Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to stand and address the House in acknowledging the incredible contribution that led to my re-election. Before I do so, I would like to acknowledge the outstanding maiden speeches that I have witnessed over the last couple of days from new members in this place, from both sides of the House. I can assure the Australian public that this government is in good hands when we look at the new talent coming to this place, if the calibre of their maiden speeches is a reflection of what they want to achieve whilst in this place. I offer my congratulations to and my appreciation for those outward-going members of the last term whom I have not yet had the opportunity to acknowledge in person. I take this opportunity in the Hansard to acknowledge their contribution to our nation.

I come from a business background. In my business, there are many key performance indicators that give an idea of how the business is performing. In politics, there is one true key performance indicator, and that is an election. I am very humbled by the results that we were able to achieve in the electorate of Wright. That humbling experience of being given the privilege to serve the electorate of Wright for a third term is testament to an enormous contribution that was made by my volunteer base. It was a difficult and tough campaign, run in the middle of the holiday period, when a lot of the families that would normally have given time on our booths spent time with their families—and rightly so. Being in the middle of winter, it was the time that our grey-nomadic families would normally go on a holiday further north with their caravans, and good wishes to them. But we were humbled by the number of new people that rolled up and manned no fewer than 60 booths in my electorate. A collective of over 350 volunteers that helped with pre-polling gave their time freely because they believe in the cause. They believe in the economic direction that this government is taking and they believe in the policy settings.

I will mention some of those kind people, but let me start with the support that I was given by my staff. I boast proudly that I still have the same contingent of staff that I have had since the day that I was elected. When I was in business, I took the principle that I always wanted smarter people around me. I wanted my law firms to know more about the law than I did. I wanted my accounting firms to know more about the accounting standards than I did.

As a result, I am privileged to have Greg Birkbeck as my chief of staff, who knows more about politics and campaigning than I do. I thank Alice Warby, a terrier and warrior, who deals with our constituents in the office. Jo looks after our books and did an enormous job in preparing us to be ready for the campaign. I thank Susie Cunningham, who looked after my media, and Hannah Robinson, who travels with me and looks after my diary. To all of them, thank you.

More importantly—they are paid staff—I thank each of my volunteers: FDC executive Matthew Enright; Rod Venz, who played a role as treasurer; our SEC chairman who looked after the Lockyer Valley, Jim McDonald; Lloyd Venz and Gordon French, who were our handymen who did all our corflute work; and everyone who had a corflute in their front yard, who made not have made a contribution but proudly put their name to our cause. I thank Frank Klan for kitting out a six-metre truck for me. It was one of my trucks; I pulled it out of my fleet. He sexied it all up, and we had mobile billboards running all around the electorate. Susan Calvert and Sue Mason were saints on pre-polling and for that I am humbled.

I thank other tireless volunteers such as Ken Turnbull, Sheila Venz, Tim Andrews, Colin Lagoon, Ian Pocock, Marjorie Yarrow, the Puccis, Steve Monteath, Ruth Doyle, Sue Margetts, Steve Neville, Glen Pavey, Tony and Sandra Landridge, Catherine Drynan, Ian and Muriel Sheppard, Kate and Sarah Seymour, John Bridges, Melissa Hall, Rob and Julianne Murphy, Gary and Edwina Stark, Warwick McLean, John Clarke, Derek Pingel, Fred Scott, Lance Pollock and Wayne Keys. I will not run through the whole 300, but they made an enormous contribution. Without their help and their volunteering contributions, I would not have been re-elected. We were the only candidate team that manned every single booth from the time it opened until the time it shut.

There is an enormous contribution still left for me to make in my electorate. We have a number of programs that are rolling out. It gives me great please to be able to continue to represent the people of Wright and deliver for them. (Time expired)