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

Order! Before I call the honourable member for Pearce, I remind honourable members that this is his first speech. I therefore ask that the usual courtesies be extended to him.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, thank you and congratulations on your ascension to the chair. I would also like to thank all of my new coalition colleagues. Genuinely, the welcome here has been collegiate and very warm. I am intent to bask in this warmth before people get to know me and it grinds to an inevitable halt.

On 23 November 1956, a painfully angular 19-year-old Brisbane boy with a physique the cross between a praying mantis and a wire coat hanger jumped for his country on the first day of the Melbourne Olympic Games. That boy was my father. His sole possessions totalled an ill-fitting Australian team tracksuit and a pair of Buddy Holly style horn-rimmed glassed. He competed in what was then and what remains to this day the longest and most engrossing field event in Olympic history. After over six hours of competition, the entire crowd remained at the MCG, well into the deep cusp of twilight. They watched breathless as Chilla Porter, on his third and final attempt at six foot 11½ inches, clipped the bar ever so gently. It wobbled for what seemed like an age and eventually dislodged and fell in silence with him to the sandpit. In the result, he was beaten by the great African-American athlete Charles Dumas, who had made the same height with his own second attempt, setting an Olympic record in the process.

If the maiden speech is for the existential questions of politics—Who is the member? Why are they here? What do they believe?—then for reasons that I cannot perfectly explain, the authentic explanation for me somehow starts with that event in 1956. This event, which passed into Porter family folklore long before my birth, has woven itself into my being in subterranean ways. Why it affects me is hard to say, but affect me it does. For a not particularly demonstrative person, it is an event that percolates emotion through me with even shallow reflections on it. Indeed, it is either curious or positively strange that the two images that most readily draw emotion from me are images of my wife laughing and my father jumping. Ultimately, I may be nothing more than a prime candidate for post-doctoral research in Freudian psychology. But that is just the way it is.

Although proud of my father, the significance of this event for me is more than pride. If I had to guess, there are probably two things about it that most resonate with my conscience. First, it is the sheer individual inspiration of the event. This was not the casual brilliance of a Lord Burghley, upon whom the aristocratic hurdler in Chariots of Fire was based. In fact, among Burghley's many athletic achievements was that he was able to race around the promenade deck of the Queen Mary in 57 seconds dressed in a full dinner suit. My father has never seen the point of owning a dinner suit!

Chilla Porter's achievement was the welding of solid but far from limitless athletic talent to devoted levels of discipline and training, a little self-belief and an unbreakable steely nerve. That such an unassuming man as my father could achieve so much by combining comparatively modest raw ability with sheer will is proof definitive of the wonderful idea that with effort almost anything is possible.

In liberal democracies opportunity is imperfect but it is absolutely real. Probative evidence exists to demonstrate that opportunity and choice are all around us. Indeed, Charlie Dumas's gold medal in the same event was achieved by a black man living in Compton, east LA in 1950s America. That Charlie Dumas overcame reputedly considerable poverty and prejudice to become a great athlete and later educator is individual triumph writ large.

Governments can and should promote more opportunity, but opportunity is not merely the speculation of political philosophy or the gift of legislators. In modern Australia opportunity exists, likely to a fuller extent than it has existed anywhere at any time in human history. As a people it is possible that we have become a little too involved in the other great Australian sport: the blaming of government every time something goes wrong in our lives. We can acknowledge the ongoing need for government to diminish disadvantage, we can recognise that sometimes failing with this and many other tasks, governments are often very blameworthy—but in government, as in life, we should not stray too far from the fact that far more often than not the ultimate responsibility for individual success or failure lies with the individual themselves.

The second feature of this Olympic event that I think resonates is how it constantly reminds me that so many things in life are so finely balanced. In sport and life there is often an indistinguishably fine line between immortal glory and something less. Probably because of my father's experience I have long held a deep fascination with causation inside historical and societal cusps, the pivot points of dynamic times on which many later things will depend. Certainly, for my father, that teetering high-jump bar was one of those life-changing cusp moments: an event that could go either way and which sets in motion a much longer chain of events—what Churchill described, on a far grander scale, as a 'hinge of fate'.

For my father, silver or gold did not come to define his character; nevertheless, the outcome of that day changed the course of his life forever. Had he won—and it would have been the greatest Cinderella story in Olympic history had he won—likely the push to live in the United States on an athletic scholarship would have been overwhelming and things would have been much different.

As it was, his was an Australian future. A silver medal gave him just enough cachet to achieve gold in the marriage game: he met my mother, an attractive researcher at TheWest Australian. Other than my eventual birth more than a decade later this had two very happy effects: (1) I inherited my mother's love of books and history; and (2) I narrowly escaped Queensland and was born and raised in the great state of Western Australia. Queenslanders: I feel your pain!

Before turning to other matters I will just add that, unfortunately, I inherited little of the athletic ability of my father and 100 per cent of the chicken legs. It is well, Madam Speaker, that you discourage the wearing of shorts in the chamber!

My father later worked for the Liberal Party, doing so at his own father's urging—a man now passed but who established the Queensland Liberal Party under the guidance of Sir Robert Menzies. So I grew up with my sister in a state of opportunities, with a fascination for turning points in a house with a faint but fair air of sport and politics. To now represent the Western Australians in Pearce, as a member of the Australian parliament, is the greatest responsibility of my own life; and for as long as I am entrusted with that responsibility I will give it absolutely everything I have.

Pearce is not a Federation seat but rather the product of the Federation's dynamism. It was created in 1993, a product of the extraordinary growth that has been WA's hallmark over the past 25 years. Preceding my custody of this responsibility were the Hon. Fred Chaney and the Hon. Judy Moylan. It might be noted that, on some matters at least, the three of us come from slightly different pews in the broad Liberal church. But pluralism is where Liberal politics derives its great resilience, and I admire both my predecessors as accomplished Australians dedicated to public service and to their principles.

The places of Pearce have a real romance to them. My house is a walk away from the place where in 1658 Abraham Leeman led an excursion of Dutch mariners onshore in search of the recently shipwrecked Gilt Dragon. Many a WA child has been sent like Leeman into the sand dunes in search of buried treasure. To the disappointment of hopeful parents with mortgages, all of these children have been unsuccessful, as Leeman was 400 years ago.

From the reef sheltered Mediterranean lagoons, beaches and crayfish pots of the shipwrecked coast, the electorate of Pearce travels inland across suburbs staggered through tangles of acacia and national parks. Market gardens, wineries and orchards then tilt into the heartland of the Central Wheatbelt, where fields of wheat and canola require great toil but produce golden slaloms of harvest. The people represent the full history and diversity of the state itself. They are aspirational, entrepreneurial and above all hardworking. They deserve coherent, orthodox, stable government.

At the centre of the electorate is the Royal Australian Air Force Base Pearce. It is a particular honour to represent a seat in which the RAAF work and train. No matter how many times, how noisily, or how low for that matter, those planes sear over the dunes above my house, I delight at the awesome sound and sight of them—for they are the heirs of the most important pivot point in modern world history, an event in which many Australians fought and died and which has fascinated me since my youth: the Battle of Britain.

The needle hook of popular hindsight focuses on the Boy's Own Annualqualities of the Battle of Britain and sometimes glosses over the rich tapestry of decisions that led to the five months of intense conflict. The extraordinary heroism of those last threads in time is astonishing, but the outcome of this battle was determined ultimately by the way in which that sacrifice joined a deep composite of multiple decisions made over earlier decades: procurement decisions, technological decisions, tactical decisions and ultimately political decisions. A few of these were obviously revealed as pivotal to the minds of the time; others were decisions whose later importance was more temporally obscure. But somehow a guiding principle seemed to structure the many decisions, all apparently underpinned by a shared sense of the great need for preparedness—so many decisions, so finely balanced. Too many poor decisions in the 15-year historical web preceding the Battle of Britain, and all the heroism in the Commonwealth would not have prevailed in those crucial five months.

Important moments in history are determined by all kinds of factors. However, the single most important factor is almost always the quality of the people in charge of decision making. And hinges of fate are lubricated by the collective outcome of quality decision making. For anyone who believes this, it makes some sense to aspire to a place that offers the toughest opportunity to prove oneself over time in the art of decision making. And if that means turning myself from a rooster into a feather duster, so be it. Like most aspirant decision makers, I suffer from three conceits: decision makers think they have something to offer; they think that their ideas are well adapted to the times; and there is the great generational conceit that something about their own time is uniquely important and worth deciding. On matters personal, I oscillate between self-doubt and confidence. I have absolutely no doubt with respect to the third conceit. I know that every generation likes to believe that their times are special, but without a shadow of a doubt the times through which this parliament will live and through which its followers will live will guide the nation. It will be pivotal—in fact, electrifying—replete with opportunity for both success and failure.

And the great challenge of our time will be the Asian convergence. From the office of Treasurer and Attorney-General for Western Australia, I watched an economy rise in concert with the Asian convergence. The Asian convergence is the single greatest economic event since the industrial revolution. WA's success did not just happen; it was envisaged and planned into being by generations of decision makers going back through the decades, right back to Sir Charles Court and even before that great man. At the crescendo of the Asian century we will watch as hundreds of millions more people join the global economy. That 60 per cent of the world's population will in our lifetime converge rapidly towards our own standard of living will have deep implications for the entire world. But that this 60 per cent are our neighbours, with clocks set to our own time zones, means that Australia faces the economic opportunity of its life.

There exists—and I firmly believe this—an opportunity to herald in a great Australian flourishing. But, as with all times of opportunity, the future is uncertain. And, just as with the Battle Britain, too many poor decisions and our opportunities will be lost, and Australia will face a not-too-gradual decline. The one certainty will be that some gentle, happy equilibrium of our national prospects will not be the order of the day. Ours will be the age and the region of rise and fall. In the era of change, we will need to change. And courage will be required by this generation of parliamentarians to progress reform. The swift return to robust surplus is an absolutely critical—but not sufficient—condition to growing our economy. There are many reforms we may need to embrace, but perhaps our guiding principle might be to avoid competing against Asia and to promote competition for Asia. Competing for Asian markets, for Asian investment, for Asian tourists and for Asian students makes sense. Prioritising competition against South Korea or China in goods that they now best produce and export by the billions makes perhaps less sense.

Reform is difficult, but the stakes are high and the need is pressing. It is not just our standard of living that will be in peril if we fail to make the best decisions. As a nation small in number, in an immensely populous region, our national security has been founded not just upon alliances but also by superior productivity underpinning a regional economic ascendancy. But our neighbours are growing fast, and it would be folly to believe that our economic ascendancy will last forever irrespective of what we do domestically. Economic growth fuelled by free, competitive markets drives the greatest welfare engine ever in existence: employment. But growth is also the engine that drives welfare and culture, and in our age it will be intimately linked with security. International friendships are always best maintained through economic strength. If we are to exist and thrive with Asian tigers, we would be well advised to remain a formidable economic creature in our own right.

One area ripe for economic reform is the federal system, and I will close with a brief observation on that. The great myth of the federation is that things would be more efficient without the states. First, postulating what Australia would be like without states is as futile as postulating what Switzerland would be like without mountains. The federal government is the complicated child of five state parents; it is not the product of immaculate conception—although sometimes it has thought itself infallible. The only thing allowing for the endurance of a view that central government would do a better job in child protection, hospitals or police is the thankful fact that it has never had to do those things. Leaving aside the very wise proposition that centralising power can lead to its corruption and overuse, efficient policy—particularly in service provision—is best devised by governments as proximate to people as rational organisational principles will allow.

The federal government now accounts for just over half of all government expenditure in Australia, with 80 per cent of the revenue base. The states roughly account for the rest, but with only 15 per cent of the direct revenue base. These figures reveal great fiscal imbalance, a major problem that is in dire need of reform. But they also demonstrate the simple fact that state government is critical to the success of the nation. Almost half of everything done by all government in Australia is done by the states. Reform in this area will require federal leadership, and it must be in the national interest to improve the fiscal architecture of the federation. The GST was supposed to be state revenue; it was supposed to fix fiscal imbalance and help the states do their half.

But, over time, two problems have arisen. First—and right now—almost 60 per cent of all the GST moneys donated by the big four states go to the Northern Territory. Previously, the responsibility to subsidise the Northern Territory—and it is a proper responsibility—resided with the Commonwealth. Now it falls upon the four largest states which, with only 15 per cent of the revenue base, can least afford that responsibility. The remaining GST donations are sent to other states in a process of equalisation. There should always be some level of equalisation, perhaps even a high level of equalisation. But the present system is too extreme, highly inequitable and propagates enormous inefficiency. Citing previous gains to justify Western Australia's present mammoth losses ignores proportionality and fails to recognise that historical equalisation in WA's favour was meant as compensation, not subsidy, as WA's trading economy was crippled by national protectionism in times gone by.

But, in any event, the primary problem is not one of equity; it is one of efficiency. Presently, every single dollar earned in revenue by a productive state above some average mean predetermined by the Grants Commission is redistributed away in diminished GST receipts. In an income tax system that redistributed away every dollar above the average wage, that would be seen as an incentive-sapping and anti-productive disaster. And so it is with the extremes of the present equalisation system. All welfare systems that become too extreme ultimately fail those they are meant to help by encouraging poor and unproductive decision making at a state level.

Finally, to the many people who have supported me—my old friends, the campaign team, my parents, my wife's parents and the redoubtable members of the WA Liberal Party—I know that you have not helped place me here for the statement of your names. But, rest assured, every late night and early morning in service of Pearce is also meant as a small repayment of the huge debt that I owe to you all. To the Premier of Western Australia: Colin, I thank you for your forbearance and friendship during my own agonised decision making. Finally, to my wife—I am perhaps a bit slow to give my wife public compliments but, as Ray Charles said, 'Wake up, boy, because a girl like that ain't going to wait all night.' So here is my compliment to my wife. Jennifer, if I were told that it were within my power to go back to the 1970s to watch Dennis Lillee bowl again at the WACA, that I could take all my friends, that Sir Isaiah Berlin and Han Solo would be special guests and that James Reyne would do an acoustic set during the lunch break, but that the one catch was that you could not attend with me, then I would not bother, and you and I could go to the Yanchep Beach lagoon with the dog. So my compliment is: Jennifer, all the good things are nothing special without you.

Madam Speaker, thank you for your indulgence. I support the motion before the House.

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

Before I call the member for Moore, I again remind the House that this is the member's maiden speech, and I ask again that the same courtesies be extended to him as have just been extended to the member for Pearce.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, as I rise to speak for the first time, I offer my warmest congratulations on your election as Speaker of the House. I look forward to serving with you as a member of the Speaker's panel. I refer to Her Excellency's speech on opening day, in which she said:

There is no limit to what Australia can achieve, but only if we respect the limits of government, as well as its potential.

The challenge for the Australian government is to foster a strong competitive environment by reversing overregulation, addressing the factors which increase the costs of doing business in Australia and reforming the industrial relations system to increase workforce participation and productivity. The development of strong policies for the business sector in the areas of corporate governance, financial services regulation and industry are required to promote the economic development of our nation.

I thank the electors of Moore for entrusting me with the responsibility of acting as their representative. It is a great honour and privilege to represent my constituents in federal parliament. I humbly accept this responsibility and pledge to serve by doing my very best in carrying out my duties. Moore is a coastal electorate located in the northern suburbs of Perth, with the city of Joondalup as its major regional hub. The electorate includes pristine beaches, three marinas and a national park. It has leading educational institutions, diverse businesses and advanced medical facilities. Employment self-sufficiency remains a major issue in the electorate, as daily commuter traffic congests arterial roads. To alleviate the situation, it is vital to progress the Neerabup industrial area. By cutting the red tape which has delayed the project, timely planning and environmental approvals will deliver up to 20,000 new jobs. In addition, development projects in central Joondalup and at the Ocean Reef Marina will boost commercial activity. The coalition has a plan for creating 2 million new jobs nationally, and the electorate of Moore stands ready to deliver its share of this target.

Within Moore, world-class research and development projects are being developed at Edith Cowan University. I look forward to being part of the Abbott coalition government which will implement policies to promote the commercialisation of Australian inventions and technology, harnessing the economic benefits of intellectual property developed in Australia. As the third largest hospital in Western Australia, with 650 beds, Joondalup Health Campus provides the state's busiest emergency department and a private hospital wing, as well as a clinical school to train future doctors, nurses and health professionals. I am an advocate for the expansion of the hospital facilities to provide a greater range of specialist medical services.

I am the eighth member for Moore since the electorate was first proclaimed in 1948. It was named after George Fletcher Moore, the first Advocate-General in Western Australia in 1834.

I pay tribute to my predecessor, Dr Mal Washer, who served in this parliament for 15 years and with whom I have had a very close association. A medical practitioner and avocado grower, Dr Mal Washer is highly respected within the local community and revered by his peers from both sides of the House. Dr Mal is well known for expressing his point of view and standing up for his beliefs and values. He has always been generous, supportive and a great mentor. I have some very big shoes to fill.

I am a first-generation migrant to Australia, arriving as a nine-year-old with my parents on 8 December 1984, exactly 29 years ago yesterday. The Goodenough family has a very rich history dating back to the United Kingdom. The Domesday Book of 1086 records my ancestors as landowners in the shire of Cumberland. Over the centuries, members of the family provided loyal service to the Crown through the clergy and military and in banking, before migrating eastwards during the 19th century with the expanding British Empire.

The Goodenough name often attracts comments and light-hearted puns. In 1809, my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, the Reverend Samuel Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle, delivered a sermon to the House of Lords which gave rise to the epigram of the time:

'Tis well enough that Goodenough

Before the Lords should preach;

But, sure enough, full bad enough

Are those he had to teach.

Bishop Samuel Goodenough is buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey, and his descendants spread the family across the globe.

My extended relatives arrived in Australia during the 1800s. Police Trooper Henry Goodenough was present at the Eureka Stockade uprising in 1854 and is documented as a key witness for the Crown in the subsequent court trial. Commodore James Graham Goodenough served as Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Naval Station, residing at Admiralty House, Kirribilli, from 1873 until his death in 1875 whilst on duty. He is buried in the historic St Thomas Cemetery in North Sydney, and Goodenough Island was named in his honour.

My branch of the family were among the early British settlers in the colony of Singapore in the 1800s, who pioneered thriving enterprises in the bustling colonial outpost. Prosperity came to an abrupt end on 15 February 1942 with the fall of Singapore and subsequent Japanese occupation, an event described by Churchill as 'the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history'.

My family endured three decades of hardship following the end of the war as Singapore struggled to rebuild. I was born 30 years after the end of the war, and I recall the latter stages of the recovery, characterised by ramshackle housing, unsealed roads, poor sanitation and very basic utilities in certain areas. This was an invaluable experience growing up because it provided me with an appreciation of what we have today. Through hard work, resourcefulness and the sound values instilled in us by our parents and grandparents, my cousins and I have managed to rebuild.

My grandparents' war stories of daily survival in occupied territory—in particular, my favourite story of them concealing from the Japanese, in a grave in the dead of night, Lee-Enfield rifles and bayonets—instilled in me the importance of marksmanship, defence, military service and the alliance with the United States of America, which liberated my family.

It was a very sentimental occasion to be sworn as a member of parliament on the Bible which my grandmother gave me 30 years ago, in 1983, just prior to migrating to Australia. This bears testament to my lifelong Christian faith in the Anglican tradition.

Upon arriving in Australia in 1984, I attended Leederville Primary School, and later I attended Aranmore Catholic College, graduating as dux of the class of 1992. Leaving high school, I secured a job as a trainee accountant at a well-known firm of chartered accountants, Hendry Rae & Court, studying for my commerce degree at Curtin University by night. Through the firm I met former Premier Sir Charles Court, a great Western Australian who inspired me to be industrious and enterprising. I then joined the Liberal Party, working my way up as an office bearer and election volunteer. I later worked as the accountant for an engineering business, subsequently purchasing a shareholding in a company which supplies pipe fittings to the commercial construction and mining industries.

I know firsthand what it means to be in business—to employ staff, to stock inventory, to comply with regulation, to take commercial risk and to be responsible for balancing the books. I have personally experienced the decline in Australian manufacturing due to rising costs, declining margins, and regulatory burden. Venturing into commercial and residential property development, I similarly experienced the obstacles to business development caused by overregulation.

A former Australian Prime Minister once said in the 1990s that one should not aspire to hold public office until one has washed one's hands in Solvol. Not many people know what Solvol is, let alone have washed their hands in it. It is a metaphor for bringing working values and practical, shopfloor experience to public life. In my case, there is always a supply of the industrial detergent in my factory and at my farm. I bring to this parliament valuable industry experience and will always remember the needs and aspirations of the people whom I am elected to represent in this place.

My first foray into public life was in the Town of Vincent Council elections as a 22-year-old, in what is considered a Labor stronghold. I lost by over 260 votes. I learnt from the experience and, undeterred, I contested the City of Wanneroo elections.

I have been actively involved in the community, including as a board member of Peter Moyes Anglican Community School, for nine years. I look forward to using my local government experience by working cooperatively with the Cities of Joondalup and Wanneroo in advocating for federal government support for key infrastructure and services in our region.

The greatest challenge facing Australia in the 21st century is increased international competition from emerging economies in our region. In a globalised economy with free trade and mobility of investment capital across international borders, a nation's economic performance will determine living standards. Over the next decades, Australia will face unprecedented competition for resources and energy as populations seek to improve their standards of living. We will be competing with billions of people who value education and are prepared to work long hours to produce, earn, save and invest to get ahead economically. Those nations which fail to produce as much as they consume will fall behind into greater levels of debt.

Only through responsible fiscal management—by getting the budget under control—can we reduce the burden of national debt irresponsibly incurred over the past six years, and only through effective monetary policy can the Australian economy forge ahead in a low-inflation environment. In order to maintain Australia's place in the global economy we must capitalise on our strengths in primary, secondary and tertiary industry. We must support agriculture and fisheries by developing robust policies that support primary producers, so ensuring our long term food security and biosecurity.

Our government must implement policies that support the mining, resources and energy industries across the nation—and in particular in my home state of Western Australia, where iron ore, minerals, and natural gas are leading export earners for the nation. A coalition government will invest in infrastructure to support these industries and remove the burden of the mining and carbon taxes. A coalition government will actively work to develop trade and investment relations, that are in the national interest, with countries not only in the South-East Asian region but also the United States of America and in Africa, Europe and beyond.

We will also act to protect our borders and maintain our sovereignty. At a time when countries in our region are increasing military spending, it is essential to maintain a strong Australian Defence Force—not as an aggressive action but to protect our rightful place in the region. I am a strong supporter of the Australia-United States Alliance in terms of both defence and economic issues.

As a proud Western Australian, I am a federalist who believes in preserving the rights of the states which formed the Commonwealth at Federation. The Commonwealth must ensure equitable funding arrangements for all states, including my home state of Western Australia. In particular, the declining share of revenue from Commonwealth-based taxes such as the goods and services tax and royalties needs be addressed as a priority. Western Australia may represent 10 per cent of the Australian population, but it accounts for more than 46 per cent of national export income and 16 per cent of gross domestic product.

The remoteness of and the tyranny of vast distances in Western Australia make for costly infrastructure to support these industries. I make the case for a review of Commonwealth funding arrangements and for increased investment in infrastructure in Western Australia which will, in the long term, create economic development and return more taxation revenue for the Commonwealth.

I have a vision of building an Australia of the future based on the principles of democracy, meritocracy, and national unity drawing upon the motto 'e pluribus unum', which translates from Latin as 'from many, one'. From many cultures and origins there must be one united Australian national identity. Australians from all walks of life must unite with a common purpose of building a strong nation with a robust economy that is able to provide for the wellbeing and defence of its citizens.

In doing so, as a nation we must address the issues of multiculturalism and reconciliation, whilst preserving the fundamental character and values of Australian identity. These complex social processes are by necessity two-way streets. There has to be a degree of give and take to promote a balanced approach to the competing goals of diversity, assimilation and integration in our emerging national identity. From my own experience I can attest to the value of interacting with people of different cultures and fully participating in my local community.

Well-connected and networked individuals benefit from a greater understanding of different cultures and exposure to wider opportunities for advancement. Australians should be proud of the British heritage of our country—the Westminster system, our public institutions, modern agriculture, industrial production, technology and a service economy—all of which have delivered the society and lifestyle which we enjoy today. We must never allow the significance of this heritage to be diminished.

It does not matter how long one has been in Australia—whether just a few years or 40,000 years—or from which country one has originated. What matters is what one does in Australia—one's character and commitment, the achievements accomplished and the contribution made to our country. What is needed to succeed in Australia is a positive attitude and a strong work ethic.

Having personally visited the poorest and most marginalised Australians, 2,000 kilometres north of Perth, and seen first-hand the living conditions and hopelessness, I realised that the job of reconciliation will not be complete until these forgotten people, and many like them in remote communities across Australia, are embraced by our society.

Reconciliation will only be achieved when serveral questions are asked. When was the last time you invited an Indigenous person to your home? When was the last time you shared a meal with an Indigenous person? When was the last time you employed an Indigenous person? The answers to these questions are: 'I do it regularly.'

True reconciliation cannot be achieved with words or a document. It can only be achieved with real actions. Reconciliation must be practical, material and tangible. In this parliament we have the opportunity to push the boundaries of reconciliation and multiculturalism and set forth a movement that includes Australians of all backgrounds in a national understanding that unites us all.

I would like to pay tribute to the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party, to state director Ben Morton and the team at Menzies House for running a professional campaign. In particular, I acknowledge my home division of Moore. To my campaign team and over 400 branch members and volunteers who helped me during the election, I thank you. It was a collective team effort. I could not have done it without your support.

To my parents, Reg and Mary, thank you for the values you have instilled in me; your hard work, commitment and guidance over the years has led me to where I am today. You taught me to be hard working, self-reliant, and a contributor to society. To my closest friend, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash, thank you for your steadfast loyalty and encouragement over many years. Similarly, to the Hon George Cash, former President of the Western Australian Legislative Council; thank you for guiding and mentoring both Michaelia and me in our formative years.

I thank my state counterparts the Hon. Rob Johnson, the Hon. Albert Jacob, Jan Norberger, the Hon. Peter Katsambanis and their respective wives for their friendship and loyalty over the years. Also, I thank the honourable members for Curtin, Sturt and Groom, and Senator Mathias Cormann for assisting me during the campaign.

There are too many names to mention, for risk of omission; however, in particular, I must thank Tony Brooks, Councillor James Limnios and the Limnios family, Mayor Tracey Roberts, Mary Anglin, David Anson, Marlon Lockyear, Dev and Pat Naidu, Kevin and Sue Fairman, David and Cindy Harding, Miles Wood and my cousins based in Australia, Clyde, Sean, Garrett, and David Goodenough.

I thank all members, senators, and staff of the parliament for warmly welcoming me into this place and helping me to settle in over the past few weeks. Madam Speaker, in closing, I dedicate myself to the service of the people of Moore and our great Australian nation through my service in this parliament.

Debate adjourned.