Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in continuation. In the intervening period since I last spoke we have had an extraordinary intervention. I was speaking about broken promises by this government and we just had a question time in which the Treasurer was asked whether we will have three AAA ratings at the end of this government's term in office. He responded: 'I would certainly hope so. We were the ones who got them in the first place.' I have heard of a wing and a prayer, but that is, frankly, a hope and a mistruth, because of course three AAA credit ratings came under Labor, not under the coalition.

The second broken promise was the pledge that Public Service cuts would come by natural attrition. In my electorate, a postgraduate student, Dionne Wong, is one of dozens of young people deeply disappointed after their contracts were terminated. After having signed a contract with AusAID, DFAT has told her she is 'surplus to requirements'. That is not natural attrition; that is smashing the dreams of young people. At the same time we have seen AusAID staff being brought into the DFAT atrium, herded in like cattle, while DFAT colleagues look down upon them from the higher floors and one of them mimes machine-gunning the AusAID staff. That is not the way to bring about change management in an organisation.

Maybe I should not be surprised that a government without a science minister is slashing the CSIRO. Again, it is not by natural attrition but brutal cuts that will soon turn into forced redundancies.

There is a third broken promise. On 26 September the Prime Minister said:

The assurance that I give the superannuants and the superannuation savers of Australia is there has been no adverse changes to their superannuation arrangements under this government.

This is false. Three million low-income earners will have the low income superannuation contribution taken away from them. For them, this is indeed an adverse change.

In his Fraser lecture the Leader of the Opposition recounted how at his campaign launch Paul Keating had said Labor was on the side of the angels, and that the angels are:

… the men and women of Australia … who make the place what it is, the ones who've got nothing to sell but their labour, nothing to sell but their time. No capital, particularly, and who need the support of the political system to give them a better standard of living, a better way of life and a better future.

This is what Labor stands for and that is what we on this side of the House will be fighting for over the next three years.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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

Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with much pride and humility that I speak for the first time in this place as the member for Lindsay. To the people who have elected me as their representative in this most esteemed of institutions I say thank you. Thank you for your trust, thank you for the belief you have shown in me and, most importantly, thank you for the opportunity to be your voice in the next chapter of our great nation.

Madam Speaker, I congratulate you on your appointment as Speaker of this House. I take this opportunity to thank you for the pathways you have created. Yesterday you spoke to only represent yourself as the best individual for a new job. I agree with your sentiment. I believe people should always be selected on merit. But, Madam Speaker, your journey has broken many a glass ceiling and I believe it is important to also recognise your achievement as being the first elected female senator for New South Wales. You set an extraordinary benchmark for others to follow, and I am proud to say I stand here today a product of your legacy. You are a pioneer of Australian politics and have always been a good friend to the people of Western Sydney.

My family history can be traced back to Hannah Stanley, another pioneer. Born in 1788, Hannah, a mere servant, came to Australia a convict at only 22. Her crime was to steal a goose feather bed, sheets, blankets, seven pairs of cotton stockings, a couple of dresses, four petticoats and six handkerchiefs. Fortunately for me, her death sentence was commuted and in 1810 she arrived in Botany Bay—the very same year Lachlan Macquarie was appointed Governor of New South Wales. I say 'fortunately' as Hannah and her husband, Daniel Clarke, were granted 30 acres of land on the western bank of South Creek, a place we now know as Llandilo and that is for me, proudly, within the Lindsay electorate. Hannah and Daniel were like so many other farmers of that time. They grew the crops that fed and ultimately saved the early settlement. This resourceful, courageous and resilient spirit I identify in my early ancestors continues to be the beating heart of the people of Lindsay to this day.

It is the spirit of the totem turtle that the local Darug people identify as the spirit guide of these lands. Lindsay is freshwater country within the Darug nation, resting on a sweeping woodland plain where a blazing western sun retires behind a sapphire misted mountain. Historically they have been both friend and foe, testing our resolve in times of flood and fire. These challenges strengthen us as a community, forging the unique character which is the people of the Nepean Valley. Our river is a gateway, where the mountains meet the plains and where the country meets the city, where Aboriginal people traded and where Governor Macquarie established the first food bowl for the early colony. To this day, it is our freshwater river that sustains the 3.7 million people of Sydney and the Blue Mountains. We are a proud and industrious people, with a rich history to which I am privileged to be intrinsically entwined. I too believe, as in the words of our Prime Minister, 'there is no limit to what Australians can achieve'.

In 1936, my grandparents, Jim and Doreen, opened their service station on High Street, Penrith. It was a one-stop shop and serviced all the automotive needs of the community and, in turn, became a part of it. From selling the car new, servicing it through its life, to towing it when it broke down. Eventually, the business was passed onto my father and my uncle Dennis, but my grandparents always kept a firm hand on the reins and lived above the shop. My brothers and I would spend out school holidays there—at my grandparents' place, above the shop.

Like so many family businesses, it was all hands on deck and we would all pitch in to do our part. We were taught at an early age about the dignity of work and the importance of participation. Threats of banana republics, hyperinterest rates and 'the recession we had to have' all took their toll on family businesses and for small businesses everywhere. My dad would often opt to pay the staff before he paid himself and would work well into the night to ensure he was able to support and provide for our family. It is these personal experiences where I have gained an appreciation for the true value of small business.

My dad tells a funny story about my grandfather. He sold 15 brands of fuel from 15 difference fuel bowsers, yet they all came out of the same underground tank. But for me, Winston Churchill sums it up as only Churchill can:

Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.

The previous government burdened small business with 21,000 new regulations. Their fiscal mismanagement and reckless spending destroyed business confidence, pushing up the cost to do business, guaranteeing to lame even the most noble of sturdy steeds.

Small business is the engine room of the economy. In the private sector it employs one in two people. It is my belief a strong, innovative small-business sector is key to ensuring the wealth of this nation. The irresponsible fiscal reforms of the 43rd Parliament did so with an utter disregard to Australian businesses and families alike. We will re-energise the economy and restore business and consumer confidence.

This morning, the 44th Parliament introduced legislation to repeal the carbon tax—essential for working families throughout Lindsay who feel and need relief to their household budgets. I hope the people's mandate is honoured in this parliament. Together, we can remove the handbrake that has been placed on our great nation and, in doing so, reduce the cost of doing business, encourage investment, create employment, build productivity and restore our international competitiveness, and therefore secure a prosperous economy for a stronger Australia.

In 1959, my mum's baby brother John was tragically killed on an Army base in Darwin. Being so far from home the young family were supported by the local Aboriginal people, who led them through the mourning process. The tribesmen embraced my grandfather, Les, holding a corroboree to release little John's spirit. I am told my pop was the first whitefella this clan had ever included in such a symbolic way.

This had a huge impact on the life of my grandparents, Les and Nola, my uncle Gary and, in particular, my mother, Robyn. It is a debt my mum still feels towards the Aboriginal people. My mum's legacy to my brothers and me was to ensure that we felt and respected this connection. She ensured that we were raised with an acute appreciation of our nation's Aboriginal heritage. We were sent to school in the old Castlereagh hall with 77 other children. Our principal, Bill Oates—an Aboriginal man—further built on this link by sharing the Aboriginal dreaming side by side with the Christian theology.

It has only been over the past few years that I have appreciated the significance of this and that it has not been the standard of education afforded to all young Australians. As such, I fully support the proposed constitutional change to recognise Aboriginal people. I also believe every parent should have the right to choose their child's education, and schools should have more autonomy in decision making that will best suit their school and their community.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and if that is true, my pop's video—movie camera—of the Warragamba Dam would fill a library. McCanns Island, near Emu Heights, was the starting point for a major extractive operation which saw in excess of 2½ million tonnes of gravel extracted from the Nepean River and delivered to the Warragamba Dam construction site. A flying fox aerial line was established, consisting of 600 open-air buckets at 30-second intervals, operating 24/7, from June 1953 until the dam was opened in 1960.

My pop, Jim Scott, a larger-than-life character, on a whim jumped into one of these buckets, hitching a ride on the ropeway. He filmed the journey from Emu Heights to the dam wall and back again. The legacy of his exuberance remains to this day and is held in trust by the Nepean District Historical Society.

For over half a century the dam has been the protector of the Nepean Valley and its people. It is widely recognised as one of the world's largest domestic and most efficient water supplies. Alongside the Snowy Mountains Scheme and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it stands as a testament to the ingenuity and vision of Australians. Time and again it has proven to be the cornerstone of our national growth.

I firmly believe we in this place must lead our communities and provide real solutions in planning future infrastructure for Lindsay, the Greater Western Sydney region and the people of Australia. We are a proud people. We choose to make sacrifices if it means providing for a better future for our families. We aspire to a lifestyle of choice and freedom, and resent those who would attempt to take these things from us.

We demand a federal government who believes in us, as we believe in ourselves. Unfortunately, successive governments have failed the people of Western Sydney. Every day, two-thirds of the Lindsay workforce are forced to leave the region for employment. Sadly, their return trip sees them arriving home with the sun setting or, worse still, their children already in bed. Furthermore, over the next 20 years, it is projected that an additional half a million people will make Western Sydney their home.

Our challenges are to meet this existing demand and also the needs of future generations. We must encourage investment that creates local jobs and provide the vital services and infrastructure to this region. Lindsay has a leading role to play in securing the future success of the Sydney Basin. Our region is one of the fastest growing in Australia and is key to unlocking the two-speed economy that hinders our national prosperity. I will ensure the people of Lindsay have their seat at the table and a voice in this place.

The time has come for us, in our unique and diverse part of the Cumberland Plain, to stand up and embrace the destiny so many great men and women have long foreseen. In realising the economic and social potential of this region, we must believe in ourselves and plan for a sustainable future. Lindsay is the sturdy horse waiting to be harnessed, ready to pull the wagon.

I come to this place a proud member of the Liberal Party of Australia. In its traditions, as a conservative, I believe we should look to our past to better shape our future. Yet, as Liberals, we should also fight to preserve freedom: freedom of opportunity, freedom of speech, freedom of choice and freedom of religion—freedom without fear or favour. This, and the empowerment of the individual, is a consistent feature throughout the Liberal Party platform. I believe this also captures the spirit of the Lindsay community, which I am proud to represent—that is:

In the innate worth of the individual, in the right to be independent, to own property and to achieve, and in the need to encourage initiative and personal responsibility.

Lindsay does represent the true face of liberalism, where individuals are given freedom. We embrace and respect the rights of others, knowing they will be afforded to us in return. I too am, in the words of the Prime Minister, 'determined to contribute in a party that delivers hope for the future, reward for hard work and an opportunity for all.'

We must embrace the spirit of what it means to be a proud Australian. Our story, the Australian story, is one of determination and resilience, often against the odds. It should inspire us and uplift us, and it should challenge us to reach for new heights. We endure, challenged by our volatile environment, tested by war and enriched by the fusion of many diverse cultures. The character of Lindsay is unique to Australia as it provides a direct link to our heritage and a gateway to our nation's future.

I stand here today a product of my family, of the heritage of my ancestors, and of my tutors, teachers and mentors, but also of the community which has raised me. My journey could not have been possible without the love and support of my father, John, my mother, Robyn, and her partner, Scott; my brothers, Stephen and Glenn, and their wives, Alyssa and Jo; and my nieces and nephew, Brianna, Zachary, Ella and Phoebe.

I would also like to thank the Prime Minister and the three generations of his family for their unrelenting support, inspiration and leadership. To my good friend Senator Payne, thankyou seems hardly enough for your passion, wisdom and advice. To my state parliamentary colleagues, Stuart Ayres, Bart Bassett and Tanya Davies, thank you for your assistance. To Councillor Ross Fowler OAM, the Mayor of Penrith, I thank you for encouragement and support—something you have always shown me.

I would also like to thank my amazing team of volunteers, led by Brian and Glenda Cartwright, supported by Joshua Ballard. Together we doorknocked over 30,000 houses. I thank you for your patience, understanding and commitment. Thank you to the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party for your support, in particular the Lindsay conference. To Dean Carlson and the Young Liberal Flying Squad, thank you for your energy and enthusiasm. To my friends who gave up their warm beds to volunteer at train stations—often on very cold mornings—your support will be forever valued.

To the people of Lindsay, my pledge to you is that I will represent you to the best of my ability. I will be a strong voice on issues that affect our lives, our families, our region and, most importantly, our future. My door is always open to you. Together we will work through our challenges and opportunities. I will endeavour to reignite your belief and confidence in our parliamentary system and your representatives. We in this place should always remember that this is the people's parliament. We do not sit on top of the hill but within it. We must all remember that we stand here, in this place, as common people—common ourselves—holding our nation's common hopes, our common future and our common struggles, commissioned to build a commonwealth for all Australians. In the immortal words of Sir Henry Parkes of Werrington we are 'one people, one destiny.'

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the honourable member for Kingsford Smith who is to make his maiden speech in this place, having come from another place, I again ask the House to extend him the usual courtesies.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to follow in your footsteps and deliver my second first speech in the parliament. I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people and pay my respects to their elders. I also acknowledge the Bidgigal and Gadigal people who are the traditional owners of the land in Kingsford Smith and pay my respects to their elders.

I thank the people of Kingsford Smith for their trust and confidence in bestowing upon me the wonderful honour of representing our community in our nation's parliament. I represent a special part of our country. Kingsford Smith is home to natural beauty, such as the magic beaches from Clovelly to La Perouse and the historic Botany Bay. Our community boasts some of our nation's most important institutions: the National Institute of Dramatic Art; the University of New South Wales, of which I am a proud alumnus; the Prince of Wales Hospital, the Royal Women's Hospital and the Sydney Children's Hospital; Sydney Airport; and Royal Randwick Racecourse. Our area was the original home of Sydney's postwar settlement from both world wars and our people are enriched by the work of many wonderful community organisations.

But the most striking feature of our community is not our natural beauty; it is not our institutions—it is our people. Kingsford Smith is well known for its incredible sense of community. Our people look after each other and we care for our community. This is evident in the fact that very few people ever leave Kingsford Smith once they settle there. Consequently, there is a wonderful family lineage that goes back centuries. I am in the fourth generation of my family to have grown up and lived in the area and I am very proud of my ancestry in our community. I grew up surfing the challenging waves of Maroubra Beach. I have taken on that ocean since I was five years old. My father spent his life surfing at Maroubra as did his father before him. I feel a special connection with that surging body of water and its sands. Three generations within an area, a heritage, creates a deep relationship and a sense of belonging.

I have friends whose family connection with that area dates back 7,000 years. For many millennia our Aboriginal forebears have lived in, related to and tamed those waters and that area. This is not a characteristic unique to our community. Throughout most of Australia the connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people dates back thousands of years, with evidence that Aboriginal culture may be the oldest continuing culture in the world. In human nature, time matters. We celebrate the longevity of centenarians. A 50-year marriage is a special bond. Significant time in a community earns a person the right to call themselves local. Time illustrates connection, belonging and experience. For up to 40,000 years Indigenous Australians have inhabited this land, respecting it, learning from it and nurturing it. The way we live today derives from the lessons and subtle hints our colonial forebears took from our original inhabitants. It is believed that 'Maroubra' is an Aboriginal word for place of thunder—a wise reference to the crashing waves of the beach that bears that name and a rather sensible warning of the perils for the inexperienced who may venture there.

Our nation's Constitution is a symbol of our people and our land. Yet it makes no reference to those who have had the longest, strongest relationship with our continent. It makes no mention of their contribution to the nation that we have built together—and it should. Our nation's defining document should reference the existence, and contribution, of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait forebears because in our culture, in our society, in our nation embodied in that Constitution, time matters, relationships matter and who we are is related to their connection with this land. It is important that we, as parliamentarians, lead the discussion about the importance of recognising in our Constitution the contribution of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander forebears to building the nation that we are today and the wonderful community that I call home in Kingsford Smith. We must amend our Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

In 1788 a remarkable event occurred at the southern tip of our community. After sailing into Botany Bay days earlier and deciding that the water supply was insufficient, Captain Arthur Phillip headed out of the bay to sail north in search of an appropriate place to establish a new colony. As he left Botany Bay another flotilla was entering, that of the French navy commanded by Jean-Francois de Galaup La Perouse. How extraordinary that the naval representatives of two of the world's most advanced societies should meet on the other side of the globe, at the same time, in Botany Bay!

That area of our community where La Perouse came ashore—and, importantly, where his expedition was last seen alive—is now named in his honour. Whilst the expedition was camped on those shores a French naval priest, Father Receveur, passed away and became the first scientist, importantly the first Catholic, and the first priest to be buried on Australian soil. His grave is marked by a monument and is a symbol of the connection between the French people and our community. That is further demonstrated by the presence of the Lycee Condorcet French school in Maroubra and the very absorbing La Perouse Museum, which I am proud to be the patron of.

As Sydney began to industrialise, the very assiduous English and Irish migrants began to settle to the south and east of Sydney. They travelled south to establish new cities. Struggletown became known as Randwick, and was the first local government municipality to be established after the City of Sydney. It was followed closely by the municipality of Botany Bay.

The new settlers worked hard to quickly establish businesses and an airfield at Mascot, and tramlines to the seaside. Their contribution to the area and their heritage is important, and is still evident in social and sporting groups—best illustrated by the Irish green colours of the mighty Randwick Rugby Union Club, which has produced many wallabies.

I live in a street called Menin Road in Matraville—so named because of Australia's contribution to the World War I battle of Menin Road Ridge in Flanders. Much of the suburb in which I now live was built to house the veterans of the Great War upon their return. So, too, the south of Maroubra was built to accommodate those returning from World War II. It offered them a place to call home. Proudly the streets and parks of these suburbs bear the names of historic places of battle, and are a tribute to partnerships with our allies.

Post-war our community, like Australia, was enriched by waves of European migrants. In particular, the Greek and Italian communities are great contributors to our area. In the 1980s Chinese students at the University of New South Wales and their families settled in the area and enlivened Kensington and Kingsford. The Indonesian consulate is located right on the top of the biggest hill in Maroubra and represents the bond between our nations and our peoples. Many Indonesian people live in our area. In recent decades migrants from the Subcontinent—in particular the Bangladeshi community—and the Assyrian communities have made our area their home. These are people who value education, and their children relish the opportunity of learning and are diligent students.

I grew up in a family that valued and encouraged community activism and volunteering. My grandfather Ralph Thistlethwaite was the postmaster at Mascot and a life member of the South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League football club. Every Sunday you would find him on the gates volunteering his time at Redfern oval. 'Always vote Labor and always support the Rabbitohs,' was his simple message to me. Whilst the Rabbitohs often test my patience, I can proudly say that I have never deviated from that wise advice.

My father Bruce has been an active member of Maroubra Surf Lifesaving Club for decades, and when I turned 13 years old he took me down to join the surf club. I remain an active member to this day and am honoured to have been elected the president of one of Australia's oldest and proudest surf clubs and to have held that position in the club's centenary year in 2006.

Through surf lifesaving I have had the privilege of working with some great community activists—people who volunteer almost every hour outside of work and family to serve our community, and who regularly risk their own lives to save others. I am also fortunate to be a long-term member of my local Police Citizens Youth Club. The PCYC is a great organisation that mentors young people, provides new learning and vocational opportunities and assists kids who fall on tough times.

Our community is also blessed with some special social welfare organisations such as the Kooloora Community Centre, the Deli Women and Children's Centre in Eastlakes, Eastern Respite and Recreation, The Shack Youth Services, South East Neighbourhood Centre and our wonderful Rotarians, Lions Clubs, RSLs, Vinnies, Salvos and church groups. My interest in politics derived from my work in community organisations, and I see my role as a member of parliament as an extension of that work. I thank and pay tribute to all of the volunteers in our community who commit their spare time to helping others and making our community such a wonderful place to live.

Madam Speaker, 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Maroubra Junction Public School, of which I am a former student, and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College in Kensington. Both are fine educational institutions and play a significant role in our community. I was fortunate to be educated at high school by the Marist Brothers in Pagewood, and value the role that my high school education played in developing my beliefs and values. The greatest gift our generation of decisionmakers can give our kids is a quality education. Education unlocks our abilities. It overcomes disadvantage. It creates opportunity.

As a wealthy nation our people have the right to expect a first-class education system from early childhood right through to university. In recent years our nation has identified deficiencies in the funding of our schools. Those deficiencies are inhibiting our children's abilities and personal opportunities, and are putting a brake on productivity. Historically, our federal schools funding model created unfair outcomes. Two high schools in my community—one public, one private—with almost identical student numbers and teachers and with similar courses, receive vastly different allocations of federal funding. There is no apparent logic to the funding differences, just historical inertia.

I am concerned that there is a risk that our public education system, particularly at a high school level, is being drained of opportunity. In my community we are seeing some public high schools losing students. Whilst the population grows we are seeing the numbers dwindle in certain public high schools. We are seeing teachers put under more pressure. I am hearing parents say they avoid enrolling their kids in some public schools because of the schools' reputations in the community. This is deeply concerning. The hallmark of a nation's progress as a people, a society and an economy is in the strength of public education. Strong public education equals civility. Strong public education drives productivity. Strong public education unleashes creativity and builds stronger communities. We must not allow our public education system to be a second-class system with inferior learning options for students. We must invest in public education.

For years Labor in government investigated the problems with funding of our schools and developed a new model to rectify historical deficiencies. It is based on years of consultation with students, teachers, parents and experts, and with research that is thoroughly based. It is a fairer funding model that delivers additional funding where it is needed to struggling students and to schools where students are disadvantaged. The new model will produce better students, create more opportunity and strengthen our economy. I implore the new government to continue to implement and to fully fund Labor's Better Schools Plan to ensure a better future for our kids and our nation. If delivered, this will be a wonderful legacy for this parliament, for our children and for our future. I pay tribute to my predecessor Peter Garrett for his commitment and drive to develop and deliver a new funding model for our nation's schools and for his hard work as the member for Kingsford Smith.

Australia is a mature nation. We enjoy high living standards and we have built a diverse economy. We have a unique culture and our own identity. But our nation's defining document, our Constitution, does not reflect this. The Australia of today is not the Australia of Sir Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin. For a Constitution to remain relevant it must evolve. It must reflect growth and maturity. Ours does not. Having a foreign monarch as our head of state does not reflect who we are. We are proud, independent Australians capable of determining our own destiny.

I despair that my daughters or any other Australian child cannot one day aspire to be our nation's head of state. As a nation we must ask ourselves one simple question: is an Australian capable of performing the duties of our nation's head of state? If the answer to that question is yes—and indeed it is—then we should get on with the job of rectifying those deficiencies and amending our Constitution to make that a reality.

As a parliament and a nation we must again begin to discuss our identity and our constitutional arrangements, and I pledge to do my best in this place to highlight this issue and campaign for change. I hope that during my time in this place we see our nation fully recognise our maturity and become a republic. I want to issue a challenge to the young people of Australia to embrace and drive this campaign, to agitate for discussion, to seek to change attitudes and to drive change and campaign for recognition of our identity.

It is a humbling experience to have been elected to represent the community that I love and cherish and have lived in for my entire life. My election was very much a team effort and I was privileged to have the support of hardworking and passionate volunteers who believed in our campaign and the issues we stood for. I thank each and every member of my campaign team, in particular Leigh Heaney, Nick Moncrieff Hill, Trent Murray, BJ Jafari, Jess Winnall, Jacquie Henfrey, Kate Minter, Steve Novak, Phil Kessey, Krystal Validakis, Noel DeSouza, Simon Zhou, Sheikh Raman, John Procopiatis, Riley Campbell, Ruth Soto, Daniel Wiezman and Salim Barber.

I give a special thanks to our local state members of parliament, Michael Daley and Ron Hoenig, who were a great support and worked hard for the Labor cause. I owe deep, deep gratitude to the members of the Labor Party in Kingsford Smith whose hard work and commitment to equality and justice is an inspiration and a privilege to represent. I thank the New South Wales union movement ably led by Mark Lennon at Unions NSW.

To my parents, Lorraine and Bruce, I thank you for your love and unconditional support of me throughout my life and for planting the seed of education and community activism. I thank my sister, Amanda Doonan, and her husband, Tom, and my brother, Chris, and his partner, Roy. Thank you for your lifetime of support, advice and hard work during the election campaign. I thank my very big family of in-laws, the Casamentos, for their support, in particular Joe and Lis who are incredible people and wonderful community activists.

Election campaigns are tough on candidates, but they are even tougher on families. I am blessed with the enduring support, patience and wise advice of my beautiful wife, Rachel, who I love and respect. My election is testament to our partnership. My beautiful daughters, Amelie and Scarlett, remind me every day how proud I am to be your dad and how lucky we are to have you. I hope to make you proud of my work here.

I also thank the officers of the House of Representatives for their assistance in my transition from the Senate, and whose commitment to our democracy is admirable. It is a privilege to serve in our nation's parliament and advance our great democracy. We are people that value peace, equality and stable government. I look forward to working with my colleagues to make our democracy even stronger and our communities better places to live.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the honourable member for Rankin, I remind honourable members that this is his first speech and I ask that the House extend to him the usual courtesies.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. In my 35 years I have experienced three moments of immeasurable pride. The first was my mother's graduation from university in 1991. The second was marrying Laura Anderson in March this year. The third is standing here now on ancient Ngunawal and Ngambri land in the people's house of the Australian parliament.

Members come here with different backgrounds, carrying different values from different parts of the nation. Many of us share a common bond of not just representing our electorates but being representative of them. It is what Tennyson's Ulysses described as being, 'part of all I have met'. Growing up in Logan City and southern Brisbane, the suburbs of my electorate, I know his meaning. I feel part of all I have met there: the local parents and pensioners, cleaners and kitchen hands, businesses and battlers, tradies and truckies; part of their diversity and dedication, pride and perseverance.

My upbringing taught me to judge a society by the opportunities it creates for all its people but especially its most vulnerable, that the best communities look out for each other, look after each other and empower people to improve their own lives and get ahead. Above all, growing up in Rankin sowed the seed of a powerful belief—that social inclusion and economic growth are complementary and not at odds. It is a belief I share with the party I joined half a lifetime ago and the caucus I join now. This conviction comes from my neighbourhood, from my constituents and from my heart. It comes from the countless conversations of life in a vibrant and diverse place. It is formed and furthered by the loving bonds of friendship and family.

To properly thank my wife, Laura, for her sacrifices and support so that I can stand here I would need an extension of time. There is so much I cherish in her and value about our relationship, and without her I would not be here. My mother, Carol, is also up there in the public gallery. For most of my childhood, Mum worked night shift as a nurse. For a great portion of that, it was just the two of us. It was not easy for her and at times I made it harder, but what I know of selflessness and service I learnt from her, and I will always be grateful for that gift. Ours is what used to be described as an unconventional family, but I have always felt fortunate to be the son of Carol and Graham and the little brother of Chelley and Jenni. We went to great local schools where I met lifelong friends Gaz and Pickle, Dimi and Spud. There a formative teacher, Norbert Greulich, taught me the history of our nation and introduced the beginnings of an idea—that even people with a background like mine could maybe one day help write it.

I turned 18 the very day that the Keating government lost office. I will not claim to remember much about the late evening of 2 March 1996—

An honourable member: Albo's birthday.

Albo's birthday—but I do recall that election being a formative experience. It helped me decide I wanted to be part of a vision like Keating's: bold, progressive and exciting. He convinced me of Labor's greatest strength: that we are the only ones capable of combining market economics with an active social contract and global engagement. He championed the economic vision—Asian integration and republicanism—that I admired, so that year I applied to join the great Australian Labor Party. Since then a combination of Labor, higher education and generous mentors has given me a purpose for my life and work, a way to represent my community and the opportunity to meet and learn from remarkable people—people like my great mate of almost two decades, Anthony Chisholm; longstanding friends like Geoff Walsh, Linus Power, Paul Howes, Andrew Fraser, Senator Sam Dastyari, who joins us today, and Annie O'Rourke; people like Ben Swan and Scott Connolly, leaders in a Labor movement which does so much to protect and advance working people. At Griffith University and then at the ANU, there were educators like Pat Weller and Glyn Davis, John Warhurst and John Hart. I thank all of them for the example that they set for me.

After 1996, I came to agree with those who argue Labor's great mistake was its failure to defend the towering achievements of the Hawke and Keating governments. For a time this denied us a rich inheritance—the marriage of sweeping economic reform with progressive social policy—leaving us without a solid foundation from which we could rebuild and renew. We will not make the same mistake this time around. The Rudd and Gillard Labor governments have a phenomenal legacy and we are proud of it. I pay tribute to both prime ministers—indeed, all of our former standard-bearers. I particularly thank Julia Gillard and Kim Beazley for their guidance and encouragement over the years.

I am honoured to be joined here by so many colleagues that I admire. I am especially proud to see the member for Lilley here. He has been such a tremendous influence. I pay tribute to his strength, perseverance and vision, particularly through the global financial crisis. Australian history will come to regard him as one of the great warriors for the fair go, just as the global community already recognises him as a highly accomplished Treasurer. He taught me that it is what we do together that makes us strong. Working with him, alongside the amazing people of the Treasurer's office and the Deputy Prime Minister's office, some of whom have joined us today, was a cherished experience. I consider them family and I thank them for the spirit and comradery we built together.

Almost a million jobs were created on our watch, despite other nations shedding tens of millions of jobs. Australia did not just avoid recession; we grew solidly. In Rankin, that meant more people got to keep jobs, pay bills and feed the kids. It meant the unemployment queues did not get longer, that life did not get harsher. I am proud that Labor was part of that. In the end, Labor bequeathed this incoming government historically low interest rates and contained inflation and low unemployment relative to the rest of the developed world. We laid foundations for better schools and faster broadband technology, emissions trading and a better life for people with a disability. Yet as we defend this legacy we also accept collective responsibility for our failure to convert an impressive record into a third term in office. None of us should escape our share of the blame for that. But if we look beyond the commentary we see a deeper story of the past six years: policy progress and economic success, poisoned by a form of hyper-partisan politics practised by some in our country and the way we let this feed the deterioration of our party's culture and relationships, where small sections of our society dominated the debate in a way that pushed it to the extremes and away from the sensible centre, magnifying the opposition of a select few at the expense of policies designed to benefit Middle Australia. The 2013 election was more a rejection of this kind of nasty politics than it was a rejection of Labor's core beliefs, but we still have lessons to learn. We need to comb through the trash and trivia of polls and personalities, re-establishing principles and policies and finding a loftier purpose.

Labor begins this task with tremendous advantages: the constructive way the members for Maribyrnong and Grayndler contested our leadership, the tremendous economic and policy foundations we built over the last two terms—indeed, over the last three decades—and a long history of rising to Australia's biggest challenges. For us, the global financial crisis confirmed two things: the interconnectedness of our world, its economy and institutions, and Australia's capacity to meet the tests set for us with courage, imagination and, ultimately, success.

It is a remarkable milestone that this current quarter begins the 23rd year of uninterrupted expansion in the Australian economy—remarkable not only because this long upswing is unique in our own economic history but also because it is unparalleled in the recent history of advanced economies of similar or greater size. The overriding responsibility on this chamber is to do all we can to build on the prosperity we have been blessed with for so long, to make sure all Australians participate in it, and to widen the opportunities for Australians to fulfil their own potential.

I do not pretend that the decisions of governments are all that matters, or even most of what matters. Our prosperity depends on the quality of our workforce and the decisions people make about their careers. It depends on the quality of management decisions, on decisions about innovation and new products, and on what happens in markets like China's. But government can have some influence, and what worries me today about the other side of this House is that there are plenty of things they say they will not do—plenty of reforms of the previous government they want to kill off—but I am not aware of a single major proposal or initiative or idea which could be said to sustain our prosperity in any major way.

We will need courage and imagination in the coming decade and beyond as we deal with the intersection of three closely related phenomena that will spell a new economic reality for all of us. They are: rapid technological advance, the globalisation of the workforce and the rise of intergenerational disadvantage. Each will collide with and cascade into the others, challenging us to find new ways to prosper and grow. At worst, this creates a scenario described by one analyst where populations are divided into two groups: those who are good at working with intelligent machines and those who are replaced by them. Australians must not wake up one day on the wrong side of this gulf. We cannot let the rise of technology benefit only a small part of our society. We must not let others choose our place in the global value chains of the future. We are called to prevent this new divide of technological haves and have-nots, a new frontier in global inequality, and to repair the situation that international research now proves so clearly: that, without dedicated action, inequality in one generation breeds inequality in the next.

Those who dismiss these big global trends or pretend Australia can opt out of them entirely are kidding themselves. Globalisation will speed up not slow down, despite its critics. We will not choose the global circumstances we face in the coming years, but we can choose how we deal with them. In one sense, Australia has options. But the first is unacceptable: to pretend these pressures do not exist or that they do not matter, whether in Australia, North America or Europe. This is the approach taken by conservatives. They cling to an idea long disproven: that concentrated wealth and influence will trickle down to the most disadvantaged. The second option is equally poor: to pretend and protect the absurdity that says we can go it alone—that, in a world of multinational companies and global value chains, we can be unaffected by the ebb and flow of the world's tides and trends and that we can have redistribution without growth.

The third path for Australia is the only way: to combine digital inclusion, innovation and human capital into a potent and productive mix; to find a well-paid place for our workers in the links of elaborate global value chains; to provide more people with the tools of success, the capacity to get ahead and improve their own lives, beginning in our schools; most of all, to build the intergenerational mobility necessary to draw more fully on the talents of our entire population in the Asian century. This means carving out a meaningful role for more people in the economy. It means more than fairness and redistribution, but also inclusion, mobility, dynamism and creativity. More than anything else, these are the wellsprings of new growth in Australia. They also mark out the greatest difference between the Labor movement and the conservative side of the House. That side dismisses intergenerational mobility as some sort of class warfare, when it is the antithesis of that. They pay lip-service to opportunity but are content to see Australia's success stories selected from an ever-shrinking pool, a society marked by growing inequality, and a small group rent-seeking from the rest.

I believe in market economics and social justice. I reconcile them in a very simple way, by believing that inclusion and growth are complementary and not at odds. I believe in a decent minimum and fair working conditions and then providing, beyond that foundation, the tools of success so we can empower Australians to be confident and self-sustaining actors in a dynamic and innovative economy. I believe in economic mobility because I believe in the contested political ideas and choices that underlie it: that the circumstances of your birth must not dictate your life chances and that there is a role for the state in helping to create better opportunities for the disadvantaged, both through enhancing their capabilities in a way outlined by the great economist Amartya Sen and through breaking open networks of privilege to admit people on merit. So I believe in reorienting public spending, away from a grab-bag of concessions for those who need them least towards more strategic investment in human capital and digital inclusion for those with the most to gain and the most to contribute.

The right type of economy, fuelled by genuine intergenerational mobility, is the most important thing I want to see while I am here. But it is not the only thing. Our otherwise successful nation has unfinished business. As my friend the member for Kingsford Smith said, we need to agree on an Australian republic, we need to advance the cause of the original Australians, deliver marriage equality, provide security to an ageing population, entrench for all time a market mechanism to combat the dangers of climate change and much more.

I meant what I said to my community in the campaign: that Rankin can set the example for the rest of Australia. We can look out for each other and look after each other. We can be the epicentre of opportunity in a nation which can be the benchmark for economic mobility in the wider world. I will cherish many moments from the election: meeting young Xavier from Mabel Park School and Victor from Woodridge shops; getting to know Peter, who carted my sign around on his mobility scooter up and down Paradise and Wembley roads; seeing people stream through the door to help out and to sign up in big numbers; and witnessing the dedication and commitment of our local branches and supporters. I could not ask for a more devoted campaign team, more eager volunteers, more supportive community leaders or more enthusiastic staff. There are too many to name, so in thanking every one of them, I will single out Teresa and Crystell Lane, Peter Power, Elliot Stein, Aaron Broughton, John Chirgwin, Barry Ramsay, Lisa Banyard, Dolly Chang and Mitchell Watt.

I reject the notion that members of this House must ultimately choose between being a good local representative or making a contribution to national ideas. My two accomplished predecessors, Craig Emerson and David Beddall, have shown me there is a way to do both. The differences between local, national and global issues were once blurred. Now they are almost non-existent. Globalisation is part of life in the suburbs, and life in the suburbs is part of globalisation. The success of my community rests on us getting the big things right, here in this House. That is why I am here and why I also thank the Leader of the Opposition for the additional opportunities he has given me as his parliamentary secretary and for trade and investment.

The task for my generation is not to double back and retrace the steps of our predecessors, even our heroes, but to leave new footprints by walking further and forward in their same direction. Finding Australia's place in the world is key to finding the jobs of the future for the community that I grew up in, live in and love, one which has been burdened for too long with higher unemployment than elsewhere, particularly, but not exclusively, among our young people. Providing them the tools of success, the keys to a new economy, and genuine intergenerational mobility are our most pressing objectives. I am proud to be here making their case, representing them and being representative of them as well. I thank the House.

Debate adjourned.