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

Order! Before I call the honourable member for O'Connor, I remind honourable members that this is his maiden speech. I therefore ask that the usual courtesies of the House be accorded to him.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise for the first time in this House with enormous pride and a real sense of honour to be representing the electors of O'Connor. To be their voice in federal parliament is a responsibility I will take very seriously indeed, and I thank them for their vote of confidence in me.

Madam Speaker, let me take this opportunity to add my congratulations on your elevation to the Speaker's chair, a role I know that you will fill with distinction.

I begin by acknowledging the efforts of the previous member for O'Connor, Tony Crook. Though we came from opposite ends of the conservative political spectrum, I always understood and respected the challenges that Tony faced in representing a massive electorate, such a long way from our national capital.

I am only the third member for O'Connor. Tony served for one term. His predecessor served 11 terms in parliament over 30 years and his name is instantly recognisable in Australian politics. Wilson Tuckey has been a friend and supporter for many years, and I take this opportunity to acknowledge his distinguished service to the O'Connor community.

My home town of Katanning is in the geographic centre of O'Connor. It is in the heart of the agricultural region, and I grew up on the family farm that was carved out of the bush by my great-grandfather in 1867. So my roots are firmly entrenched in the rich soil of my electorate.

My great-grandparents William and Bridget Grover were real pioneers, and their stories of hardship and endeavour have been passed down through the family. Bridget gave birth to 11 children in a mud-daubed hut and, remarkably for the time, all of her children survived to adulthood. Raising and educating a large family in remote Western Australian in the late 19th century inevitably meant great adventures but also trials and tribulations. Bridget recorded them all in her diaries, which we are proud to say reside here, in Canberra, at the National Library. They are a testament to the grit and determination shown by so many of our pioneer families.

A family that has lived nearly 150 years in the same location has, of necessity, developed very strong community bonds. My parents and my grandparents taught my siblings and me the value of community service. They taught us about commitment and dedication, about loyalty and reliability, about kindness and compassion. They showed by their deeds that self-reliance and hard work do bring rewards. They taught us that the greatest reward and the greatest responsibility is family and community.

My 87-year-old mother, Mary, who is in the gallery today, epitomises all that is good about family and community. She was a child of the Depression whose family suffered financial ruin. She educated herself via correspondence lessons and became a much-loved and respected nursing sister. She has spent her life giving of herself for others. Even today, she still works tirelessly for many community organisations. She is an adored mother, grandmother and now, to her delight, great-grandmother. Her selflessness has been an inspiration to all her family, and we strive to live up to her example.

I am the youngest of six children. I am a farmer. For the past 25 years, I have farmed in partnership with my brother Allan. When our father, Archie, died suddenly, I was just 14 and Allan was 17. Circumstances forced us to accept the enormous responsibility of maintaining the family business from a very young age and, while there were many difficult times, we have succeeded in developing an outstanding farm operation.

I am proud of my hardworking, salt-of-the-earth ancestors. I am a social conservative and an economic liberal. I believe family is the primary social unit of society, just as small business is the primary economic unit of our economy. Marriage is the cornerstone of family life, and I strongly believe that marriage is and should remain the union of a man and a woman.

I believe the institutions that have formed the basis of our government for the past 112 years have served us well. We should not tamper with our system of government without compelling evidence that the system is broken. It is not broken. In fact, I stand here today as a proud Australian, a citizen of undoubtedly the best country in the world.

I stand proudly for the Liberal philosophy of free markets, vigorous competition, small government and individual responsibility. These are the principles that guide me in my life and in this place. My track record in public life shows clearly that I am prepared to stand up for those principles.

As a member, deputy chair and then chair of Western Grain Growers, I helped lead the campaign to deregulate the Australian wheat industry and end the Australian Wheat Board's monopoly. Many farmers saw the AWB single-desk monopoly as a bastion against what they saw as the evils of free markets. A very small group of us saw it as a system that stifled innovation and investment, distorted market signals through cross-subsidisation and reduced returns for Western Australian growers.

My personal battle to effect this major reform to our industry lasted 11 years, from 1997 until its deregulation in 2008. For others, it had been a lifelong battle. Leon Bradley, the chairman and leader of our organisation through this period, was one such individual. A humble and unassuming farmer with a towering intellect and unimpeachable principles, Leon stared down an organized campaign of denigration and derision. That campaign was led by a billion-dollar ASX 200 company, almost every major farm organisation in the nation and powerful political interests at both state and federal levels. It was Leon's simple dictum that 'truth and logic will always win out' that sustained us when it seemed that politics and patronage would triumph.

Two others who were part of that wonderful team are here today in the gallery. Gary McGill, a great friend and supporter, is a truly fearless advocate for the free-market principles that underpinned our philosophy, and Slade Brockman's outstanding policy work meant that we were never bettered in the economic argument. We had very few friends in this place at that time. The former member for O'Connor Wilson Tuckey was one. At great political cost to himself, he stood firm for his principles and for what he believed was in the best interests of his electorate. So, too, did the late Senator Judith Adams, a much-loved friend to me and my family and to many others in O'Connor. She is greatly missed.

As we now know, the wheat market was deregulated in 2008 and the impact on Western Australian wheat growers was immediate. A sustained price rise of between $20 to $30 per tonne has been achieved, which equates to around $50,000 per annum for an average-sized farm business. Simple maths tells us that an extra $1 billion has found its way into the pockets of Western Australian wheat growers since deregulation. The supporting role that I played in this major economic reform of one of our key export industries is my signature achievement, and I am very proud of my part in that success.

During the deregulation debate, Leon, Gary and I spent many long hours in this place, lobbying senior ministers and shadow ministers on both sides of the House. I saw firsthand that many of the important decisions that impact on my industry and my community were made right here. That was when I first started to think about a career in politics. Five years later, I stand here representing the electors of O'Connor. I will fight hard for the principles I believe in and for the good of my electorate. I will fight hard to deliver to O'Connor what all Australians have a right to expect: an opportunity to succeed, to raise a family, to not be burdened by unnecessary laws and regulations, to take a risk and to keep the rewards of their hard work.

O'Connor is a vast and diverse electorate. In this season, we will produce an estimated seven to eight million tonnes of grain, almost a quarter of the nation's crop production. We are also a major woolgrowing electorate. Over the past 150 years, my family has made a small contribution to both industries. I have a great sense of optimism for the future of our agricultural industries. We are well positioned to take advantage of the rapidly growing markets in the Asian region. I believe my children will have a great opportunity to follow in their forefathers' footsteps in pursuing a career in agriculture, if they choose to do so.

O'Connor also has significant viticulture and horticultural industries, along with timber, tourism and fishing. We have major mining operations across the electorate, including—among others—gold, nickel and iron ore. We have thousands of small manufacturers and service industries in our towns and cities. Small business is the beating heart of O'Connor. It is our small business that provides the jobs and opportunities for the future.

Our agricultural industries are predominantly based in the central Great Southern region, where I live. As well as agriculture, it is where we find spectacular wildflowers in spring, remarkable bird life, the beautiful Stirling Ranges and the lovely heritage buildings that remind us of our pioneer past. O'Connor also encompasses the Warren Blackwood region, based around the towns of Manjimup, Pemberton and Bridgetown. It supports a timber industry, and the quality of its horticulture, viticulture and dairy produce has earned it the title of the food bowl of Western Australia. From apples and potatoes to truffles and cherries, as well as its prime beef, the Warren Blackwood produces a wonderful variety of produce.

Albany is the biggest population centre in the electorate. It was the site of the first European settlements in Western Australia in 1827. It has a proud colonial history. Albany is a port city that services the agricultural hinterland of the Great Southern. Along with the nearby towns of Denmark and Walpole, and the renowned Frankland and Plantagenet winegrowing areas, the south coast region is an important tourist destination for local, national and international tourists.

Albany was also the last sight of Australia for the troops aboard the fleet of more than 30 ships that left our shores in November 1914. Many of these young men, who served in Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front, never returned. One of Albany's most popular and moving attractions is the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial. It is situated on top of Mount Clarence, overlooking King George Sound, where the people of the town waved goodbye to those brave young men.

Both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs have expressed their strong commitment to making sure that Albany's place in our Anzac history is appropriately honoured during the period of the national commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac. Expect to hear much more of Albany and its unique place in our history.

Among its many attractions, Esperance has the whitest and the most pristine beaches in the world. In Esperance, O'Connor can boast a region that has developed from a small community of fishermen and a few pastoralists to one of the most vibrant and successful agricultural regions in the country—in just 50 years. The sandy soil has been transformed, and this season the grain growers of Esperance are on target to deliver 2.5 million tonnes of grain, a record for the region. Esperance is a testament to the innovation and determination of its residents, who are always looking for ways to do things better and to do things smarter.

Today, as we debate the merits of foreign investment, it is worth remembering that foreign investment transformed Esperance. It was syndicated American money that was behind the development of the sand plain into an extraordinarily productive farming region. A community of around 1,000 residents in the early 1960s, Esperance shire is now home to 14,000 people. In an era in which many farming communities throughout Western Australia are in decline, Esperance is a wonderful example of success.

Mining, of course, is the lifeblood of the goldfields. Kalgoorlie has a rich history. It was established in the gold rush of the 1890s, when prospectors from all over Australia—and indeed the world—came to seek their fortunes. Today, the gold industry lives on. In 2012-13, the region produced $5.7 billion worth of gold. Its gold rush history is evident in Hannan Street, the statue of Paddy and the gracious and beautifully preserved colonial buildings, but what makes Kalgoorlie is not its buildings; it is the spirit of its people: hardworking, resilient and optimistic. They have seen the booms and they have seen the busts, but they are always ready to have another go. They are quite remarkable.

Mining is the lifeblood of Kalgoorlie, but it is also the lifeblood of Australia. It is our largest export earner and its flow-on impact in the economy cannot be underestimated. Across the region, revenue from mining topped $9 billion in 2012-13. It was a tragedy to see the contempt with which the previous government treated this industry. The mining tax, which I have proudly voted to scrap, was a textbook example of bad government. I saw firsthand that tax suck the confidence out of the miners in my electorate. Mining needs confidence. That is why I am a strong supporter of the exploration tax credit. If we are to see the big projects of tomorrow, we need people to invest their capital today.

These, then, are the five major regions that make up the electorate of O'Connor. It is populated by people who epitomise the spirit of regional Australia: hardworking, resilient, good-humoured people with plenty of backbone, people who look for solutions, people who are keen to explore innovative alternatives in their quest to do things better.

But we are faced with some very particular challenges in O'Connor, challenges that are shared by people in other regional centres throughout Australia but which in our case are compounded by the tyranny of distance. Western Australia produces 16 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product and 46 per cent of the nation's mercantile exports. Much of this wealth is produced by the people who live in the regional and rural communities of O'Connor. They deserve to have adequate access to health care. They deserve for their children to have same educational opportunities as their city cousins and for their parents to grow old with dignity and in comfort in the communities they have served all their lives. And we need to find solutions that address the significant disadvantage that Indigenous communities in our electorate face. I look forward to working with the Prime Minister's Indigenous task force to find those solutions. These are the key areas in which I have committed to work tirelessly to find solutions that work for us in O'Connor.

As a Western Australian I cannot ignore the inequity of the GST distribution formula. In the financial year 2013-14, we will receive just 45c for every dollar of GST that we pay. This is projected to fall to just 7c in the dollar in 2016-17. The Commonwealth grants formula was designed so that the more developed states would give a hand to the developing states, and in Western Australia's development phase we were grateful recipients of that assistance. But now the system is being used to support states which do not maximise economic development and investment. So, while we Western Australians are happy to help our compatriots who are working hard to improve their economies just like we did, we resent propping up those states who are not making every effort to maximise their resources and opportunities. They are seen by many Western Australians as bludging off the system. No part of Australia should be encouraged by the system to do anything less than their best. The planned review in March next year is an opportunity for me and for other Western Australian members to make the case for a more equitable arrangement.

Another issue of particular importance to agriculture, not just in O'Connor but across Australia, is the live export trade. I am very proud that the Australian livestock industry has for many years been engaging with our markets to improve the treatment of our livestock in the supply chain. In fact, we are the only one of 109 countries who export live animals to do so. While our systems are not perfect and there have been some regrettable instances of cruelty, we are making progress. But to withdraw arbitrarily from this trade will see our livestock replaced with animals from other countries where animal welfare has a much lower priority. I welcome the strong commitment of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Agriculture to rebuild and strengthen this important trade.

It is impossible to campaign across an electorate the size of O'Connor for 2½ years without the support and assistance of an enormous number of people. I now take the opportunity to put on the record my deepest and sincerest thanks—to my campaign chairman, Steve Martin, whose partnership on this journey extends well beyond the campaign and, I know, will continue well into the future; to my campaign committee, who gave an enormous amount of their time over such a long period, because they believed not just in me but also in the greater Liberal cause: Dom Della Vedova, Bob Morgan, Alana Lacy, Tom and Victoria Brown, Liz and Kel Parker, Don Green, Helen Inglis, Beau Ashton, Amanda Robideau and my wonderful niece Danielle Power. To our branch presidents, members and supporters, who did such a magnificent job manning the 133 polling booths across our enormous electorate, my deepest thanks. Thanks to our Western Australian state director, Ben Morton, whose commitment to winning back the seat of O'Connor was unwavering and who gave me great confidence that the work we were doing at the coalface would be rewarded. Thanks to Ben Allen, my campaign director, whose dry sense of humour always managed to relieve the tension in a crisis.

My sincere thanks go to the two senators with special responsibility for O'Connor. Chris Back, with his expertise in all things livestock, is always a great hit amongst rural people. He and his wife, Linda, worked tirelessly on my behalf. And Senator Dean Smith, with his energy and incredible attention to detail, gave my campaign impetus and momentum at precisely the right time.

To Senators Mathias Cormann and Michaelia Cash: I thank you for your invaluable assistance along this journey. And I thank Julie Bishop, our senior Western Australian Liberal, who was so generous with her time.

I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the 27 shadow ministers and parliamentary secretaries who visited the electorate, some on several occasions, and, in the case of Senator Ronaldson, on five separate visits. To our state MPs, Jim Chown and Graham Jacobs: your support and guidance have been greatly appreciated.

The fast and efficient establishment of my electorate offices in Kalgoorlie and Albany is a testament to the professionalism of my staff, and I thank them for their hard work so far.

In a long and arduous campaign, where a candidate is constantly seeking assistance and favours, it is inevitable that we turn to our family and close friends, and it is here that I direct my warmest thanks. To my big brother, Allan, who throughout my life has allowed me to pursue my dreams while he has steadfastly kept the business running, I owe a debt that I can never repay. To my big sister, Kate, whose amazing media and communication skills, along with her commitment, dedication and sense of purpose, were an inspiration to me and all of our team: I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To Michael Pedley: your contribution to the campaign was amazing and I cannot imagine how we would have managed without you. To my sisters Deb, Jane, Bev; my brother-in-law Gary; my nieces Danielle, Lucy and Amelia; and my nephew Scotty: I thank you for your contributions, big and small.

My final and most important thankyou is to my wonderful wife, Tanya: throughout the long and at times difficult campaign, you have been my support, my reassurance, my rock. You have endured the sacrifices without complaint, and without your courage and strength I could not contemplate this journey that we are about to embark on. To my beautiful children, Emma, Annalise, Phillipa and Archie: I apologise in advance for the birthdays missed, the sports carnivals I could not attend, the milestones achieved when Dad was busy somewhere in the electorate. It is my fervent hope that, at some point in the future, we will reflect back on this time and we will all agree it was worthwhile.

Finally, to the electors of O'Connor, I reiterate the commitment that I have made to work tirelessly on your behalf, to always be frank and honest about the challenges we face, and to work cooperatively and collaboratively to improve the lives of the people who live in the greatest part of the greatest nation on earth. Thank you.

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

Before I call the honourable member for Gellibrand, I would remind the House that he is making his maiden speech and I would ask the House to extend to him the same courtesies that we have just extended to the honourable member for O'Connor.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in this place for the first time, conscious that I do so not only in front of the House but most importantly in front of my family. My two children are, at the same time, second and seventh generation Australians. On their paternal side, they are the progeny of six generations of Anglo-Saxon Protestants and, on their maternal side, of first generation Chinese migrants. My children's paternal ancestor, John Watts, set out for Australia from England as a 19-year-old in 1840. He came to Australia seeking the opportunity of what he called 'the colonial life' and became a landowner in the area now represented here by the member for Groom. In 1859, he was elected as the member for Drayton and Toowoomba in the first Queensland parliament and later became minister for public works. I regret to inform the House that John Watts was not a labour man, describing himself as a 'liberal conservative'. I do not question his judgement too severely as the great Australian Labor Party would not be established until some 24 years after he had left parliament.

My wife and her family came to this country from Hong Kong in 1985 seeking the same freedom and opportunity in our nation as John Watts did some 150 years before them. They brought with them a different language and cultural tradition, but they shared the same desire and determination to be the architects of a better life for themselves and for their children. Today, these braided threads of my children's heritage are equally fundamental to both their own and the Australian identity. However, in 1877, less than 10 years after my ancestor left parliament, the Queensland parliament passed a series of laws designed to force Chinese residents out of the state. The presence of my family here today—diverse, happy and thriving in a modern Australia—is a living testament to how far we have come as a nation in the last 150 years. This transformation did not happen by accident; it happened because of our politics.

Members will appreciate that 'politics' is a term of contempt in this country. However, as unpopular as it may be, it is our politics that created the institutional framework for Australia's prosperity. The success of our politics at building the institutions of growth and fairness in our society has been our true national advantage. This is why I am humbled to be elected to this place as the member for Gellibrand. I am particularly honoured to be representing a seat with such a strong Labor history. Gellibrand has always been held by the Labor Party, and most recently Nicola Roxon and Ralph Willis provided four decades of extraordinary service to the Labor cause.

It is not easy being a Labor member of this House. While Labor's ideological objective—expanding equality of opportunity, social and economic—is very simple, more often than not the political task of advancing this cause is a very difficult one. Labor is the fire in our democracy. We are the source of the combustion that drives political change in our nation, but this flame is difficult to maintain. When the tenders of this flame have failed to fuel it, when we have let the embers of reform burn too low, the public has overlooked us. Equally, when we have let the fires of radical change burn too rapidly, when the flame has grown too wild, the public has recoiled and rejected us.

My strategy for the tending of this flame of change is taken from the New Labour strategist, the late Lord Philip Gould. He convinced me that progressives should not focus simply on winning elections, as crucial as that was, but instead plan on the bigger picture of winning centuries. Lord Gould argued that to win centuries Labor must win the battle of ideas in our community over the long term, rallying public support to our causes in both government and opposition and forcing the conservatives to fight on political ground already captured in the minds of the public by the ideas of the progressive movement. To win centuries, Labor must shape public opinion over time, not merely reflect it. In fact, Labor must win the public debate so comprehensively in the hearts and minds of the people that, once introduced, our reforms are so embedded in a bedrock of community support that they simply cannot be overturned by a conservative government, no matter how transient.

Labor's agenda won the 20th century. We were not in power for the majority of the last 100 years, but our ideas were. From the Fisher government's championing of the old age pension and workers' compensation to the Curtin government's wartime leadership and foundational work on the Anzac alliance; from the Chifley government's nation building and leadership of the establishment of the United Nations to the Whitlam government's opening of Australia to the world through tariff reduction, trade relations with China and multiculturalism; from the Hawke government's Medicare, HECS, compulsory superannuation, dollar float and financial deregulation to the Keating government's Native Title Act, enterprise bargaining, national competition policy and APEC leaders meeting; and throughout it all the union movement's fight for better conditions for workers; it was Labor ideas that shaped the 20th century.

Members on this side of the House can look back on this legacy with pride, but the question confronting new members is how we can win the 21st century. The Labor reforms of the past are a great legacy, but they are just that: the past. We must keep feeding the fires of political reform, looking ahead and engaging with the challenges of the future. To win the next century, Labor must see the changing landscape of the nation, understand the trends that are already shaping our future and paint the big picture about how Labor's reform agenda will create a fairer and more prosperous nation. This is a challenge that the party will need to take up on many fronts—education, secure work, urban liveability, workforce participation, climate change and regulatory growth, to name just a few. There are, however, three fronts of this fight that I want to personally address briefly today: first, defending the role of government in a period of fiscal challenge; second, championing the online communities which have emerged as a result of the digital revolution; and, third, showing that the success of our open economy depends on our open society founded on immigration and multiculturalism.

The first must-win debate for Labor is the role of government in a time of fiscal challenge. The case for an intelligent, active government needs to be continually remade. We in the Labor Party are different from the conservatives because we understand the role that government must play to make our nation a fairer and more prosperous place. While Labor must resist the unthinking Left, whose answer is always and everywhere to increase the role of the state, we must also rebut the ideologues of the Right who see no role for government that does not simply prop up the status quo.

It is no secret that Australia is currently in a period of structural fiscal constraint. Important sources of government revenue are under pressure and significant areas of government expenditure are growing. If we do nothing, the budget goes backwards. Yet, while you might easily miss it amongst the din and filthy clamour of partisanship and sloganeering, Australia already has a lean government by international standards. Our tax-to-GDP and spending-to-GDP ratios are among the lowest in the developed world. Despite this, the conservatives' response to fiscal contraction has been to unthinkingly and ideologically cut government spending. Their instinct is to chase the spiral downwards.

In this context, Labor must convince the public that the size of government must be determined primarily by our expectations of it. While some public revenue sources are under pressure, the task of government has not reduced. We cannot cut our way to a fairer and more prosperous nation. We must continue to invest in urban infrastructure so that the strains of population growth do not cripple the productivity of those living in our cities and suburbs—investments like the regional rail link and metro rail tunnel that will allow for more services and ensure a faster and more reliable commute for people across Melbourne's west, not just for those who catch the train but also for those who drive.

We must invest in the nation's human capital, ensuring that we have a workforce that possesses the skills needed to do the high-paying work of the modern economy—investments like Labor's Better Schools package, which delivered millions in additional funding for schools in Melbourne's west and was distributed to those who needed it the most on a needs based funding model.

We must continue to invest in the health of our people to avoid the emerging fiscal productivity and participation crisis of the rise of chronic disease. In Gellibrand, 5.3 per cent of the population currently suffers from diabetes. It is estimated that there are half as many again with undiagnosed diabetes or pre-diabetes. Without investments in preventative health, like Labor's Medicare Locals, the cost of this chronic disease will be felt throughout the budget and the economy. These brief examples show that there will always be problems that we need to collectively pool our resources in order to solve. In these areas, the short-term savings of smaller government condemn our society and economy to greater costs in the long term.

The second must-win debate for Labor is our response to the digital revolution. The word 'revolution' is overused, but one of the few true revolutions we have experienced in our society over the past decade has been the impact of the spread of digital technology on the way people communicate. Before coming to this place, I spent the better part of 10 years working in the ICT industry and I have seen the pace and scale of this change firsthand. Consider that the first iPhone was released in this country in the year after the Rudd government was elected. In the barely six years since, the proportion of the Australian population who own a smartphone has exploded to over 72 per cent, all of whom are now walking around with computer processors in their pockets more powerful than those used by NASA to put a man on the moon 50 years ago.

However, for all its technical wonder, the most important aspect of the digital revolution is not technology; it is people. The internet has made it dramatically easier to find other people who are passionate about the same things you are, to share information with these people and then to collaborate in producing altogether new information with others in these communities, often with non-financial motivation. This new mode of production, peer production, has brought us a series of what Australian economist Nicholas Gruen has called 'emergent public goods'—goods such as the GNU/Linux operating system that supports the majority of the world's web servers, the Android mobile operating system that operates on the majority of the world's smartphones, and Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia ever produced. At the same time, social media has allowed specialised communities of interest to form around even the most obscure subjects, producing unprecedented and constantly evolving repositories of technical expertise, culture and journalism—all created by communities for the benefit of other community members. In this era of unprecedented connectivity, as Michael Wesch puts it, 'The machine is us.'

These changes are particularly important for the progressive movement. We are a movement founded on collective action, on people working together for mutual gain. From the early cooperatives, mutual societies and trade unions, progressives have pioneered new institutional arrangements for organising collective action. The digital revolution has made possible a panoply of new ways of acting collectively, but we have not yet engaged with this change on a philosophical or institutional level. We need to do so soon, as the way we respond to the digital revolution has the potential to become the major ideological divide over the next decade—the next century, in fact. It has implications for how progressives should think about issues as varied as tax, defence, public services, trade, privacy and infrastructure investment. For this reason, the work of thinkers like Yochai Benkler, Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond, Lawrence Lessig and Eric von Hippel, who have studied these online communities, should be essential readings for all progressives.

In particular, progressives must become aware of the ways that government and business can stifle these online communities. There are already many examples of this in Australia, particularly with respect to intellectual property. As Chief Justice French noted in a case close to the heart of my predecessor in this place—the tobacco plain-packaging challenge—intellectual property is an instrument of policy created by government to serve the public. Figures as varied as Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek and Thomas Jefferson have long warned of the dangers of this statutory monopoly and its tendency to expand. Despite this, policymakers continue to view intellectual property as little more than an innate property right to be unthinkingly protected by government. This orthodoxy is buttressed by trade agreements, often negotiated without transparency or democratic accountability, that, instead of promoting free trade, are increasingly providing the expansion of private statutory monopolies.

Australian copyright law, in which all reproduction is prohibited—other than specific, narrow exceptions—is particularly problematic and is currently throwing sand in the gears of digital innovation in this country. In the absence of a broadbased fair-use exception, innovations like the Google search engine and the iPod were legally problematic under Australian law upon introduction—chilling incentives for digital innovation in this country. Patent laws are already becoming a similar handbrake on innovation. As maker communities and 3-D printing grow in popularity, so too will disputes about patent infringement. The emergence of commercial patent trolls in the technology sector is just the beginning of this problem.

In response, progressives should champion a new microeconomic reform agenda to re-evaluate intellectual property law from first principles, focusing on incentives and public benefits—not the mindless protection of statutory monopolies. This process should be led by economists and innovators, not lawyers and rent seekers. Without it, intellectual property will increasingly become an instrument for the protection of vested interests rather than the promotion of innovation. As progressives, we must stand up for the new online communities created by the digital revolution. They are our people acting in a long, progressive tradition and we must be a voice for them in this place. To win the 21st century on matters digital, our mantra as progressives must become, 'It's the community, stupid.'

The final must-win debate for Labor is the importance of Australia's open society to our open economy. Through leaders like Whitlam, Hawke and Keating, Labor has argued well the case for the openness of our economy. What we have not argued with similar vigour is that an open economy cannot reach its full potential without an equally open society. The foundation stones of Australia's open society have been immigration and multiculturalism.

Our early history was violent and the product of thinking and ideas that are foreign to us now. But even then, the southern continent, Terra Australis, was a canvas for the projected hopes of many in Europe and Asia—a new place that could perhaps be free of the injustices and prejudices of the Old World. For the most part, we have borne out this promise, but we will not have fully honoured it until we break our remaining links with the exclusive institution of the British monarchy and become a republic that allows all Australians to say that they have a head of state who is one of their own.

As a nation, we have used this position as a beacon for ambitious dreamers around the world—to our overwhelming benefit. As in the case of my family, over 60 per cent of the residents of Gellibrand have at least one parent born overseas. In the last term of government alone, we welcomed more than 350,000 skilled migrants to our shores, increasing our productiveness and helping us to avoid the costs of an ageing population. The reason these migrants chose Australia is the opportunity of an open society that has proven to the world that multiculturalism can make our nation stronger. As Tim Soutphommasane, Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, has argued, Australia has developed a uniquely successful model of multiculturalism founded on the concept of citizenship. This model recognises that cultural heritage can form an important part of a citizen's identity and that, generally, individuals should be free to express it.

However, by viewing multiculturalism through the prism of citizenship, Australian multiculturalism has also emphasised that this liberty is coupled with unifying and overarching obligations that we all have as citizens of a liberal democracy. Australia is a country where you are free to wear a hijab or celebrate Italy winning a World Cup game, even when they beat Australia—maybe. But you cannot bribe a government official, incite ethnic violence or take a child bride. The openness of our society and the opportunity we have extended to migrants to our nation has left Australia better placed to succeed in an open global economy. The great Australian chronicler of our nation's Anglo-Celtic convict heritage, Robert Hughes, noted that multiculturalism:

… proposes … that some of the most interesting things in history and culture happen at the interface between cultures … the future .. in a globalized economy … will lie with people who can think and act with informed grace across ethnic, cultural, linguistic lines … In the world that is coming, if you can't navigate difference, you've had it.

Despite this, there are those who seek to threaten Australia's multicultural success story. There are those on the other side of this chamber, particularly in the other place, who do not understand the success of the Australian model of multiculturalism and instead attack it with imported political arguments from nations with different experiences. There are those who are willing to sacrifice the success of our multicultural, open society to seek political advantage through the demonisation of asylum seekers who arrive through unauthorised channels.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the decision of this government to rename the Department of Immigration and Citizenship the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. Let us reflect on those two terms, 'citizenship' and 'border protection.' One of those terms is about inclusion, the other about repulsion. One is about opportunity, one is about fear. One represents a very large number of people, the other a very small number. Such are the ignorant, inverted priorities of the coalition—priorities that sacrifice the very foundation of the success of the Australian model of multiculturalism, citizenship, in favour of language that raises the drawbridge on the rest of the world.

Labor must challenge these threats to the success of our open society and continue to convince the public that Australian multiculturalism makes our nation stronger. We must argue that while we are morally compelled to do what is necessary to ensure that asylum seekers arrive in Australia in a fair and orderly way, to protect the primacy of Australia and citizenship for all, we must also ensure that we are offering refuge to those in need in proportion to our capacity to assist. In this context, this government's dramatic cuts to Australia's annual refugee intake and aid budget, at a time when so many people—in the countries surrounding Syria and in the refugee camps of Africa and Asia in particular—are so desperate, is an abject moral failure. These are good people with the bad luck to live in countries whose governments gas their citizens or where militias murder, mutilate and rape women and children. As a party who believes in equality of opportunity in a nation that has benefited so much from an open society, and in a country that knows how to make multiculturalism work, Labor cannot abandon them if we hope to win the 21st century.

I would like to conclude by thanking the people who have contributed to my being here today. To my wife Joyce: it is a cliche to say that someone is your better half, but in my case my wife is truly everything good in a person, that I am not. I thank you for your love and support and sacrifice, and I say here today that you have a commitment from me written in Hansard that our family life will not be Borgen-ed by this job! To my grandfather, who passed away recently, and my grandmother, who I lived with for a number of years: you stamped the twin obligations of hard work and community service on generations of your family, and I thank you. To my immediate family—my father, Peter, my mother, Yvonne, and my brother and sister, David and Sarah—and my uncles Ian, Michael, Derek and Barry and my aunties Jacqui and Pam: you are people who helped me find my political values and supported me in chasing my dreams and I thank you. To my in-laws Wang and Dominica Kwok, I thank you for welcoming me into your family and supporting Joyce and me in this difficult expedition into political life.

Thanking party supporters by name is a sure way to offend many, given the many hundreds who gave their time to the Labor campaign in Gellibrand, so I will limit myself to thanking my core campaign team—my indefatigable campaign manager Jesse Overton-Skinner, Melissa Horne, Hamish Park, Fiona Ward, Matt Nurse, Cesar Piperno, Telmo Languiller, Andrew Moore and James Kenyon. To Senator Conroy, who has supported me and mentored me for many years now, even when he has thought me to be misguided—we do not always agree; he is a Collingwood supporter after all—I am proud to be associated with his enormous contribution to Australia and the Labor cause.

Finally, I want to thank the other MPs on this side of the House who have given their first speeches in parliament. I have had the privilege of listening to many of your speeches before giving my own today, and it has been an inspiration. I proudly associate myself with those speeches. We are the Promethean party—the bearers of the fires of political change. This task is a difficult one but I am confident in Labor's future knowing that I share this mission with you all. I thank the House.

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

Before I call the honourable member for Durack, I remind the House that this is the honourable member's maiden speech and I ask the House to extend the same courtesies to her as have just been extended to the member for Gellibrand.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I too wish to add my voice to the very long chorus of well-wishers regarding your elevation to the position of Speaker of the House. I am confident that your experience and knowledge, and not forgetting your grace and good humour, will bring dignity and humility to this House.

I am an ordinary person now with an extraordinary job. I have the job of representing the people of Durack. This is a huge responsibility and one that I do not take lightly. I am very humbled to have been entrusted by the people of Durack to be their representative. I intend to work hard so that I may serve them for many years. But no matter what happens I am determined to leave my mark by making Durack and Australia a better place to live.

I am a girl from Kalgoorlie—the gold mining town in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia. I left school at the age of 15. I did not think the nuns could teach me anything further. I was wrong, of course, and had to find out the hard way. I eventually returned to complete my education, qualifying as a lawyer at the age of 31. I am the youngest of four children, with two older brothers, Mark and Greg, and my sister, Lynda. My parents, Ray and Lyn Dellar, created a loving family and went without to give to us all a Catholic education. I give thanks to those educators—the nuns and lay teachers at St Mary's Catholic Primary School and Prendiville Ladies College, as it was then.

Growing up in the goldfields in the 1960s and 1970s was no picnic. The gold price was unpredictable so times were tough. But in those days people who worked on the mines worked regular hours, went home to their families at night and were able to contribute to the community more broadly. Growing up, my mother encouraged my siblings and me to 'just have a go', 'do your best, that's all that can be asked of you.' These words of encouragement have followed me through life and given me the belief that to be successful all you need is effort—the rewards will flow.

I am a fourth generation goldfielder. My grandad David Dellar entered the Western Australian state parliament as a Labor politician in 1963. My uncle, Stan Dellar, also Labor, was elected to the parliament and was famously knocked from his seat by my friend the Hon. Norman Moore MLC, in 1977, who retired only last year after a stellar career. My father also had aspirations of a political life but the opportunity did not present itself. He did work hard for the Labor Party and worked on many different campaigns.

As a child growing up I saw my parents' involvement in the Labor Party as really just a part of their social life—not as political activism—not unlike many people living in mining towns in that era. Mum and I both agree that if grandad Dellar were alive today he would probably be a Liberal. He was a hard worker, took good care of his own and was quite the entrepreneur with his various mining interests. I also pay tribute to my mother's parents, Norman and Olive Blurton, who raised to their eight children in Leonora and Wiluna, later moving to Useless Loop to work in the salt works.

Not unlike many people who have grown up in regional Australia, I did not always love living in the bush. I often thought I was missing out on things that people from the city just took for granted. However, Sherbet and Renee Geyer did come to Kalgoorlie, so it was not all that bad! What you do get, though, from living in a country town is a sense of belonging to a community. I have never lost that belief that people from the bush really know me and understand me, and, more importantly, that I know and understand them. That passion for and understanding of people from regional Western Australia will drive me to be a strong voice for Durack and to champion all that it is and all that it can be.

The federal electorate of Kalgoorlie was first proclaimed in 1901, with the change to the electoral boundary to create Durack not taking place until 2008. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of my predecessors of all political persuasions who have helped to create the powerhouse region that Durack is today. My first mention must, of course, go to Mr Barry Haase, who is here with us today. Thank you, Barry, for all the hard work that you have given to the electorate for 15 years. I would also like to thank and acknowledge other past members: Graeme Campbell, Mick Cotter and Fred Collard, to name but a few.

I have some 30-odd years of combined commercial and legal experience. The member for Curtin and the member for Pearce and I are the three members of the Clayton Utz Perth alumni here in Canberra. I am very grateful to my former colleagues from Clayton Utz for their tutelage and friendship, especially Adrienne Parker, Mary-Alice Paton and Stephen Boyle. Some would say I have had a colourful work history. I have enjoyed working in the hospitality and insurance industries, and also in management in the fast food industry, the grains industry and the mining industry, where I worked for Robe River Iron Associates at Wickham, and also the iron ore company Crosslands Resources. I was even an aerobics instructor at one point in my history. I think the House can probably judge for itself that I appear to have more in common with the fast food industry now than the fitness industry! More recently, I have been given the opportunity to work in more regionally focused industries. I had a legal and then a business development role at the CBH Group. This experience was very valuable for a girl from the goldfields. An appreciation and understanding of the farming industry is critical in a seat such as Durack, and, although I am no farmer, this experience taught me much about this important industry, including its passion for community and the challenges of running this type of a business.

My time working for Crosslands Resources, which is part of the Oakajee stable of companies, and is owned by Mitsubishi Corporation, was also very valuable. Wearing my business development hat I had the pleasure of travelling deep into the mid-west to assess possible mining acquisitions, near to towns like Yalgoo, Cue and Meekatharra. Regrettably, the Oakajee Port and Rail project is currently on the backburner, but I have no doubt that a solution will be found in the near future and we will all witness the unlocking of the value of the iron ore industry in the mid-west. In the meantime, Geraldton has displayed her resilience and has taken advantage of other opportunities as they have arisen.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay my respects to the Durack family, who were pioneers and developers of the Kimberley, and whose namesake epitomises the progress of this great region. The electorate of Durack is quite simply like no other in Australia or the world. Its sheer size, of approximately 1.6 million square kilometres, or one-third of Australia's land mass, makes it not only Australia's largest electorate but also the second largest electorate in the world. Durack's future relies upon successful diversification of industry. To achieve this in a region that encompasses 46 shire councils and stretches from the mid-west and the wheat belt through to the Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley will be no easy feat.

As a kid from the bush, I know the region has its problems, but I also know its potential. It is my hope that this current parliament is remembered not only for the economic benefits Durack makes to Australia's economy but also for the contributions this parliament gives back to the electorate. Ensuring that all families have access to affordable child care, supporting small businesses and making improvements to services such as aged care facilities, telecommunications and road and port infrastructure is what everyday Australians will thank us for.

People may step back from the Durack electorate and say, 'Boy, do you have it all!' We have a multi-billion dollar resources industry which has risen out of the red dirt of the Pilbara, and we have some of the most unique and interesting landscapes in the world, from the wonders of the Ningaloo Reef and Karijini National Park to the picturesque Kimberley region. To those people I would say, 'Yes, we do have it all!' It is a big region with a big economy, but also with big problems. The Durack electorate will face many obstacles, particularly over the next decade, to diversify and meet these challenges.

Madam Speaker, you may not be surprised to know that one of the biggest sectors suffering in Durack is the small business sector. What is good for small business is good for Australia—in particular, in regional communities. In Durack, yes, we have the resources industry, but not all have benefited from this economic activity. In short, it has not been the land of milk and honey for everyone. In mining towns in Durack the cost of housing is now starting to ease, but the reality is that if you are working in the service sector or running a small business in these communities you are still struggling. We also see small businesses in the wheat-belt towns fighting to keep their doors open. As we all know, these small businesses are often the glue that holds these communities together. Whether it is the pharmacy in Kellerberrin, the tour operator in Broome or the B&B in Kalbarri, the story is the same. We need to reduce red tape, get rid of unnecessary taxes—something that I am pleased to say that the Abbott-led government is well on its way to achieving—and restore confidence to the economy. Small business can then flourish and hire more people—jobs for our children, jobs for our grandchildren.

Getting rid of the carbon tax is a significant step forward to provide an injection of hope for these constituents. The establishment of a parliamentary committee for the development of Northern Australia, with the honourable Warren Entsch as its chair, is yet another example of this government's foresight into the need to plan for Australia's strategic growth. I hope to be able to contribute in a meaningful way to the creation and the ultimate implementation of the white paper for Northern Australia.

Western Australia's resources industry, whose main contributors are the Pilbara and Kimberley regions in Durack, was the country's largest exporter in 2012, contributing 46 per cent or $114 billion to Australia's total merchandise exports. Big business has invested in this region and has reaped the benefits, but the ordinary person struggles with a higher-than-average cost of living, and we experience the same social issues as any other electorate. Madam Speaker, the Kimberley is one of Australia's hidden treasures, with spectacular gorges and waterfalls. The view from the Five Rivers Lookout in Wyndham is breathtaking, as is Cable Beach in Broome. But our tourism industry is under threat. The beauty of the canary-yellow canola fields and the light brown, healthy wheat hides the fact that there are still many farmers in the wheat belt who are struggling from previous poor harvests. The availability of the federal concessional farm loans scheme is important to these farm businesses. The arrangements between the Western Australian and federal governments must be finalised as quickly as possible.

Many cattle producers are still recovering from the effects of Labor's knee-jerk ban on live animal exports. This has highlighted how vulnerable this part of the industry is with so few markets; the sooner we can open up more markets, the better. Whilst the opponents of this industry are focused on animal welfare, I am focused on human welfare as we hear disturbing stories of cattle producers' families receiving threats, with too many taking their own lives. These are all issues that I know are important to my coalition colleagues. Our leadership team has already taken the first steps to ensure that the issues which affect the lives of everyday Australians are a first priority.

Madam Speaker, you did not need a crystal ball to predict the failure of the mining tax. Although it raised, relatively, no revenue, it still hung over the mining industry like a bad smell. From a regulatory point of view, it put a drain on the industry, whilst also discouraging investment and making Australia internationally uncompetitive. Whilst we have taken the first steps to rid Australia of the mining tax, it is worth reflecting on the positive impact that the resources industry has had, particularly at a local level. Our regional communities have benefited significantly from this industry in terms of infrastructure and employment opportunities, with one of the most valuable contributions being to Indigenous employment. The WA resources sector is the largest employer of Indigenous Australians, who comprise 4.2 per cent of its overall workforce. I believe that everyone in this House today would agree that there is a desperate need to improve the lives of Indigenous people in Australia. Although there has been some progress with government and community programs, we still have a long way to go. I applaud Prime Minister Abbott's decision to include Indigenous Affairs as part of his office, and I wish Warren Mundine the very best in his role as the Chair of the Indigenous Advisory Council, and with the creation of successful future policies for Indigenous Australians. Make no mistake: this is a tough job. It will take very strong leadership and courage to make the necessary changes. We need policies that will ensure that current and future generations of Aboriginal children are educated, have hope and opportunities, and remain healthy—so that they may aspire to contribute in their own ways to this great country. Durack has the third-highest proportion of Aboriginal residents. My plea is that history will show that this 44th Parliament showed the courage and the foresight to adopt policies that improved the lives of these Durack residents.

If you live in the city, your choices for post-secondary education are usually many; if you live in the bush, this is often not the case. Australia needs to promote and support the increase in post-secondary education service providers in rural and regional areas. Not everyone wants to study and live in the city, and our country cousins should be afforded the same opportunities as are available in the cities.

We still have a long way to go to improve health services in rural and regional areas. Just having a local doctor can make a huge difference to a community, but sadly that service is not always available. Part of the solution is to ensure that young people from regional areas are given the opportunity to study medicine. Providing rural and remote placements for student doctors should also be encouraged, so that these students gain a greater understanding of the health needs of regional Australia and, hopefully, return to take up practice.

I pause for a moment to reflect on the not-for-profit sector. This is an important part of our economic make-up; a sector that knows how to make a dollar go that bit further. Government funding of the not-for-profit sector should always be seen as a value-add. As a director of both the Cancer Council (WA) and BrightSpark Foundation, I have experienced firsthand the valuable contribution that this sector makes, especially in supporting cancer and child health research. I pay tribute to my friends and fellow board members who dedicate much of their unpaid time and expertise to ensuring the success of the not-for-profit sector, for the benefit of us all: in particular, Jenny Rogers, Professor Christobel Saunders, Pina Caffarelli, Graham Dowland, the Hon. Hendy Cowan, Andrew Thompson and Kim Pervan.

Government needs to be smaller, and more efficient; government departments more accountable, and more productive—with their performances measured to ensure that Australians are getting good value for money. Australia simply cannot afford not to make changes to the way in which we govern. A reduction in government employee numbers is a good start but, culturally, we have a long way to go. With the Abbott-led government now at the helm, we must strive for such changes. I look forward to being a part of the team that brings about the necessary cultural shift.

Like all new members of parliament, I did not arrive at this place without receiving a helping hand. My journey began during the Western Australian state election earlier in the year, when I was the candidate for the state seat of Kalgoorlie. I narrowly missed out on winning the seat. The experience did, however, sharpen my resolve to be a strong advocate for regional Western Australia, and it made me even more determined to win the seat of Durack so that I could be a strong voice in this House. I say a special thanks to Linda Crook, my campaign manager for the Kalgoorlie campaign, who believed in me then and has supported me ever since. Thanks also to the Kalgoorlie campaign team and all those at the Kalgoorlie Liberal branch, and to my family in Kalgoorlie: you have all played a part in my journey to Canberra.

My campaign to retain the seat of Durack was a very short, sharp, fast-paced six weeks. Although the seat was already held by the Liberal Party, success was not guaranteed. The campaign team therefore needed to be something very special to have any hope of holding the largest seat in Australia. I call this special group of people the 'Durack Dream Team'. I sincerely thank the members of this team who are as follows: Ben Morton, Ben Allen, David De Garis, Joey Armenti, Gordon Thomson, Ruth McLagon, Senator Alan Eggelston—thanks Eggy—and my dear friends Michelle Lewis and the Hon. Mark Lewis. A special mention and thank you goes also to Ian Blayney, the member for Geraldton, and Greg and Fran Weller, and all the Liberal branch members in the electorate.

I would also thank my electoral staff who have really helped me to hit the ground running. Many thanks to De-Arne, Leanne, Jackie, Louise, Shannen and Lorraine. I know that together we will achieve great things for Durack. For her hard work on election day, I thank Judy, who organised the booth workers and all the numerous volunteers, far too many to mention. Special mention must go to my mum, sister Lynda, Brian, Jessica, Hannah, Alistair, Sheena, Aunty Mandy and Patrick. Special thanks also to the Hon. Norman Moore and Lee Moore, the Hon. Ken Baston and Robin Baston, Senator Eggelston, Tammy Corby, the Hon. Mark Lewis and Barry Haase for their extra special efforts on the day. I really could not have done it without them.

Madam Speaker, I thank the following new and old friends that may not have always understood my journey but have supported me nonetheless: Hilary MacDonald, Hayley Lawrance, Karen McGougan, Bev Sinclair and John Blakemore, Nicki and Maurice, Amaryl and Aldo, Craig and Trish, Shorty and Kate and Gary Connell. Thank you to the Price family and the Bell family for accepting me into their families without question. To my adorable Brad, being the member for Durack would not be possible without your love and support. Finally thanks to Rhiannon: may she rest in peace and keep close watch over me—now my guardian angel.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thirty years ago, a group of Cambodians purchased a large piece of land in Springvale South. They had a vision of a regional temple, where thousands of local Buddhists would gather to worship but, when construction began, it was beset by problems. At this time one of the congregation began to be visited in her dreams by a Bunurong woman. 'This is not your land,' she would repeat night after night. The monks conferred and agreed that a shrine would be built to honour the Bunurong, and the congregation began to leave gifts of fruit, avocado and nuts. From there, construction ran smoothly and today Clarke Road temple is one of the largest in Melbourne. Still, worshippers leave gifts at the shrine to the Bunurong to show their respect to the traditional owners of that land.

Just to the north is Westall Secondary College, one of the most multicultural schools in Victoria. The school sits opposite the site of the old Springvale Enterprise Migrant Hostel. Between 1970 and 1992, 30,000 migrants and refugees called this hostel their first Australian home. They received food, shelter and services and were allowed to find their feet in a new land. Each day, while parents took English classes and looked for work, their children would cross Westall Road and access free, quality education. A generation later, those students are making their own contributions as doctors, lawyers, scientists and community workers of Melbourne's south-east.

Up Fairbank Avenue stands the Corning factory, where scores of local workers are making and testing the fibres that will be a part of the National Broadband Network. The factory floor is not dirty, and the workers do not sweat. This is modern manufacturing, made possible by a clever and adaptable workforce. Just down south, the trucks of Butler Market Gardens in Heatherton are setting out to deliver their speciality Asian produce to supermarkets around Melbourne. They have been at it for six generations. Market gardens like this one once stretched right across Cheltenham, Moorabbin and Clarinda, and today the gardens that remain form part of Melbourne's green wedge, which we call lungs of the south-east. It is fiercely protected from development by local activists who fight to preserve this area's rural character. Nearby, in the early evening, the netball courts at Duncan McKinnon Reserve will be filled with shouts and squeaks of rubber soles as girls of all grades get together for a regular game. Families surround the sidelines—husbands cheering for their wives, brothers for their sisters, dads for their daughters.

This is my electorate of Hotham. It will always be the traditional land of the Bunurong and will be ever lucky for the migrants who have made our local area their home too. It is a place of industry and enterprise, of community and family—proof of this country's achievements and its potential. This is Hotham; this is modern Australia. Whether I am at home or in Canberra, fighting for the people of Hotham, who have placed their trust in me, will always come first. So it was for Simon Crean, who gave 23 years of his life to this electorate and to making Australia a better, fairer, more open country. He was, and is, a reformer, a thinker, a negotiator, a doer; a politician who brought a good mind and a good heart to every task. He was equally at home in the suburbs or in a country town, on the factory floor or in the boardroom, at the footy or at the opera. He is one of my Labor heroes and a person in whose footsteps I am honoured to walk. Simon also has a great track record of supporting Labor women. When I joined the Labor Party at 16, Simon was the first member of parliament I met. He helped me when I ran for council as a 22 year old and, a year later, he endorsed me as the mayor. Now, he has backed me all the way to federal parliament.

Standing in this House is for me part of a family tradition. I come from a long line of battlers, bohemians and radicals—of people who fought for what they believed in. My first Australian ancestor, John O'Neil, arrived in chains, arrested in London for boxing in the street. They say that on a 10-point scale of Irish wildness, John and his wife Ellen would probably have scored an eight or a nine. In 1853, they caught wind of a chance to escape poverty fast. They hired a dray, and with their three children, pitched a tent in the Ballarat goldfields. According to the family historians, when the injustice of the goldfields officers crossed a line, John joined the rebellion that would form the foundation of Australian democracy. John's great grandson, my grandfather Lou, was built from the same stuff. He was at various times a wool classer, a bar clerk, a station hand and a communist, but he was always a proud trade unionist and at one stage was jailed for fighting for rights that today we take for granted.

My mother's father was a frustrated poet. He won the Courier-Mail writing competition three times, but he saw out his days trapped in a job where he did not get to use that fine mind. My grandmother Clare was a kind and wise woman with the type of quiet, steely resolve needed to raise four children without money or support. Like so many of her generation, she missed out—no more than a grade-4 education, no income, no choices. They were a wonderful family in a tight-knit Catholic community in Brisbane, but they were trapped by the times.

My parents were raised by these people, and in their spirit. Mum and Dad were book publishers. My father, Lloyd O'Neil, started out in the book trade as a 16-year-old bookseller at Angus and Robertson. He used to tell the story of a woman who came in looking for a gift. They found the right book and, as he was ringing up the purchase, he said, 'And the best thing is this one was published in Australia,' and she said, 'If that's the case, I don't want it.' It was the cultural cringe, neatly wrapped in one encounter.

From there, Dad made publishing books about Australia his life mission. He published more than 1,000 titles—on everything from sport and cooking to art, politics and history. He was no jingoist but he believed that the Australian experience was like no other and that it had created a distinctively Australian voice that deserved to be heard. He used to say, 'I would prefer to publish a lesser work of Henry Lawson than the best work of William Faulkner.' For Dad, and for our family, books about Australia were inherently good things—not because Australia was better but because they were books about us.

My mother shared these views, taking some of Australia's best ideas into form as books. Mum is one of the great perfectionists of Australia's publishing industry and ran her own dynamic publishing house. Many of her bestsellers were books on women's health, women's politics and women's money—knowledge she saw as essential to the independence of the modern Australian woman. Mum introduced me, even as a tiny little girl, to Australian art and theatre. She taught me about feminism and showed me that, when women work together, we are unstoppable.

It was, and remains with my stepfather Brian, a family where to be original and creative was infinitely more important than kicking goals and acing exams. It was a household full of ideas about what Australia is and what it could be: a brave country; an open and creative republic, wise to its history and culture; an independent and respected presence in the world; a fair, decent country that valued things that matter—jobs, the arts. And it was a household where it was absolutely implicit that we would be doing something to see Australia reach this potential. That is the tradition in which I become a member of parliament.

I think back to what my grandfather Harry could have done if he had had a proper education; how my grandmother Clare might have had her own money and, with it, her freedom; what grandfather Lou might have achieved if he had not been forced into poverty, sharing a one-room flat in Kings Cross with my young father. I think of how they missed out, and so did Australia. The root of disadvantage was, in every case, economic.

I had this in mind almost a decade ago when I set out to try to understand more about economics and business. I have been lucky in that time to study with some of the world's most famous economists. I have sat in boardrooms and worked in workplaces in mining, manufacturing, telecommunications and retail—just about every part of Australia's economy. I have closed the trading day at the New York Stock Exchange and helped a group of Aboriginal women build a business that will one day provide them with their first jobs.

What have I learned? For the growing parts of our economy, the old lines of labour and capital have all but disappeared. Working people—more than two million of whom now own their own businesses, and almost all of whom are shareholders—know that a fair society needs a strong economy, and that means businesses that work. The big thinkers in Australian business also know that government is essential to helping them succeed—and I do not mean in a narrow sense. I think we modern students of economics know that government should not be building great tariff walls or controlling the big macroeconomic levers. But if we take our noses out of economics textbooks and look at how our economy really works, we will see that government provides the platform on which our businesses compete—and win—globally. Other countries exploit low wages or low export costs, but in Australia our source of advantage is our skilled population, our world-class infrastructure, our safe and lively cities and our culture of invention and scientific research. In all of these, government matters.

As the countries we compete with grow, this parliament faces the challenge of making reforms that will keep Australia ahead of the game. Over the next decade, global demand for food is going to double. How can we help Australian scientists and farmers be part of the agricultural revolution that will be required to meet this demand? Australia's temperature could rise by up to five degrees by 2070, creating radical changes to our weather, our rainfall and our environment. How can we help our energy, tourism and primary industries adjust?

By 2020, the world will face a shortage of about 40 million skilled workers. How will Australia compete in this environment? By 2025, more than 60 per cent of global GDP growth will come from just 600 cities around the world. None of them is in Australia. How can we help more parts of our economy connect with these cities so that more Australians can benefit from this growth? By 2070, Melbourne's population will double to 8.5 million. Sydney will be of a similar size. How can we make sure our cities are places where creative people, who will generate wealth, will continue to want to live?

Government need not answer these questions alone, by any means. But all will require good policy and clear communication from our political leaders. And there is one reform that will trump them all. In every business or organisation I have worked in, whatever it is trying to achieve, the driver of success or failure is people. If Australia is going to thrive in a world of fierce and unrelenting competition, we must have one of the best education systems in the world. Being the best is achievable and it is real. But, at the moment, we are moving in the wrong direction—sliding further and further back down in international rankings.

At my school we had a big gym and plenty of Bunsen burners, but what mattered to me most was having Mr Farnsworth nurture my love of politics with his superb impromptu lectures on the history of the Labor Party and the Whitlam dismissal.

What seems to get a bit lost in our conversations about education in this place is that it is teachers who matter most. This parliament should lead a conversation about how to attract, train and retain the best and brightest Australians, young and old, in this national endeavour.

We focus a lot in the education debate on secondary schools. But students of public policy are coming to terms with the reality that I think Australian mothers have known for generations and that is that, by the time a child starts secondary school, much about their life chances has actually already been determined.

My first experience of caring for a child was as a foster parent. A baby came into our care straight from hospital, seven weeks premature, tiny and defenceless. All that stood between that perfect, sleepy little baby and a house of violence and chaos, between having a chance and no chance, was government.

The main parties in Australia differ in their beliefs on many things. But I know that we all believe that children are worth protecting. So this should not be an area where we need any reform. Yet, of the more than 12,000 children who are currently living in care in Australia, about a quarter have lived in 10 or more foster homes. Today, more than 1,000 children are locked up in immigration detention, with limited access to education, and many are subject to abuse and self-harm.

Each child subjected to fear and to danger, each child who misses out on an education, on proper health care, on the very best start in this abundant country of ours is the special failing of the people in this room. In my time here, I want to help change that.

Another area of bipartisanship in this House is improving the situation for Indigenous Australians. Two years ago, I lived for nine months in the searing heat of North East Arnhem Land. I worked in an Indigenous community which continues in its traditional language and culture but which is beset by crises in health, housing and employment. For many decades politicians have said it is shameful. I want my generation to be the last to have to say it. To make things right, some things are going to have to change. No two Aboriginal communities are the same and, hard as it is, we are going to have to learn to work with each community individually. We need to narrow the chasm that exists between public policy made in Canberra and policy implemented on the ground. And we need to help Aboriginal people strengthen their voice.

We do face a lot of challenges in Australia but, when I look to the future, what I actually see is a lot of opportunity. We are made to tackle what this next century will throw at us. We are a small country, nimble, fast and strong. We are on the doorstep of some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Globalisation has become our reality and we have adapted. Our resources have given us a head start, as long as they do not dumb us down. We have a people who are open and willing to change, when they understand what is required and why it is necessary.

I know this because of what I see when I look back. The Australian story is a rather unlikely one. Our first people have sustained the oldest living culture in the world by surviving on a most inhospitable land. When a group of half-starving criminals sailed into Botany Bay, they learnt how to change and they survived. Through immigration, we have brought more than 150 cultures to our country and we have done it peacefully.

Our economy has made profound transitions, not once, not twice, but probably a dozen since Federation. Change is part of who we are. We have used times of difficulty and transition to make our country better. And we will do it again.

When I turn my mind to the big issues of the future, I know that I will not do it alone. I want to thank my team of personal advisers: my completely brilliant brother Patrick; my wise stepfather Brian; and my wonderful mother Anne, who has sacrificed so much for me. To the Munzel family: you have taught me so much about life in the bush and I feel privileged that you are a loving part of my family, too.

To Helen, Ian, Joan, Phoebe, PK, who are here, and to Dan, my wonderful cousin: thank you so much for all your support.

I want to thank Nick Staikos, who ran a fantastic election campaign and who continues to serve his community through my office, along with Carina, Barb, Robyn, Luke and Koula.

Thanks to Geoff Lake and Tim Holding for their unfailing support, advice and friendship. Thanks to Hong Urn, Martin Pakula, wonderful state colleagues who represent their communities so admirably. I want to thank Julie Warren, Tim Kennedy and Charlie Donnelly at the NUW, who are showing us all what it takes to run a growing, successful, modern union. Thanks to Matt Rocks at the TWU and Nick Bantounas for their support and counsel.

I want to thank Hotham's wonderful local branches, led by a group of inspiring true believers: the indomitable Amy Duncan, who has just celebrated her 80th birthday; Steve Staikos; Steve Dimopoulos; Heang Meng Tak; Youhorn Chea; Loi Truong; Sean O'Reilly; Gael and Charlie Mitzi; the Sapir family; Jeffrey Lim; and many others. I want to thank fine Labor women, like Ann Barker, Judith Grayley and Jaala Pulford.

And, most of all, I want to thank my partner Brendan. Brendan is the finest person I know. He is my best friend, the father of our beautiful boy, a man whose commitment to living what he believes inspires me every day. I know that, if I can come home after each week in parliament and look him in the eye, I can be proud of the work that I do here. And that pride will not come from sitting on this green leather.

Since I was elected, I have thought about a girl named Sarah, who made me her sister and showed me what life in Arnhem Land communities is really like.

I thought about Amanda, who visited me in my office last week in utter despair about her son who is four years without a job, out of training, and has given up.

I thought about beautiful little Rachel, the baby we had the privilege of caring for and about how I might be able to provide more safety and structure for other little girls like her.

I thought about the dairy farmers of Brendan's community in northern Victoria, whose annual fortunes run with the weather, who worry sometimes for years at a time about putting food on the table and about how I might now have the chance to do something big, something real, for those Australians. That is when I will feel proud of what I have done. Thank you.

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

Order! Before I call the honourable member for Indi, I would remind the House that this is the honourable member's maiden speech. I would ask the House to extend to her the same courtesies as we have just extended to the member for Hotham.

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, parliamentary colleagues, special friends, family and David. Madam Speaker, warm congratulations to you on your election. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and my colleagues in this place for their warm welcome. I proudly begin my first speech by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of this land both past and present.

Today I am going to share a story, a story about myself, my electorate of Indi and the power of community to re-invent itself. I will introduce you to the Voice for Indi, the rural community movement and the philosophy that has brought me to this place.

I am honoured to be the representative of the people of Indi and I am grateful to my family, 700-plus supporters and volunteers, almost 1,000 donors and, of course, the voters who brought me to this House. Many of you have made an extraordinary effort to be here today and I can only imagine what you must have done—getting up early to have families organised, children, animals, lunches done, kids on buses, farms cared for, picnics packed, car pools organised and that terrific trip of six hours up the Hume Highway on buses.

To the volunteers, all of you who staffed the booths and ran the offices at Alexandra, Wangaratta, Wodonga and Benalla, the door knockers, those who made the cups of coffee and tea and arranged food, the people who ran classes and shared their skills, the scrutineers, the organisers of local meetings, the young people, the lawyers, the designers, the marketers, the diary keepers, the bookkeepers, the reporters, the journalists and, most important, the makers of all things orange—I recognise all of you for your courage, your belief and your conviction that we could do it. Thank you.

In the 1800s, some five generations ago, my family left Europe in harsh times to make a better life for themselves and their children's children's children. Their courage and persistence is my foundation, like it is for so many Australians and so many of the people who are gathered here. On my father's side, Elizabeth Anne Brown arrived from County Cork, Ireland in 1860. She was 20 and alone. She died at the grand age of 87 and is buried in the Tallangatta cemetery, her occupation, proudly, farmer. Arriving in the Chiltern goldfields of north-east Victoria, she quickly met and married a wise bloke, John Terrill, a miner from Cornwall, England.

In 1875 they selected land in the Mitta Valley just below the township of Tallangatta. Barely a year later, John Terrill was killed in a mining accident at El Dorado, leaving Elizabeth Anne to raise six children and two nephews. My family is rich with the stories of clearing the land, dealing with floods, fires and drought, and the desperate struggle to meet the conditions to purchase that land. In 1890, Elizabeth Anne, 30 years after her arrival in Australia, made the final payment on the land and, in her own right, won free title. Her fourth child, Albert, was my great grandfather. Her legacy to me was courage, persistence, dogged determination and deep roots into farming and the rural community of north-east Victoria. She was a woman in agriculture well before that term was even thought of.

On the other side of my family, my great great grandfather worked in the post office at Wodonga. His job was to travel overnight on the train, sorting the mail so it would arrive in Melbourne ready to be delivered by 10 am. My grandmother, Rose Roberta Chapman, was born in Wodonga in November 1888. She married Gladston Robert McGowan, son of Tasmanian pub owners, in 1920 and went on to become a teacher, a mother of six children and a grand matriarch. She is buried in the Yackandandah cemetery next to my father, my mother, two sisters and a dearly loved brother, and where I too plan to be buried. Grannie's legacy to me was: be a teacher; be a lover of stories and history; have a deep sense of social justice and community service and never forget to laugh.

It is not known whether these two families knew each other, but what is known is that it was a dangerous time to live in rural Australia. In Grannie's words:

We lived in Wodonga and during that time the Kelly bushrangers were active. My father who worked for the PMG (before it became Australia Post) used to be accompanied by an armed policeman as they feared the train might be ambushed.

My parents were Paul McGowan and Marie Terrill, who met and married when he was a young agricultural scientist working at the Rutherglen Research Station. They lived, farmed and ran a business in the Indigo Valley, 20 kilometres south of Wodonga, all their lives. I am proud to say I live in that valley, on my own small farm, where I conducted a rural consultancy business—or I did until 7 September!

In the early days of my business, the jobs were many and varied. I lobbied for the establishment of a school for the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. I lobbied for home and community care in Wodonga, Tallangatta, Corryong, Beechworth, Chiltern, Rutherglen and Yackandandah. I lobbied for palliative care in the Ovens, King and Kiewa valleys, and for mobile child care for farming and rural families. Through this work, I built extensive networks and gained firsthand knowledge of the challenges of delivering services in rural areas, particularly in our valleys and towns. I learnt that one size does not fit all and, most importantly, it is a constant struggle to have our rural voices heard. A highlight of these years was working with the Victorian government department of agriculture as a rural affairs advisor and also travelling to Canada on a Churchill Fellowship to study rural women's networks and their role in improving communication with governments.

When I was 40, my mother died. She was dearly loved and a really important part of my life. It was a turning point for me—a second turning point was being elected to parliament.

But, going back to the first point, I recall thinking when mum died that soon my life, too, will be over, and what will I have to show for it? So I returned to study. I completed my master's degree in applied science at the University of Western Sydney, at Hawkesbury, and I learnt how to work with communities for change. The Australian Rural Leadership Program helped me grow in the art of leadership, to understand the role of a shared vision and the power of networks in transforming rural communities.

I decided to take a more active role in agricultural politics. I was an inaugural member of Australian Women in Agriculture, rising to become national president. I participated at National Farmers' Federation meetings and was elected to the Victorian Farmers Federation policy body. I learnt many skills: working with difference, building partnerships, how to chair meetings, how to build teams and how to embrace diversity. I became involved in international agricultural politics, trade, and became committed to Australia's role in feeding the world.

I restructured my business and became a consultant to rural communities, with specialist skills in development, empowerment and transformation. Working in Australia, and more recently in Ireland, India and Papua New Guinea, my clients were the national rural research and development corporations—dairy, wool, sugar, and horticulture—state and local governments and non-government organisations.

Teaching leadership became a passion. Together with friends and colleagues, many of whom are here today, we taught community leadership skills and we set up the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program. We ran leadership conferences. We talked about visions. We built networks. We wrote submissions. We grew our businesses. We all grew in skill, wisdom and confidence. We became a force. We began to find our voices—our community voices. With this brief introduction, you will see that I have deep roots and connections into the communities of north-east Victoria. I have an absolute commitment to the future of Indi.

Let me take a few minutes to talk about Indi. Indi is a foundation federation seat. Our first representative, in 1901, was Sir Isaac Isaacs, who was educated in Yackandandah and Beechworth, my local towns. Isaacs went on to become our first Australian-born Governor-General. More recent Indi representatives include the Country Party's Mack Holten—as Minister for Repatriation, he was Indi's first minister—Ewen Cameron, Lou Lieberman and Sophie Mirabella. I pay tribute to them for their public service, dedication and commitment.

In particular I acknowledge Mr Ewen Cameron for the role he played as my mentor. I worked for him as an electorate researcher in the old parliament house during the years of Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke. They were heady days. I am delighted to reacquaint myself with friends from that time, including some of the long-serving library staff.

Indi is a local name for the Murray River. It is a well named electorate, because the rivers and how we use them are critical to the future of north-east Victoria. Indi is blessed with seven major watersheds: the Goulburn, Broken, King, Ovens, Kiewa, Mitta/Dart and Murray rivers, which contribute an estimated 50 per cent of the water to the Murray-Darling Basin. Our major industries include manufacturing, retail, tourism and agriculture. Our food and wine is exported all over the world. Our ski fields, rail trails and festivals provide entertainment to many.

One of the outstanding features of Indi is our small rural communities, where people take things into their hands. Small communities like Yackandandah, where residents started a community business, the Yackandandah Community Development Company. We bought the petrol station, we run a rural produce store and we give profits back to the community. Communities like Stanley, where volunteers set up and run their post office.

But not all is well in Indi. I believe that Indi has not yet, as my mother would say, reached its potential. In parts of Indi only 57 per cent of 20- to 24-year-olds finish year 12, compared with 78 per cent in Melbourne; only 19 per cent of those between 20 and 39 hold a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 31 per cent across Australia; 63 per cent of people in Indi are in the bottom half of the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage; and many of our young people move away from home for work and study. Other critical issues are infrastructure, access to transport and jobs. I will come to those in a minute.

I would like to talk to you about the part of my story where it changes. In May 2012, a group of young people decided enough was enough and put out a call for action. The Indi Expats, as they became known, were young people from communities across north-east Victoria. They had moved to the city for work, study and a better life. The federal election was coming up. How could their views be heard? They had big issues. Their questions were: what sense would we make of this and what would the adults do? As a result of this some of my friends came to the state of feeling big guilt. We asked ourselves what our legacy would be. If we could not be for our young people, what was the point? This question resulted in the birth of a community group named Voice for Indi. It is an incorporated body committed to building an active 21st century democracy based on engagement, respect and ideas, for Indi and beyond. Voice for Indi conducted 53 kitchen table conversations with over 425 people from all parts of the electorate. We discussed what would make for a stronger relationship between people and our elected representatives. They talked about what it means to live in the community of Indi, what our issues are and what makes for a strong community. In summary, the answers were: community matters; politics matters; representation matters; infrastructure matters; and services matter.

Like other places in Australia, the people of Indi wanted a representative in parliament who would put the electorate first, and they wanted their vote to count. They wanted to do things differently. The people of Indi had a vision for a community where people feel they belong and have a sense of purpose, where people pull together and help each other, where diversity, acceptance and tolerance are valued; a community that has quality services, infrastructure, education, jobs and health and opportunities for the next generation.

With this feedback, the Voice for Indi report became the foundation for a community-based, grassroots election campaign that totally changed our community. What did we do? Let me tell you about our not-so-secret ingredients. Start with the involvement and enthusiasm of young people, and their extensive use of social media. Add in volunteer training, support and permission to act in local communities. Negotiate shared values—be respectful, being our best selves, acknowledging difference and taking responsibility for our own actions. Understand that democracy is important to us—we want to participate and we want it to work for us. A good dose of courage, sense of duty, community service and trust helps. Finally, a vision for how the future can be better.

As our campaign gained momentum we were all surprised by the groundswell of support and creativity. Jenny put her sheep in orange T-shirts and drove them around Wangaratta, Corowa and Yea saleyards. Courageous indeed. Rex organised a campaign choir bus. Year 12 students made videos. Sophie covered shops in Chiltern with balloons and streamers. We kidnapped a Wangaratta Chronicle photographer on the train journey between Wodonga and Benalla. Nick trained the door knockers, Leah developed policy, Cam managed media, Lauren took over communications, Anne fed people, Denis managed logistics and Barb organised—and lots and lots more. Four of our people produced a video where they rapped: 'Our trains and buses fail to go, our internet's down, the phone is out; to get heard in Indi you have to shout.' Up there, many of these people are here today and I encourage you to ask them for their stories.

Madam Speaker, with this strong history and the support for our Indi community, I am so proud to be the first Independent member for Indi. So, what now? The Voice for Indi report guides me. I will listen: I will listen to the older people who have lost touch with their grandchildren, the teenagers who suffer with mental-health issues, the people who know what it is like to feel hardship and adversity and get on top of it. I will turn up to the pubs—in Mitta, Dederang, Whitfield, Chiltern and Alexandra—to hear people's concerns. I will visit community-education centres, such as in King Lake, shopping centres in Wodonga, Wangaratta and Benalla, and the schools of Marysville, Walwa, Myrtleford and Yea as well as the festivals in Beechworth, Bright, Swanpool, Mansfield and King Valley—and all the wonderful places in between.

To the young people of Indi, I make a formal commitment to involve you in decision making. I will focus especially on those who live in the more isolated rural areas, who are disadvantaged because of poor public transport, very patchy mobile-phone coverage, terrible internet connections, and fewer employment and educational opportunities. I will work with communities who have suffered terrible losses of family and friends through devastating bushfires and floods and continue our rebuilding process. To the Aboriginal people of Indi, I have committed to form an advisory group comprised of Aboriginal people, from Indi's communities, to advise me on issues such as health, education and employment. Today I also commit to making a public statement to recognise and acknowledge past mistreatments of the stolen generations, their families and communities as a result of the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound sorrow on our fellow Australians.

I will build partnerships to improve public transport infrastructure, access to telecommunications and health services, particularly rural mental health, and work to reduce the red tape that hinders the growth of small businesses in our rural communities. I will bring the voices and the community of Indi to Canberra. I will work for a vision of a prosperous and caring community, where businesses grow, agriculture flourishes and everyone can reach their potential.

Madam Speaker, as the 44th Parliament begins its journey, I support the Prime Minister and Leader of the House in their desire for a more respectful parliament. The story of my election and the role of respect has resonance for all of us. In closing, I would like to quote from a piece of wisdom found on a toilet door at Mittagundi, an outdoor-education centre for young people in the King Valley: 'The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating; the paths to it are not found, but made, and the making of these pathways changes both the maker and the destination.' The people of Indi had to shout to be heard. To all Australians, particularly those who feel they are not being heard here in this place, I defer to Margaret Mead: 'Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.'

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the honourable member for Fairfax, I would ask the galleries if they would now extend the same courtesy to the next speaker. Before I call the honourable member for Fairfax, I would remind the House that this is the honourable member's maiden speech and I ask the House to extend the same courtesies to him as we have just extended to the member for Indi. I call the honourable member for Fairfax.

Clive Palmer (Fairfax, Palmer United Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, Australians know who I am and where I come from. They know I love my family and that I love Australia. In 1918 my father, at the age of nine, went to see a silent movie. By the time he was 14 he was producing and starring in his own movies. He went on to become the world's youngest movie producer—as he was known in Hollywood, at the time, in the United States. He returned to Australia to establish radio station 3AK in Melbourne and radio 7UV in Tasmania. Prime Minister Lyons, of the United Australia Party, opened radio 3AK—and I still have the recording.

My mother was born in Penguin, Tasmania, and left in 1940 to work in ammunition production in Melbourne. Family members have served this nation in the first and second world wars, some giving their lives for Australian freedom. My nephew, Squadron Leader Martin Brewster, served with INTERFET in Timor, and all of them have done for Australia more than I could ever do. Like half of all Australians, I lost my first partner, Sue. Her love and our children, Michael and Emily, sustain me every day. My wife, Anna, and my lovely five-year-old daughter—or middle five, as she says, daughter—Mary, remind me every day of what life is all about: love for each other, and the love we will have for each other in the future. I look forward to the coming weeks, when I will again become a father, and I have a strong resolve to serve our nation and a strong resolve not to let the people of Fairfax down.

Fairfax has been taken for granted for many years. My election is a reminder to the major parties that they must truly serve all Australians. As has been said, let us not seek the Liberal answer or the Labor answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix blame for the past but let us accept our own responsibility for the future. We meet today in a city which itself has reconciled our people at difficult times in the nation's history—a city that in this last century has been witness to the trials and tribulations of our people—at a time when the nation lacks direction and needs to set sail on a new course.

How long can parliament remain indifferent to the needs of all Australians? How long can government be deaf to the everyday struggles of all Australians? They must be on top of the national agenda. On this small speck in the universe, planet Earth, we must do all that we can to help each other. Our main concern needs to rest with how we can grow and expand our economy and create more wealth—not wealth for the wealthy but for all, even the least among us. As a wise man once said many years ago, injustice to a man anywhere is an injustice to all men everywhere. We live today in a nation where the roads are no longer safe, where ambulances remove the carnage from our highways, where the infant mortality rate of our Indigenous people is twice that of the Australian community, where the life expectancy of many of our poorer and downtrodden citizens is less than it should be, where health services are declining, where our elderly and veterans are forgotten, where the tyranny of distance separates the hopes and the aspirations of remote Australia, and where the despair of the homeless and unemployed robs the nation of the productivity of our citizens. Tasmanians, I found out during our election campaign, feel abandoned by mainland Australia. The ghosts of the Anzacs call us to action.

To stimulate our economic activity, we must ignite the creativity of all our citizens. Chairman Mao said a long time ago that women hold up half the sky, yet women received their vote in 1902 but prejudice still remains. Leadership, not complacency, is our need today. In parliament and in cabinet, we need more women.

The nation needs a strong economy with efficient production. Australia still has a AAA credit rating. The decline in Queensland's credit rating has been followed by a decline in services. Our citizens need to live a civilised life. Government is not about business; it is about creating the environment to allow all our economy to flourish, to grow revenue to sustain the nation, and to provide income and security to all Australians.

Confidence is low. Our standard of living has declined. We must use our resources better. We are not prisoners to the world economy, helplessly adrift in a sea of despair. The problems we have have been made by Australians and can be solved by Australians. We should not accept defeat by just cutting and slashing, lest the reaper reap more than he can sow. Borrowing to avoid the problem and put off the day is not the real solution. We need in this place and at this time to set a national agenda for growth—a goal for all of us. When the day comes—and it most surely will—when citizens elected by the people take proper and full responsibility for the welfare of their fellow citizens and when we treat other Australians as we would want them to treat us then we can surely know that we do God's will. Public service has no reward other than the service of others. It is the legacy we leave future generations. History is our real judge. Let us work together not as opponents in this place but as colleagues joined by time and space to serve the nation we love.

Australians have lost hope in the future. Change is certain. Success reflects our ability to adapt to that change. It is not individuals' personalities that are important. It is not demeaning comments about those who sit opposite you that are important. After all, all of us in this place have merely offered our lives to serve, and the challenge is really what we can do to make life better for our fellow Australians.

At the last election, the Palmer United Party won 5.5 per cent of the vote, becoming Australia's fourth largest party. The Prime Minister only became Prime Minister because the coalition received the Palmer preferences. Palmer United outpolled the National Party. Palmer United elected one member—me—of the House of Representatives and three senators, only to find our last senator denied his position in the Senate by the AEC losing the ballot boxes in Western Australia. Palmer United and the motorists will hold the balance of power in the Senate. In Western Australia our polling is showing that we can win two senators if an election is held today. In Fairfax, Palmer United received one of the largest swings in the nation's history, of 50.3 per cent. That is why I am here. The Murdoch Newspoll showed 'others' as being 12.4 per cent recently, but they did not list Palmer United. I think we must be in the 'others'. Our recent polling has shown that we are now polling about 10 per cent of the nation, nearly twice as much as the vote we received at the election. Many Australians believed that a vote for Palmer was a wasted vote. Now our party vote has solidified. I want to thank all the 150 candidates who stood in every seat available in the House of Representatives, our Senate teams and our party members in every state and every territory.

Political courage is one of the rarest commodities, and in Queensland our state leader, Dr Alex Douglas, and his deputy, Carl Judge, defend freedom and the rights of individuals before a difficult parliament and in an impossible situation. They are putting the rights of Australians and principle before political expediency, a lesson we can all learn. The entrenchment of the two-party system in this country not only threatens democracy but destroys the creativity of the nation. It robs from all of us the benefit of each other's ideas and innovation.

The forward estimates in August 2013 projected provisional tax receipts for 2014 would exceed $70 billion. Instead of making our companies and businesses pay this tax quarterly in advance based on an estimate, we need to let them pay it yearly based on what they actually earn. If we keep $70 billion in enterprises' hands then they can spend it better than the government. Australia will create real demand, massive job growth and reduced unemployment. We will turbocharge our economy. If $70 billion is spent by individual taxpayers, the government gets 10 per cent GST. The government gets $7 billion every time it is spent by our citizens, and the government will receive the $70 billion at the end of each year. More hospitals and schools, a rising standard of living and increased wealth and revenue mean we can make Australian lives better. At current interest rates it would cost around $800 million a year, but it will generate billions each year for the nation. We have to stimulate domestic demand.

The government is the top petitioner of bankruptcy and liquidations, and as a result our businesses close, our employees lose their jobs and we lose out as a nation. We lose group tax, company tax, exports, GST and jobs. Stop government driving businesses to the wall. Let people stay employed. Transferring people from gainful employment to unemployment just guarantees misery for all of us. Find a better way, such as Chapter 11 in the United States. The US government do not petition bankruptcies; they stimulate the economy. The loss of one year's income due to unemployment is more than it costs for five years of education at high school. To neglect education performance is not only bad policy but bad economics.

Our Army, Navy and Air Force personnel protect and defend us all. We must link all service pensions to male total average earnings and expand gold card benefits to peacekeepers and to spouses of our very brave veterans. We need to support regional Australia by introducing zonal taxation. Regional areas need doctors and professionals to grow. Regional industries benefit all of Australia. We have to end this discrimination over regional industries and allow them to compete in international markets.

If Australians are satisfied that what their government is doing now is adequate for Australia and our future, Australians can accept their lot, but if, as I do, they see Australia's future as doing more than we have done so far—expanding our economy, not cutting and not borrowing but looking to grow the nation that we love—the government should give everyone the support to have an agenda of growth and enterprise for this nation. The nation has the strength and the potential to live out its heritage and to fulfil the dreams of the Anzacs, to turn Australia into the lucky country, to restore our economy and to reclaim our national heritage. Many people say they care but they really do not. Parliament should be about the needs of others, but sometimes it is not.

In Queensland, the Mulga is dying. Drought and flood have combined to rain havoc on families of that region. How can we not act? How can we complain about animal welfare overseas when we let thousands of cattle die a slow and painful death? How can we let Australian families suffer? Are we so indifferent to the needs of our fellow Australians? It is our responsibility in this place to be the last sentry at the gate to protect the rights and freedoms of all Australians, regardless of the party they belong to. Australia needs a revolution in the way we think and in the way we boost our wealth and our economy for the benefit of all our citizens. We have to re-establish confidence. We need to believe we can lift our economy to a better future. We need to have a positive attitude. We may not get there, but nothing is surer than we will fail if we do not project a positive agenda for the nation in a positive manner.

Public service and political life must be the highest calling. The catchcry of this place needs to be: respect for ideas. Great debate demands its victim and truth is the only winner. We are all winners when truth prevails over injustice. The content of our individual characters is more important than how much money we have. We need to praise the incorruptibility of our public officials, the integrity of our marriages and the worth of our people. It is ideas that matter. Governments may come and go, but ideas go on forever. It is ideas that will shape this nation; it is ideas that will endure through time. We are gone and forgotten in history, in commerce and in politics. It is ideas that capture the conscience of the nation. It is ideas that endure when all else is gone. Let us unite to serve the nation we love, to discover the future, to share our trials and tribulations, to overcome adversity, to pull together for our common good under the Southern Cross and to know, as a great man said, that on this earth God's work must truly be our own.

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

The question is that the address in reply be agreed to. I call the honourable member for Isaacs.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to rise today to speak. It is an honour to have been re-elected for a third time to represent the people in my electorate of Isaacs. I thank them for their support and their trust. Today I will talk about three things. The first is Labor's economic record. I am proud of Labor's achievements for our nation's prosperity during our two terms of government—a period of ongoing economic growth, low unemployment, low inflation and low interest rates that was accomplished despite the massive upheavals occurring in the global economy. I believe this record should be acknowledged. I also believe that Labor's excellent economic record must be defended against the scurrilous and self-serving rewriting of economic history that is already underway from the new government and its supporters. Today I will also state briefly my objectives as shadow minister for the arts and as shadow Attorney-General.

Finally, I will say a few words about my approach to the role of opposition, because I believe that it is possible to approach opposition in a constructive manner that places the national interest first and foremost. This is an entirely different approach to opposition to that of the Prime Minister, whose quarrelsome, destructive and dishonest tactics were a burden on our national life for the past four years, placing as they did the partisan political interests of the Liberal Party above all else, with the national interest a secondary consideration, if it was a consideration at all.

Australians look to their governments for many things—for support when times are tough and for an honest engagement with the major challenges that face us as a nation, such as climate change. They look to government to manage the economy effectively and in the interests of all Australians, particularly working people, who form the backbone of the Australian economy. They look for governments to provide justice, to support the rule of law and to work to lessen the injustices that many, many people in our community continue to face as a result of their race or gender.

First and foremost, the Australian people look to government to manage the economy, because they understand that government has a vitally important role to play in fostering economic prosperity. Good economic management means investing in transformative infrastructure like the National Broadband Network, investing in research and innovation and, perhaps most importantly, investing in our future through education. Good economic management also means maintaining demand through stimulus when the economy contracts. Good economic management means that, in delivering prosperity to our nation, government ensures that the benefits of our economic successes are spread fairly, that all Australians get a fair share of our national wealth and that Australians all have an opportunity to secure work that is dignified and fairly paid. The economy must always be managed in the interests of the great majority of Australians; it should never be managed for a few privileged and powerful sectional interests.

I am very proud of having served as a cabinet minister in a government that did an excellent job of managing the Australian economy, judged by those essential criteria that I have just outlined. I am proud to have served in a government that made the right decisions, a government that stayed true to the values of fairness, justice, openness and respect for the sovereign people that it was elected to serve, a government that got the big calls right, managing to keep our economy strong through the crisis that engulfed the rest of the world and, at the same time, making great strides to improve the lives of ordinary Australians and Australians in need. Despite all the hysteria, propaganda and manipulation used by the coalition to further its political interests, we must not allow the new government and its supporters to recast economic history to deny Labor successes or to paint their own self-serving and destructive opposition to Labor's nation-building policies as anything other than the politically opportunistic deceit that it was.

The agenda of this new government and particularly its approach to managing the economy will be deeply felt by millions of Australians over the coming years. This government's ability to manage the economy will determine whether many Australians will be able to get jobs. This government's decency and vision, or lack of them, will determine the quality of the social services that many Australians can access. We will know how authentic its professed concerns for Indigenous justice are when we see how the Indigenous community fares.

Let me pause to remark that we will hold this government to account on Indigenous affairs, given the Prime Minister's professed goodwill towards Aboriginal people and his desire to be the Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs. I have to say that the new government's goodwill is not discernible in the massive funding cut to Aboriginal legal services revealed in the last days of the election campaign when the coalition finally released their remarkably lightweight policy document on Indigenous affairs. Nor is any goodwill discernible in the Prime Minister's stated aim of repealing the protections against racial vilification contained in section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. These provisions have served our nation well for almost two decades and send a clear message that racist hate speech is unacceptable. The provisions were left intact throughout the entire period of the Howard government, but, since one of the Liberal Party's media cheerleaders, Andrew Bolt, was found by the Federal Court of Australia to have engaged in racial vilification, the Prime Minister and Senator Brandis have been eager to repeal these provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act that for almost 20 years have protected Australians against racially motivated hate speech.

We will be holding the government to account not only for their stated agenda but perhaps more importantly for the agenda that they have hidden from the Australian people, for the agenda that they have denied but that is now all too apparent in their first decisions, for the agenda that they are assiduously preparing the ground for but that they are too fearful to spell out—their agenda for cuts.

The unfolding debacle of the Liberal Party's response to Labor's school funding reforms is a case in point. First we had years of malicious opposition to Labor's fairer school-funding model from the Abbott led opposition. Then, when the Liberals saw that the Australian people wanted their government to invest in better and fairer education for the nation's children, at the last moment before the election they miraculously dropped their objections and claimed to be believers in the Gonski reforms and promised to implement them. But, once the Abbott government were elected, the nasty surprises began as they began to betray their promises to the Australian people and make pathetic excuses seeking to justify those betrayals. Finally, when it became clear that the Australian people were not going to accept the Abbott government's broken promises, pathetic excuses and nasty surprises, the Abbott government tried to backflip yet again. But it is just more excuses and more weasel words, refusing to back their own election promise that no school will be worse off. I say again: opposite me are a government that must and will be held to account.

I want to touch on the economic context in which the coalition finds itself governing, because, while the economy is softening in some sectors and the coalition will have to deal with that reality, the truth is that it has inherited an economy that is doing very well by international standards, in large part due to the stewardship of the former Labor government. Despite the coalition's histrionic rhetoric of a budget emergency prior to the election, the new government has inherited an economy in very good shape.

Let us take a look at some of the key statistics. Interest rates are very low. Australia's current benchmark interest rate is 2.5 per cent, well below the rate of 6.75 per cent when Labor took office. This means access to cheaper home loans for millions of Australians. It also highlights the falsity of the Howard government's promise that interest rates would always be lower under Liberal governments than under Labor. Inflation is below the target range, and taxes as a percentage of GDP are much lower than when Labor first took office. In fact, the total tax take in 2012-13 was 22.2 per cent of GDP, down from a high of 24.2 per cent between 2004 and 2006.

Most importantly, during Labor's term in office Australia has grown strongly compared to most advanced economies and is now one of the world's wealthiest nations. The IMF, for instance, ranks Australia fourth among the 35 wealthiest nations. A recent report by Credit Suisse ranked Australia as the most wealthy nation in the world when measured by median income. Australia is the only one of the OECD nations that has experienced continuous economic growth over the past 22 years. This is incredibly important. It means that the new government has inherited an economy that, as a result of Labor's stimulus package, avoided the worst impacts of the global financial crisis. Not only did the stimulus keep Australia growing; it avoided the tragic impact of mass unemployment that we have seen around the world: a waste of lives, a waste of labour and an enormous burden on those economies that suddenly have to provide support to those who have no opportunity to work.

In March this year our unemployment rate was 5.6 per cent, well below the OECD average of eight per cent, and it remains one of the lowest in the developed world. During the worst of the global recession the differences were even more pronounced. According to the OECD, during 2010 the annual unemployment rate for Australia was 5.2 per cent, while it was 9.6 per cent in the United States, almost 14 per cent in Ireland and over 20 per cent in Spain. Our stimulus package was so successful that it prompted over 50 of our most eminent economists to write an open letter that trumpeted it as a major economic achievement. Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz called our stimulus package 'one of the best designed Keynesian stimulus packages of any country'. The IMF was also strongly supportive of Labor's stimulus, and the OECD has pointed to Labor's policies as a model of how to respond to the economic crisis.

Labor achieved this despite the strident opposition of the Liberal Party and the Nationals. In fact, the coalition campaigned ferociously against the stimulus package despite the overwhelming economic evidence of its success. The new Treasurer has now let the cat out of the bag on just how cynical this exercise was, recently indicating that he may support stimulus if the economy requires it—despite his claims that the cupboard is bare and that Australia is in a budget emergency.

While the Treasurer's acceptance of the use of stimulus measures so effectively deployed by Labor suggests a welcome return to reality, it is also a timely reminder of the importance of not believing much of what is said by senior figures of this government but instead looking at what the government does. While the government has inherited a very strong economy, it has also inherited a budget in deficit. But the fact is that our deficit is very small by international standards. It is easily manageable in an economy as strong as Australia's and is in part a consequence of the spending measures that were used to keep Australia out of recession. That is why Australia has, despite this modest deficit, a AAA credit rating from all three international ratings agencies. This grand slam of AAA credit ratings is an economic achievement that the Liberal Party has never, ever achieved.

Both sides of politics, despite the hysterical cries of 'budget emergency' from those opposite during the campaign, agree that we need to return to surplus over time. We have no argument with that. Economies are cyclical, and we have moved through the economic cycle to a time when surplus should again be the goal. But there are major differences between the parties about how we should return to surplus. Returning to surplus requires that choices be made about what essential spending by government is and what we can do without.

Labor believes that we should cut unnecessary concessions that go to groups that are already doing well. This is not about class warfare; it is about the Australian ideal of a fair go. While we think that some fat can be cut from concessions to the well off, we believe that we should continue to invest in the future—in infrastructure and education—because that is what we must do to remain a prosperous nation. Failure to invest in our future will cost us much more in the long run. We must also protect the services that Australians rely on. As one of the wealthiest nations in the world, we can afford to both invest in our future and uphold our values of fairness at the same time.

In contrast, the coalition believe in cutting spending by targeting support accessed by ordinary families and low-income earners and by cutting public services. I am concerned that that is their real economic agenda: an agenda of cuts and austerity. It may sound far fetched, but there is much to suggest that this is what the modern Liberal Party have become. Take, for example, the recent decisions of the new Treasurer to add $3 billion to the budget deficit by junking a range of savings announced by the former government. This was an incredibly hypocritical action given their professed concern about the state of the budget, but it also gives a stark illustration of the priorities of the Abbott government.

Let us look at just one part of that astonishing decision. The new Treasurer has cut tax to Australia's 16,000 wealthiest superannuants, meaning that they will now not have to pay a very modest tax imposed on earnings above $100,000 per year. This contrasts with their election promise to increase tax for 3.6 million low-income earners, those earning under $37,000 per year, who will pay about $500 per year more tax on superannuation as a result. What a lack of moral vision: spending scarce resources to cut taxes paid by a small group of wealthy Australians, while raising taxes on millions of low-income earners. I am appalled, as I think are all Australians who value basic notions of fairness, by these warped priorities.

And this is just the warm-up act. The Prime Minister's Commission of Audit has just begun, but I have little doubt that he has already planned his response: cuts to education and health and the junking of his own inconvenient promises. We will continue to see wasteful spending, such as their extravagant and inequitable paid-parental-leave scheme, while the Liberal Party seed the ground for massive cuts to health services, education and jobs. We will continue to see the Liberals placing the interests of small, sectional interest groups, such as the 16,000 most wealthy superannuants, ahead of the interests of the great majority of ordinary Australians. We are a prosperous country and we deserve better. And we can afford better. We will be holding the Abbott government to account.

I want to talk briefly about my specific role in holding this government to account as shadow minister for the arts and as shadow Attorney-General. In my new role as shadow minister for the arts, I will be fighting to realise the vision of a creative and vibrant Australia in which our culture is explored, celebrated and understood through artistic endeavours of all kinds. This was a vision that my Labor predecessors in government worked very hard to achieve. The former Minister for the Arts Simon Crean, in particular, worked for three years to deliver Creative Australia—our national cultural policy—and his successor as arts minister, Tony Burke, then worked to implement that policy, with enormous energy and enthusiasm. The government has a vital role to play in continuing to support the arts, because the arts improve the lives of all Australians and enrich our economy. I will be holding the government to account in fulfilling that vital supporting role.

In my role as shadow Attorney-General, I will continue to fight for the same things that I have fought for throughout my life as a lawyer, as a barrister, as a parliamentary secretary and as Attorney-General. Specifically, I will be fighting to continue to build a more just Australia. Sometimes this will mean fighting with this government to defend the reforms we implemented and the gains we made while in office. I hope that sometimes this will mean supporting the government when it proposes a policy that will advance justice in our nation. But whatever the government does—and I must say that the early signs of its approach to justice are deeply disturbing—I will continue fighting to improve access to justice in our nation. I will continue to fight to strengthen the rule of law, and I will continue to fight to strengthen our nation as an egalitarian, participatory democracy in which justice is not a privilege that must be fought for but rather a way of life enjoyed by all Australians.

The final matter I will address today is my approach to the role of opposition in a general sense. I will be clear: I do not see the role of the opposition as the member for Warringah did in his four years as opposition leader. I do not think that the only purpose of the opposition should be to tear down the government of Australia, regardless of the cost to our nation, the prosperity and wellbeing of which suffers when its leaders are embroiled in endless skirmishing, with an unprincipled opposition that reactively opposes almost every policy the government puts forward and that deliberately talks down our national strengths and achievements for partisan political advantage. I do not think that the only purpose of the opposition should be to tear down the government of Australia, regardless of the cost to the public, who have to endure the bitter rhetoric of partisan political conflict. I do not think that the only purpose of the opposition should be to tear down the government of Australia, regardless of the cost to truth and, with that, to our personal integrity.

I hold that the purpose of the opposition, of which I am now a part, is to serve the national interest by engaging constructively in the debate our parliament has been entrusted to conduct about the future of our nation. This means that, when we do decide that the policies of the government are to be opposed, we will not do so with fearmongering negativity and a barrage of slogans founded on distortions and false claims. I hold that a key task of the opposition and of the government is to engage in a genuine political debate, to join in a productive contest of ideas, rather than in a barren war of rhetoric, because it is the robust exchange between those with differing viewpoints that creates the energy that is essential for a vibrant and creative democracy such as ours. As I remarked to the Sydney Institute earlier this year, viewed through one eye the world has no depth, but with the parallax created by differing viewpoints we perceive the world in three dimensions, and our nation is made richer and wiser for that.

I would urge the member for Warringah, now that he leads a new government, to serve the national interest by entering the policy arena and engaging the opposition in a genuine and productive contest of ideas. The space for genuine debate is one of the great strengths of democratic nations such as ours. I welcome such a debate in the months and years ahead.

Debate adjourned.