Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak, as the 44th Parliament comes to a close, to give a bit of a personal recap. I want to say to the people of my electorate: I have really enjoyed being your federal member for the 2½ years since I was sworn in. Having grown up in Bracken Ridge, which is one of the suburbs in my seat of Petrie, it has been a real honour to be able to represent people from Bracken Ridge and throughout the federal seat of Petrie. I want to put on record that I have really enjoyed that. I particularly enjoyed bringing the current Prime Minister and the former Treasurer Joe Hockey to a Politics in the Pub event that I had at the Bracken Ridge Tavern and getting those cabinet ministers to mix with the people. It was a real honour. As I said in my maiden speech, life is about relationships with other people, and I have had the great honour of talking to many people over the last 2½ years and getting to know them personally. That has been fantastic.

There have been a lot of wins for the electorate. At the last election, there were three big areas of concern for people. They were around jobs, infrastructure and stopping the people-smuggling boats that were coming in terribly under the last government. Jobs have been a big issue, and I have managed to have job seeker boot camps. I did one just a couple of weeks ago, where we had about 50 unemployed people attend. From that, seven people now have jobs.

Infrastructure has been rolled out, with the Dolphins Stadium—$4 million for that; the Moreton Bay Rail Link, some $450 million; the Bruce Highway upgrades; the Gateway Motorway north upgrade that is happening at the moment; and NBN coming sooner into North Lakes, Bracken Ridge and other areas, which has been really good. The environment has been a big winner, with the Green Army projects. I have two currently underway and two completed. There have been community grants to people like Redcliffe Coast Guard and the Deception Bay PCYC. The Redcliffe PCYC has been good. We have been able to raise awareness about domestic violence. Uptake of solar panels in my electorate has gone through the roof, as we have promoted local solar. Child care has also been good. We have a lot more childcare changes we want to make if only Labor would put through the changes in relation to the family tax benefits which they are blocking so the childcare changes are not coming through. There are the Boundary Road and Rothwell Roundabout upgrades.

But there is a lot more to do—in relation to tourism, boosting the Bruce, the Bald Hills Memorial Hall, more Green Army projects and more work for jobs. I say to people in my electorate: this budget is about jobs and growth. It is about transitioning from the mining and construction boom to the future economy. Do not elect Labor at this upcoming election, where they have $100 billion in more taxes and more spending, as we just heard from the member for Kennedy. That is all they want to do. We want to get the nation on track—jobs, growth and ensuring that the future of Australia is in safe hands with the coalition. I will be fighting hard.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.