Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to speak to the address-in-reply and it is definitely a privilege to be back here to be able to do this. I certainly thank the constituents of Deakin for placing their trust in me.

The seat of Deakin was created back in 1937 but, since that time, it has been won by a Labor candidate at only three elections: 1983, 2007 and now, 2010. It is one of those frustrating seats for someone from my side of politics. It has always been marginal, but only just, on the other side. I have watched many years go by with very close results, and it is a very humbling experience for me to be elected twice to the seat from a party that has held it only once before.

As the first Labor member to be re-elected in Deakin, I look forward to the trend of seats being won by Labor in eastern Melbourne and being returned at the next election. I think it is a good sign that that can happen in that part of Melbourne. It is also very encouraging to see that the seat of La Trobe, my neighbouring seat, has also started off in that direction. That is also a great result. I place on record my thanks to the electors of Deakin for placing their trust in me for the second time as I continue to deliver on the local promises and commitments made during the last parliament and through this year’s election campaign.

In my first address-in-reply in 2008, I spoke about the precarious nature of employment and the lack of security of workers’ entitlements in the construction industry in particular. I noted at the time that the Howard government’s GEERS scheme did not fully protect a worker who had suffered through the devastating experience of losing their job, their last week’s or fortnight’s pay, their redundancy and notice payments and all their accrued leave—all on the same day when they arrive at work and find a padlock on the gate. It is still far too easy for dodgy employers to place a company in the hands of administrators or receivers and walk away from the corporate mess with their employees’ money in their pocket. Invariably in this situation it is not only the employees who lose out but also the creditors, contractors and a long list of people who all get burnt in this situation.

Although I spoke about it in my last address-in-reply speech because I had seen it in my previous line of employment, I have also seen it in my current line of employment. I have had local businesses do exactly that and workers have been thrown out of work with absolutely no money and no notice. They are very frustrating and ugly situations, and the more that can be done to prevent those things happening in the future the better. One of the things that we are doing in the current Gillard government is responding to one of the flaws in GEERS—that is, the present cap on redundancy payments. Currently the cap is set at 16 weeks, but the flaw with that is that it does not matter how long a worker has been at a company. Therefore, someone who may have worked at a company for six or seven years may be entitled to the same amount under this scheme as an employee who has worked there for their entire life—let us say 30 or 40 years. That does not bear much of a reflection on any industrial agreement or arrangement. The change that is being proposed is particularly good.

From 1 January 2011 workers’ redundancy payments through GEERS will be based upon their length of service, up to a maximum of four weeks for every year of service. This comes in advance of the legislation to be introduced that will enable the Fair Entitlements Guarantee, as committed to by Labor at the last election. That will provide more certainty to workers and their families who, through no fault of their own, end up on what can be a financial scrapheap. The Fair Entitlements Guarantee is a great step forward for all working people, but especially targeted for those most at risk. It does not apply to directors or excluded employees of companies under the Corporations Act, but it does apply to the portion of income up to $108,300 per annum. The Fair Entitlements Guarantee will, through legislation, protect up to three months unpaid wages and unpaid deductions from those wages like salary sacrifice payments to super—the employees own money—and unpaid annual leave, unpaid long service leave and up to five weeks payable in lieu of notice. Importantly, it is a legislated outcome, whereas GEERS is an administrative order and can be changed. A legislated outcome is something that employees will be able to count on.

In my first speech, I also spoke about other potential solutions to resolve the problems with security of entitlements issues for employees. One of those I have always been particularly interested in are the portable leave schemes—portable long-service leave, portable redundancy schemes. They work in some industries—the building and construction industry and to some degree in contract cleaning. They provide workers, who would otherwise not get those entitlements, a way to actually qualify. It provides, in what may well be a transient industry, a path to long service. There are not many people in the building and construction industry who could stand up and say, ‘I have worked for one employer for 10 years.’ That is not how the industry works. Most people are employed on a job-to-job basis. Very much the same can happen in contract cleaning and other similar transient industries. If there is an example to be made of those sorts of schemes, and I think it should, that is one way to relieve part of the burden of what becomes the taxpayers’ burden when a company goes under, because it is the government that funds these payouts through GEERS or through the Fair Entitlements Guarantee when it is introduced. So there is a way around some of it and that is to actually get those payments done at the time and recorded, but be held centrally and not be held on an employer’s books where they can be treated as a tradeable commodity—maybe against a loan to the company, for instance.

Because these schemes are portable and operate across Australia, if someone does not work for a while or they leave the industry and then come back later, in many cases that service is there waiting for them. These schemes have now been operating for over 25 years and many tens of thousands of employees, hundreds and thousands, have actually benefited, and I think other industries should certainly look at this example. In terms of portable long-service leave, it is also something that governments can look at because these are long-term liabilities that are not always at the front of an employee’s mind; it is not something you would generally see on a weekly wage packet.

Without a doubt the issue of most concern when I campaigned for election back in 2007 was Work Choices. Foisted upon an unsuspecting public by John Howard and the Liberal Party, this repugnant legislation stripped away working people’s rights and entitlements with no recompense or opportunity to change the outcome. As a member of the Labor government in the 42nd Parliament I was especially proud at the commencement of the Fair Work Act, an act that delivered fairness back to workplaces right across Australia. But it must be remembered that every single member of the Liberal and National parties tried to vote down the Fair Work Bill when it was progressing through this place. They wanted to keep Work Choices. It was their creation and they wanted it to remain in place to continue the rip-off of Australian working people.

In 2007 I promised that if I were elected Labor would fix the Springvale Road level crossing in the suburb of Nunawading, which is geographically right in the centre of my electorate. This involved a commitment of $80 million of federal funding and a commitment to work with the Victorian state Labor government to make the project happen. There is a bit of a history to this project. It had been promised by the Liberals for many years. But it had not happened. We saw plenty of stunts—TV cameras and visits—but no work. That is the problem, because, whilst there was no work going on, the daily traffic jams continued at what was Melbourne’s No. 1 red-spot intersection as identified by the RACV. In fact it got worse, because there is more traffic on our roads and we have more trains on our rail lines.

The Liberals made promises prior to 2007, but, rather than trying to work with the state government, they spent most of their time blaming the state government, and there ended up being a lot of finger pointing and arguing. But there was no result. By working with the state Labor government, the Springvale Road grade separation is now complete. The Commonwealth put in $80 million; the state government put in $60 million. Work started in July 2009. It was done differently to previous grade separations. A lot of work was done on weekends and a lot of work was done out of hours. Many times the road crossing would be closed for a few days so work could continue around the clock. So what would have taken 18 months only a few years ago in this case took six months. Although it was inconvenient at times—when you have a six-lane road like Springvale Road closed for a few days and trains not running—the payoff was not having to put up with that interruption for 18 months. So, by January 11, trains ran under Springvale Road in Nunawading for the first time ever. Every since the rail line went out there in 1882, there has always been a level crossing. However, I suspect the traffic was not that dense in 1882.

Above ground only last year there were 218 trains a day and 50,000 vehicles using the crossing, all competing for the same little patch of ground. The boom gates would come down, the cars would stop and the trains would bank up and that would go on all day. You could have traffic jams on a Sunday banked up for a kilometre or more. But if you go there now it is free-flowing traffic. If someone who did not know the area were driving by, they may not even notice there was a railway there—except they might notice the brand new Nunawading station. Architecturally designed, a very different cutting-edge design, it has really changed the character of Nunawading. Nunawading had developed along the highway in recent years, but down towards the railway was looking quite rundown. It has really opened up the area and I expect there will be a great deal of complementary development that will improve the suburb greatly and make it better all around for everyone.

At a recent count, Nunawading station was used by around 3,000 people a day, and I am sure that will increase because of the facilities it has. It has closed-circuit TV monitoring all day and all night long, it is fully staffed from first train to last, it has remote controlled bike lockers and it has good undercover access and car parking. Those are the sorts of things we need as local infrastructure if people are going to be attracted away from cars to use public transport. It is a great example and I hope we can commit to more like that in the future. They are not cheap but they certainly make a difference to not only those in the local electorate but also the tens of thousands of people a day who pass through intersections such as that.

I now turn to some of the other local commitments given in 2007 and delivered in the last term of government. There was funding for the Croydon Memorial Pool and the Croydon leisure centre. A total of $600,000 was delivered not only to save millions of litres of water but also to retain the outdoor Croydon Memorial Pool as a continuing operation. That is greatly valued by the local community. There were huge protests when the council decided to shut it down a few years ago. It is one of the few full-size outdoor pools left in Melbourne and people keenly wait for it to open each summer. Lots of kids go there and have a great time. In 2007 we committed $150,000 to fund an upgrade to the Keystone Hall in Croydon at the Little Athletics track. With the assistance of Maroondah City Council, which invested a similar amount, we now have a wonderfully light, safe and modern facility for various community groups that use the hall and, of course, Little Athletics participants.

Another local commitment was $500,000 to fund the building of a pavilion at Glen Park football oval in Bayswater North. This project is also now complete. It has allowed the Glen Park community centre to fully utilise their existing buildings, which have been refurbished by the council. The council piggybacked on our funding and topped it up, and that was great. The East Ringwood Junior Football Club now does not have to share their change rooms with the community centre, which was not easy when there was lots of mud in there on a weekend and people tried to do art classes on Monday morning. It has certainly solved that problem and made it a much better place for everyone. There is no more hosing out or cleaning of mud before the start of each week. The junior football club now has rooms to store gear. They do not have to pack everything away in a container on the other side of the ground at the end of each weekend.

In 2007 we also committed to a $200,000 upgrade of Bedford Park Central Ringwood Community Centre. It now has a brand-new space in what was an old dungeon, if I may call it that. It was a condemned area downstairs that had been an old boxing ring. It had no emergency access or natural light. It is now a great usable area for all the community. The main hall at the centre was repainted and the floor was sanded and varnished. This project was also assisted by funding from the Maroondah City Council. In the suburb of Nunawading we committed $150,000 to upgrade the gymnasium at Walker Park. This has been delivered and the gymnastics club is now able to use the new equipment and enjoy the improved safety facilities that were so badly needed. It is very pleasing to be able to stand in this place today and report that every local commitment of 2007 has been delivered to the community of Deakin in full.

I now turn to local infrastructure that was committed to in 2009, with the GFC. There is a large amount of infrastructure happening in Deakin. Some of it is finished and some of it is still going. It will continue for quite a while. The Ringwood soccer and multipurpose sports pavilion was funded with a $2.9 million grant under the RLCIP and is nearing completion. Again, there was money from Maroondah City Council and the state government, so we get even more value out of the project. When complete, the pavilion will have a terraced seating area under cover, changing rooms that cater for males and females, unlike the old facility, along with disabled access. It will have a boxing gym, club rooms and office space for regional sporting associations. In addition, the ground has been upgraded from grass to an all-weather artificial surface, and it will be lit so it can be used at night. Last year the ground was green and lumpy and the year before it was as black as a piece of asphalt, but it was supposed to be grass. It was not what you would call a friendly playing surface. The car park has also been upgraded so that buses can now bring kids in and there is more space for spectators to park.

I cannot talk about infrastructure in Deakin without talking about the various Building the Education Revolution projects. The National School Pride program provided grants to every school in the electorate to undertake upgrades of school ovals, to undertake maintenance works and to buy electronic whiteboards. All of these things were valuable and well used, and really popular locally. Then came the continuing part of the program, the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program. Many schools have already got their new facilities; many are now opened; some are due to be opened but are already in use, and that is great; and we still have some under construction. The important part is that BER is providing not only infrastructure for our local schools but also great local employment.

There are examples in particular with some of these schools that I well remember—Burwood East Primary School being one of them. I present school awards each year—the Deakin Student Award—and in 2008 at the school assembly, where we had to be outside because they had nowhere inside, it rained on all of us. It was an assembly—it was an awards presentation—so we sat there and got wet. The school will not have to do that anymore because they now have a hall where students can have their assembly and do those sorts of things rain, hail or shine.

I would like to take my remaining time to thank all of the volunteers who helped in my campaign for the seat of Deakin, for the countless early mornings, late nights and weekends, helping out with the myriad of tasks that some people do not see and with the tasks that people do see. No-one can do all of those jobs by themself. In particular, I thank my electoral office staff who worked beyond the call of duty. Thank you to Fergus Vial, Dimity Paul, Greg Curtin, Cal Viney, Barb Godfrey and Clint Quealy. I would also like to thank just a few volunteers: Ray Jackson, Greg Napper, Ian and Kathryn Holmes-Elliot, Steve Grimant, and Trevor and Lea Chambers to name a few. I also must thank my lovely and very understanding wife, Cheryl, and my understanding children, Jessica and Angie, who put up with me not being there for so much of their time. I try to make it up. I know it is always going to be remiss of me. (Time expired)

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak to the address-in-reply at the start of the 43rd Parliament in the year 2010. As we come towards the end of the sitting year I would like to take this opportunity to provide a snapshot of my electorate and into the heart of rural Australia. The electorate of Farrer has grown since I became the member in 2001 and it now occupies some 250,000 square kilometres, an area roughly the size of New Zealand. Your electorate, Madam Deputy Speaker Livermore, may be larger but not many are. You are shaking your head, so not many are. As rural members of parliament we share, I know, a love of rural Australia and an understanding of some of the important differences about what makes our constituents tick and what drives our communities compared to the communities in the city and on the coast. Both types of Australia are equally important to the success of this nation.

In Farrer, events that have taken place in my electorate over the last two weeks have revealed the state of the nation as it applies to the people that I represent. Like many areas, the prospect of a royal wedding was greeted with great enthusiasm even from those of us who acknowledge that one day, inevitably, we will be a republic. It was a great good-news story and I was delighted to hear the Prime Minister open yesterday’s question time with congratulations to Kate and William.

Rather paradoxically, this parliament has been urged to get in touch with its feelings towards same-sex marriage. I note simply on that subject that there was no legislation on the table before the parliament affecting the current status of the Marriage Act, but rather a proposal that we as local members get in touch with our constituents on this subject. It is a somewhat penetrating glimpse of the obvious to ask local members to refer to their constituents for their views. My constituents are continually in touch with me as I travel the electorate and if I do not run into them then they certainly email me. If they have got something to say, they say it. We will, of course, as a parliament discuss issues around the recognition of same-sex couples, as we have many other critical social matters over the last few years.

According to Roy Morgan Research, in my electorate of Farrer 29 per cent of Australians say that homosexuality is immoral. I vigorously disagree with that assessment in terms of rights and the recognition same-sex couples should have. I am always suspicious of statistics, but perhaps the research indicates that we need to work harder to convince some who are not as comfortable with the idea of same-sex relationships. We in the Liberal and National parties—I certainly speak for the Liberal Party—are committed to equal rights under the law for same-sex couples.

For my children, it is almost a no-brainer. When you compare my class of 1979 and my daughter’s class of 2010, you see that attitudes towards homosexuality, towards gays and lesbians, have changed dramatically. I take pride in our society recognising that change, but there are still young men and women in our small country towns who are, quite honestly, tortured, distressed and very worried about societal attitudes to their sexuality—something that they feel they do not personally have control over. So there is more work to be done in our rural areas. Our communities need to embrace the differences between every child and, as they grow through adolescence, every type of relationship.

The drought that has defined so much of inland New South Wales has finally broken. For the first time in seven or eight years, no part of New South Wales is in drought. I am absolutely delighted that the dust, crop losses and low water allocations are coming to an end for most of my constituents. But this is, of course, a country of droughts and flooding rains, and we have seen some pretty horrendous flooding rains in the towns near Albury, in the central and mid Murray and up into the Riverina—represented by my colleague the member for Riverina—in the last few weeks. I must convey my distress on behalf of those who have been affected, particularly those who were growing the crop to break the drought, to break the long run of bad luck, and have had it absolutely washed away. We will not know until harvest time, in another month, exactly how bad the damage is, but I was disheartened to hear from somebody who drove between Lockhart and Boree Creek—two of the badly affected areas—that all they could smell along the trip was rotting crops. I do not know how much more some of the farmers can take. We are resilient, persistent and tough, but this has been an enormous shock.

If banks and lending authorities can do more to assist, including stepping back and letting people ride out just one more year, I would certainly appreciate it. I do thank the state agencies who have come forward and done so much. I am not happy that we still do not have an exceptional circumstances declaration for floods worked up, but there is more work to be done. I would like to see that come to fruition, for some real help for flood affected farmers.

As the local member in my part of the world, I can never get away from the issue of water. As I have said many times, the electorate of Farrer is defined by water. It contains most of the New South Wales Murray River—except for the far reaches of the upper Murray—plus the lower Darling River and the Menindee Lakes. Therefore, it contains a substantial part of the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Let there be no mistake—wherever I have been travelling in the last few weeks, the primary concern, the primary worry and the primary suspicion concerns this government’s mishandling of the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s Basin Plan to claw back water from the region’s food bowl and agricultural sector for what can only be described as excessive environmental gain. I am sick of those of us who stand up for irrigated agriculture being characterised as environmental vandals. There is no doubt that we can have a balance, that we can look after the interests of productive farming and the interests of the environment side by side and have healthy rivers, healthy wetlands and a strong, productive environment that supports a strong, productive agricultural sector. It is not necessary to close farms to open wetlands.

We have now had two parliamentary inquiries, and the Murray Darling Basin Authority has been forced to undertake an additional socioeconomic study, because of genuine concern from the coalition and the basin communities about consultation and how this process is being run. As I did the other day, I remind the government that this is a message they could have received directly if they had attended any of the sessions across the basin. If they had attended, they might have heard the voice of at least one of my constituents. For example, Joe Cottam from Berrigan has penned his thoughts. In part, he writes:

In thirty seven years in Berrigan I have seen this area boom with rice and grain production, cattle, sheep and dairy industries. Then an enormous decline due to drought, water cutback, local red gum forest industry (now a National Park) caused shut down of sawmills and further loss of employment in the area!

All our businesses have been hanging on waiting for the drought to break. If a proposed 37% water cut happens the drought will continue and many businesses will just close.

The Murray Darling Basin inquiry has to get a balance of Social, Financial and Environmental outcomes!

Rand Wilson, of the local Finley Chamber of Commerce, says:

I have lived in the Basin for almost fifty years, I have worked in the Basin. I have farmed in the Basin and have operated a retail business in the Basin and I have taken a particular interest in the history and development of the area in which I live.

With the benefit of this fifty years affinity with the area I call home I can assure you that if adopted, the plan, as set out in the Guide for the proposed Basin Plan, has the potential of returning the economy of this area to that of the 1930’s.

Yet another submission to the MDBA’s current but seemingly short-circuited Basin Plan consultation from Kerry Hawker, from the Murray Valley, states:

I am one of the tens of thousands of people who have been overlooked by the Plan. Hardworking families who have invested their life savings in the rural towns across the Basin.

I fear that one day my children and grand children will not be able to buy food grown and produced in Australia —it will be imported.

We’ve forgotten what it is like to lend a mate a helping hand.

This is what makes us Australian —not kicking rural people in the guts after a severe drought.

Madam Deputy Speaker Livermore, like you I am a member, for the purposes of the inquiry, of the parliament’s Regional Australia and Regional Development Committee, chaired by the member for New England. We know the committee has work to do. I am delighted that in December and January I and other members of the committee will be travelling through the Murray-Darling Basin. We will not complete all of our visits in that time because our consultation will be real and genuine, but we will be starting to look at some of the areas directly affected and we will start to make our assessment as a committee independent of the Murray Darling Basin Authority.

As members of parliament, we will make our assessment of the real, human cost of the proposed cuts to water allocations. It is absolutely vital that we work together across this parliament, that we acknowledge those who want to see a healthy river system and the continuation of irrigated agriculture and that we find way. I know that there is a way. The previous, coalition, government allocated $5.9 billion to a fund set aside as part of our $10 billion water plan to replumb rural Australia. This funding was to be used to help farmers become more productive with less water. We all know that we face a future with less water. This $5.9 billion fund was to replumb rural Australia.

Imagine my disgust when earlier this week in the Senate, in answer to a question on notice, it was revealed that a mere $450 million of this over $5 billion fund had actually been spent for the purpose for which it was allocated, and at no stage did the government say they were taking this money off the table because they had other uses for it. No, the money is presumably still sitting there with that tag attached to it, but I am not confident that this government are going to use it for the purpose that was originally intended. I would encourage the government, in the steps they take in concert with the Basin Plan—because it is the water minister that has the final decision—to recognise that you cannot make the adjustments without giving sufficient assistance to communities. I do not mean compensation or structural adjustment. Those allocations are great for the short term and for those who receive them, but they do not help communities remain sustainable in the long term.

We have to remember that we are looking at a unique environment but it is not an environment in its original state. The Murray and Murrumbidgee have been permanently altered by the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which I think was completed in 1974. There were 16 dams built in the Snowy Mountains along with 225 kilometres of tunnels and aqueducts; power stations; pumping stations; and 23 locks, weirs and barrages on the Murray River. It is a permanently altered, regulated river. So our aim should not be to restore it to something that it might once have been before humans came but to maintain it as a healthy working river. As I said, I think that we can find a way, and I look forward to that.

I will move back to more local issues in Farrer. Two weeks ago it was my pleasure to attend the opening of a new home for the Flying Fruit Fly Circus at Albury, built with the support of Commonwealth and local government funding. I acknowledge the attendance on the day of the Minister for the Arts and Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government Simon Crean. I think that he was spending a week in rural Australia and I hope that he heard the messages about the needs of regions, which extend far beyond water and the arts, important though those things are. Those needs extend to hospitals, health and education.

I have long been a supporter of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. It is Australia’s only full-time circus-training institute for children. For 30 years the ‘Fruities’ have played an important role in the development of contemporary circus in Australia. Today the Flying Fruit Fly Circus graduates are working, teaching and performing in many new and emerging professional companies here and abroad. Other graduates are just as happily working in mainstream business due to the opportunities that being connected to the circus has created for them.

The Flying Fruit Fly Circus is a school, and in the last two weeks it has also been my pleasure to visit no fewer than five schools in the electorate, on a tour I did of the mid-Murray. It is always terrific to spend time in primary schools and see the new infrastructure. I did share some of the parents’ disappointment that the Building the Education Revolution, for the money, did not create the additions to the schools that they would have liked. All the same, I recognise the great spirit and the great enthusiasm that is with our teachers and our parents in our communities. The schools are often very small and there is a huge fundraising task for a dedicated band of parents. Boy, do they rise to the task, each and every time! I saw the Stephanie Alexander supported kitchen garden at the Barooga Primary School. There was an allocation of money to that school but what the parents raised as well is phenomenal. The school will have a really well-developed garden, a great kitchen and it will teach children vital skills for the future.

Another key issue in Broken Hill in my electorate concerns the government’s proposal to land a GP superclinic in the city. I, along with the parliamentary secretary for primary health care, met with local medical community groups to engage in a real dialogue with the sector. We canvassed the views of 30 representatives from one of 11 communities where the government has chosen not to engage in community consultation. I put on the record today, for the benefit of the health minister, that what Broken Hill tells us it wants is a community-government coordinated approach so that its medical fraternity can maintain continuity of care, build on an existing system, improve facilities and attract quality staff to the bush. There is real concern in Broken Hill that a GP superclinic will threaten this and existing private practice expansion plans. I hope that the Minister for Health and Ageing will engage in a constructive dialogue with me as the local member and with the medical community so that we use what we have, we build on what we have and we recognise the contributions that local GPs have made, putting their own money and their own investments at risk in their private practices. I hope that we build on all that for the future.

Like every member in this House, I could not do my job without the support of my staff in my Canberra office, in my Broken Hill office and in my Albury office. Everything they do they do in the name of the local member and in the spirit of public service. I thank them for that because the hours which electorate staff work are often long, sometimes unexciting and sometimes unrewarding, although I like to think that the rewards do come. We all share in those rewards when we have a breakthrough, a win, when we solve what may seem, in the big picture, a small problem in a moment of time, in an ordinary life, but it makes such a difference to those who get the benefit of our help. As an electorate office, we are a place of last resort. We relish the challenge and love to help where we can.

After nearly 10 years in this place, can I say what a privilege it is to be the local member for Farrer in an electorate which has grown more than twice in size since I was first elected. I mentioned earlier that my youngest daughter is completing year 12—she finished her last exam yesterday. So now my three fabulous children, aged 22, 20 and 18, are moving out into the world. When you come to this place with children aged 8, 10 and 12 you certainly look forward to this day. I am not just saying that it gets any easier, but the role of being a parent to adult children allows us more time and freedom, when we can do our jobs in Parliament House without the constant concern about what is happening back home. I think that Main Committee for its indulgence today.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In responding to Her Excellency the Governor-General’s speech, I would like to say how proud I am to represent the people of the Maribyrnong electorate, a very special electorate where 34 in every 100 of my voters were born overseas and 51 in every 100 of my voters speak a language other than English at home. I admire the efforts that migrants have made in Australia and the multicultural aspect of my electorate. The electorate of Maribyrnong, like many electorates in the west and the north-western suburbs of Melbourne, has benefited in recent years from a Labor government in Canberra and a Labor government in Victoria. I look at the Building the Education Revolution, the largest single infusion of new spending in schools in my area in many decades. I look at the primary schools where at last we are building facilities for children which are as good as the homes they live in. The importance to me of the education infrastructure investment we have seen is that for many years in colonial Australia, indeed right up until World War II, we were building schools which were better than the homes that Australian children lived in. That sent a message about the importance of education.

After World War II, with the explosion of our population and the suburbs, perhaps we lost our way in building schools which were as good as the homes people lived in, sending a message about the quality and importance of education. Now we have restored the balance. Looking at what the federal government and the state Labor government have done in my electorate, I also need to talk about the Sunshine Hospital within the Western Health network. Sunshine Hospital had experienced its spurts of growth under federal Labor governments. It was first established in the Whitlam area. Then we had periods of conservative administration in Canberra when nothing was done. I am pleased to say that, especially with the fine work of our Minister for Health and Ageing, who has the neighbouring electorate of Gellibrand, the Sunshine campus of the Western Hospital network has been receiving much overdue resources.

The big infrastructure projects have not only been in health and in schools. I must talk about what we are doing with the Maribyrnong defence land, first established as a defence facility at the start of World War I, building ammunition for our troops. It was the remount facility for our light horse serving in the Middle East and in Europe. For many years, the defence land served this nation in terms of ammunition and troop procurement. It has now ceased to have an active defence function.

We have negotiated an arrangement with the Victorian government that will see a balanced, sustainable community with significant economic, environmental and social benefits for Maribyrnong and Melbourne’s inner west. It is the largest pocket of undeveloped land so close to the GPO of Melbourne. The space of the Maribyrnong defence land is three times the size of the Vatican and there will be arrangements where much of the river’s environmental values and much of the open nature of the site and its heritage will be preserved, right back to the first Indigenous occupation of this land, to when it was a horse-training facility for its defence iteration, and now to provide marvellous quality housing for Melbournians and Victorians to live in very close to the city.

Unlocking the site has been a passion of mine for some time and I am pleased that as the federal member I was able to help pave the way back in 2007-08 for the site to be transferred to VicUrban, the Victorian government’s land development authority, to develop the site. VicUrban has undergone an extensive consultation process with the local community to secure input into, and broad community ownership of, a shared vision for the development of the site. Just last week, I was pleased to be involved with the state member for Footscray to help launch that shared vision. We hope to see over 2,000 people contribute to the consultation to develop this site. The Department of Defence has undertaken to appropriately prepare and securely clean the site. It is anticipated that 2,500 families will be able to move in and join the community values and the environmental and heritage benefits of this quite remarkable piece of land. This project demonstrates the partnerships that can be achieved between state and federal governments, local government and the community.

In talking about infrastructure and the contribution of this government to my special electorate of Maribyrnong, I should of course refer to roads and rail infrastructure. We see extra lanes being built on the Western Ring Road and a new regional rail link to free up congestion of the rail network. With regional rail, the federal and Victorian governments have announced plans to improve access to Sunshine and Footscray railway stations with improvements to local roads as part of the $4.3 billion regional rail link. We will see works that include the removal of two level crossings on Anderson Road in Sunshine as well the transformation of railway stations.

The regional rail project to which the Gillard government has contributed $3.2 billion includes new dedicated regional tracks from the west of Werribee to Deer Park and along the existing rail corridor from Sunshine to Southern Cross station. This will generally separate regional trains from metropolitan trains for the first time, giving Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat trains their own dedicated tracks through the metropolitan system. Key features for Sunshine station in my electorate will see the removal of the level crossings that I have referred to between Ballarat Road and Wright Street, a new footbridge and plaza entries at the station, a new platform and improvements to station safety and amenity.

I also welcome the announcement by the Brumby government to fund grade separation of the Main Road-railway level crossing at St Albans. I have always supported the local community in trying to reduce congestion and to greatly improve safety at this very busy local intersection. These are invaluable projects for the western and north-western suburbs of Melbourne. To ensure that our area is one where families can happily and healthily grow and businesses can thrive, quality transport infrastructure upgrades are integral to community progress. I am pleased that work on the Western Ring Road is progressing well.

The 28-kilometre-long Western Ring Road extends from the junction of the Princes and West Gate freeways in  Laverton to Sydney Road in Fawkner. The ring road is part of the M80, which also incorporates the 10-kilometre-long Metropolitan Ring Road. This road carries up to 142,000 vehicles per day, with up to 16 per cent of these being commercial vehicles. There are a series of capacity and safety improvements being undertaken at key locations in the Western Ring Road by our government. Lane widening and safety improvement works on the Western Ring Road will enhance the capacity to improve traffic flow, improve reliability by mitigating weaving and diverging of traffic, maximise traffic flow, and reduce congestion. The Australian government is contributing $900 million to the Western Ring Road upgrade, with the Victorian government contributing $300 million.

There are some other local infrastructure initiatives that are very important to the people of Maribyrnong. One of these is the Milleara hub. Earlier in the year the Moonee Valley community celebrated the opening of a new $4.3 million Milleara Integrated Learning and Development Centre for Children, which will provide much-needed education, health and family services in the area around East Keilor and Avondale Heights. The federal Labor government provided over $2.8 million to the Moonee Valley Council for the new centre from the $1 billion Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. Importantly, during the construction more than 70 tradespeople were supported, including 24 apprentices, and 23 new ongoing jobs would be created as a result of the finished centre.

The regional integration plan is a key part of our economic stimulus plan delivering local jobs in communities across Australia by building infrastructure for the long term. The project was the result of strong feedback from the community that a dedicated children’s health and learning centre was needed. Investing in the health of our children is the best investment we can make as a society and I am pleased the government supported this particular project.

But the list goes on of the contributions to infrastructure in my local area and electorate. The Gillard government has also partnered with the Essendon Football Club—the Bombers—to deliver a new sporting and community hub with state-of-the-art facilities designed to meet the needs of the Australian Paralympics Committee as well as the growing community demand.

The Gillard government is investing $6 million towards the $28.7 million project, which is expected to include a club administration centre that will incorporate the Australian Paralympics Committee’s Victorian administration. Training, medical and rehabilitation facilities for use by the club, the APC, Australian Paralympic athletes and teams. There will be a fully accessible indoor club and community facility for the Australian Paralympics Committee, the Essendon Football Club and the community to use. There will be a learning multimedia area which can be used by local schools and during club community programs, as well as additional car parking and upgrades of existing club facilities for club, APC and community use.

This renovation is going to provide the Essendon Football Club with state-of-the-art facilities and forges an alliance between an elite AFL football club and the Australian Paralympics Committee that will ensure that aspiring athletes with disabilities will achieve their dreams. And of course it is a valuable facility for the local community.

Sixty-five days after the appointment of the government, I should talk a little about the national perspective. It has been about 65 days since my appointment as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation. This is a position of great responsibility and privilege. It is a portfolio that affects millions of Australians and represents a great opportunity to deliver further improvements that will increase the quality of life of all Australians and deliver us a sustainable economic future.

The Gillard government has developed strong and far-sighted policies on superannuation to simplify the system for working Australians and provide them with a secure retirement income. The key plank of our plan is to take the superannuation guarantee from nine to 12 per cent. I would encourage the opposition to come on board with a scheme which will ensure the adequacy of retirement income for millions of Australians.

One of the gifts of the last 100 years of life in Australia is that we live a lot longer than we ever did before, as the member for Berowra is aware. I will of course continue to work week in and week out to continue Labor’s strong record in developing a superannuation system that will improve the retirement savings of all of our citizens, build the nation’s prosperity and strengthen our financial security.

As the parliamentary year draws to a close, it is with some passion, and indeed some regret, that I no longer have the immediate responsibility for disability services, but I recognise the privilege I had in the first term of government to work with people with disabilities and their carers. I believe the government has made some advances in its first term. I do believe that we made disability an area of political priority, but there is certainly much that has to be done before people with disability and their carers are treated as equal citizens in this country.

I knew only a passing amount about disability when I was elected as the member of parliament for Maribyrnong, but my eyes have been opened since to the second-class existence that people with disability live. Imagine if we put two million people—which is approximately the number of full-time carers and people with profound or severe disabilities—in a city and built a wall around them. Then we said to these people that we had exiled in this city that from birth to death and at every point in between that they would get second-class outcomes. If we said to the parents of a child who in the early months of life is not developing as hoped or expected, ‘You will find it difficult to get advice and diagnosis; then the waiting time for early intervention services will be long; when you search for a preschool or child care or primary school you will again have a very invidious and very isolating process of finding support. And again you will find it hard when you need to find the money to support you to get physiotherapy, occupational therapy and paediatric assistance’.

Effectively we say to people with disability that when you go to secondary school, you will find it difficult to get adequate integration support; when you leave school, it will not be clear how you will find a job; you will experience higher unemployment rates; you will have lower levels of home ownership and greater levels of income insecurity; you will be discriminated against when you catch aeroplanes or trains; and the media will ignore your issues. If we did this to two million people picked at random and exiled them, you would have a riot, a revolution. But this is what we do to people with disability every day.

I should acknowledge that, in the work that has to be done to improve the situation I have just described, people with disability are fortunate to have the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, and her team, and now Senator Jan McLucas, working to deliver real improvements to their lives. I particularly look forward to the Productivity Commission’s study into a long-term care and support scheme. The report will be released next year and will help provide us with a road map of how we can ensure equal treatment for people with disability and their carers in our very lucky country. I know the government will treat the report with the seriousness it deserves.

Finally, I would like to express my ongoing support for the people affected by the Victorian bushfires of 2009 and for those involved in the reconstruction of the bushfire hit areas. I had the opportunity to coordinate the federal government’s role in bushfire reconstruction. We have seen good examples of the different levels of government working together with local communities to ensure that government assists rather than hinders people in their very difficult personal and financial reconstruction and recovery.

Rebuilding is a long process and there is still a long way to go, but I salute and recognise the determination of literally thousands of individuals and families to make the best of what was a tragic disaster completely beyond the dimensions of anything we had previously experienced in this country. The Australian government stood side by side with Australian people through this time of difficulty and that work continues.

Whether looking at the electorate of Maribyrnong or at the nation as a whole, the role of the government is to encourage quality jobs and to provide quality services, such as transport, health and education, so that families and communities can thrive. I believe that the Gillard and Brumby Labor governments have delivered a strong economy responsibly. Both governments have made record investments in my home area of the western suburbs of Melbourne—upgrades to hospitals, schools and transport, as I have mentioned. In the months and years ahead, I hope to be able to continue to help deliver for local communities, to help build on the pride that so many take in their local community, to keep serving people with disability and their carers and to improve the financial security in retirement of millions of Australians.

One of the most important decisions on the near horizon for voters in our community is the Victorian state election on 27 November. The responsible and competent record of the Brumby government through the GFC has, along with the federal government, helped us into the calmer waters of today. Given the state government’s carefully costed, yet far-sighted, vision and agenda for the times ahead, I would urge Maribyrnong voters to return them at the end of this month. As a minister and a local member, I look forward to hearing the concerns of the Maribyrnong community in the new year and helping build an even better and stronger community than we have today.