Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To continue, it is extraordinary that this new minority Labor government began making special abeyances to regional Australia and yet has just facilitated the announcement of the guide to the Murray-Darling Basin plan, which is to precede the draft, which is in turn to precede the final water plan, but the guide is hopelessly inadequate. It has caused absolute despair and profound disappointment among all those looking for a sound ecological and economic and social outcome. We need a win-win outcome to improve the environment and sustain the food producing communities, who are also in fact the managers of the environment in the basin.

In order to understand the seriousness of Labor’s failure to show leadership right now to build or sustain the confidence of the basin during this plan development, it is important to look at the scale and importance of the Murray-Darling Basin for all Australians. The basin covers one-seventh of our continent and is one of the largest and driest catchments in the world. It is home for over 2.1 million people but another 1.3 million also depend on its water outside the basin. Most of those are in Adelaide. The basin includes 16 internationally recognised Ramsar listed wetlands and these wetlands cover 6,300 square kilometres.

The basin accounts for 20 per cent of Australia’s total agricultural land and has 40 per cent of its farms. These farms produce 40 per cent of the gross value of all of our agricultural production. The basin is in fact, not just by reputation, the food bowl of Australia, growing most of our cotton and rice but 58 per cent of all orchard trees, 68 per cent of all the tomatoes, 38 per cent of all the onions, 48 per cent of all of the melons, 90 per cent of all the almonds, 95 per cent of all the oranges, 54 per cent of all the apples and 90 per cent of all the pears—and remember this is from only 14 per cent of Australia’s land mass, and in one of the driest catchments in the world. Our dairy production is also extraordinary.

One-third of all people working in manufacturing in the basin are employed in food processing, and this adds up to over 30,000 people, and guess what: the unions representing those people and taking their fees have so far been totally silent on the job losses that will proceed if this plan goes ahead. In 2006, 920,000 people were employed in the basin, with an increase in that employment of 8.3 per cent last year, and 98,000 people were employed in agriculture in the basin, producing $15 billion worth of produce for the nation’s economy. That included $9 billion worth of exports.

As I said in my earlier remarks, since colonisation the basin has been divided between different jurisdictions with different water laws and property rights to water. Since Federation there have been competing interests in access to water in the basin. We understood that, and that is why the coalition when in government addressed the governance failure across the basin and determined that we should have a sustainable future. We must indeed have a sustainable future which takes on board a triple-bottom-line approach. So a new basin water authority was to be formed that would work in the interests of sustaining both the ecosystems and the human communities making a home in the basin, producing most of the country’s food and fibre.

In 2004 COAG signed the National Water Initiative, which was to achieve water reform through an agreed, cohesive national approach. No-one said this would be easy. But no-one imagined that the task, left to a Labor government, would degenerate into a farce, destroying the expectations of people in and out of the basin that at last we would have an expert plan, based on best science, that would deliver a win-win outcome. No-one wanted to see Labor’s massive failure, least of all the 3½ million people dependent on the basin. But after three years and millions of dollars spent, last week we saw the Murray-Darling Basin Authority deliver such a deeply flawed guide, mostly ignoring socioeconomic impacts, that the basin community has been left angry and despairing. We know investment decisions are now being delayed, we know that banks are reconsidering the value of their lending portfolio, we know that employment is being already reconsidered and we know that more students about to graduate across the basin are saying there is just no point them considering employment in the future in natural resource management or agriculture because the basin, on the basis of this guide, just has no future.

There seems to be no recognition in the MDB guide that environmental water can be used many times over. There is just a bald figure of between 3,000 and 7,600 gigalitres to be clawed back from so-called willing sellers amongst the irrigators. But it is more complex than that, and there can be and must be a win-win scenario. For example, you can improve the quality of water in a river by an environmental flow. This same flow can then be put into a red gum forest as a flood and, finally, it can inundate a wetland. What we have seen in the basin plan that has been offered is environmental water calculation at the crudest—and it is the least scientific.

Apparently only some of the environmental water already quarantined for the basin is to be counted in the final analysis. The authority seems to have ignored technology or management processes that can and are being used now to manage environmental water into wetlands, billabongs, tributaries and rivers. We have just heard a contribution from the member for Wills, who accused the coalition of not wanting an environmental outcome from this plan. He seemed to think that all we want is the status quo. He forgot that there has been a drought and, like so many, he seems to be trying to pitch irrigators against greenies in the city. This is a crude and naive approach and one that delivers absolutely no benefit to anybody except perhaps those with the political lusts who want green preferences in the next state election.

We must have technology managing environmental flows and this involves pumps, regulators, channels and pipes. This is already the case in places like the Barmah Forest and Kerang Lakes. It is not just a matter of naming a number of gigalitres and clawing that water back from so-called willing sellers, who are in fact those leant on the most by lenders, and then saying the job is done. We have to ensure that every gigalitre is delivered efficiently at the right time of the year to the environment for the health of the ecosystem to survive. It has to be released at the right volume and at the right temperature. The water has to be of the right quality and the environmental water must be held for the right duration to ensure successful fish and bird reproduction and vegetation renewal. Failure to do the right thing means biodiversity loss and weed inundation and a serious revisiting of the worst of the drought impacts in the last 10 years. The ecosystem needs to be managed like a well-run estate. It is not just a case of throwing a few gigalitres of water down a river or into a lake when the cameras are rolling or a minister deigns to visit.

Unfortunately there have been some disastrous environmental waterings in the basin, which point to the fact that this cannot be about volumes alone. We need to have a skilled and committed state public service to march alongside our expert farm and food producers so that the outcome at the end of the day is as good as it has to be. We might be making some metropolitan based greenies happy if we talk simply about gigalitre volumes, but it does not guarantee a sustainable ecosystem at the end of the day. Environmental water must be carefully managed with funds committed to structures and measures to ensure the environmental flow actually improves the conditions of the ecosystems. We have to make sure that the farmers and other primary producers who live alongside and around the tributaries, the wetlands and the billabongs are also sufficiently viable through their own hard work so that they can assist, as they always have done, in monitoring, managing and ensuring the ecosystems stay in good health. This is not a them-and-us situation, as we have already seen the member for Wills try to push in his contribution a minute ago.

Let me give you an example of how locals care and often have to try to bring about some better environmental outcome when the public servants turn their backs. At the height of summer last year locals living adjacent to the great Barmah Forest, the world’s biggest red gum forest, with Ramsar listed wetlands and endangered species, were appalled to see that some people had smashed four river regulators, releasing some 850 megalitres of water into the forest. This was over a few days of 40 degree heat. The spill spread 30 kilometres through the forest and into wetlands, particularly into a five-kilometre wide stream triggering a breeding cycle for hundreds of thousands of water birds. Given the extreme temperatures and the shallowness of the water we soon had a black water event, all the fledglings died and the vegetation was killed. These farmers reported the disaster to me. I could not understand why it had not reached the media, nor why the state agencies were not doing something to try to find the culprits and to make sure it never happened again. This tragic event was only made public when I took it to the media and insisted that it be officially investigated. But no-one was ever charged, and I am not sure if any official investigation ever did take place. Yet, just months before, farmers who had spilled water into a recreational lake near Kerang were pursued relentlessly through Goulburn-Murray Water, the police and the state’s Department of Sustainability and Environment. They were named and shamed as water thieves and vandals, having put some water into the lake so that they could do some water skiing. There had been no environmental damage, but it seems there are different outcomes for different suspects. The local farmers were outraged by the official failures and by the waste of life, biodiversity and water in the Barmah Forest because they cared deeply about the state of that ecosystem. They have been its custodians for generations and they knew that a deliberate wetting of the forest at that time of the year would have catastrophic consequences, and of course it did.

The authority’s guide that is on the table now might please the metro based greenies in that it simply names some very big numbers. But those who really care know that it fails to take a valley-by-valley approach; it fails to ensure that the ecosystem, in all of its diversity, is sustained while they continue to live as food producers contributing to the nation and, internationally, to the food security of the world.

So timid or uncertain was the Murray-Darling Basin Authority about the guide to the plan they released, that they had a huge range of water reductions for potential use—from 3,000 gigalitres to 7,600 gigalitres, which is a huge 250 per cent difference from the highest to the lowest option. Then there was the ABARE-BRS client report commissioned by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, which was released just a few weeks ago, which had a stab at modelling the socioeconomic impacts of a 3,500-gigalitre reduction. They conceded that there was some problem with the models they used, which only suggested a reduction of 1.3 per cent in gross regional product. They were worried about their efficacy and suggested you look a little harder.

We were not surprised at all when the chairman of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Mr Michael Taylor, at the first meeting at Shepparton—only one working day after the release of the 220-page report—immediately, without question, agreed with the distressed farmer in the audience: ‘Oh no,’ he said, ‘we know that the 800 job loss calculation in the report is wrong. We know that there are substantially bigger socioeconomic impacts. We think the model was wrong. We think it took a net cross-basin approach. Yes, we know it’s wrong. Our data is not up to it. But, of course, we had a problem with the legislation.’

I do not think there is any problem with the legislation, and I certainly think Minister Burke is wasting our time by even debating that issue. You just have to read sections 20 and 22 to see that it quite categorically spells out that there must be in the basin plan consideration that ‘optimises economic, social and environmental outcomes’. That is a quote from section 20(d). It also says that the authority and the minister must, in exercising their powers and performing their functions under this division (b), act on the basis of the best available scientific knowledge and socioeconomic analysis. It goes on and on referring to what should be in the report mandated in the final plan, which includes the social and economic circumstances of basin communities dependent on the basin water resources.

It is just a red herring—a furphy, a time waster—for us to now say that the authority did not deal with the economic impacts because it did not think it was allowed to. How come we now have the basin authority saying, ‘We’ll rush out now and do some socioeconomic analysis work, and we’ll have it done by March, and yes, it parallels the panicked response of the minister, who said that we’ll also get a parliamentary committee to do that missing socioeconomic analysis work; they have a few more weeks to get their report in in April’?

This is extraordinary. We really have to get the minister out there in the basin reassuring our communities that what they read in the plan is not necessarily government policy, despite what Prime Minister Gillard said before the election, and that the government really does understand that the guide is an inadequate and flawed document and that it will take more than just so-called purchase of water back from willing sellers and that it understands that we must also have on-farm water use efficiency—a massive investment. There must be a win-win scenario where we make half the water grow twice as much. The ecosystems, the economies and the communities together have to be sustained, because one depends on the other. It is not a hierarchy with the environment at the top and everything else going to whistle, because it simply does not work that way. If you beggar human communities in the basin, they cannot look after and manage the environment in the way they have done for generations and struggle to do during record droughts. This government has failed in its leadership to reassure the basin that it will bring the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to task and make them do the work they have failed to do so far. The minister himself should attend some of these community meetings and show that he does, despite every other impression, intend to have a basin plan which is right for the nation. (Time expired)

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Scott I would first like to congratulate you on your election to the position of Second Deputy Speaker. I am very humbled to be standing here today as the re-elected member for Kingston. I thank the people of Kingston for putting their trust in me and I assure them that I will continue to fight in their best interests, both here in Canberra and back in Adelaide. I also take this opportunity to welcome my Uncle Frank and Aunt Jessie, who are in the gallery with us here today. I hope they have enjoyed their time at Parliament House.

On 21 August the people of Kingston overwhelmingly endorsed Labor’s plan for the future. In Kingston we received a 9.5 per cent swing to Labor. When I was talking with residents on the campaign trail, it became clear that they believed that Labor had a positive plan for our country’s future while the Liberal Party was fixated on the past. They believed that, while Labor was focused on improving quality of life and delivering in critical areas such as infrastructure, health and education, the Liberal Party was opposed to almost everything.

The southern suburbs of Adelaide is a beautiful place to live and work, with long stretches of coast, rolling hills and beautiful vineyards. There is a deep sense of pride among those living in the southern suburbs. However, our region of Adelaide, under the Howard government, had been forgotten, particularly in the area of infrastructure investment. Take broadband, for example: residents in large sections of my electorate do not have access to ADSL2+. For those who think that access to broadband is an issue only in rural and regional Australia, I can assure them that the problem is far greater. Suburbs only 24 kilometres from the CBD of Adelaide are not able to access ADSL2+. Lack of broadband has been a significant impediment to economic development in our local area, not to mention a frustration for those trying to study or stay in touch.

On 21 August the people of Kingston gave a clear endorsement of Labor’s plans to build a national broadband network. I was pleased to accompany the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy, to roll out some of the first fibre cables into the township of Willunga in my electorate. For those on the other side of the House who say that this is not a popular plan, I am pleased to inform the House that 84 per cent of the households in Kingston have signed up to have fibre rolled out into their homes. The detractors of the NBN should allow themselves to imagine a little. This is not just about getting fast internet access to many of those who need it now, although that is a huge benefit, but also about equipping our nation for the future, a place where there are still so many possibilities that we are not even aware of yet, in the areas of health, education, social inclusion and economic development. For those who say it is not a role of government to build this critical infrastructure, I would ask: if this is not the role of government, then what is?

The role of government is to act in the national interest and to build our nation, not to think just in the short term. Its role is to be looking not just at how our nation is today and will be tomorrow but at what it will be in 10 years time and in 20 years. Imagine if governments that had gone before us had not built the transcontinental rail, the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The National Broadband Network will for the first time provide an open wholesale telecommunications network that will finally provide a level playing field where any internet provider will be able to have access and compete with other internet providers to deliver competitive prices and competitive packages of telecommunications. Residents in my electorate are looking forward to being part of this future as we all look forward to the fibre network being extended next to McLaren Vale, Seaford and beyond.

The election result in Kingston also endorsed the federal Labor government’s record investment in transport infrastructure. As I said previously, the south had been overlooked by previous governments. An example of this would be the rail extension from Noarlunga to Seaford. This extension had been promised to the residents of the south for the last 30 years. I lobbied very hard for this extension because it is critical for the growing suburbs of Seaford to have transport options that are economical and to have reduced urban congestion. It was through the establishment of Infrastructure Australia and the Building Australia Fund by the Labor government that this important transport project was delivered. Ensuring that there is infrastructure investment in the southern suburbs of Adelaide and that this infrastructure keeps up with the growth of the suburbs is essential. I will continue to fight for essential infrastructure investment in the south, including roads and rail.

In addition to infrastructure in the south, our focus needs to be on creating job opportunities in southern Adelaide. Maximising job opportunities close to where people live is both economically and socially important. Many residents in the southern suburbs of Adelaide travel a significant distance to work, and travel does take its toll, not only the household budget but also on family life. Good urban planning is critically important to ensure that there is a balance of housing, commercial and industrial areas. I welcome the purchase of the old Mitsubishi site by the South Australian state government and believe that it has huge potential, if we get it right, to become a key opportunity for smart, clean manufacturing to be developing, creating job opportunities in the south.

Accessing good-quality health when one needs it is also of critical importance to the residents of Kingston and was regularly raised with me as an issue during the election. In the first term of the Labor government, we saw record investment in health services and health infrastructure, including, importantly, in my electorate the construction of the Noarlunga GP superclinic. In addition, we saw a record investment from the government in my electorate in training facilities for doctors and health professionals. There was investment in expanding operating theatre capacity at the local hospital, after-hours GP services, and extra training places at our local university for doctors, nurses and allied health—and this is just a start. Those on the other side opposed many of our initiatives, including GP superclinics, and unfortunately fail to see the practical importance of these clinics to local communities. I will give one example. Due to the investment in the GP superclinic at Noarlunga, we will be able to double the public dental chairs available there, providing improved access to those who need it the most. For too long, dental care has been seen as separate from health services. However, when I talk to those affected by dental problems, it leaves me in no doubt that their dental problems are affecting their health and wellbeing. Enabling greater access to public services, as the Noarlunga GP superclinic will, will help the most disadvantaged in our community and improve the overall health of our community. There is a lot more to be done in health, and this government is committed to repairing the damage done by the previous Howard government.

Improving our health system also includes investing in mental health. In my life before I was in this place, as a practicing psychologist, I saw firsthand just how debilitating mental illness can be to the individual suffering from it and the impact it has on their family and friends. Serious mental illness affects everything in a person’s life, from relationships to employment to physical health. We need to ensure that our health system is equipped to ensure that those suffering with a mental illness get the treatment and support they need and, importantly, that this treatment and support is effective. We need to ensure that healthcare for those with a mental illness is integrated and coordinated and, importantly, part of a continuum of care

Prevention is also critical in the area of mental health. I commend the government’s announcement during the election campaign that we would extend the number of Headspace sites around the country, including a commitment to put one in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. With an estimated 147,000-plus people under the age of 25 in my electorate, it is critically important to have services that focus on young people and their mental health but that also treat mental health in a holistic way, providing assistance in employment, physical health and social wellbeing as well as specifically in mental health issues. If we get in early, just as with any other illness, we can prevent suffering and make the road to recovery shorter and easier.

We have heard a lot of debate about this but, as a member from South Australia, water is always of critical concern and never far from my mind, as I know is the case for many of my constituents. The situation in the Murray-Darling Basin is an enormous challenge. For too long the basin has been seen as a segmented system bound by state borders that provides unlimited resources to everyone. As a result of this, the river has been deteriorating for decades. In South Australia, at the end of the river, we are seeing the dire effects. I am pleased to be part of a federal government that is not just putting this problem in the too-hard basket. In its first term, this government invested in water-efficient infrastructure and bought back water entitlements from willing sellers, helping to return water to the system to restore the health of the Murray. This government has continued the implementation of the Water Act introduced by the Howard government and, in doing so, set up the independent Murray-Darling Basin Authority to, without political fear or favour, objectively investigate what we need to do to save this river system. The independent authority has released its draft guide to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which maps out a course of action to save the system and prevent the irreversible decline of the basin.

There will be ongoing consultation about this guide. I have no doubt that feedback will be carefully considered, and I look forward to seeing the final plan. While we consider that important consultation, what we must not do is walk away from reform in the basin if we want a sustainable and healthy river system that in the long term supports both economic production and local communities all along the river. There will be difficult issues that will have to be worked through, but if we do nothing we will leave future generations with a destroyed river system that is no good to anyone.

Water efficiency should be seen as a challenge not just for irrigators but for urban areas as well. Investment in water infrastructure for irrigation is critical but investing in urban water infrastructure is equally important if it is to help reduce our draw on the Murray-Darling system. I was very disappointed to hear the member for Indi scoff at the potential use of recycled water in her local communities. In my local communities, due in part to the investment from the federal government and due to the commitment of those local communities, recycled water is now being used in the vineyards of McLaren Vale and in local parks in southern Adelaide, and it is being plumbed into houses for the watering of gardens.

This federal government has invested jointly with state governments and local councils to fund water infrastructure that enables not only the recycling of household water but also stormwater reuse. I look forward in this next term to working with all levels of government on practical solutions to reduce our reliance on the Murray, and to conserve and reuse water in our local communities.

In the last parliament I raised issues about the sexualisation of girls—matters I know you are also very concerned about, Madam Deputy Speaker Burke. This continues to be a concern of mine. Since raising these issues I have been overwhelmed by support from around the country. Mass media continues to send a message to our children, particularly to our girls, that they need to be sexy and that is the only thing that matters. As I have previously stated, while adults have the capacity to critically evaluate such messages, children do not. This is not about banning or censorship but about asking publishers, broadcasters and advertisers to have set guidelines to limit the negative impact that these messages have on our children and to assist parents to provide age-appropriate content to their children.

The election result in Kingston on 21 August was due to the hard work of many. I would like to thank the many ALP volunteers who helped out over the election campaign and on election day. It was a winter election in Adelaide; however, no matter how cold or rainy the weather was, it did not dissuade the Kingston volunteers accompanying me to train stations and shopping centres, or when I was door knocking, putting up election signs and handing out Labor how-to-vote cards.

I would like to thank all of those Labor party members and other volunteers who helped out on election day and during the campaign. I would especially like to thank my staff: Emmanuel Cusack, Suzanne Kellett, Mary Portsmouth, Ellen Calam and James Wangmann. I also would like to thank my campaign team: Dale Colebeck, Chris Hansford, Matt Marozzi, Aarron Hill, Antony Cole, Sonia Romeo, Sam Nock and Sarah Huy. My thanks also go to Senator Annette Hurley and Senator Don Farrell for their support during the campaign, along with the local state members in my electorate: Chloe Fox, Allan Sibbons, Gay Thompson, Leon Bignell, John Hill and Bernard Finnigan. I would like to also thank Peter Malinauskas and the SDA, John Camillo, John Short and Nigel Alford from the AMWU, Debbie Black from the FSU, and Jamie Newland and the MUA for all their ongoing support during the election campaign. In addition, my thanks go to the local activists: John Gucci—otherwise known as the corflute king—Phil and Jo Giles, Sarah Brawley and Charles Wright. I would like to also thank the staff from both the state and federal ALP offices, particularly the South Australian state secretary, Michael Brown, and Reggie Martin at the South Australian ALP branch.

I would like to thank my family, especially my mum and dad, who are always there to help—they have been there for the last three years and I hope they will continue to be for the next three years. Finally, I take this opportunity to thank my campaign manager, Emily Bourke, for her enthusiasm, commitment and fantastic ability in running Labor’s campaign in Kingston. She is the best campaign manager in the state, even in the face of discovering on the first day of the election campaign that she had conceived twins. My final thanks go to the people of Kingston who have placed their confidence in me for a second term.

This election was hard fought but there was only one winner. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise my colleagues who I worked with in the 42nd parliament who did not return to this new parliament. I put on record my appreciation for the hard work they did for their electors, as well as for the friendship that they provided to me personally.

The election on 21 August provided us with a new and diverse but also tightly balanced parliament. I am optimistic, despite what some commentators suggest, that this term of the Gillard Labor government will see us continue to establish a strong Labor agenda that is compassionate, visionary and fair. It will also be part of an agenda that will involve the parliament. To that end, I can assure the residents of Kingston that I will continue, as I have over the last three years, to ensure that the residents in the southern suburbs of Adelaide are heard and not forgotten in this place.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Brisbane, technically this is not her first speech, but given the circumstances I think we will extend the normal courtesies that we usually do at this time.

Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you for your indulgence and your generosity. It is with great pride and humility that I stand before the House to deliver my address in reply contribution and my first speech as the federal member for Brisbane in the Commonwealth of Australia parliament. I have the honour of having represented two federal electorates in this House. I served proudly as the member for Petrie from 1996 to 2007 and now I have the privilege of having been elected as the 950th member of the federal parliament since Federation, representing the seat of Brisbane. Only 28 people before me have had the distinct privilege of serving different federal electorates following an absence from parliament. I was proud to serve as part of the Howard government. John Howard, as well as being the second-longest serving Prime Minister of Australia, will be also remembered as a man of principle, dignity and vision.

Brisbane has a truly remarkable history as a federation seat. Brisbane is home to the Jaggera and Turrbal people and today I wish to acknowledge them and pay respect to their elders past and present. It was in 1825 that European settlement began in North Quay in what is the edge of the Brisbane CBD. The city was named after Sir Thomas MacDougall Brisbane, who was then the Governor of New South Wales who had succeeded Governor Macquarie. Brisbane in 1825 was not a place of high society and was the destination and the new home for the worst and the repeat offender convicts who were rejected by New South Wales.

Despite our inauspicious beginnings, a city of promise, enterprise and opportunity was born. One hundred and seventy-five years on from the settlement, I stand before you as the federal member for Brisbane. I am the 11th federal member for this electorate and the first woman to represent this seat. I wish to acknowledge my predecessor, Arch Bevis, who represented the seat for 20 years. I acknowledge his service to the House and I wish him and his family the very best.

The seat of Brisbane truly personifies the way that Australia has evolved. Brisbane has emerged as one of the great cities of the world. It is dynamic, it is diverse, it is proud of its past and it is excited about the promise of its future. From its early beginnings, the Brisbane River has been a source of food and life, and the river continues to be the focal point of the electorate of Brisbane. It weaves through the suburbs of Milton, Teneriffe, Newstead, Hamilton and my beloved New Farm, the suburb of my childhood. Once called Binkinba by our local Indigenous population, New Farm derived its name from the fact that the peninsula was used as a farming area from early settlement.

The Brisbane electorate is truly unique in that it is made up of many community villages, including Wilston, Paddington, Red Hill, Spring Hill, Ascot and Kelvin Grove. These villages are dotted with coffee shops, art galleries, boutiques and restaurants. And of course the young people who work and play in the entertainment precinct of the vibrant Fortitude Valley have enriched the suburb and made it their own.

Sitting proudly in Fortitude Valley is Brisbane’s Chinatown. The father of Brisbane’s Chinatown is Eddie Liu, who is the longest serving honorary secretary of the Chinese Club of Queensland. He is indeed a distinguished Chinese Australian. He has been the driving force behind Chinese cultural heritage in Queensland and has been a tireless advocate for the less fortunate.

Close to Chinatown is the bustling CBD of Brisbane, the heart of commerce and industry for Brisbane and Queensland. On the edge of the city sits the beautiful botanical gardens, overlooking the Brisbane River and next to the Queensland parliament house. The gardens are often a place of frenetic activity as students make their way to the Queensland University of Technology, a centre of excellence in tertiary education for over 40,000 students. I have had a long association with QUT as a student and a tutor, and as an alumnus. I wish to acknowledge the outstanding work that is being done by the QUT business school in innovation, research and fostering business leadership both domestically and internationally.

Under the leadership of Professor Peter Little, one of Australia’s leading business educators, groundbreaking QUT partnerships have been developed with external organisations such as the Defence Materiel Organisation. The DMO understood that there was a need for improvement in the delivery of complex, high-priority, long-term, multibillion-dollar projects and that the current ageing workforce would be unable to meet these requirements. QUT, in conjunction with DMO, developed a new award course, the Executive Master of Business (Complex Project Management), to fill this gap. Support for this program has come from companies as diverse as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Mincom and John Holland. QUT works internationally with the International Centre for Complex Project Management as they raise awareness and provide solutions to complex project management needs across the globe.

Today provides a unique opportunity to thank Su Mon Wong, an inspirational lecturer who instilled in me a great passion for marketing and business. Su Mon, you have had a profound effect on thousands of business students throughout your 34-year teaching career at QUT. I am delighted that you are in the gallery today. This year I had the pleasure of working with Professor Peter Little, the Executive Dean of the QUT School of Business, and the QUT business alumni to establish the Su Mon Wong scholarship, to recognise students of outstanding marketing ability. Su Mon, your educational legacy will live on for future generations.

Just as QUT and education have been a driving force for me professionally, my family have had a profound influence on my personal development. Today I stand before you as the proud daughter of Italian parents, Domenic and Rosetta Gambaro. My parents’ story is the story of millions of immigrants who migrated to this country after World War II. They fled the devastation of post-war Italy to make a better life for themselves and for their family. Many of my achievements can be attributed to the values and the standards instilled in me by my family.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay respect to my father, a proud Italian Australian. Domenic Gambaro, like so many Italian immigrants from the war and immediate post-war years, hoped to forge a better life for himself in a new land after seeing the horror and the havoc that war had inflicted on his beloved homeland. He taught me the value of work. He was driven by the opportunities this country provided. He flourished in a country where the past and where you came from did not matter, and the efforts of your labours were rewarded.

My father began as a farmhand in North Queensland, eager to make a start in Australia. His beginnings were humble but his dreams were not. From the toil of North Queensland, he was able to save to buy a small fish store in Petrie Terrace where, in accordance with a time-honoured tradition, other members of his family soon joined him in building what became a prosperous family seafood business that incorporated restaurants, wholesaling, exporting and retail. Together with my mother Rosetta, they are a wonderful partnership at work and at home.

My mother Rosetta taught me the value of service to others, kindness, generosity and the value of family. They worked hard so that my two sisters, Elisa and Ida, and my brother, John, could have a better life. All this from two Italian immigrants who arrived in a distant and unfamiliar new country, armed with nothing more than optimism, an unstoppable work ethic and a genuine feeling of gratitude towards this country.

There are so many distinguished Australians of Italian descent who have forged careers in this place, particularly those who have assisted me in my career. There are countless Australians of Italian descent who have made amazing commitments to the development of the social fabric of our suburbs. It is these connections and the service of these unsung heroes in our Brisbane electorate community that truly deserve praise in this place. In days gone by, remarkable achievements were made by Joe Rinaudo and Annibale Boccabella through the Associazione Nazionale Famiglie degli Emigrati Australiani—that is, the association of immigrants of Australia—and today, in the spirit of this association, Nereo Brezzi and Dina Ranieri keep our community connections as strong as ever through Co.As.It.

Whether my local residents are involved in Co.As.It, Lions, Elley Bennett Hostel, the Red Cross, the Multicultural Development Association, National Seniors or the countless other community and non-profit organisations in my electorate, they all perform a remarkable service to our local areas, and for that I thank them. Indeed, as the shadow parliamentary secretary for citizenship and settlement and shadow parliamentary secretary for international development assistance, I very much look forward to increasing these connections with many local groups, churches and non-government organisations. As recently as last weekend I attended a remarkable event in Brisbane, the Bridging the Gap Sudanese community forum, which was organised by the Gateway Presbyterian Church. Reverend Guido Kettniss and Jounis Adwanga, as well as the members of the Sudanese community in Brisbane, made me very welcome, and I look forward to working with them and will be keenly watching the 2011 referendum in Sudan.

My father once said to me before I departed for an overseas holiday many years ago, ‘You go and see the world but you will realise that the best country in the world is Australia.’ How right he was, and that is why so many people have wanted to come to this country. Australia is known for its hospitality, its openness, its respect for others, its culture and its harmony. These characteristics make us the envy of the world.

My parents instilled in me a great love of education. I will be eternally grateful for the standard of education of the Catholic Sisters of Mercy at All Hallows School. I am proud to have in the gallery my former principal, Sister Ann Hetherington. If Sister Ann had not chosen a life of religious service and vocation I suspect that Lend Lease and Mirvac would have been fighting to have her as the CEO of their respective companies. Her business acumen and common sense is well regarded in Queensland. Next year the Sisters of Mercy will celebrate 150 years of service in Queensland. Perhaps the best way to sum up the Sisters of Mercy philosophy is with what they instil in their charges: strong minds and gentle hearts. Their philosophy has also been my guide in this place and in my business life. Sister Ann, thank for your contribution and that of the Sisters of Mercy. Thank you for all that you have done for the education of young women in Queensland.

I am committed to ensuring that every child in every school has the best education; that one day we can say that no child will slip through the cracks. The importance of education cannot be overemphasised, and in the past three years working in my family’s business I saw firsthand some of the results of the inadequacies of our education system. It is a sad reality that many of our young people are incapable of filling out a form, writing a legible letter or even counting out the correct change. I hear this complaint echoed by business people throughout my electorate, and amazingly some businesses have resorted to offering literacy classes in workplaces. It is a shame that while listening to locals in my electorate in the recent past I have heard many young parents from suburbs like Ashgrove, Dorrington, Kalinga and Clayfield observe that, while they did not wish to reject a Julia Gillard memorial hall, they were very concerned about the continued wasteful spending that casts a shameful pall over the provision of education in this country at present. I, along with Christopher Pyne and my parliamentary colleagues on this side of the House, will continue to call for an inquiry into the BER program and its plethora of faults. Physical monuments are no substitute for quality teaching and that is what makes this wasteful spending so appalling—millions of dollars wasted on amphitheatres when teachers are crying out for basic educational resources.

It is at this point that I wish to acknowledge the tremendous contribution that Julie Bishop made towards the introduction of a national curriculum during the time she was education minister. She should be applauded for that.

Education can take us to so many places, whether it be to a trade or to the boardroom table, but one of the areas where education truly can make a difference is in running a small business. During the past eight months I have had the wonderful opportunity of meeting many of the 10,000 small business operators in the Brisbane electorate. From a very early age I have had many years of working in the retail, hospitality, personnel and franchising industries, so I know that more often than not small businesses out there—in Bowen Hills, Albion, Kelvin Grove and Lutwyche—are doing it tough. They are entangled in red tape and interpretive issues that even the employees of those government departments tasked to assist small business do not understand. We all know that small businesses are the job generators of our local economies. They employ our mums and dads, our children and our friends, and it is for this very reason that I will continue to fight for and be a champion of small business.

The electorate of Brisbane is at the centre of health and medical research, with the Queensland Institute of Medical Research at Herston being associated with the electorate for more than 65 years. Groundbreaking research is currently being undertaken at the institute into dengue fever, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, parasites associated with giardia and many other areas of research. I wish to place on record my praise for the institute’s director, Dr Michael Goode, and his team of world-leading scientists. The Queensland Institute of Medical Research shares research facilities with Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital where world-class work into childhood leukaemia is taking place.

Unfortunately many of the clinical and research synergies that currently work to the best advantage of all Queenslanders will be lost because of the short-sighted decision by the Queensland government to close the Royal Children’s Hospital. There was no community consultation regarding this closure and residents were kept totally in the dark. This is a decision which is both hasty and illogical and hardly transparent in my opinion—sadly a process that is all too common for the Queensland government.

There have been many champions who have fought and continue to fight for the retention of the Royal Children’s Hospital on the site at Herston. I wish to acknowledge Dr Harry Smith, Dr Chris Davies and of course Queensland parliamentary colleagues Tracy Davis and Mark McArdle. I know that these dedicated people truly have the interests of Brisbane’s north side at heart, as do I. The northern suburbs of Brisbane including Windsor, Alderley, Gordon Park and Grange are fast-growing areas for families and these are the very suburbs that will be adversely affected by the loss not only of their dedicated paediatric emergency department but also of 130 years of medical expertise and excellence. These are the issues that I will be fighting for locally in this term and hopefully in future terms in this place.

In my maiden speech to parliament in 1996, I spoke of my first steps in this place. This, for me, is the second step on the journey to representing the people of Australia, this time through the residents of Brisbane. I wholeheartedly dedicate myself to their service for as long as I have their support.

My journey here would not have been possible without the support of many colleagues. I would like to pay tribute to the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott. No-one can doubt his commitment and his dedication to public service. I am proud to be part of your team and working under the strength of your leadership.

I wish to thank all my colleagues who assisted me in my recent campaign in Brisbane: Julie Bishop, Joe Hockey, Greg Hunt, Brett Mason, Sophie Mirabella, Bronwyn Bishop, Eric Abetz and Bruce Scott. In particular, I would like to recognise the support of shadow Attorney General and deputy leader in the Senate, Senator George Brandis. Senator Brandis, thank you for your generous counsel during my campaign. Your constant statewide campaigning, including your dedication to Brisbane, cannot be in doubt—especially when you braved torrential rain on Kingsford Smith Drive during those early mornings. Yes, senators do campaign in the rain. I thank LNP president Bruce McIver and deputy campaign director James McGrath and their dedicated team. Thank you so much for your collective efforts.

Campaigns are run on the strength of their volunteers. Mine was no different and that is why I want to say thank you to all those who assisted me from within the party in any way—my campaign director, Mark Wood, Vicki, Tony, the three Roberts, the two Helens, Jan, Trish, Shirley, Lyle, Paul, Maddy, Rennae, Kate and all the YLNP crew who came out every weekend, staffed our booths, letterbox dropped and ran the office. Your smiles and laughter kept me going and for that I thank each and every one of you.

I wish to acknowledge my family—my brother John, my sister Elisa and my brother-in-law Glenn, who also campaigned for me. Family is everything to me, and I am delighted that they are in the gallery today. My thoughts and thanks go to my sister Ida and to my parents Domenic and Rosetta, who could not be with us due to ill health. I wish to acknowledge my father-in-law, Michael Duffy. Thank you for raising such a wonderful son. To my husband Robert, thank you for your steady guidance, your constant encouragement and your love. To my daughter, Rachelle, who is in the chamber today, and to my son, Benjamin, who is studying for university exams at home in Brisbane, you are the joy of my life and my inspiration to help others. As Winston Churchill once said:

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak,

Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

To the residents of Brisbane, thank you for allowing me the privilege of representing you. I will always listen to your wishes and display the courage to stand up and speak for these aspirations as your federal member. I will work tirelessly on your behalf and be your voice in Canberra. Thank you for this honour.

Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in reply to the Governor-General’s address at the opening of the 43rd Parliament of Australia just a few weeks ago. Her Excellency Quentin Bryce, in her opening remarks, acknowledged ‘the remarkable circumstances of our nation having its first female Governor-General and first female Prime Minister’. It is indeed a remarkable event in our political history and worthy of celebration, particularly, as the Governor-General mentioned, for the inspiration it provides for women and girls of our nation and to all Australians. We are indeed the land of opportunity—something we should never take for granted.

The Governor-General will visit Newcastle on Friday and I extend to her a warm welcome. As soon as the city learnt of her visit, demands began for her to expand her program. I am grateful that Her Excellency graciously agreed to lend her support to additional community events.

I also congratulate our Prime Minister Julia Gillard on her successful negotiations with the Independent members of parliament to form a minority government and allow the 43rd Parliament to open and operate. That she achieved the Independents’ support was not only a tribute to her ability to negotiate but also a reflection of the Prime Minister’s determination to operate fairly and to protect the status and integrity of this parliament, an important institution in its own right and deserving of our respect.

The August election results reflected the diverse views of Australians, with inconsistent and varying voting patterns across the nation linked to specific issues, demographics, state political environments and the power and persuasion of political campaigns and the media. But no messages from any political party managed to attract a clear majority of voters. From what was largely a campaign of negatives, no particular vision galvanised sufficient belief or inspired the people of Australia to overwhelmingly commit to the policies of any political party. That should be a matter on which we all reflect.

Whilst diverse views are part of our democracy, finding the courses of action that unite our nation can be elusive. At best they galvanise and inspire. At worst they minimise what we are capable of as a people. But that is a challenge we need always to tackle. In most of the complex issues that face Australia and the world doing nothing is not an option.

I believe that the Australian public absolutely crave bipartisanship and combined leadership on the most challenging issues that confront us—issues like climate change and the energy economy; responding to the mass movement of people around the world seeking asylum and opportunity; sustaining the wealth from our commodities and resources boom; providing a national high speed broadband network to better link communities and deliver health and education services more equitably; the challenges of securing the nation’s water supply fairly; prospering Indigenous Australians; balancing social and personal wellbeing; diminishing the scourge of international terrorism; and building a world-class health system.

Strengthening and achieving these goals remains central to what we do here. Australians are tired of spin and weary of the politics of division. By their vote, they have almost dictated to us their requirement that we work more positively together across the political party divide for the interests of all Australians and our nation’s future. That sounds fair to me. The use of language that derides by gender, I notice, creeps into debates here too frequently. Apparently women are always shrill but men are strident. And too many attempts are made to diminish the contribution of women to public life. The test we need to bring to our deliberations is always the test of what best reflects the needs and aspirations, the beliefs and interests of the Australian people—both men and women. Approaches that diminish the substance of the debate or that dwell on the personal and the political divides are a waste of the energies, talents and abilities of every member of this parliament.

As the federal member for Newcastle it is an understatement to say that I was relieved that the ALP under Julia Gillard’s leadership gained government—not just for my own interests but for the interests of the people of Newcastle. Over the past three years under a Labor government Newcastle has done very well, benefiting from over $1½ billion of investments from the federal Rudd and Gillard governments. For Newcastle, this has meant that our unemployment has remained below both the state and national levels, that workforce participation has set new record highs and that our quality of life has not been diminished by the global financial crisis.

For the nine years that I have been the member for Newcastle I have worked successfully with our community, business and education and research leaders to develop the knowledge base to our economy, to make us resilient and sustainable. My government in its first term funded two potentially world-class institutes at the University of Newcastle—the Hunter Medical Research Institute, now under construction, and the Energy and Resources Institute. Health and education are now our largest employment sectors, and in fact in my electorate of Newcastle the largest group are professionals. In addition, our university gained over $100 million in research grants and programs, an amazing achievement and a testimony to the quality of their academics and their research programs.

The federal Labor government also responded to Newcastle’s agenda to build a sustainable energy future for our region based on clean energy. In our first term, the federal Labor government located the Australian Solar Institute at the CSIRO Energy Centre in Newcastle, where the largest solar thermal tower is presently under construction. A new grid facility there leads the way in integrating renewable grids into the main electricity grid. The $20 million national Enterprise Connect Clean Energy Innovation Centre was also located in Newcastle by our government and the $100 million Smart Grid, Smart City was awarded to a Newcastle consortium, which is busy mapping out the way ahead over the next three years to find the best technological solutions for a secure and efficient grid and the most efficient energy uses in homes and businesses.

Health, education, training, defence, transport infrastructure, environment and community services and programs all benefited from the funding of the last government. So the last three years have been very good ones for Newcastle under a federal Labor government, but the three years ahead hold very special promise.

The National Broadband Network, the $20 million high-speed rail feasibility study with a focus on the route between Newcastle and Sydney, as well as the prospect of potential revenue from a resource rent tax being invested into our region all present ‘big picture’ opportunities for my city. They are opportunities that I will determinedly pursue. I will continue to provide leadership to Newcastle so that together we can build the best strategic cases to secure these future investments.

The big picture items are very exciting, but there is always more to do in my city. Now that the economy is strong, Newcastle will be looking to the federal government for support for some key projects, particularly our new Federal Court building in our CBD where renewal is essential. While successful urban renewal along the Newcastle foreshore was directly related to a previous federal Labor government’s Building Better Cities program, the state government, Newcastle City Council and the business community continue to struggle with regenerating the CBD.

The 1989 Newcastle earthquake saw major employers shift out of the CBD. The Honeysuckle Foreshore Development, under the Building Better Cities program, and the rise of the suburban supercentres and shopping malls also led to enterprise and customers relocating out of the CBD. But creating a vibrant heart for our city is something that all Novocastrians desire.

At the federal level we have an interest in sustaining the growth of our major cities. The University of Newcastle’s intention to expand its inner city campus holds much promise for the CBD as well as for the positive impact it would have on the student experience, on student enrolments and on lifting retention rates in the region. The university’s recent submission for assistance under the Higher Education Structural Adjustment Fund has my full support, but if the city wants to gain the maximum urban renewal advantage from the university’s expansion into the CBD then both the New South Wales government and Newcastle City Council need to demonstrate their strongest support by devoting significant financial and physical resources to assist the university.

Whilst the New South Wales government has contributed land for development, what is actually needed is, I believe, a direct funding commitment in the order, I would suggest, of $25 million. Such an investment would provide certainty, strengthen the university’s submission for federal funding and give considerable encouragement for private investment into the CBD. I am comforted that any cost-benefit analysis of that sort of amount would validate the investment.

The other driver of any regeneration in our CBD must be modern transport. Whilst the argument continues in Newcastle around the heavy rail providing a barrier between the harbour and the retail areas of the CBD, the real task is to involve the Newcastle community, the best transport engineers and urban planners in designing a modern light rail system for the CBD and the wider city. Any approach that dictates a narrow solution will fail, given the conflicting views of commuters, residents and the business community. Consensus is achievable and essential if we are to successfully drive public and private investment into such a transport solution.

Having recently undertaken a study of light rail in Europe, I have seen the power of modern, safe and reliable light rail networks to successfully drive urban renewal and growth and to build social participation and productivity. I look forward to sharing a report of this experience with the parliament and with Novocastrians in the coming weeks. I also look forward to discussions with the Newcastle City Centre Renewal Steering Committee about how Newcastle can best prepare and advance a unified and supported case to Infrastructure Australia for support to our CBD’s growth and renewal.

But I could not be in the House discussing this agenda, planning the way ahead for my electorate, without the support of many Novocastrians in the August election. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank my staff for their tireless efforts, their ongoing dedication and their selflessness in serving the people of Newcastle. I will be forever grateful to them and I make mention of Sharon Claydon, Simonne Pengelly, Fiona Ross, Kim Hall, Nick Kachel and Emma Goodwin. I also thank the relief staff for their assistance. They have included James Cameron, Shannon Byrne, Tegan Cone and Ryan Turner.

To my ALP branch members, who ask little for themselves and demand much that is good for the Australian people: thank you for your wisdom and guidance and for your support through good times and not-so-good times. I have already apologised for the coughs, colds and shivers shared in the winter campaign. You were, and are, amazing. I want to thank the 40 people who worked on the ground in Newcastle, manning street stalls, the campaign office and prepolls. I wish I could name each and every one of them to show my personal gratitude, but time will not permit that.

To my FEC executive, whom I will name—James Marshall, Barbara Whitcher, Noel James, Gaylene Adamthwaite and Victoria Phillis—and my steadfast Federal Electorate Council delegates who dedicate themselves month in and month out to the Labor cause: I could not have done it without you. Thank you. I especially want to acknowledge the selfless work of my campaign director, Donovan Harris, who took annual leave to work on the Newcastle campaign and ensure that the thousand and one campaign tasks were completed. And I thank his partner, Tash Godress, for her support and patience in that time. I also thank my friends in the trade unions—the Newcastle Trades Hall and its secretary Gary Kennedy, the MUA, the AWU and, in particular, the Northern Districts branch of the United Mineworkers Federation for their ongoing support for me and for the working people of Newcastle. Without you, Newcastle would not be the place it is today—proudly independent, committed to community, committed to protecting workplace rights, with a strong streak of fairness and equity.

To the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who maintains her interest in everything we do in Newcastle, I thank you for your support. To my wonderful family and to my very special friends, who are always there for me: you are long suffering when it comes to supporting my political life. I love you, thank you and cherish your belief in me.

But elections also bring pain. The loss of good colleagues here brings us all back to the reality of the insecurity of political life and to the courage and commitment of those who champion our cause with their communities, particularly in marginal seats. Thank you, you are appreciated and you are missed. I know you all will continue to be an important part of your communities and of the Labor cause. But the election also brought new Labor members into the parliament. They represent renewed inspiration and energy for our government and I congratulate them all.

More than anything, the election and the Governor General’s address challenge each of us to reconsider what guides us in what we do and what we believe in. For me these beliefs are always rooted in Labor values, values that foster the dignity of work; access to quality education and training for all Australians; the rights and freedoms to demand a fair go and have a voice in our country’s progress; a strong economy that lifts everyone up, be they in business or workers; a welfare safety net for the most vulnerable; a social framework that centres on inclusion and participation; the importance of engaging with the world around shared beliefs and interests; commitment to preserving our unique environment; and providing security and safety for our nation. I commit to doing all I can to foster those values here.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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

Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your re-election to high office in this chamber. I would like to pay my respects to the Ngunnawal people, the original custodians of the land on which we now stand. I am humbled and honoured to represent the people of Macarthur in this the 43rd Parliament.

I am deeply passionate and committed to serving the public. I have strong community values and believe that we should support those who are in need. Most importantly, I am a believer in providing opportunities to each and every Australian through high quality health care and disability support services, safe and stable employment, affordable home ownership, the best education possible and the best opportunities and small business support. Our laws should protect these principles. They should be available regardless of a person’s socioeconomic background or place of residence. As an elected representative, I will strive to ensure that every person in Macarthur is given these opportunities to build a life for themselves and their families. There can be no greater honour bestowed upon a person than to serve the community and nation they are proud to call home. I am looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead for me as the member for Macarthur.

I would like to take this opportunity today to reflect upon the service commitments that others have made to our wonderful country and on those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. As the son of a returned serviceman, the significant personal contributions that others have made have inspired me to want to help others. I want to continue my father’s legacy of proudly serving our community. As a member of our nation’s armed forces, my father fought gallantly in the Battle of Long Tan, which was one of the biggest and most important conflicts in the Vietnam War involving Australian troops. It was one of the most successful campaigns Australia has been involved in, yet at the same time it is so symbolic of a heartbreaking period of history.

On the afternoon of 18 August 1966, 108 Australian and New Zealand soldiers of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment D Company faced an enemy force of over 2½ thousand. The 103 Field Battery, of which my father was a member, played a pivotal role in this historic battle. The 103 Field Battery pounded the enemy with over 1,000 rounds of artillery—a round every 10 seconds—creating a wall of steel around the embattled men of D Company.

Non-military personnel at the base formed ad hoc teams of labourers and worked through the night in the pouring rain to keep up the supply of ammunition to the guns. The 103rd Field Battery had to be resupplied by helicopter, making the guns a prime target for enemy fire. The 103rd Field Battery struggled through torrential rain, which made aiming the guns almost impossible, leaving gunners to rely on their own intuition to ensure that they fired on the enemy on not on the men of D Company. To make a bad situation worse, poisonous cordite fumes from the artillery fire built up a toxic haze around the guns. Despite hardly being able to breathe or even see through the haze, the brave men of the 103rd and 105th field batteries kept up the artillery fire all through the night and into the morning in delivering victory to the Australians.

The men involved in the Battle of Long Tan demonstrated courage, bravery and determination in spite of the next-to-impossible conditions. Their actions set a standard for the rest of us in how we should conduct ourselves in every aspect of our lives. I am immensely proud of my father for his courageous actions on that dreadful day. We can only imagine what it was like to be there.

While the success of the Battle of Long Tan will be remembered by generations of Australians to come, what most people forget to consider is the effect of the war on a person, a family and their community. The Vietnam War was especially cruel to the minds and bodies of returned servicemen because of the strong political antiwar sentiments that were rife at the time. There are few who will endure the haunting realities of war. We should not take these soldiers’ personal sacrifice for granted. Their actions set a standard for future generations and I am immensely proud of my father Reg for his courageous actions on that historic day. I would like to take this opportunity to honour and pay tribute to him.

Vietnam veterans are often referred to as ordinary boys who became extraordinary men. Similarly, my beginnings were that of an ordinary boy. While I cannot profess to be an extraordinary man, my father’s commitment to serving our country inspired me to want to make a difference and to continue my family’s history of proudly serving our community.

My desire to serve saw me join the New South Wales Police Force in October 1985, graduating from class 216. For the past 25 years I have proudly served my community as a police officer, reaching the rank of sergeant. My career in the Police Force was very rewarding, but as an office I had to deal with many personally challenging and confronting situations. I will never forget my first autopsy, my first deceased person or the first fatal motor vehicle accident that I attended. I have the utmost respect and admiration for my colleagues in the Police Force. It takes a person of great integrity and character to carry on through the many tragic and heartbreaking situations that they encounter. I hope that one day society will understand and respect the great undertaking that is required to serve as a police officer and give these great men and women the respect and honour that they deserve.

Outside of the Police Force, I have had the opportunity to serve my community as a councillor on Campbelltown City Council for the past 17 years. My opportunity to serve in this capacity arose from my humble beginnings. I came into the public domain on the back of a sporting achievement. As captain-coach of the Campbelltown Australian Rules football side the Monarch Blues, I proudly led my team to four successive grand finals from 1986 to 1989, supported by club president Jim Little and my best mate, Bob Prenter, who have both since passed away. They are always in my thoughts. I am sure that they are looking down today having a bit of a chuckle that a flatfoot and a footballer is now in parliament.

My success in the sporting arena became a catalyst for my political career. I was approached by councillor Jim Kremmer, who became a good friend and mentor. Thanks for being here today, Jim. I went from leading a football team to becoming a leader in my community. What I considered to be a daunting task at the time became a wonderful relationship with my community of Campbelltown and the broader Macarthur area. I was honoured to serve as Mayor of the City of Campbelltown on five occasions. The work that I was able to undertake with that community, the issues which I helped solve and the advocacy role that I was able to undertake have been privileges and honours. I look forward to continuing to serve my community with great pride.

I believe that my extensive life experience holds me in good stead to represent the people of Macarthur. My public responsibilities have given me a solid understanding of the needs of the community that I have proudly been part of for over 30 years. One such need is for infrastructure. South-western Sydney is one of the fastest growing areas of urban sprawl in Australia. Of primary importance to the people of Macarthur is a need to ensure that any population growth in the region is supported by appropriate infrastructure and community services. The population of the Macarthur region is predicted to almost double in the next 20 years. If these predictions are correct, it is essential that appropriate transport, health, education and recreational infrastructure is provided. Currently, there are still areas in Campbelltown and Wollondilly that do not have access to Sydney’ sewerage system. Our major motorways are already over-congested and peak hour commuter services are at capacity. Infrastructure should precede population to ensure that growing communities are not neglected.

The election campaign brought to light many issues facing the people of Macarthur. These included the cost of living, soaring electricity prices—and who knows where they are going to go under a Labor government—traffic congestion, air quality and high housing prices. Labor promised cheaper child care, but it increased in cost. There are insufficient health services and insufficient services for those with special needs. And in my community there was anger surrounding the bungled BER, insulation and solar schemes, and with the wasteful spending and a growing national debt. While much of this pain can be attributed to the failure of the Labor government, all levels of government must now work together to correct these wrongs and better plan for the future.

With continued development it is important to create effective policies to make growth in Macarthur sustainable. It is important that more resources be dedicated to infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and educational facilities in the Macarthur region. The Macarthur region is a shining example of the positive effects small business brings to a local economy. It provides opportunities for growth and employment. Macarthur draws its name from John and Elizabeth Macarthur, who demonstrated their entrepreneurial spirit when they pioneered the merino wool industry in Australia.

Rural Macarthur continues to make a significant contribution to the community, due to a large percentage of Sydney’s fresh milk and produce supplies. We need to ensure we continue to support local farmers and our agricultural industry by finding a good balance between local industry and urban development. Whilst Macarthur still boasts a sizeable agricultural industry, it is also home to a growing number of small and medium sized businesses, with 80 per cent of these businesses employing fewer than 10 people. These businesses range from retail, commercial, hospitality, mining, manufacturing, building and construction.

For working families in Macarthur, stable and sustainable employment is a key issue of concern, and I am a strong believer in implementing good policy which seeks to generate jobs and raise living standards. One of the fundamental keys to encouraging employment is supporting an accessible education and training system that helps upskill people for apprenticeships, skills training and professional development so that people have the opportunity to enhance their skills and abilities, particularly those who are unemployed, have a disability or who come from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. The people of Macarthur also rely on good governance to keep interest rates manageable and unemployment levels low. As a mortgage holder myself, and having felt the pain of high interest rates when I was starting a family, I know how these pressures affect people financially and emotionally. The Macarthur region has given many families the opportunity to realise their dream of home ownership. I do not want the dream of home ownership to slip away for future generations in Macarthur.

The provision of health services is essential in regions like Macarthur. Air pollution is one of the biggest health issues facing many families in Macarthur, as the Macarthur region has one of the highest rates of asthma related hospital admissions in New South Wales. At the 2007 election one of the major local issues was the approval of a twin turbine gas-fired power station in our backyard. The Asthma Foundation of New South Wales were very concerned about the state government’s proposal to construct the Leaf Gully power station in the Campbelltown area. They were not even consulted in relation to issues raised about the air quality and the health and wellbeing of the people of Macarthur. Those concerns were ignored. This is not a case of ‘not in my backyard’ syndrome. There were good and valid reasons why this power station should not have been approved. With the assistance of the mayors of the region: Paul Lake, Michael Banasik and Chris Patterson, along with the Liberal candidate for Wollondilly, Jai Rowell, I will continue fighting the battle to ensure that this power station remains only as a peak power station, not a baseload power station.

There is one particular issue that I am very passionate about—that is, children with special needs. Many families and their children are faced with insufficient support services due to a lack of resources and funding. Fortunately, Macarthur has a strong sense of community. I am very honoured to assist people who go beyond their normal civic duties to help those around them. One community based group that operates in Macarthur is the Right Start Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, founded by Glenda Grabin, with the support of a handful of parents who have children with Down syndrome. Whilst only a year into its establishment the organisation has achieved so much, providing support, friendship and community services for families who would otherwise feel so isolated in their needs. They are currently raising funds to build a centre in Macarthur for people with Down syndrome. They currently receive no funding from the government whatsoever, but imagine all that they could achieve if they did.

Not-for-profit groups like the Right Start Foundation, Mater Dei, Beverly Park and Mary Brooksbank special needs schools play an integral part of delivering disability support services to the Macarthur region. These groups work tirelessly to make our society a better place. I believe that the federal government should share in the responsibility for children in need and ensure that it facilitates and coordinates adequate services across government and non-government agencies so that all our children can enjoy the quality of life they deserve, no matter what circumstances may confront them.

There are many other not-for-profit community organisations, such as registered or licensed clubs, that also contribute to the Macarthur region. These organisations provide a forum for people to come together to promote and pursue a common interest, ranging from sport, service in our armed forces, religion or occupation. There are 15 of these clubs in Macarthur. They employ a total of 827 full-time, part-time and casual staff and rely on the help of 676 volunteers. Last year these clubs gave over $23.5 million worth of support to local charities and recreational groups. Clubs in Macarthur have over 131,000 memberships and receive close to 4.5 million visits from members and guests each year and play a significant part in creating a closer, more socially involved community.

Mr Speaker, I now take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank all those individuals who assisted me during the election campaign. It is only through the hard work, effort and an enormous amount of support from these people that I stand here today in this magnificent chamber. To my good friend and campaign director Jai Rowell, I am forever grateful for your support and wisdom. You, along with my campaign team, Michael Shaw and Benn Banasik, put your lives on hold for six weeks. Without your hard work and dedication I would not be here today. Thanks, guys.

To my tireless volunteers: Reece White, Karina Ralston, Kathryn Steinweiss, Michael Banasik, Jarred Hilleard, David Gavin, Jeff and Janet Gray, Paul Hillbrick, Paul Hawker, George Grace, Eleni Petinos, Jason Bosketti-Zanotti, Toese Faapito, Anna-Grace Millard, Jean Newton, Chris Paterson, Tanya Harris, Jim Riley, Debbie Dewberry, Belinda Rowell, Brett Mcgrath, the Elliot family, the Hon. Charlie Lynn and the Hon. Mathew Mason Cox: I cannot thank you enough for all the hard work and hours you put into my campaign. To all the people who gave up their Saturday to man the polling booths—there are too many of you to name—I am grateful to you all. It is now up to me to provide Macarthur with the representation it deserves.

To my many good friends, some of them in the gallery today, words cannot express the gratitude that my family and I have for all your support and friendship over the years. Thanks to Dash, Johnny Mac, Sam, Dave, Lakey and Tosi, who are all here today. I am fortunate to have wonderful and supportive women in my life. To my mother Shirley, my sister Kerry and my wife Sharon, who is here in the gallery supporting me today, I am forever grateful for your unconditional love and support, which has allowed me to live my dream. To my beautiful daughters, Alana and Jess, who are also here in the gallery today, you have been my inspiration. I will always strive to make this world a better place for you both.

To the people of Macarthur, thank you for this great honour you have bestowed upon me. I give a solid commitment that I will serve my community and country to the very best of my ability. My door will always be open and I will give my very best to ensure that the standard of living in Macarthur is as high as anywhere in the world and that Macarthur is a place you can proudly call home, just as I do.

In finishing it would be remiss of me not to thank the Leader of the coalition, the Hon. Tony Abbott; the Deputy Leader, the Hon. Julie Bishop; the Hon. Bronwyn Bishop; the Hon. Dr Sharman Stone; Mr Scott Morrison; Mrs Sophie Mirabella; Mr. Alby Schultz; and Senators Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Marise Payne for their contribution and support to my campaign. I also take this opportunity to thank the Liberal Party for the honour of allowing me to represent my community. I thank members of the chamber for their indulgence today.

Debate (on motion by Mr Clare) adjourned.