, 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.

Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Political leaders and governments impact the daily lives of the citizens they represent. The good ones provide leadership and vision that can inspire great endeavour and achievement and that can heal historical pain and suffering. Through legislation, they shape the foundations of the country and the society they envision. So the decisions we make in this parliament can improve the lives of every Australian, whether they know it or not. And I can think of no more important or rewarding work than to be part of a government ready to provide that leadership, to be part of a government ready to shape the foundations for a fairer and more prosperous society that ensures that every Australian—no matter their economic, social or cultural background—has the opportunity to participate fully and reach their potential. This is the Labor ideal, and I am proud to be part of a Labor government. I therefore come to this parliament recognising the power that we as a government possess and determined not to waste the opportunity that I have been given to help shape a fairer and more prosperous Australia.

As the member for Leichhardt, I represent a large and diverse electorate, stretching from Saibai Island in the Torres Strait bordering Papua New Guinea, through Cape York Peninsula to and including the great city of Cairns. Leichhardt, more than any other seat in our federation, is a microcosm of Australia. It contains remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, small rural towns built on mining and agriculture, and popular tourist destinations like Cairns and Port Douglas.

Cairns is a rapidly growing regional city, with sprawling outer suburbs and inner city communities where old Queenslanders are making way for new unit developments. The population is expected to grow from 125,000 to 180,000 over the next 10 years. We have mortgage-belt aspirationals, blue-collar battlers, sea changers, tree changers, farmers, graziers, miners, Islanders, Aboriginals and, of course, strong migrant communities. The economy founded on agriculture and mining continues to diversify, with tourism, construction, marine, aviation, defence, film and education playing important roles in our developing regional economy.

It is no wonder that the many challenges confronting Australia in the 21st century are being experienced by communities in my electorate of Leichhardt. Businesses are crying out for skilled labour, and there is an urgent need for investment in roads and community infrastructure like sporting facilities and childcare centres. Our major hospital, the Cairns Base, experiences chronic bed shortages, and patients have to travel away to receive many specialist services, including oncology and cardiac procedures. Working families are struggling under rising interest rates, petrol and grocery prices. Many young people are, for the first time, starting to question whether they will ever be able to afford to buy their own home, while many Indigenous people are welfare dependent, have limited opportunities for full-time employment and suffer poor health and educational outcomes. Climate change is also placing at risk our World Heritage Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics rainforest, our agricultural industries and low-lying coastal communities.

These are major challenges requiring long-term planning and investment, while for working families they are practical problems they face every day. I am proud to be part of a government that brings new leadership—that understands and responds to everyday problems but remains focused on ideas to build a modern Australia equipped for the 21st century. I am working hard to lend a helping hand on the everyday problems being faced by my constituents, while building a long-term plan to tackle the challenges facing my communities. I am proud of the many local commitments I secured during the recent election campaign, including increased road funding for the Bruce Highway and Peninsula Development Road, and new health services through a GP superclinic, an MRI for Cairns Base Hospital and funding to improve oncology services.

In the tropical north our natural assets, our close proximity to Asia and the Pacific region and our tropical expertise provide us with unique opportunities to grow and strengthen our local economy. To take advantage of these opportunities and to prosper into the future Australia must remain a technologically advanced country. That is why the Rudd Labor government is investing in nation-building infrastructure and an education revolution. Our high-speed fibre-to-the-node communications network will go beyond the capital cities and will connect our rural and regional communities to the global economy. If we unlock the creative potential of our population through education and training and have world-class infrastructure then we will be able to compete and do business anywhere in the world.

Our human creativity and access to world-class infrastructure is also key to our fight against climate change. Leichhardt is home to some of the world’s great natural wonders in the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rainforest, which are both at risk from climate change. Island communities in the Torres Strait like Saibai and Boigu are also under threat from rising sea levels. The problem of climate change has arisen because of a failure of our market based economy to cost in pollution in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. This classic example of market failure has produced climate change that now poses a real threat to our environment, our local economy and our way of life. This problem requires practical local action and a global solution. An enormous challenge for our government will be how we intervene in the market to ensure that the real cost of greenhouse gas emissions is reflected in the market for fossil fuels. Getting this right will be critical not only to tackling climate change but to ensuring that our quality of life does not decline as we develop and adopt new renewable fuels and technologies to replace old ones.

The market based economy that, although not perfect, has allowed for the creation of so much of our wealth is also under threat from uncertainty in financial markets and the increasing power of global corporations. The uncertainty in financial markets generated through the United States subprime mortgage crisis is a factor in Australia’s rising interest rates. Financial markets have failed halfway around the world, yet the impacts are being felt by families with mortgages in Leichhardt and all across Australia.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, in a report into petrol prices released in December last year, found no evidence of price fixing by major oil companies but found that they were operating in a comfortable oligopoly. Labor has since announced a petrol commissioner to monitor prices and improve transparency in the fuel industry. Legislation to protect consumers from monopolistic market power and unethical behaviour in the marketplace is critical to our long-term economic and social prosperity. Climate change, the subprime mortgage crisis and the domination of large corporations in the supply chain for basic goods and services like food and fuel underline the important role that governments must play in regulating markets so they create prosperity not only today but into the future for the broader community. Increasingly, though, regulating these markets requires agreements that cross national borders. We need leadership and a new effort to develop global solutions to the problem of market failure. Australia is well placed to play a leadership role in developing these solutions. To do this we must participate fully in the global community, and that is why it was so important for Australia to have signed the Kyoto protocol and joined the global effort to tackle climate change.

Critical to our long-term future is also our agenda for reform through the Council of Australian Governments. The fact that the federal and every state government is Labor provides us with a unique opportunity to put aside the blame game, which we must not squander. In a report for the Business Council of Australia, Access Economics estimated that cost shifting, duplication and other inefficiencies in Commonwealth-state funding arrangements cost some $9 billion per year. Of this, $5 billion is related to spending inefficiencies, including around $1 billion in health related inefficiencies.

In areas like health, where there will always be more demand than funding, it is imperative that we make the best use of available resources. When we squander precious resources we make those who may be waiting for treatment suffer longer and we have fewer resources available to take much-needed action to prevent people getting sick. New medical technologies have improved the quality of life of many people suffering debilitating illnesses and ensured that we all live longer and enjoy a better quality of life. The spiralling cost of these technologies, however, creates huge challenges for governments who want to ensure that it is not only the better off within the community who have access to these new treatments. Preventable diseases like diabetes and heart disease that develop over a person’s lifetime are also increasingly threatening the sustainability of our public healthcare system. Reform is required to reduce waste and duplication and improve service delivery across government. This is not only an economic but a moral imperative in areas like health and Indigenous affairs.

Leichhardt is home to wonderful Indigenous cultures and the historic Mabo and Wik native title decisions. I would like to pay a special tribute to the numerous Indigenous traditional owners and elders from my electorate who have fought to maintain not only their culture and rights but those of other Indigenous Australians. In Leichhardt, like in other parts of Australia, Indigenous people statistically have poorer health and lower levels of education and are more likely to be on welfare or in jail than non-Indigenous Australians. It is no wonder that Indigenous life expectancy is 17 years less. We need practical action by government in partnership with Indigenous communities to close this gap. We need an evidence based approach that holds people accountable and delivers action and real improvements in health and education and creates economic opportunities while tackling the debilitating impacts of welfare dependency and substance abuse. We also need leadership that inspires and heals, and I am proud to be part of a government that has shown that leadership by apologising to the stolen generations as its first order of business during the opening of this parliament. It is this combination of leadership that touches a deep emotional chord and uplifts the human spirit and that, when combined with real and substantial practical action, starts us down the road to closing the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. As Paul Keating put it in his famous Redfern speech, how we respond to Indigenous Australia:

… is a fundamental test of our social goals and our national will: our ability to say to ourselves and the rest of the world that Australia is a first rate social democracy, that we are what we should be … the land of the fair go and the better chance.

I believe Australians believe in equality of opportunity, enshrined in what we term the ‘fair go’. We believe in a fair go that embodies rights and responsibilities. Australians expect everyone to get a fair go when it comes to the basics, including health, education and a job, but we also expect everyone to have a go and contribute depending on their ability and circumstances. We are practical people, common-sense people, who look for straight answers to the challenges we face in everyday life. ‘Does it work?’ and ‘Is it fair?’ are simple but powerful values that Australians understand and that I learnt growing up.

I was born the third of four children. My parents, John and Joan Turnour, who are in the gallery today, grew small crops and ran cattle at Coomalie Creek, near Batchelor, 56 miles south of Darwin, in the Northern Territory during the 1950s and sixties. They established the block from scratch, building their house from home-made bricks, and experienced the hardships of bush life. My parents would make a career of pioneering, setting up properties firstly in Australia and then overseas in Indonesia and the Philippines. Dad is a do-it-yourself man who can fix pretty much anything with whatever is at hand; even the kitchen cupboards were fastened to the wall in one of our homes with eight-gauge wire. My Mum is an only child who came to Australia as a ten-pound Pom in 1952, aged 21. She never seems fazed by anything and has always been active in the local community, whether it is at the Country Women’s Association, the parents and friends association or the local church. I proudly carry her maiden name, Pearce, as my middle name.

My parents were determined that all of us kids would get a good education. I boarded at Brisbane Grammar School and subsequently went to the University of Queensland, where I graduated with degrees in agriculture and, later, economics. So I grew up with strong role models, surrounded by different cultures, learning to use what resources I had to find practical solutions to the challenges of everyday life. I was taught to treat people fairly, even if the world is not always fair. So thank you, Mum and Dad and my sisters, Jennifer and Caroline, who are in the gallery today, and my brother, Matthew, for your love and support and the lessons learnt.

The support of my family, my education and the practical skills I learnt growing up have held me in good stead throughout my working life. For almost 20 years I built a career working with farmers and graziers for the Department of Primary Industries and as an agricultural consultant in Australia and overseas. Most recently I managed Operation Farm Clear, a large project that employed more than 200 people and assisted more than 1,000 farmers to recover following the devastation of Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry. Politics, though, has always interested me. At home we always talked about politics and I was at university at the end of the Bjelke-Petersen era and experienced the great mood for change that elected the Goss Labor government in Queensland.

My younger sister, Caroline Turnour, has had the greatest influence over my political career. She told me to stop whingeing about John Howard back in 1998 and join the Labor Party. In 2001 she suggested I contact Senator Jan McLucas, who is in the chamber today, and work for a politician and see what it was really like. I was so glad my sister was there last year when I finally won after the disappointment of the 2004 campaign, so thank you, Caroline, for always being there and for your advice and support.

I want to pay tribute to my wife, Tiffany, who is in the gallery today. Politics is tough on families, but she knows I love this job and how hard we have both worked to get here. I thank you, Tiffany, for the love and support you have given me and for the sacrifices you have made and the many more ahead. To my beautiful daughter, Zoe Joan: the size of my electorate and its distance from Canberra mean that I am going to miss some of your growing up. I am going to work hard not to miss too much, and I hope that you appreciate and enjoy some of the unique experiences you will have as the daughter of a parliamentarian.

In Leichhardt we achieved a massive swing approaching 15 per cent, and I want to thank my campaign and the Your Rights at Work campaign for the effort they put in. The timing was right and the national swing was on, but you do not achieve 15 per cent without a great local campaign. I was endorsed in April 2006 and we ran a mini-campaign later that year, thanks to the efforts of my campaign director, Mike Bailey, and Toni Fulton and the financial backing of the Cairns branch. This campaign leveraged off the national Your Rights at Work campaign and the local Where’s Warren? campaign, driven by Stuart Trail and the Electrical Trades Union. Stuart Trail would go on to become the ACTU Your Rights at Work coordinator in Leichhardt, and there is no doubt that the community activism the entire union movement created on the ground in Leichhardt galvanised opposition to the Work Choices laws and drew people back to the Labor Party. Thank you, Stuart Trail and Kevin O’Sullivan, for leading the campaign and all the unionists who worked so hard to get rid of the Howard government. We could not have done it without you.

Leichhardt is an electorate of more than 150,000 square kilometres with diverse communities and it requires great logistical planning to run a good campaign. Lesley Clark, the former member for Barron River, came on board to coordinate the overall campaign in the last few months, enabling me to focus fully on my job as the candidate. Her knowledge and experience of marginal seat campaigning is only exceeded by her generosity of spirit when it comes to supporting the Labor Party. I could not have had anyone better running the local Labor campaign. She and Mike Bailey were ably supported by so many fantastic people, but I need to name a few who have supported me over many years or have given up so much of their time during the recent campaign. Thank you, Hazel Lees, for so professionally managing the finances. Thank you, Cathy Lovern, my campaign director from 2004, who I have so often turned to and who has never let me down. Thankyous go to Jan Lahney, who is also in the gallery today, John Pratt, John Tuite, Sue Tom, John Thompson, Dorothy Grauer, Cam Muir, Jackie Clarkson, Alison Alloway, Andrew Lucas, Les Francis and all the others who have worked so hard on the campaign. A thankyou goes to Allen Ringland, who ran the best corflute campaign ever. John Adams did a great job organising the Cape and Torres Strait while Martin Hurst similarly did a great job organising the polling booths.

I want to pay tribute to my Senate colleague Jan McLucas, who is in the chamber today, for her support over many years. I learnt a great deal about politics while working for Jan—so thank you very much. I also want to thank my Senate colleague Claire Moore for her support during the recent campaign. State members Jason O’Brien, Steven Wettenhall, Warren Pitt and Desley Boyle have all supported me wherever they could. I look forward to working with them to improve the lives of the communities we represent. I also want to thank the Queensland and national ALP campaigns, who so ably supported our local effort. Finally I want to pay tribute to the candidates and members who went before me. To Chris Lewis and Matt Trezise, who ran for Labor in 1998 and 2001: the time just wasn’t right. To John Gayler, Peter Dodd and Warren Entsch: I hope you are enjoying your retirement from parliament and thank you, John, for your support and advice.

I hope to have a long career in this place achieving good things for my communities and my country. Everything we achieve in life we achieve through the support of others, and that is particularly the case when it comes to politics. I am so lucky to have had a supportive family growing up and now such a wonderful partner in Tiffany. I have great staff and a strong base of support in Leichhardt and I am now looking forward to working with members of this House and of the Senate and their staff over the years ahead because political leaders and governments really can make a difference!

Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I begin, may I once again congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your election to the role of Speaker. I rise today to join the debate on the address in reply to the speech given by His Excellency the Governor-General. The electorate of Hume is continually changing. Sometimes this is due to the regular redistributions that require the boundaries to move and, therefore, various towns and villages and their inhabitants to be omitted or included. The demographics of Hume also continue to change with the movement of, first, young people and, then, other job seekers into larger urbanised areas. This affects the emphasis to be placed on different types of services and infrastructure. Then there is the changing nature of business. To be viable, rural properties have had to grow in size and diversify their earnings streams to minimise risk and improve the capital-to-earnings ratios. These are terms that would not even have been used 20 or 50 years ago. Back then, the value of the dollar—or the pound—would have been measured in terms of what it could buy at your local shop. Now, any farmer can tell you the value of an Australian dollar in terms of international exchange rates. Farms have become highly effective international agribusinesses.

One of the things that have not changed is that we all still talk about the weather and measure the amount of rain that falls on our properties. When much of your livelihood and quality of life depends on the weather, despite the best laid plans it can become something of an obsession. This is especially so in Australia, where the vagaries of our weather are so well known and recorded in terms of human suffering, depression, poetry and folklore.

Another thing that has not changed is the tremendous spirit of the people who live in Hume. Take, for example, Scott and Belinda Medway, a farming couple who one day decided to meet the drought head-on and take further financial risk by gambling on their confidence in their ability as excellent businesspeople. They decided to do something positive rather than allow the drought conditions to slowly erode their confidence in being able to survive another bad season. A victim mentality was definitely not part of their survival kit. They opened a cafe restaurant, aptly named the Merino Cafe and Country Bakehouse, in their village of Gunning. Through determination and sheer hard work, the Medways quickly established a popular venue in a historical building in the main street. Their enthusiasm has culminated in the business expanding to include a takeaway outlet in the Old Hume Cafe just down the road and the employment of farming women who also have been hit hard by the effects of the drought. The business sources 98 per cent of all the food and products it uses from local people and outlets, thereby generating income for others in the village and the district. This is a classic example of rural people getting out there and helping themselves and others.

In the process, the Medways are putting the village of Gunning back on the map by attracting visitors who have heard on the bush telegraph about these gutsy rural Aussies who are determined to be successful in what has been a difficult period in their lives. The spirit shown by this couple, who now employ over 20 other local people, augurs well for the future—and they are not the only ones. This is why when I hear people from urban landscapes talking in derogatory terms about the government’s assistance for farmers I wonder just how well they would travel in the same circumstances. If you are on a salary or wages, do you run low as your weekly or fortnightly payday approaches? Just imagine getting paid twice a year. How well could you manage your money? What if, purely because of the weather, the paymaster does not pay you for three months? Could you continue your quality of life? What if the paymaster did not pay you for a year? Forget quality of life—would you even survive? Try no pay for four years!

At the same time, as highlighted by my able colleague the member for Farrer, input costs are rising faster than CPI. Today it costs about $1,000 per acre to sow a crop. For a smallish farm of 200 arable acres, it would cost $200,000. I wonder how many people could find that amount of money three years in a row and watch the crop not even sprout or, worse, sprout and then die before maturity. Yes, rural people have suffered through this long drought but, as demonstrated by the Medways’ positive actions, they are resilient, resourceful people who manage their affairs carefully and efficiently. They are the progenitors of the self-help attitude in Australia, and what they do not need is a Labor government that is determined to cut rural and regional programs. What the ALP must realise is that these are people who will look after themselves as soon as circumstances allow. In the meantime, any resource that is provided to them will be very effectively managed, giving excellent value for each and every dollar of assistance provided. So there is no excuse for reducing the programs that assist rural people in times of difficulty.

These programs of assistance provide a form of job security for farmers, dependent businesses and their employees. They help prevent working families and young workers from leaving for the big smoke because things are becoming just too hard. Goulburn, in the electorate of Hume, one of the larger cities in New South Wales, has experienced an acute water shortage during the prolonged drought, so our community are fully aware of the drought’s impact. In fact, they have experienced the full measure of it. Rural people just adapt to the pressures of water rationing in drought periods, to the extent that they not only understand what a precious resource water is but also appreciate what needs to be done to ensure their limited water supply is used only for life’s bare essentials.

My constituents cut their daily average consumption of water by as much as 60 per cent per household. This level of rigour is commonplace for country people, who willingly step up to the plate when asked to cut back on their water usage. Similar sacrifices are also undertaken by all businesses, including pubs and clubs. So, at least, the climate of self-help in the country is predictable: it does not change.

I hope that this Labor government does not cut the programs that assist rural and regional people through the hard times. However, so far the signs are not good. The Labor government has delayed funding of $65 million needed for critical rail maintenance, demolishing its claims of concern about infrastructure bottlenecks fuelling inflation and damaging our transport efficiency. It seems that working rail lines throughout New South Wales and Victoria will now not be upgraded in 2008 and 2009, as we the coalition in government had planned and fully funded. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation claimed that the funding pushed back from this year and from 2008-09 until 2009-10 related only to the inland rail proposal. This claim was repeated by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government in parliament. However, as pointed out by my colleague the shadow minister for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government, Treasury papers revealed that the $65 million was to be used by the Australian Rail Track Corporation for maintenance and upgrading of a number of existing rail lines which could contribute to a future inland rail corridor. In other words, this Labor government has slashed funding for rail lines which are already operating and allowing farm and mine products to move up and down the eastern states.

At a time when we are emerging from drought in many places, farmers will want to move more food and fibre to market, not less. Constricting trade will drive up prices for consumers and drive up inflation and make us less competitive internationally. We hope Labor realises the mistake it has made here and reinstates the $65 million immediately. Otherwise, this government will stand condemned for letting rail lines run down and breaking election promises about fixing infrastructure bottlenecks.

Then there is Labor’s decision to cut crucial education and training programs for rural Australians, which will worsen the nation’s skills shortages. The Prime Minister apparently believes that skills and staff shortages start and finish in the inner suburbs. Labor plans to cut $98 million from four key training and education programs for rural and regional workers.

The coalition left the Labor government with record workforce participation and historically very low unemployment. This has meant that local communities all over Australia have struggled at times to find the right people to fit into the right jobs. With many communities emerging from a cruel drought and needing skilled workers, now is the wrong time to be cutting programs that provide skills to tens of thousands of rural and regional workers and making it harder for apprentices to survive financially.

Labor has announced four major cuts to education and training that directly affect primary producers and people living in rural and regional areas: FarmBis, the Advancing Agricultural Industries Program, apprenticeship incentives for agriculture and horticulture, and the living away from home allowance for school based apprentices. It is hard to understand why these programs, which have already assisted more than 165,000 farmers as well as fishers, land managers, apprentices, women, young people, Indigenous Australians and small businesses, should face the chop. I chaired the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in the last parliament. There are members in this chamber today who travelled with me throughout Australia taking evidence about skills shortages. We—including you, Mr Deputy Speaker Adams—saw the positive outcomes of commitment by rural Australians to these programs. It is shameful and disgraceful that a Labor government has removed funding, which will see these wonderful programs disappear.

An estimated 70,000 workers left country areas during the drought. Many will return and it would help if they came back with better skills and prospects. With the Prime Minister and Treasurer talking about how important it is to tackle skills shortages, Labor’s actions will speak far louder than its words.

One action that the government can take is the duplication of the Barton Highway and the construction of the Murrumbateman bypass. This is a very important piece of infrastructure not just in my electorate of Hume but also in the Labor electorates of Fraser, Canberra and Eden-Monaro. Every year, thousands of tourists drive down the Barton Highway to Canberra, to the coast and to the Snowy Mountains. Our constituents benefit from the millions of dollars they bring to businesses in our respective electorates. I understand that no decision has been made on those works yet. It would be remiss of me if I did not say that the commitment by some members of the former government, particularly ministers for transport, to the priority of people rather than to safety left a lot to be desired. I have said it publicly before and I will say it now: I saw questionable decisions, particularly with regard to the Barton Highway, made on the basis of popularity in marginal seats at the expense of safety in places like the Hume electorate. Prior to the 2007 election, following my criticism of this, finally common sense prevailed. Under the AusLink 2 program, $264 million was finally promised for these works between the 2009-10 and 2013-14 financial years. This promise has not yet been matched by Labor.

In 2006, $20 million was committed for the project, with $3 million to be spent in 2007 for the relevant land purchases and the remaining $17 million to be spent on infrastructure and preconstruction planning during 2008 and 2009. As I understand it, that money is still there and that process is still going on. I hope that is right. I will certainly be talking to the new minister for infrastructure about that particular project to confirm that that is still the case.

There was a lot of hype made by the Labor Party candidate who ran against me in the electorate of Hume. Thankfully, I and my constituents sent him the way that I have sent a number of Labor candidates over the years. It was interesting that he made a lot of criticisms of the lack of funding for this particular highway in the past, and it will be interesting to see whether the Labor Party matches the rhetoric of its candidate and makes the funding available for this much-needed project. To date, I also have heard nothing of the 20 per cent funding to be provided by the New South Wales Labor Party government towards this project. As many parliamentarians and their staff would know because they travel the road between Yass and Canberra, the Barton Highway has a long history of serious and fatal accidents. While not all accidents are actually caused by the road, we should do everything we can to reduce the potential for serious injury and damage when accidents do occur. For the safety of our community, it is imperative that this road be upgraded—and soon.

As one of the few parliamentarians in the coalition who has experienced time in opposition, I am here to say that I will be working with the government to deliver programs that make good sense to the people of Australia, especially the constituents of Hume. I respect the right of an elected government and its ministers to deliver to the Australian people the governance that it said it would deliver. However, it has to respect the fact that I am a member of the coalition and I will vigorously and rigorously pursue it out in the public arena if for purely political reasons it deprives my constituents of their rights as Australians to taxpayer funds—funds that are needed for projects that are essential to the ongoing viability of rural communities, particularly those projects that centre around infrastructure. The current government is talking a lot about this matter but has not yet demonstrated to the community at large that it is going to actually deliver positive infrastructure outcomes to the rural and regional areas of this great country of ours. As I said, I will be watching the government to ensure that it does what needs to be done without fear or favour. I thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to make a contribution on this address-in-reply motion.

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

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

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and may I begin by adding my congratulations and good wishes to you on your election as Speaker of the House. I begin my first address in this place by thanking Matilda House and the Ngunawal people for their very gracious welcome to Canberra on the opening day of parliament. I congratulate other members of the House on their election or re-election last November, and I compliment the class of 2007 on the very impressive first speeches that have been made so far. For new members there is a lot to learn in this place, and I also thank the Parliament House staff, the officeholders and my parliamentary colleagues for all their assistance as I settle in. I also thank the people who have travelled from interstate to come along and hear me as I present my first address in this place. I particularly acknowledge Tony Catanzariti MLC from New South Wales.

I speak in support of the motion moved by the member for Solomon in response to the address to parliament by His Excellency the Governor-General. His Excellency’s address outlined the Rudd government’s agenda for the 42nd Parliament. It is an agenda which Labor took to the Australian people last year and which was resoundingly endorsed on 24 November. It is an agenda which responds to Australia’s needs of today, which responds to the challenges of the 21st century, which restores international respect for Australia, which restores fairness and decency in our society and which treats all people as equals.

To be a new member of a new government with a new agenda for Australia gives me cause for much optimism. That optimism was certainly justified when, on the second day of this parliament, the parliament said sorry to the stolen generations of Indigenous Australians. To be here as a government member on such a historic occasion was both an inspirational beginning to my time here and a matter of personal relevance. Shortly after Sir Ronald Wilson presented the Bringing them home report to the government, I asked him to address a public forum in Salisbury. I can vividly recall him emotionally recounting some of the heart-wrenching stories that were conveyed to him in the course of his inquiry. I have also, on other occasions, discussed with Elliott Johnston QC his earlier report on Aboriginal deaths in custody and I count as friends many of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains, some of whom came to Canberra to hear the Prime Minister say sorry.

Since Federation, the national parliament has shaped our nation. It is where our civic leaders have met to discuss and debate the national and international affairs of our nation. It is where elected members have brought the grievances, the aspirations and the expectations of the Australian people. And it is where our future will be forged. Those of us elected to this place bring with us the hopes of so many Australians. We bring with us the hopes of the most vulnerable, the most disadvantaged and the most in need. We bring with us the hopes of those who, for reasons beyond their control, do not have the ability to stand up for themselves and whose only influence is their right to vote—and sometimes they do not even have that—and whose only hope is that they will be heard by the people they elect every three years.

I am the 1059th person and the 95th South Australian to be elected to this place. I am most grateful to the people of Makin for placing their faith in me and for giving me the opportunity to represent them. Over the years I have met with literally thousands of people from the Makin electorate and I value the friendships that I have formed with so many of them. What I value just as much, however, are the efforts so many people in Makin make every day to help others or manage our environment through their voluntary work with organisations such as the RSL; the National Servicemen’s Association; school councils; Lions, Rotary and Zonta clubs; sports clubs; Meals on Wheels; Trees for Life; Friends of Dry Creek Trail and Friends of Cobbler Creek; and so many other local community groups or through simply being a grandparent or a friend. These people do what they do because they care.

The seat of Makin takes in many of the northern and north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The seat was created in 1984 and was named after Norman Makin, a former distinguished member of this House. From 1984 until 1996 the seat was held by Peter Duncan and from 1996 until last year by Trish Draper. I acknowledge the contribution they both made in public life. The people of Makin elected me to this place and they will determine how long I remain here. The issues I campaigned on in the 2007 election I intend to now pursue as their member of parliament.

As I listened to the first speeches of others, the words ‘privilege’ and ‘honour’ were used often. Indeed, it is a privilege and an honour to be elected to this place. Regrettably, the privilege and the honour are not matched by the esteem in which politicians are held by the wider populace—and perhaps for good reason. Politicians have not always covered themselves in glory, and parliamentary processes have increasingly come under question. In particular, over the last decade the decrease in transparency and accountability of government, the erosion of human rights, the manipulation of electoral laws, the abuse of public office, the process of appointment of people to high public office and the behaviour of politicians in this place have all contributed to the cynicism and mistrust that people have of politicians and governments. The words ‘rights’, ‘respect’, ‘liberties’ and ‘democracy’ underpin the oath of allegiance that new citizens swear on becoming Australia’s citizens. There should be no greater example of upholding those values than by the Australian parliament. Democracy is fundamental to the Australian way of life. Democracy, however, is only as good as the level of engagement of the people it serves, and people will only engage in the political process if they have confidence in that process. That is why it is so important to restore the faith of Australians in this parliament and why I support the accountability and transparency measures already announced by the Prime Minister. On the question of rights, I have for some time supported and publicly spoken about an Australian bill of rights, and I was encouraged to hear the member for Fremantle and the member for Blair express the same view in their first speeches.

It is expected that your first speech will define who you are, what you value and what your agenda might be. I cannot do all of that in 20 minutes but I will provide some answers to those questions. Firstly, I am a Christian who respects the views of others. I was raised in Pooraka, a working-class suburb, and that is where I still live. I was drafted into the ALP in the late 1960s by Reg Groth, the then member for the state parliament seat of Salisbury. Reg Groth and his personal assistant, Lynn Arnold, encouraged me to stand for Salisbury council when a casual vacancy arose in 1977. Lynn Arnold was at the time a Salisbury council member. He went on to be Premier of South Australia, and I learnt a lot from him. I was elected and, whilst never intending to, remained on the council for 30 years, serving as mayor for the last 10 years.

I believe that my time in local government has prepared me well for my time in this place. As Mayor of Salisbury, I saw firsthand families struggling to make ends meet; old Australians, particularly single pensioners, living a life that should shame us all; Indigenous people living a life that none of us would want for ourselves; defence forces veterans neglected as they try to cope with the horrors of war that they live with every day of their lives; people with disabilities or health issues struggling through life, when just a little more help could make so much difference to their lives and those of their carers; and the grief in so many families caused by drug abuse or gambling addiction. For these people and so many others, life is a constant struggle. I know that there are no simple solutions to their needs but I do not accept that we could not do more—yet we could find $3 billion for an unnecessary war in Iraq.

As Mayor of Salisbury I also saw the best of Australian life. I saw the new arrivals from all over the world—from the UK, from South America, from Europe, from Africa, from Asia and from the Middle East—settle into their new land and quickly contribute to Australia’s development. I saw my friend Hieu Van Le, a Vietnamese boat arrival, become Lieutenant Governor of South Australia. I saw the generosity of the Australian people in moments of hardship, natural disaster or tragic events. I saw the success stories of local businesses, built on hard work, family sacrifice, long hours and financial risk. I saw the extraordinary talents of young people in the schools, in our TAFEs and in our universities, I saw the Christian churches reach out to the refugees, the homeless and the hungry, and I saw young paraplegics like Neil Fuller, Mathew Cowdrey and Richard Maurovic become local heroes.

As mayor and councillor I also saw the important role of local government in communities. Today I do not have time to speak about local government but I will make the following point. Local government was established in Australia in 1840—that is, 61 years before this parliament. After being entrenched in our system of government across Australia for 168 years, it is time that local government was recognised in our Constitution.

The environment, the economy and social policies are inextricably linked, and in the time I have today I want to briefly touch on all three of these areas. Australia is a prosperous country, rich in natural resources, and, by most comparisons, is considered a wealthy country. But that wealth is unevenly distributed, and there is too much inequity of income and assets across Australia. For the year 2005-06, the poorest 20 per cent of households received about eight per cent of national income, while the richest 20 per cent received approximately 38 per cent. Of greater concern is that two million Australians are today living in poverty, and more and more people are facing financial pressures, with household debt reaching $1,170 billion and credit card debt now at almost $43 billion. As I talk to people, it is clear that the greatest cost pressures are coming from home repayments, food and fuel costs. It is worth noting that last financial year the four major banks, the two grocery retail giants and the four major oil companies made a combined profit of over $21 billion. That equates to nearly $1,000 for every man, woman and child in this country, yet they keep increasing their prices and, in the case of the banks, their interest rates and fees, and they pay their CEOs millions of dollars per annum.

I am also concerned that many young people may never own their own home. It is my view that home ownership creates stable households and individual security, builds stronger communities and provides the best environment in which to raise children. I support the Rudd government’s housing policy announcements to date, but I suspect more will need to be done. Shortly before I stepped down as mayor, Salisbury Council endorsed a shared equity housing scheme which would make homeownership considerably more affordable. It is a sensible scheme that should be looked at by all levels of government, and I intend discussing the scheme with the Minister for Housing.

On another matter, I welcome Senator Kim Carr’s announcement of a tariff policy review in Australia. Over the last 40 years we have lost too many manufacturing jobs to overseas countries. In doing so, we have lost many of the trade skills which are now in short supply and on which we are spending large sums of money to re-establish. From 1949 until the late 1960s, about 29 per cent of Australia’s labour force was employed in manufacturing. Today, manufacturing accounts for only 10 per cent of employment, and there has been a corresponding decline in manufacturing’s share of Australia’s GDP, which has also fallen to around 10 per cent. Furthermore—and more concerning—we have lost our manufacturing capability, leaving Australia vulnerable to overseas countries in the future. The manufacturing sector is particularly important to my home state of South Australia and to the region I represent, and I am appreciative of the Rudd government’s $20 million commitment for a manufacturing innovation precinct in my region. The closure of the Mitsubishi plant in Adelaide, in which 1,200 jobs will be lost, highlights an additional disturbing reality. Today our economy and the livelihood of so many Australians are at the mercy of overseas boardrooms.

The issue which concerns people around the world is climate change and environmental mismanagement. In 2001, in a public address, I warned of water shortages, and in January last year, in another public address, I said that the greatest threat facing humanity was not terrorism but climate change and global warming. Regardless of what is causing our climate to change, our failure to prepare has already cost us dearly. The drought we are experiencing, the worst in 100 years, has over the last two years totally changed the way we value and use water. Of particular concern is the critical state of the Murray-Darling system. This river system contributes in excess of $50 billion annually to Australia’s GDP, sustains hundreds of towns and tourism destinations along its water course and creates a 2,000-kilometre ecosystem corridor through Australia. In the late 1970s, Ralph Jacobi, the member for Hawker at the time, raised in this place his concerns about the demise of the Murray River. Unbeliev-ably, the response from subsequent governments was to issue more water rights. Sadly, our mismanagement of the Murray has cost lives and export income and brought financial ruin to many farming families. The only useful outcome from the drought is the acceptance by most people that climate change is real, that it affects us all and that we must act now.

There are solutions to our water needs, but they require tough decisions and political will. Thirty years ago, the City of Salisbury began a visionary concept of collecting rainwater, cleaning it through wetlands, storing the water underground and then re-using it when required. Today the city supplies billions of litres of water annually to homes, industry and playing fields from the wetlands, and the City of Salisbury is an acclaimed world leader in stormwater harvesting and re-use. There should be more of these schemes around Australia, if for no other reason than because they are a very cost-effective way of providing water.

My journey to this place has been a long one, and today time does not allow me to acknowledge all of the people I would like to acknowledge and thank. I could not, however, let this occasion pass without acknowledging at least some of the key people who influenced or helped me along the way. From 1976 until his retirement in 1981, I worked for Senator Jim Cavanagh. During that time I formed a friendship with Ralph Jacobi, whom I mentioned earlier. They were both good men; neither was self-serving and both had a social conscience. They both influenced my political outlook.

I also thank the small team of people who helped me when I contested Makin in the 2004 election. We did not win in 2004 but we went against the tide and reduced the margin to less than one per cent. In 2007 there was clearly a mood for change across Australia and, whilst I do not intend to offer an election analysis, there is no question that Kevin Rudd’s leadership of Labor was a determining factor in the election result. I thank Kevin Rudd, his deputy, Julia Gillard, and all my parliamentary colleagues, both state and federal members, for their assistance over a long campaign period.

I am extremely grateful to the hundreds of volunteers who campaigned with me day after day, doorknocking, letterboxing, putting up posters, working on polling booths, answering phones and so on. I especially mention David Gray and Lee Odenwalder—I see David and Lee are here tonight and I thank them for coming—Matthew Deane, Justin Hanson, Georgie Matches, Nina Gerace—I think she is here as well—and Mike Tumbers. I also thank the many union members from the Your Rights at Work team, the LHMU, the AWU, the NUW, the ASU, the MUA, the CFMEU and the HSU, who campaigned tirelessly alongside me so that we could bring to an end the Howard government’s 11-year assault on working Australians.

Mr Speaker, may I digress a moment. It is interesting—in fact, hypocritical—that those who are the most vitriolic in their attacks on unions are themselves more likely than not to be members of professional associations or bus-iness associations, and they use their associations to attack and vilify working Aust-ralians who dare to organise themselves just so that they can defend the human rights of people who have only their labour to bargain with.

I was raised to value my family, and my family has always been there for me. I would not be here today without the support, understanding and encouragement of my wife, Vicki, who is here tonight as well; my children, Rocky, Francesca and Concetta; my brother Dominic and his wife, Anna; my brother Frank and his wife, Frances; my brother Pat and his wife, Jo Anne; and my sister, Rosa, and her husband, Dominic. They have all been an incredible help to me right throughout my life. Of course, it all began with my parents, who sacrificed so much of their lives so that my brothers, my sister and I could have a better life. My deep disappointment is that my father did not live to see me elected to this place. It was my father who brought politics into our lives and who instilled in me the belief that it is only through politics and education that you can change society.

We live in challenging times. We have never been wealthier or more knowledgeable, yet never has the future been so uncertain. In a complex, integrated world, global problems become Australia’s problems. Information technology changes our world faster than we can adapt and faster than we can reskill our workforce. We face massive workforce shortages and serious environmental dilemmas. We face the challenges of managing an Australian economy heavily influenced by external forces and multinationals over which we have very little control. These are just some of the difficult responsibilities of government. It is my view that those countries which manage their environment well, which educate their people and which minimise global influences over their economies will prosper most. I know that we cannot change the past, but we can change the present and build the foundations for a better future for all Australians. When my time in this place ends, I want to walk away with a clear conscience that I have done all that I can to create a more prosperous, a more sustainable, a more just and a more compassionate Australia.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my honour and privilege to be here this evening, having been elected for the third consecutive time to the electorate of Canning. I would like to thank everyone who assisted me in my 2007 Canning campaign. Many volunteers generously gave their valuable time to help me get re-elected as the member for Canning. Special thanks go to all those who helped on the 46 Canning polling booths on 24 November—which turned out to be a very hot day in Perth, I might add. Most of all I would like to thank the people of Canning, who continued to show me strong support. I would also like to take this opportunity to say with sadness that a number of my colleagues and friends are no longer joining me in this chamber. I congratulate them on their service to this parliament and for their time spent working for their constituents. I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

If I could indulge for just a moment, I would like to congratulate my Western Australian colleagues in particular for such a strong election result in the campaign in Western Australia. It is a true reflection of the prosperity of the state of Western Australia that voters clearly endorsed what the coalition government had done for them over the past 11 years. Eleven of the 15 federal seats in Western Australia are held by Liberal members. The swing against the coalition in WA was only 2.14 per cent, well below the average national swing of 5.44 per cent.

I make special mention of those new members who will be joining us in parliament and on the regular flights to Canberra: the member for Cowan, Luke Simpkins—‘Luke the local’, as they called him—and the member for Forrest, Nola Marino, who ran a special campaign. I also want to make particular mention of the member for Swan, Steve Irons. Many would have heard him here in the chamber tonight. His story is unbelievable, and it is a credit to him that he has become a member of this esteemed place. As some know, I have a strong affiliation with the seat of Swan, and I congratulate Steve for being the only Liberal MP in the country to have won a seat from a sitting Labor member during the 24 November election. That is a credit to his hard work and dedication and to the campaign that he ran.

I have continued to work hard for my electors, fighting for infrastructure, working with residents on local issues and representing those who may need help with government bodies, local government or other authorities. I thank the Canning electors for their vote of confidence in me as their representative. I hope my re-election is an acknowledgement by the local community that they are happy with my representation. With that comes my obligation to work just as hard on their behalf in the next three years as I have done for the last three years. I have no hesitation in saying that I intend to do so.

I would like to give a general wrap-up of the campaign. As many know, I first won my seat in 2001 by a very slender margin of just over 500 votes from a very good ALP candidate in Jane Gerick, who was a delightful person. In the 2004 election I had the largest swing in Australia—except for an Independent—of 9.2 per cent. Even though I have lost some ground, I now have a margin of 5.6 per cent, which I am very proud of in the current climate. I will do my best to make sure the people of Canning realise that we work hard for them. However, there will be a redistribution in Western Australia in the next term, and that will make for some interesting reading over the next three years, Mr Deputy Speaker. I see you are taking a lot of interest in that! The campaign was a strong campaign. I have always treated Canning as a marginal seat, and I always will because those who for one moment become arrogant and think that they are popular or that their election to the House is a foregone conclusion are headed for doom.

I need to talk about the union campaign. I have listened to many maiden speeches in this House, and we have heard a number today. It is no secret that the union movement was very active with its Your Rights at Work campaign. It was entitled to do that, but there are some more unseemly aspects of the union campaign which I will make clear. Even in their maiden speeches many of the new members have acknowledged that they would not be here without the campaign run by the local unions.

In August last year, for example, I reported to parliament that the campaign by the unions had reached a new low in my electorate. The TWU had been ringing its members in Canning and asking them how they were voting—basically standing over them and telling them how to vote. A local truck driver, who contacted me about this behaviour, said that the TWU representative had asked him if he would be voting the right way. When my constituent asked, ‘What do you mean by the right way?’ the TWU representative said, ‘Well, are you going to be voting for Kevin Rudd or not? We’ve got to win that seat.’ My constituent was quite offended by being told. He got on to the two-way system and talked to all his mates in the other trucks and told them how appalled he was. He was just as appalled as, I am sure, many other union members would have been to see that their union dues were not going into looking after their own particular situations but were going into a national Labor Party campaign—the unions’ campaign slush fund. I understand that my opponent was able to convince the Australian Labor Party that he should be the candidate because he would be getting funding from the Australian Workers Union. That would have been the tipping point that allowed him to gain preselection for Canning.

On that point, there is this letter from Tim Daly, the local AWU representative, soliciting votes on behalf of the union in Pinjarra and largely around Alcoa—and this letter is an interesting one. In it, the member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten, is telling people that they should vote for the Labor candidate in Canning because he is the right man for the job. It is interesting also that he was running on the campaign slogan ‘A fresh face for Canning’. But if you have a look at this photo, it is not a very fresh face. Mine might be weathered and quite worn, but certainly at 54 it is a bit fresher than the 58-year-old who said that he would be a fresh face for Canning. In this letter from Bill Shorten, he asked the electors of Canning and the AWU to give $5 a week to the campaign and to put it in the Halls Head community Bendigo Bank. It provided the account number and who the signatories were.

I wonder if they are still collecting these union dues off the AWU workers who, in Western Australia, I might say, have never had such good wages and conditions in their lives. In my electorate, for example, of about 95,000 people, 23,000 people are on flexible workplace agreements. They actually want to stay on them because they give them more money and greater flexibility and they are able to tailor their job conditions to suit themselves and their families. So what is wrong with having a more flexible workplace where you actually earn more money and have greater choice in what you do?

Interestingly, on election day it got a bit ugly with the people manning the booths, but I will get to that in a moment. I want to talk a little more about Your Rights at Work campaign. We do know, for example, that the campaign did not have that much effect in Canning, but in the neighbouring seat of Hasluck, which was won by Sharryn Jackson—and I congratulate her because she worked hard to get back in—they ran a voracious campaign.

The weekend Financial Review reported on 9 February that the ACTU paid full-time organisers in 24 marginal seats to work for the whole 18 months. We know that they spent $8½ million in those seats. In the 24 targeted seats, there was an average swing of 2.5 per cent or higher to the Labor Party. Obviously their campaign worked in those targeted marginal seats. But these so-called disclosure laws about who donates to campaigns make you laugh. The Labor Party can give $8½ million to run a targeted campaign, putting ACTU workers into 24 seats, and nobody seems to take any notice. If somebody puts $10,000 into my campaign, it is insidious, horrible and wrong, and they are buying favour and votes. Shock, horror! It is absolutely wrong and all it is designed to do is try and demean anybody who wants to be involved in the political process. But this is what we can expect for some time. I have been a good fundraiser in campaigns and I am sure that the people who support me will continue to do so because I not only work on their behalf; I trust that they consider the money is well invested in the representation that they get.

The Australian reported on 14 February that the ACTU collected another $9 million this year, which will add to what it already has in its coffers from its 1.8 million members. It has been estimated that this year it may collect close to $1 billion in union dues around this country. Talk about slush funds for the next election campaign. You can see the sort of bank that is being built up by the union movement for and on behalf of the Labor Party. The same article said that ACTU union officials are ‘irritated’ that they are still being levied when:

... the Coalition has been ousted and Labor remains committed to abolishing Work Choices.

And why wouldn’t they be irritated? The deal has been done and there is no explanation as to where the money is being spent now that the election is over. In Adelaide, for example, it was found that members of the United Firefighters Union, who were on duty at the time, were handing out Your Rights at Work flyers at shopping centres and railway stations during the last campaign. Of course, the union bosses claim that they were not bullied or coerced to do so; nonetheless, these firefighters were on duty and they were entrusted to be out saving lives, not distributing union propaganda while being paid to do so. I am told that Teresa Gambaro, the former member for Petrie, said that public servants in Petrie were given the last two weeks of the campaign off on full pay to campaign full time against her. Those are the sorts of campaigns that we are up against, and we will expect them again but obviously we will be ready for them.

On election day in Canning, the union thuggery was out there to be seen. There were fisticuffs amongst union members themselves at various polling booths as they were setting up. The police were called, and that is on the record. It was reported in the media—and of course the media is always right, is it not? In Waroona, for example, in the south of my electorate, the people handing out ALP how-to-vote cards were abusing those people who went by and did not take a card. Poor old ladies who did not take a Labor how-to-vote card were given certain hand signals and were called very unsavoury names as they went in. One of the guys in the orange T-shirts was heard to say, ‘Look, I really don’t like doing this, but I know that if I don’t do it I will be in trouble when I go to work on Monday.’ That is the sort of thing that they were up against. We know that people had their signs stolen, for example. At one of the polling booths at Falcon, while setting up in the dark the union guys involved on behalf of the Labor Party grabbed all my T-shirts and took off with them. We know who the bloke is, but they are the sorts of tactics we expected. That intimidation was the ugly side that was manifested in an election campaign for the first time, as far as I am aware.

In the electorate of Canning, the then Rudd opposition promised a number of things to the people of Canning throughout the campaign. I will be making sure that these campaign promises are delivered: $5½ million was committed to the Mandurah business centre for a revitalisation project, with the aim of revamping the town precinct to grow tourism and business; $345,000 was dedicated to the completion of the final stages of the Waroona town square redevelopment, which will include street paving, picnic areas et cetera—the Howard government committed funding to the initial stages of this project and I am keen to see this project completed in such a vibrant part of my electorate. That is one Labor promise I will be keeping an eye on. Further, $200,000 was promised for the compilation of the water cycle management plan to address the impact of development on the Mundijong town site; and another $200,000 was promised for climate change adaptation strategies for both Serpentine Jarrahdale and Mandurah.

Importantly, the member for Batman, Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism, assured $65 million funding towards the construction of the Mandurah Entrance Road. At the outset I must say that this is an important state government road, but it is just that: a state government road. The state government originally pulled the Mandurah Entrance Road off the Perth-Bunbury Highway project as a way of reducing costs. Now the state government has the federal government picking up the tab for its responsibility. I recognise the benefits of the entrance road and I will work closely with the City of Mandurah to see it happens, because I want to see that Peel motorists get access to this. But, realistically, the government are just bailing out their Labor state mates, who are flush with funds in any case.

As the parliament would be aware, the Perth-Bunbury Highway has been a landmark project since the time I was elected as the member for Canning. I fought hard to get this project on the road and secure $170 million in coalition government funding. This is a 70-kilometre dual carriageway extending from the end of the Kwinana Freeway to Lake Clifton, taking haulage vehicles out of Mandurah’s town centre and cutting at least 30 minutes off the trip to Bunbury. In order to see the Perth-Bunbury Highway get on the road, the Howard government made the original AusLink funding agreement conditional on construction beginning in 2006 and being completed by 2009. If we had not surrounded the state transport minister Alannah MacTiernan with this, the road would not even be started now.

The original cost of the Perth-Bunbury Highway was $340 million. The member for Batman admitted during the election campaign that the cost has blown out to $660 million, of which the federal government will now provide an extra $160 million. All this is doing is rewarding the mismanagement on the part of the state government, who stalled this project, mismanaged it and allowed the blow-outs. The minister, as I have said on many occasions, has not delivered one project on time or on budget. However, the state government are being rewarded now by being propped up by $160 million from federal Labor, as they are in government. But it is good that we are going to get the road.

As I said, I am proud of my achievements in Canning through the last couple of terms. I remain committed to bringing essential infrastructure to the region, fixing dangerous roads and community facilities. The constituents of Canning can be assured that I have not forgotten them as I represent them here. I will urge the new government to honour the coalition’s $10 million promise for the Pinjarra bypass, with a total cost of $22 million. The expansion of mining activity around Alcoa and Boddington has really pushed this. Other promises include funding of $650,000 for the Pinjarra sporting complex and $125,000 for lighting for Falcon Reserve. I will be calling on the new parliamentary secretary and member for Brand to look at these proposals, because it is in his region of Peel. I am sure he will take an interest in this.

One of the biggest issues concerning my constituents is crime—graffiti, hooning and antisocial behaviour. I will be working with all authorities to see that this is addressed. It is the biggest cancer in our society at the moment—the disgraceful antisocial behaviour to the rest of the community. I compliment the attack on binge drinking and support my colleague from Swan and his comments. We need to take a firm stand on all sorts of antisocial behaviour that wreck the fabric of our society.

Improving broadband access is obviously something that is high on my list. Because of the diverse nature of the Canning electorate, there are many black spots. I will continue to fight for better coverage and a better deal. I will ask Telstra to turn on their enabled exchanges. Many of them have been enabled for ages; Telstra have just refused to turn them on. However, they are not on their own. They need support from a wide area.

Canning schools did well under the Howard government through the Investing in Our Schools Program. It is very sad that they are going to be missing out on this sort of funding. Bob Hawke said no child would live in poverty after whenever it was; no child will live without a computer now. The strange thing is most schools have got computers for every child in the school. At any rate, they are going to get new ones now. The computer companies are very happy about that, because they are going to turn them over pretty quickly.

During the last parliament I worked very hard to get a fairer deal for franchisees. I was involved in a dispute assisting former Lenard’s franchisees in my area. It is a very sad case in which many of these franchisees have lost their houses—their homes—and their livelihoods and have gone broke as a result of being done over by what I consider to be a rogue franchise organisation. I will be talking more about this later. I am going to be asking ASIC to do their job—particularly the small business manager, Mr Martin—and toughen up the compliance regime in this area. I will also continue to work with my colleagues in this place—the member for Hasluck and I have already talked about this—in relation to 410 visa holders.

Finally, I remain an outspoken critic of the current situation at Perth airport. There are long delays in queues for check-in. I have written to Prime Minister Rudd about this. It is a disgrace that Perth airport, in a booming state like Western Australia, is little better than the Lagos airport in terms of confusion, congestion and unsafe transit through the airport. It really needs the federal government to take a strong hand to modernise the master plan for that airport and make sure that Western Australia benefits from the boom that we are going through. This is another project I will continue to work on on behalf of Western Australia and my constituents. (Time expired)

Debate (on motion by Mr Forrest) adjourned.