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

I am pleased to make my contribution to the address-in-reply and the debate on the Governor-General's speech. In December 2013, when I delivered my first speech in parliament, I said:

The people of Indi have 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.

In this speech today in parliament I want to talk about some of the work we have done since that first speech was made, the agenda for this term of parliament and the call to action to the people of Indi to take the Indi way of working and move it on to the next stages.

I would particularly like to begin by acknowledging and recognising the work of my community. As an Independent member of parliament, the community plays an integral role in ensuring that I act as an effective local member. My community understands the issues, and I need to make sure that I stay connected to my community so that I understand the issues. The Indi way, as we call it, started with the involvement and enthusiasm of country young people, the young people in my community, and it continued with a commitment to training, support and empowerment of volunteers. We took the enthusiasm and the energy and together we moulded it and gave direction to that want to make the world a better place. And we encouraged, with all our volunteers, a commitment to values, to be respectful, to be our best selves, to acknowledge difference and to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions. Ultimately, this model builds on the understanding that our democracy is important to us. But democracy means everybody has the chance to have their voices heard, to engage in political action and to actually work for the change that they want to see. In north-east Victoria we value democracy, we value participation and we want to make sure it is continued.

Part of my role as a member of parliament is the facilitation and the development of anybody who is interested in learning about politics. There are a whole lot of ways that we do that. We have volunteers who come to Canberra. We have learning and training programs through the office. I go out to communities. I speak to schools. Schools come to Canberra. We have leadership development programs. There are a myriad of ways of explaining to people that, as the representative, it is my job to take the ideas of the community to Canberra and, not being a member of a party, I do not rely on my party for the ideas; I actually rely on my community. We call this the Indi way.

Initially, we were driven by a sense of dissatisfaction and disillusionment. I know it is common right across Australia that people are sick of the way politics works. They do not trust that things are going the way they should. That certainly was the feeling in Indi, but we did not fall into that trap. We did not go down that negative path. We took those feelings of disconnect and dissatisfaction and asked, 'What can we do with it? How can we get a member of parliament who is actually going to have our vision and will represent us but be the representative and not necessarily the power base that perhaps you get from parties?'

In Indi we have a saying that the future is made or determined by those who turn up. Not only did young people turn up to run the campaign and not only do many people now turn up to be part of the political activity of the electorate, but in this speech today I want to make a call out to those who stood up in the 2016 election and did the work, did the hours, did the miles, did those numerous meetings and gave the intellectual power that they had to do the planning for the election and help with the community development side of it. We had over 700 signed-up volunteers, all of whom had signed on to the value statement and contributed to the election. But it was led by this amazing team of wonderful people: Alana Johnson, Anne Shaw, Chris Hazell, Denis Ginnivan, Jacqui Hawkins, John Davis, Judy Brewer, Karen Nankervis, Michelle Dunscombe, Nick Haines, Phil Haines, Roberta Baker, Roland Wahlquist, Ross Kearney, Rowan O'Hagan, Ruth McGowan, Susan Benedyka, Tammy Atkins, Tony Lane, Cam Klose, Julie De Hennin, Trish Curtis, Mark and Jill Howard, Angela Killingsworth and Jane Taylor. They were the core group, but it is always dangerous when you name some people, because it was also everybody else who made the difference.

The election in northeast Victoria was cold and wet and rainy and long, and many, many volunteers stood for hours in the very miserable cold weather not only doing how-to-vote cards but also having conversations with people, engaging them and talking about how other people could get involved—a deep and heartfelt thankyou for that work. I know you are going nowhere, that you are staying involved and that you will continually stay in touch with me and make sure that I represent our interests in this parliament.

But Indi will only thrive as more organisations, groups, communities and people gain the skills and confidence to act on their own solutions, make their own plans and take effective action to get results. There is absolutely no point coming and seeing me, as a member of parliament, and describing a problem. It is of interest, but it does not get the answer we need. All too often people come to me with a problem and say, 'Cathy, can you do something about it? Can you go to the minister?' What we have come to understand is, sure, that is an action, but, if you give a country problem to a city minister, they will give you a city answer. You get a much better response if you bring together known ways of working and give the minister a solution to the problem—that is, if you say: here is the problem, here is what needs to be done, here we are as a community and here is how we can work together. That is what we have been doing in Indi. I was so pleased last week to be able to bring representatives of the dairy industry to parliament. People from the dairy industry came up. They are going through a really tough time, but they had sat down, defined the problem and worked out answers to what needed to be done, and they came to Canberra. We had a very constructive day meeting the Prime Minister, the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development and the Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, talking about these issues and setting up partnerships that we know we can move together, and I was really pleased to do that.

Also last week, the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program came to Canberra. It is another example of a community group learning about leadership—coming up here, spending the day and actually getting a hold on how parliament works and how they can advance it. I just made a little error there—it was Alpine Valleys who met the Prime Minister. It was not the dairy group; they were busy doing other things. When the Alpine Valleys Leadership group spoke to the Prime Minister they talked to him about the need for leadership training and empowering communities so that people who put up their hand to be president, secretary or treasurer of a group can not only learn how to do those jobs but learn how to network and engage with their community, and also with parliament.

I was so pleased, because the Prime Minister said he was really interested in this idea of community leadership and how we could get it working nationally. I know in New South Wales it is not so popular, but in Victoria we have 10 geographically based community leadership programs. We get some money out of the Victorian government, all of us put in kind in, and every year we graduate about 30 community leaders, who then go back and work in their community in a networked way. The good thing about them coming to Canberra is that they get to understand how parliament works so they can then take on their own issues and start working in the system. These delegates are a really good example of how effective people can be in their own communities.

Together with that work, the thing we did in Indi in 2015 which was so strong was a series of kitchen table conversations. Something like 400 or 500 people turned up around kitchen tables to talk about their issues. We then pulled that together to have the Indi Summit, of which we have a report. The Indi Summit said, 'These are the issues that we care about in our electorate and we are going to commit to doing things about these issues.' Of course, among those there are some issues that I have a particular interest in and will work on, namely renewable energy and employment for young people. The arts are really big in Indi, so how do we develop and grow the arts? How do we get a stronger voice for young people? How do we make sure our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are represented? They are some of the topics that we are now working really closely on with our community.

What I am really pleased about is that we have set the model in place. We have now had four years of it working and it shows that community groups are interested and able to do things about their own problems. They can then come and work together with their political representatives. Then, with access to government and opposition, and to ministers, we can do the Canberra work to get rid of the roadblocks that are stopping change, to get the incentives that we need. Many of them are there; we need to bring them back into the community. I am really pleased that that model is doing so well.

In my next three years of being the member for Indi, I want to talk to government about how we can do a much stronger job on policy development, particularly rural and regional policy development, that builds strong partnerships with the people on the ground, the grassroots groups who know exactly what is going on. Sometimes they might not have the exact answer, but together they can work to solve things. Too often in government we work backwards. We say, 'What happened?' and we spend our time catching up. I spoke in parliament yesterday about the problems we have with our train line, and all I could say is that we are spending huge amounts of time and energy trying to fix a problem that should not have been there in the first place. We are doing catch-up. I see the member for Corangamite is here in the House, and I know the enormous problems she has with mobile phone delivery, with roads, with transport. We are all playing catch-up. The truth of the matter is—

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have made some great achievements though, all the same.

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

Of course, and similar to me. We are making huge progress.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Huge progress.

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

We are, but we would much rather not be doing it. We would much rather be putting all that skill into designing the future for our communities. We would much rather take those skills that we have, the programs that we have and the community connections we have and go, 'Here's how we can actually do what the Prime Minister wants to do, which is to use the innovation and creativity that we know our communities have.'

I am not for one moment saying that we are not having a great effect. Clearly that is why we got re-elected—because we are able to deliver for our communities. But I am really looking forward to not having to do all that repair work. I am looking forward to being part of a parliament that actually works with communities, that looks at a 20-year plan and says, 'Here's how our rural and regional communities are going to take their place as major contributors to the future of Australia.' In that particular area, I have been working with the Minister for Regional Development, Senator Fiona Nash, on a regional policy for Australia. I am optimistic that that minister is going to have some good news for us shortly. I have been working with the Prime Minister on how that might work out well.

One of the really important things about Canberra and policy that we have noticed is that government sometimes tends to make 'policy by grants', as we call it. There is no-one in rural Australia who does not want a grant. There are many of us who have spent years and years applying for grants, jumping through hoops—and maybe being successful—but it does not actually do what we need to do, which is create the long-term longitudinal space where we can grow the country. We need policy to do that. We need a good white paper that comes out. Maybe we need another summit that brings people together and builds engagement. We need a process where government has a big picture for Australia—so states, local government and our community groups all work together on it—and there is adequate funding in the system.

I am really appreciative that the government has announced the Regional Ministerial Taskforce. That is a huge step in this direction. When I asked the Prime Minister a question in question time, he responded to that with a list of grants—all this grant money that the government is giving out. I acknowledge the grants—and I know that we do well in Indi with our grants—but it does not address the big problem that we have to talk about, which is investment in policy and programs that are going to be there for the long term and that will give the opportunity for the government to leave a legacy in our community. It is a cohesive approach to regional policy, an opportunity to work together, to bring communities together, to have that white paper, to have a summit and to build the coalitions of engagement that we know we need.

John Anderson, when he was Deputy Prime Minister and responsible for regional development, used the technique of a national summit to great advantage. He would bring communities together and he would introduce them to each other so that some of the more prosperous communities in Victoria could meet with communities in other places that perhaps were not doing so well. He created a national understanding about issues. Organisations would then go and work together—for example, Australian Women In Agriculture. We were a national organisation. We got to meet and greet and work together and then create a national project with John Anderson and the department to do some fantastic work. I know there are many, many opportunities for that. For me, a rural policy needs to be enduring, bipartisan and enjoy community support. It needs to be robust and meaningful. If the government could do that, could get the process right as well as the outcome, it would be such a legacy—a legacy which would stay with us for a very long time.

In talking about the role here in Canberra in doing that, I would now like to focus a few of my comments on how regional politicians have an important role to play here. I speak to my colleagues in the House today and acknowledge their commitment to rural and regional Australia. I know that we all do good work individually, but the idea of all the regional politicians collectively working together on the little slice that we have would be really welcome. When I was on the agricultural standing committee and we did a review into agricultural research, the standing committee came to northeast Victoria and met with the researchers and farmers. We had some really productive results from that. If we cannot get the policy right, cannot get the government to agree to a white paper or cannot get the government to have a national summit, I call on the government to ask one of its standing committees to do a review of the grants programs and how they work in regional Australia—and then to make some recommendations. If we are going to go that way, how do we make it better? How do we make it needs based?

Finally, I would like to talk briefly about some of the exciting work that is happening in my electorate and the pride that I have in the work that the community is doing. I spoke about the dairy industry and the great work they are doing, and I spoke about the leadership program and the work they are doing. Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to talk about the youth work that is happening. Next week we have a youth policy camp, where local governments right across the electorate are getting young people together. They did one of these camps last year, and a significant number of young people stood for local government, as a result of learning how to, in a bipartisan and non-political way. So we now have a significant number of young people in our country areas who are on our local councils. They will be there for the long term and learn their way. That has been a wonderful outcome.

In the area of renewable energy, almost every single town in my electorate has a community based group looking at renewable energy. I have been absolutely delighted to talk to the Prime Minister about the importance of community energy systems. I will be talking to the Minister for the Environment and Energy later on today about how we need a national approach to supporting community energy systems. There are over 60 communities already in Australia developing their own community based energy systems, and they are going to go from strength to strength. The wonderful thing that I see happening is that in little towns like Yackandandah, for example, the community gets together and actually learns about electricity rather than just being consumers. Two hundred or 300 people are turning up to public meetings. They are understanding about the poles and wires companies and the political debate we are having, and they are really inputting into that.

With that goes some other really exciting things. I was in Yackandandah on the weekend for the Yackandandah Folk Festival. I had the really lovely experience of standing at the crossroads in Yackandandah where there was a big tent set up. I think it was called 'waste watch'. It was the Yackandandah environment group. There were 5,000 or 6,000 people at this festival, and on the crossroads they had a tent and all of the wheelie bins came to this one spot. They had a team of volunteers—I think close to 20 working on shifts—going through all of the rubbish, in full view of everybody, sorting all of the rubbish into disposables and recyclables and making sure that they did not do waste filling.

That was a noble thing, but the really important thing that happened to me while I was there watching was that I had this overwhelming sense of being taught to be a much more responsible person regarding waste. I could see the accumulation of waste and I could see these really good community people separating it all out with gloves and protective clothing on. But it was the public education of it such as, 'We don't want to use plastic water bottles and disposable cups.' I had such an education about what not to do because of what the community did. What I am trying to say about the Indi way is that the community take responsibility and do their own work and, in the process, they educate us, and then we build up a whole community of people who have responsibility.

So, back to the beginning: I got elected because people were disillusioned and disenfranchised. Four years later, I am so proud to say I am representing an electorate that is no longer that way. It is rapidly becoming engaged and it is better understanding the politics and how to make a difference to get the change that the member for Corangamite and I know we need. I am going to finish with a quote that I used in my first speech:

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.

We are showing that we are changing the destination.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to rise to reply to the Governor-General’s address. I was elected in 2013, and at the time my election I spoke about being a strong local voice. I hope, like you, Acting Deputy Speaker Wicks, that I have demonstrated that, by being a part of the Liberal Party, I can not only be part of a great party but also be a strong local voice for my community, identifying the issues that matter, going out and fighting like there is no tomorrow and delivering in spades for my electorate.

I am so proud to represent the federal electorate of Corangamite. It is a wonderful part of the world, with 7½ thousand square kilometres of magnificent coastline; wonderful parts of Geelong all the way through to Colac, with 188 kilometres of coastline, including the Great Ocean Road; and amazing agricultural areas, small country towns and an incredible national park stretching all the way up to Ballarat.

I grew up in Geelong. I love my town. I love my electorate. When I go out into my community and represent the people of Corangamite I do it with a fierce passion. I do it with a fierce sense of wanting to make a difference and I do it because I am absolutely determined that we deserve the very best. I do believe that under the Turnbull government we are delivering in spades for regional Australia, and I am incredibly proud of some of our initiatives.

I hope that the people of Corangamite recognise that I have indeed been willing to go in and fight for them on the issues that matter. I hope that they have seen that I demonstrated that over the terrible Wye River Christmas Day bushfires, which of course caused so much devastation in 2015 in Wye River and Separation Creek. I am incredibly proud that the federal government, through the Natural Disaster Recovery and Relief Arrangements—the NDRRA—has put so much investment into that community. That community has gone through so much. When a group of home owners came to me to say, 'We are being treated very badly by AAMI insurance, and many, many months after that fire we still do not have our insurance policies resolved', I was so pleased to go in and fight for them to hold AAMI insurance to account, to say that this is not good enough, to take their claims to the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O'Dwyer, and to institute, with the great support of the minister, an ASIC inquiry into the conduct of AAMI insurance, which is still ongoing.

I hope that the people of Corangamite will see that from the very beginning, when I first was preselected as the Liberal candidate back in 2009, I fought tooth and nail for the Princess Highway duplication project. I narrowly missed out on being elected in 2010, but I continued that fight. Now, with great pride, we are injecting more than half a billion dollars into that road. The duplication of the Waurn Ponds to Winchelsea section has now been completed—and, boy oh boy, the people of Winchelsea and the township of Winchelsea are absolutely sparkling as a result of the investment in that road—and the next section between Winchelsea and Colac is now well underway. I am so proud, and I say, 'Shame', to the Grattan Institute, which said that this was a road to nowhere. This is a road to somewhere very special. It takes people down to places like Colac right through to south-western Victorian to Warrnambool and beyond, and, of course, to the magnificent Great Ocean Road.

I am so incredibly proud because I think that this really does symbolise so much of why people across Australia backed our government at the last election. I am very proud to stand up for rural and regional Australia. I reflect on the member for Indi's contribution, and can I say that much can be achieved by being a member of this government and by being member of our great Liberal Party.

In contrast to Labor, which did not spend one dollar on mobile blackspots, we are now tackling blackspots across the nation, with a $220 million investment. Eighteen mobile base stations have been committed in the Corangamite electorate. A number are up and running. One in Carlisle River is just about to be turned on. Much more hard work is required to get them all up and running, but it does demonstrate that, whether you live in a large regional city or a tiny town, your voice matters. We have not seen that same approach from the Labor Party.

We have taken the same approach to the NBN—a more equitable NBN than was proposed by Labor and one which significantly subsidises rural and regional communities. I am very proud that right across the electorate the NBN is being rolled out and making a real difference.

Another very important issue in Corangamite is rail. It is extraordinary—and this has been a project that has been on the radar for many years, including when my mum was the member for Geelong in the 1990s—that the Labor Party at a state level had very few infrastructure projects in the pipeline. We know that Daniel Andrews cancelled the East West Link contract after saying there was no contract. That was clearly untrue and a terrible untruth. It was one of the most economically reckless decisions in Victorian history. It cost Victorian taxpayers a staggering $1.2 billion, and now we have a poor cousin of that project, the Western Distributor, which is only half of the western link of the East West Link, and we desperately need that full western road link into Melbourne. It is a complete nightmare travelling from Geelong to Melbourne at the moment.

I have to say we are very proud of the $3 billion we have committed to the first state government willing to build the East West Link. We have a very strong commitment to that project from the state Liberal opposition under the leadership of Matthew Guy, in contrast to the terrible decision made by Daniel Andrews.

Of course, this was a project that was previously supported by both sides of politics, so again what we have seen from the Labor Party is a very unprincipled decision where the likes of the Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard—and I include the member for Corio—were not willing and did not display the guts to stand up to Daniel Andrews and say, 'We need this infrastructure in Victoria.' Similarly, the Regional Rail Link is, regrettably, a project that is simply not doing the job. The Regional Rail Link was meant to make travel between Geelong and Melbourne so much faster, and what we have seen in the Regional Rail Link is, I think, a monumental failure. It is now servicing the suburbs in western Melbourne—places like Tarneit and Wyndham Vale—and the people of Geelong and Corangamite are being left behind.

I was very pleased under the leadership of the Prime Minister to make a commitment of $1 million to duplicate the rail between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds, and yet we have seen no action from state Labor in progressing that project. Where is the business plan? Where is the feasibility study to get these projects moving? We as a region have so much potential. Geelong, Torquay, Ocean Grove, Colac and everywhere in between—it is such a wonderful place to live, to work and to raise a family, and yet we are seeing major challenges in the development of vital infrastructure to support the growth in our community.

It is a reflection on the state Labor government that it took a campaign led by me as the federal member doorknocking week after week, month after month to get the duplication of the rail track through Geelong onto the state government's agenda, and now I am again calling on the state to get on with the job of doing that work and progressing that duplication.

Another great achievement of this government in Corangamite is the way that we have led the way in funding the upgrade of the Great Ocean Road. Before I was elected I was absolutely delighted to make a commitment of $25 million from the Commonwealth matched by $25 million from the former Liberal State government, and we were able to deliver a $50 million upgrade of the Great Ocean Road, making a real difference to places like Anglesea and Lorne with the upgrades they received. The Boggaley Creek Bridge was upgraded, as was the Separation Creek Bridge. Now I have been holding a number of summits with communities. I held a summit in Lorne and another one in Apollo Bay, reaching out to the community because we have now committed another $25 million, which was matched by the state after lobbying for that matching funding for some six months. All in all, there is $100 million in an upgrade program in what is an incredibly important, iconic road not just in our region, not just in Australia but internationally. We have absolutely led the way, in circumstances where the previous federal Labor member, Darren Cheeseman, and his government at the time had not supported any federal investment in one of Australia's most important and iconic roads. The road is an incredible memorial to the men—returned soldiers—who built it, starting in 1919.

You and I are regional members, Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks. I am aware of the way in which you, as the member for Robertson, have delivered for your community. It is not because of Liberal policy; it is because you identified the needs in your community. You have the $72.5 million Central Coast Medical School and Research Institute, with $32 million coming from the federal government, and the new ATO office, which will deliver 600 new jobs into Gosford by the end of the year. Along with what we are doing in Corangamite, this did not happen because of Liberal policy; this happened because we regional members took our jobs very seriously. We identified the issues, the needs and the priorities in our electorates and we went out and we fought. That is absolutely fundamental to my job. Each and every day, Madam Deputy Speaker, like you, I am going out fighting for jobs, infrastructure and the environment in my community.

One of our hallmarks is the way in which, despite our challenges in manufacturing, we can see a greater and more diversified economy in Geelong. A number of years ago, we secured the Advanced Manufacturing Industry Growth Centre based in Geelong, at Waurn Ponds, at Deakin University, which is an extraordinary university doing amazing things and leading the way in showing how a university can work with industry to forge new opportunities, groundbreaking research and new jobs. Perhaps the best example of that is Carbon Revolution, which started off as a university project. A group of students got together to test a lightweight vehicle for a race, and they decided that their vehicle would be more lightweight if they used carbon fibre wheels. From that, now we have an incredible business in Carbon Revolution, which built a new factory, supported by $5 million from our government—not the Labor Party, as the member for Corio wrongly and very dishonestly states—funded by a $15 million contribution to the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund. This company is leading the way globally in developing these lightweight wheels, and it has just raised $50 million to develop even further. We are proudly a very strong advanced manufacturing growth centre.

I will not hear any discussion about the failure of auto manufacturing. Ford sadly has ended its manufacturing in Australia, but it still has some 500 people working in Geelong and at the Lara proving ground—500 employees, engineering and designing cars for Ford's global market. And just yesterday I met with the chair of Chemring, another incredible company, which has flown under the radar to a large degree. It is making flares for the defence industry, including flares for the F35 project. Some 100 people are working out at Chemring's Lara factory. There are so many wonderful advanced manufacturers in our region, supported by our belief and our investment in advanced manufacturing, not just through the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund and our $155 million Growth Fund but also our Geelong Region Job Connections program, underpinned by other very important investments like the establishment of an Australian Bureau of Statistics centre of excellence on the waterfront. In so many ways, I am incredibly proud of the way in which our government is continuing to invest in our region.

The National Disability Insurance Agency headquarters is under construction—a $120-million building under construction. Even the state government's WorkSafe building, also under construction, has been underpinned by a low-interest loan of $68 million from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. So, again, the Commonwealth is playing a very significant role in the development of that building.

In these closing minutes of my address today, I want to make a few observations about the big fights that are yet to be had. We are so proud of what we have delivered right across the economy, standing up for communities big and small: the NBN; mobile base stations; supporting Avalon Airport to become an international airport; supporting the dairy industry and farmers; and focusing on energy security and job security, and on national security, which is resonating in places like Torquay, Ocean Grove and Geelong because of the real issues and concerns about community safety, which I feel we are seeing really becoming an alarming issue under the current state government.

One of my big objectives is to secure a City Deal for our region, and I am delighted with the support that we have received from the likes of G21, which is a great organisation bringing together our five regional councils. It was my great honour to organise a meeting with the Prime Minister and G21 last week here in Canberra. Together, we are working to try and bring a City Deal to our region, which brings state government, local government and the federal government together, along with other major institutions like Deakin, and industry, to form an agreement, with one vision and one plan, to make sure we can continue to drive investment in our region.

Fixing the regional rail link is an absolute priority. We must see significant movement from the state in fixing the regional rail link and getting on with regional rail. It is so vitally important.

Another big focus for a City Deal, I believe, is tourism. We saw a complete lack of interest from the previous federal Labor government when it came to supporting tourism in our region. Let us not forget that the Great Ocean Road is the centrepiece of a $2.1 billion regional tourism economy, and we need to keep that investment going. I am very pleased that I am working with a group of people—and I will have more to say in the coming weeks about a very significant project to continue to drive tourism investment and to increase the yield.

So we see a City Deal as being very important. As part of that, like what the state Liberal government did in the 1990s when my mother was the member for Geelong, I think that an independent planning authority to drive and fast-track that investor confidence and development is very important, which obviously mimics what has occurred with the likes of the Townsville City Deal.

I will finish by saying: I am very conscious of some of the social challenges in our community, Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon—and I welcome you to the chair, and recognise you as the deputy chair of our House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs; we have just announced an inquiry into family violence law reform, and I am very cognisant of the real issue that this is in the community, along with issues like ice addiction and other challenges for families.

So I am incredibly proud to be the member for Corangamite and to have been re-elected. I will continue to stand up and fight for my community at every opportunity.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take part in the address-in-reply to the Governor-General's speech today. It is important, in looking forward to what should be done in this term of the parliament, to reflect on where we are now.

Unfortunately, what we are seeing in this parliament is a government that is led by someone who lacks authority amongst his own party. The Prime Minister is someone with very little authority amongst the coalition, as is quite obvious from the marriage equality issue, where the Prime Minister—despite his previous commitment to having a free vote and to changing the law to allow for marriage equality—has been unable to deliver that; the Prime Minister seeming to have been comprehensively rolled in his own party room in relation to taking real action on climate change; and of course, just this week, the Prime Minister's efforts in relation to the extradition treaty. So we have a Prime Minister who lacks authority and who is unable to lead his own party, let alone the nation. And behind him what do we see? We see dysfunctional and divided Liberals who are much more interested in fighting amongst themselves than they are in pursuing the national interest. That is really regrettable and, unfortunately, does not bode well for good government in this country.

On the other side of the aisle, we have a Labor Party opposition that is incredibly united. We are an opposition team who are looking together with one set of values and one set of voices for the future of this nation and what needs to be done in relation to this nation's future—and there are a lot of challenges facing our nation. Inequality is at 75-year highs. Wages growth is in the doldrums. It is the slowest it has been since the wage price index started being kept in 1997. We have high unemployment but also very high underemployment, with 1.1 million Australians unable to get the additional work that they want even though they may already have some hours every week. Those challenges are contributing to, as I said, increasing inequality. We have a situation now where the income distribution is getting more and more spread out and where more and more of the nation's income and wealth is accumulating at the top of the income and wealth distribution, so we are seeing very, very broad spreads between people who are very poor and people who are very wealthy.

We are also in a situation where we are facing quite significant challenges in democracy, where we have a nation of people who do not really have faith in political institutions anymore, do not really trust democracy and, even worse, do not really see the relevance of politics to their lives. That is a real problem, of course, because politics is where decisions are made about the allocation of resources, the raising of revenue and the creation of rules that determine the outcomes for our country and have real impacts on people's day-to-day lives, whether it is family tax benefit cuts, the way that child care works, the fiscal conditions and what they mean for the economy more broadly, something as simple as how schools are funded—that is not really that simple, but it sounds simple—what resources are allocated to hospitals, or how much attention is given to reducing and eliminating family violence. All of these things are affected by decisions that are made in politics by elected representatives. So a lack of trust in political institutions and a cynicism about politics means it becomes too easy for people to withdraw from, disconnect from and ignore politics altogether. But the problem with doing that is that, if you vacate the field of politics, you are leaving it to someone else. You are leaving it up to other people to make the decisions that will affect your life and your family's lives. That is why it is really important, now more than ever, that people do not just disengage from politics but do take an interest, get involved and work on strengthening institutions, not walk away from them.

Labor have a clear set of values that we articulate consistently and have done over many decades of our existence. We certainly change and adapt with the times—we are a party of progress—but we are very clear about the fact that we stand for community, we stand for empowering working-class households, we stand for empowering middle-class households and we stand for reducing inequality and not accepting the idea that somehow increasing inequality is just a law of nature—because it quite clearly is not. It is a function of the decisions that are made in politics and elsewhere, and, if that is true, the decisions that are made in politics and elsewhere can turn increasing inequality around and can deal with the disadvantage that is being created amongst a lot of Australian households.

To give you an example of these issues, something that is highly affected by politics and by the decisions that are made about the allocation of resources, the rules that are made and the revenue that is raised is training and skills in this country. Everyone in this parliament, I suspect, is well aware that the bottom is falling out of apprenticeships in Australia, and that is certainly the case in my electorate. It is a really important challenge for my electorate. In fact, apprentice numbers have declined by one-third in my electorate since the government was first elected in 2013. Since the current coalition government was elected in 2013, apprentice numbers have dropped by one-third. There have been $2½ billion of cuts to skills and TAFE nationally by this government since it was elected.

That is a real problem. The fact that skills and vocational education are being undermined in this country and the fact that people are not taking up apprenticeships is a real problem, because it is just not the case anymore that there is a wide range of entry-level jobs out there for people to go into while they are still at school or when they finish school. In my day, I, as a 14-and-nine-month-year-old, went and got a job at a convenience store, of course—I had worked in my parent's small business before then—and ended up working at one of the big supermarkets. It is getting harder and harder for kids to find those entry-level jobs that give them something to put on the resume and the skills that they need for employment—skills like knowing how important things are, knowing how to work with co-workers that might be different to you, or knowing how to pay the right amount of respect to the boss but not allow yourself to be exploited at the same time; those sorts of skills that are second nature to people who have had a lifetime in work.

Kids are not getting the same opportunities, and one really important thing that we can do to make sure that young people are able to be equipped for the jobs of the future is to really focus on education. That means dealing with vocational education and training. That means doing something about the funding arrangements for schools, which are so unfair and unrealistic in this country and are leading to some schools been much worse off than others, when that just should not be the case. It means doing something about access to university, and not making it harder for people to go to university if that is what they want to do. And, at the very, very front end, it means a focus on early learning, education and care.

It has been unfortunate to see some of the acrobatics that the government has engaged in in relation to child care in recent weeks here in the parliament. There are certainly some good moves that are being made by the government in relation to child care but, at the same time, asking for those to be funded by cuts to school-aged kids' families and also ignoring the needs of the very, very disadvantaged kids, by offering only 12 hours of care rather than 15, which is the difference between one day and two days, the government has really displayed a regrettable lack of understanding and sympathy not only for the highly disadvantaged households but also for the middle-class and working-class households that are being asked to take cuts to their own living standards in order to fund the early learning and care reforms.

I mentioned schools funding. It is very important that we continue the focus on schools funding. You will recall that the government, when it was elected back in 2013, claimed to be on a unity ticket with Labor in relation to schools funding. That, unfortunately, turned out not to be true. They had those signs up on election day: 'We will match Labor's schools funding dollar for dollar.' That was what they were claiming at the time, but it just was not true. In fact, in my electorate of Griffith, schools are going to lose around $10 million in the next few years alone. Nationwide, that is a function of the fact that the Liberals are cutting around $30 billion from schools funding over the decade. If you want to get a sense of what that number means on the ground, it is the equivalent of sacking one in seven teachers—that is what that amount of money could represent. That means that schools in my electorate will be hurt.

I have been talking to schools in my electorate about what they are doing with the additional funding that they got because of the work that Labor did in government to commission a report on how schools funding could be reformed. Those schools are reporting back to me about the incredible things that they are doing not only in the classroom but also with the supports that they are putting around disadvantaged kids, the focus they can give to gifted and talented kids at the other end and all of the work that they are doing with the additional funding that they have.

The Liberal-National government's school cuts that are coming down the pipeline are going to mean less one-on-one attention for kids, they are going to mean fewer teachers and they are going to mean students being left behind or not reaching their full potential. That is why we are so concerned about these education cuts: for the kids themselves—for their own futures—but also for the future of the nation. Education not only is important to the living standards of a particular household or a particular person but also determines whether we are going to be a nation with a workforce of the future that has the skills, the attributes and the knowledge needed in order to do the jobs of the future; to pay the taxes of the future; to contribute to having a strong country where we can continue to fund the services that everyone relies on—the hospitals of the future and the schools of the future; and to continue to come to terms with the fact that we do, as a society, owe obligations to people who, for example, are on the age pension—so that, instead of having a situation where conservative governments try to hack into the age pension every other year, we actually have a good, strong economy that can deliver the taxes needed to pay for the services and the supports that people need.

I mention the age pension specifically, because I know that a lot of people in my electorate have been very concerned about the government's repeated attempts to cut the age pension. Some have been successful and some have been unsuccessful, but a consistent feature of this government has been their attempts to reduce the age pension. We saw it in the disastrous 2014 federal budget—possibly the worst federal budget in the history of the Federation. I do not know if there has been another budget that had such a terrible effect on confidence for this nation. You saw in the aftermath of that budget that people just stopped going out and spending money on coffees, stopped going to the newsagent and stopped consuming and doing all the things that they were doing before. The effect of this drop in confidence really hit the economy. Of course, when consumption slows down economic growth slows down, and we saw that very clearly in the months and years following the 2014 federal budget.

In my state of Queensland that was a particular hit. It was during the term of the Newman government—a government that sacked 20,000 public sector workers. When you sack 20,000 people in Queensland, that of course has consequences not just for those people but also for local small businesses. People who lose their jobs do not tend to spend as much money. People who are afraid that they are going to be next to lose their job, because you have a government taking the axe to the public service, are not going to be out there consuming and patronising small businesses. So we had already had that massive blow to our state's economy and confidence and then, to have on top of that, the 2014 federal budget was a great shock, certainly to people in my electorate.

There were a lot of attempts to make cuts in the 2014 budget. I actually do not know if I could nominate the worst; there were so many terrible ones. Remember they axed the Interactive Games Fund. They decided that they would cut funds to the Australian Taxation Office. They cut funds to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. They took an axe to all sorts of things in that 2014 federal budget. The 20 per cent cut to public funding for universities was in the 2014 federal budget. There were axes taken everywhere. Everything was cut except, I think, Joe Hockey's cigar budget. But, other than that, there were axes taken left, right and centre in the 2014 federal budget. But, for me, one of the worst was the attempt to cut the pension by fiddling with the indexation arrangements.

Labor in government had looked at the age pension indexation arrangements and said that it is not really enough to look at what the CPI says, for a couple of reasons—firstly, because pensioners have different living costs than the general population. So we added the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index as another index to be used for the age pension, and you took whichever was the greater of two. But you also want to benchmark it against average weekly earnings, so that as community living standards rise so do pensioners' living standards and you do not have this increased inequality. So it was also benchmarked against average weekly earnings.

But this government, in 2014, decided to try to get rid of those indexations and benchmarking and to just leave pensioners in a situation where they would be worse off. It was disingenuous and it would have left pensioners $80 a week worse off. Luckily, there was a very significant community campaign brought against these cuts and Labor campaigned against them as well and we were able to defeat them. But we have not been able to do so with all of the pension cuts that this government has introduced. Unfortunately, if you elect a coalition government, you get coalition policies implemented. Oppositions can do only so much to stop coalition governments from implementing coalition policy. Unfortunately, the coalition government's instinct to cut the pension has, in some cases, been successful.

We are particularly worried about the current attempts to scrap the energy supplement, which will cut $1 billion from pensioners, people with a disability, carers and Newstart recipients across the country. If the Liberals are able to cut the energy supplement, that will mean that that supplement will be scrapped for new pensioners from September this year. It will mean a cut of $14.10 per fortnight to single pensioners, or $365 a year, and couple pensioners will be $21.20 a fortnight worse off, or around $550 a year worse off. This might not sound like a lot of money to the Prime Minister. But I can tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon, if you are a pensioner going to the pharmacy to get things that you need, these cuts will hurt. It is very disappointing to see the government yet again looking to find savings—that is, cuts—from pensioners, and at the same time continuing to pursue their ridiculous enterprise tax plan, which is a $50 billion tax giveaway to big business, multinational corporations and Australia's big banks.

At the same time as the government are saying that pensioners need to tighten their belts, they want to reduce the nation's taxes by giving $50 billion away to big business, multinationals and big banks. In other words, they want to make it even harder to pay for the services that Australians need, put even more pressure on the federal government, and increase the deficit even more—which is a pretty significant feat, given that they have managed to triple the deficit since their projections in 2014. They have already tripled the deficit, and now they want to give away $50 billion of tax revenue. That is going to make things even worse. And they turn to us and say: 'Well, what are you doing about savings? What are you doing about budget repair?' It is very simple: how about you don't give away $50 billion of tax revenue? How about we in this country look at superannuation tax concessions that are generous? How about we—finally, as a nation—agree that we need to do something about negative gearing? It is very clear that we need to do something about negative gearing and capital gains tax. Labor has been out very strongly leading the national debate on negative gearing and on housing affordability. It is regrettable that the government has failed to get on board, but I am hopeful that they will, at some point.

The other cuts that we are still feeling from the 2014 budget—and that the government are still pursuing—are their cuts to hospital funding over the decade. At the last election, we committed to restoring the historic agreement with the states to 2020, which would have meant an additional $400 million for Queensland public hospitals. My electorate already has world-class public hospitals, like the Princess Alexandra Hospital, which I visited recently with the shadow minister for health. Cutting funding to hospitals makes it more difficult for hospitals to provide those world-class services, and more difficult for them to engage in service innovation, like the service innovation going on at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Probably even more of a concern to people in my electorate is the fact that Medicare remains under siege by this government. Based on the latest figures, the GP bulk-billing rate in my electorate is woeful—it is 68.1 per cent. We rank 141st out of 150 electorates for bulk-billing rates. That is just for GP bulk-billing rates; our overall Medicare bulk-billing rate is even lower, at 66.8 per cent. That means that there are people in my electorate who just cannot access bulk billing. As many as eight per cent of people in the Brisbane South Primary Health Network will choose to delay a visit to the doctor or—worse still—avoid seeing a doctor at all. Eight per cent in my electorate; that is about 13,000 people who live in the electorate who might be at risk of compromised health care as a consequence of not be able to get access to bulk billing.

I wrote to the new Minister for Health, on the day that he was sworn in, to raise with him my very strong concern about these figures and about the compromised health care in my electorate if the current situation, where bulk billing is languishing, is allowed to continue. I also wrote to him about the rising costs of private health insurance—something that people in my electorate are very concerned about. The latest figures from Private Healthcare Australia indicate that about 60 per cent of people in my area are covered by private health insurance. There was a 5.6 average premium increase in 2016, and that followed on from an average increase of 6.2 per cent in each of the first two years of the coalition government. That is putting people in my electorate under a lot of stress.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 1899, the famous poet and literary figure Henry Lawson, in his poem 'Twas a Land Set Apart, wrote:

'Tis a land where national honour

Might rise with a stainless name!

And the people be wise and prosper,

And freedom forget her shame!

And the wealth of the people only

Be told by the wealth of the State—

and so on. I have quoted a verse in my two previous address-in-reply speeches. I felt, given the new extent of my electorate boundaries, it was appropriate to use some lines from Lawson, born on the Grenfell goldfields in 1867—and now part of the Riverina electorate.

Australia and the land it has become is a place we call home and are proud. It is 'a land set apart', and the greatest assets, the richest attributes, of this great southern land are its people.

We live in a time of great prosperity, with much to be thankful for, and it is with grateful thanks that I stand here today. 'Politics is not about power; it is about people.' Those were amongst my concluding words in my first address-in-reply to this parliament on 21 October 2010, and—as I stand here now, in the 45th Parliament of Australia, the representative of a Riverina electorate quite different to the one which elected me almost 6½ years ago—that statement is truer than ever. No matter where you go or what you do, no matter the time or place, politics is always about people—people ahead of power. It is the conversations and interactions I have with people around the Riverina and Central West and across Australia's small businesses which inspire me each and every day.

People have inspired me my whole life. As a newspaper editor, the purpose of print was the people, the readers—meeting people and sharing their stories; going into bat for my community and its people. Every person has a story; every individual has a unique tale to tell. To use the community's newspaper to be our champion and to see Wagga Wagga and the Riverina and its people prosper: that was my aim, and so it was my aim, as a small business owner, building from my home's garage in Wagga Wagga, to grow and create a multiplier effect across the Riverina region. A small business, too, is about people. As our small business grew, so did the local printer, moving premises, buying bigger equipment and, perhaps most importantly, hiring more staff, proving again that regional people can mix it with the best.

To represent people in this parliament is a great privilege; it is a great honour. I stand here today as the representative of eight shires which were not previously in the Riverina electorate, and the greatest part of the challenge of our new geography was meeting its people. From Tootool to Tullamore, from Yerong Creek to Peak Hill, the people of my electorate are resilient, hardworking, fantastic, wonderful people. The number of shires and communities we welcomed to the Riverina electorate at the last election is high, and its geography is very different. The shires and communities around Cootamundra, Cowra, Forbes, Grenfell, Harden-Murrumburrah, Lockhart, Parkes and Young are each country towns with a vibrant community and a very, very bright future.

While the map has changed, the character of our electorate remains the same. We are all, in the Riverina and Central West, proudly country. We all want more jobs. We all need better mobile-telephone coverage. We all want to see good local roads and booming local businesses. Today, as it is every day, ours is a story of regional Australia—a story of great hope for our nation's future. We have a desire to see our communities grow, services grow and small businesses grow. And, more than anything, we hope our towns will be stronger and more resilient for the next generation.

When thinking about the issues which were clear in Riverina at the last election and the priorities which will drive me in this term of parliament, I want to talk about three main points: supporting small business, building inland rail and connecting country communities. If we are to build buoyant country towns, these three are the character of my Riverina and Central West electorate, and these are ambitions the Nationals share. The roads, the bridges and the rail lines, which are the arteries of our region, will entwine our enterprises—our farmers and our primary producers—with the markets which will buy from them and with ports. It will see small business succeed. It will create the jobs and opportunities country people want, with a future on which they know they can rely. And the Nationals' plan will see that destiny manifest.

Country communities are naturally communities of small business. In cities such as Wagga Wagga or Parkes, or in remote places such as Tullamore or Warroo, the local economy is only there because of small business. Small business is our country's job creator. Australia's 2.1 million small businesses employ almost five million Australians—more than any other sector in our economy. In the Riverina and Central West, the more than 15,000 small businesses I proudly represent keep jobs available locally. They do a grand job. They create opportunities for locals to invest, and they sell the goods and services our nation needs and people worldwide need.

Small business is naturally at home with the Nationals. Of the 15,000 small businesses in my electorate, around a third are farmers. As this government moves to expand the definition of small business to a turnover of $10 million from its current threshold of $2 million, many of its beneficiaries will be farmers. Ask any country person and they will tell you that when the season is good so is the town, and if farmers do well so do local farm-machinery small businesses and car dealers, as well as people who run shops in a country town's main street. In fact, everybody prospers. If farmers do well then people in our cities are fed and clothed. Our economy grows and—just as recent data on exports shows—Australia's economy becomes the envy of the world. That proud story starts with small businesses in rural and regional Australia, someone taking a risk to pursue their dream. Whether that is starting a small business from home, whether it is diversifying the farm into different commodities, or whether it is trying to grow and give another local person a job, country small businesses and their people are what make regional Australia so great.

That is why our plan to back small businesses will work. It will cut taxes for small businesses and make their paperwork simpler. It will mean more small businesses are able to write off new equipment sooner and it will make it easier for them to hire someone new. As the Turnbull-Joyce Liberal-National government's Minister for Small Business, I know this is a plan that will work across Australia. It is something people have raised with me from Wombat to Western Australia and it is something designed to put small business in the driver's seat. Locally, I know it will work too.

The Nationals' plan for inland rail and the critical country roads which connect to it is a boon for our local economy, our region and our people. Country people know it is not just an upgrade of safety for those who use the road, although that is a top-of-the-mind issue. Investing in roads and building inland rail makes freight more efficient. It constructs a corridor of commerce, the benefit of which sits almost entirely with small business. Thanks to our plan, inland rail is very much the character of the Riverina and central west. Every single community in my electorate benefits from the planned inland rail route, which calls the Riverina electorate home. It is going to be the backbone, the spine, of the electorate. With hubs at Wagga Wagga in the south and Parkes in the north, the benefit from bulk freight is clear. Farmers and small businesses will benefit from ongoing work on the Riverina Intermodal Freight and Logistics Hub at Bomen, in north Wagga Wagga, a project I support and which has obtained considerable federal funding. It is about jobs. It is about investment. This inland rail will be a boon for farmers and small business. The jobs, investment, construction and ongoing work will not only diversify our local economy but also ensure regions throughout the Riverina and central west have the bright future they expect, demand and, indeed, deserve.

This is particularly true of the Riverina electorate's northern hub at Parkes. It is the only place on Australia's map where the Melbourne-to-Brisbane and Sydney-to-Perth rail lines intersect. Parkes is a freight hub community. Its people and communities today are the realisation of the dream that Australia's bulk freight should move efficiently through its inland. I have met so many people whose lives and livelihoods in town are linked with moving Australia's assets. The people in Parkes understand this is a benefit which will live for generations. Their mayor, Ken Keith, understands that. He appreciates it and is in there supporting it. Parkes' can-do attitude and infrastructure-focused local leaders, such as Councillor Keith, together with investment from local business, show that it is a town passionate about its future—just like Forbes, with its mayor, Councillor Graeme Miller. To listen to people in Parkes is to hear the story of what we can do, not what we used to have. It is the same with Forbes and right throughout that northern area of my new electoral boundary. The passion and dedication of locals is what drives me. The hundreds of small businesses and the vibrant chambers of commerce in Parkes and Forbes are what inspire me. In fact, the Parkes Chamber of Commerce was the first one I met as small business minister, just days after my appointment.

I am also inspired by the story of Northparkes mine, led ably by Stef Loader and her team. I have recently learned that Stef will be moving on from her role and I wish her all the very best in whatever the future may hold for her. She is a great person and an inspiration. She will certainly leave the mine in an enviable position. It is a facility which is leading the world in innovative mining techniques and employs several hundred people locally. The mine is a generous contributor to the local community and the reason that many locals continue to call Parkes home.

The Riverina story is a story of the region's farmers as well—productive and resilient people who feed and clothe the nation and ensure Australia's economy is one of strong export growth and high-quality product. The very best product comes out of the Riverina and Farrer electorates. I say that not just because the member for Farrer is sitting behind me but because of a few things I will mention in a minute.

Travel anywhere in my electorate and people will tell you about mobile coverage. With challenges of varying topography and long distances between towns and populations, few people in my electorate were untouched by the need for better mobile coverage. When we came to government in 2013, country communities across the Riverina and central west—as well as right around Australia—were crying out for better mobile coverage.

First, it is a matter of safety. For those who live in remote locations or who travel on country roads, the inability to connect to emergency services when they need it most is a risk country people simply could not and should not have had to cop. More than this, the reality of small business in regional Australia today is that business happens 24/7. Connecting to commodity information and being able to buy and sell product in real time thanks to reliable mobile and internet coverage is amongst the greatest investments this government can and is making. That is why I know our plan to keep delivering for country communities is working.

While this government has invested in two rounds and will soon invest in a third of the Mobile Black Spot Program with more than $220 million over three years, the Labor Party is still yet to understand the benefits, I am afraid to say. Money from rounds 1 and 2 of the Mobile Black Spot Program has ensured increased mobile phone coverage and connectivity is provided to communities from Bedgerabong to Koorawatha, Ladysmith to Woodstock and many places in between. And there is more to come. Further funding is planned thanks to the Nationals and my constituent the Minister for Regional Development and Young based Nationals Senator Fiona Nash, who understands how vital communication is to country communities.

This government continues to deliver for rural and regional Australia. I am proud to be part of the team ensuring the people and communities of my electorate and other regions receive the programs, services and funding they deserve. I am proud of the recent achievements I have been able to deliver for the Riverina, including more than $12 million in funding in community development grants, which have seen money flow to upgrades of the Forbes netball courts and the Parkes Airport as well as the Forbes saleyards and a massive investment towards the upgrade of the levee bank in Wagga Wagga. There is over half a million dollars in funding to help make our towns safer through the Safer Streets Program. This will ensure police, local councils and communities have a better ability to reduce crime. I have had the opportunity to announce funding of closed-circuit television in Cootamundra, Forbes, Temora and Wagga Wagga.

By working together with governments at all levels, particularly local councils, we are upgrading and repairing bridges in all corners of the nation, and my electorate has benefited from our focus on funding ageing bridges through the Bridges Renewal Program. Five upgrade projects, including in the Riverina and Central West, have been successful. There has been $595,000 for the replacement of Kadina Bridge in the Parkes Shire, $9.8 million in Wagga Wagga for the replacement of the Eunony Bridge, $2.1 million in Gundagai for the replacement of the Gobarralong Bridge, $100,000 in Caragabal for the replacement of Beazleys Lane Bridge and $838,000 for the widening of McHenrys Creek Bridge in the Hilltops Council area. I was so pleased also to play a role in the Carrathool bridge upgrade. They had waited for decades for a bridge not to replace—because they cannot replace the heritage truss bridge that they have—but to be built right next door. It was with some amount of sadness but also huge jubilation that we announced that. I say sadness because the great advocate for that, Margaret Merrylees, after whom the bridge will, hopefully, be named passed away on 21 August 2016. The first sod was turned by Margaret as well as New South Wales Minister for Roads Duncan Gay and me on 2 November 2015. They had waited for decades, and the Nationals and the coalition federally as well as in New South Wales delivered.

I was also pleased to play a role during the last term of government in ensuring that buyback for water is going to be capped at 1,500 gigalitres. That is going to provide so much security, hope and confidence in the areas of Coleambally, Griffith, Leeton, Hillston and Narrandera. They were part of the Riverina electorate boundaries from 1901, but they now sit proudly with the member for Farrer, and I know that she will do a good job continuing to represent those areas. They are tremendous people. I am sorry in one sense to lose them, but I know they are in good hands with the member for Farrer.

The big-ticket items and the large dollar sums do attract a lot of attention and deliver great outcomes for our communities, and rightly so. However, it is often the smaller, more local projects and amounts of money we spend as a federal government that can mean the most. The highly successful Stronger Communities Program, now replaced by the Building Better Regions Fund, with a specific focus on regional Australia, has enabled key local projects to be funded to benefit community groups and organisations with everyday needs. Great examples include $5,000 for a new antenna and transmitter for the community radio station in West Wyalong in Bland Shire, $6,000 for air conditioning of the Beckom Hall in Coolamon Shire and just a bit over $8,000 for a community barbecue in Ariah Park in Temora Shire. These are a few examples of many smaller amounts of funding that deliver a great benefit to my country communities.

With a positive plan that delivers for country people and their communities, I stand in this place proud, always, that we remain focused on regional people, the very people who elect us. The people of regional Australia have shown yet again that they want the Nationals to be their champion in the federal parliament. As I stand here today, the Nationals are the only party which can lay claim to holding all its seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as welcoming another member of parliament—the member for Murray—at the last election. We did very well. For a political party in our modern climate, that result is truly extraordinary.

For decades—in fact, for almost the 100 years since our party was formed—they have been writing us off; the pundits have been predicting the demise of the National Party. Newspaper columns and popular opinion every day say that the Nationals' best days are behind us. How wrong they are and how wrong they were the last election. With many of my colleagues across the country in very tight contests, none of us underestimated the scale of the challenge on 2 July. Let me tell you: no Nationals member will ever take their electorate for granted. None of us did that, because we know that our electorates deserve the best. None of us took for granted that we would get the credit for the infrastructure that we have built and the investment that we have made in our communities. We do not look for glorification; we just want to see things get done, and, under a coalition government, that is what happens. We all knew, and we continue to know now, that regional people are unique. They are special and they deserve a dedicated voice which understands their needs, their wants and their aspirations. Central to this is the fact that they want someone who listens. National Party members, and Liberal Party members too, listen to our electorates. We are in focus. We are in tune.

When the new boundaries of the Riverina electorate were gazetted in February last year, my local Nationals team and I knew that we had a big challenge before us. In my electorate, many communities with which I had not been familiar were welcomed into our electorate's map. In the past in Parkes and Forbes, the Nationals' John Cobb in Calare and Andrew Gee, then in the state seat, were local members for many years. The people of Parkes and Forbes had good local members in those two, and people there knew that the Nationals cared. I want local people in those towns to know that I care for them too. The same is true of the other communities in the then shires of Cootamundra, Cowra, Harden, Lockhart, Weddin—which takes in Grenfell—and Young, previously represented by the member for Hume and by the member for Farrer. They had had coalition members in the past but they had not had a National, in some cases, for more than 20 years. In each of these towns the hearts of the people beat a familiar tune: country people proud of their communities and passionate about our future. That is the philosophy of country people: having a go.

In the time remaining, I would like to personally thank the many members of my campaign team who were spread across the Riverina and central west: Bruce Adams, Erin Adams, Ian Armstrong and his wife, Jennifer, Laura Bruce, Cathy Cleary, David and Ruth Fagan, Wes Fang, Pam Halliburton, Margaret Hill, Dominic Hopkinson, Barney Hyams, John Minogue, Dorothy Nash, Mark Olson, Gretchen Sleeman, Richard Sleeman, Lesley Vennell, Robert Vennell and Anabel Williams. There were many more and they all came together to make sure that the Nationals had a good result.

I also pay tribute to and thank my three beautiful children, Georgina, who came with me on many road trips—I think she enjoyed it a bit too much—Alexander and Nicholas, and my wonderful and unwavering wife, Catherine. Her ability to make me realise the importance of taking time out to honour and celebrate the special moments and milestones of our collective lives is important. She keeps me humble. It serves as a reality check for me and ensures that I can continue to be the best father and husband that I can be. This is a tough role, and it is one that we all put ourselves up for, whether we are Labor, Liberal, National Party or whatever, so we all need the love and support of our family and friends. It is important to remember that no-one is alone. Politics is not about power; it is about people. I re-dedicate myself to the service of the communities and the people I represent.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I might start my comments by responding to the . My mother's maiden name is McCormack, so it is possible we could be related. We might have a genetic grey-hair situation. That might be part of the reason that we are both grey-haired! I just listened carefully to what he was saying in relation to his concern for his constituency. I am sure he is sincere in many respects, but I think it is clear that, as a result of the government's position in relation to penalty rates, it is regional communities that are going to feel it most acutely. According to the McKell Institute, regional economies will be more affected by the cuts—by taking real income out of those economies. It therefore did not surprise me that the minister did not really go on about penalty rates in defending the government's position. Given that he is the small business minister, you would have thought that he would have attempted to put up a defence in relation to their position.

What has happened in the last week is that we have now had every crossbencher in the Senate abandon the government and the government's position in relation to penalty rates. We now have Senator Hinch, Senator Hanson and Senator Xenophon—who have long held the view that penalty rates should be cut—on the record saying they will support Labor's bill in the Senate. That is a remarkable turnaround. I suspect their motives are more about defending their own futures than those of workers who are being paid small amounts of money, and who will be paid less if the decision takes effect. But it also highlights how out of touch this government is, that they still stand there arguing the case that it is okay for the Fair Work decision to take effect. The Prime Minister has set the precedent, insofar as intervening in an order of an independent body to prevent truck drivers' wages going up. All he need do is support Labor. He can support a bill in the House that will negate the order that would be made by the commission for retail and hospitality workers' wages to go down. But he cannot hide behind the argument that it is an independent tribunal, because he has intervened on at least two occasions: in the truck drivers' matter, to which I just referred, and also in the CFA matter—which was also an interference by the parliament to realise the government's will, if you like. Hiding behind the notion that the decision is made by an independent body is a nonsense. It is a fiction. The Australian public considers that the only reason why the government supports the decision—given that it has intervened in earlier decisions—is that it wants to see a cut in real wages of those workers. Up to 700,000 workers and their families will be worse off as a result of the parliament failing to act.

Tomorrow in the Senate, a bill that mirrors the bill introduced by Bill Shorten into the House will be debated and voted on. That bill is likely to succeed. That bill is likely to pass through the Senate, and it is then incumbent on the House of Representatives to consider the bill, and the government has to think hard about whether it wants to maintain its very anti-worker position. This is quite extraordinary: Senator Xenophon, who has not only supported cuts to penalty rates but actually introduced a private member's bill to cut penalty rates, and Senator Hanson, who has been on the record supporting cuts to penalty rates for years, and Senator Hinch—the same—have now all wilted as a result of the campaign by Labor—and by workers, unions and others, community groups, and advocates for decency in this country—and will support our legislation. I welcome their vote, though I suspect their motives. I do not really care about their motives at this point, insofar as the vote is concerned, but I think it matters over the longer term. Can you really trust these people to do the right thing, if they are only doing it at the moment to save their hides?

The government is now running out of opportunities to do the right thing here. We will continue to argue that they should do that, because 1 July is not that far away. From 1 July, some part of that penalty rate cut will take effect. We know that money will be lost in real terms at a time when wage growth is at its lowest in a generation, and people who are currently struggling to make ends meet will find it even harder. And yet the government stands by and lets it happen. But they have an opportunity; we have provided them with that opportunity—that lifeline. They just need to take it.

The cuts to penalty rates and to the income of hundreds of thousands of workers may be made worse, given that there are now three other awards that are potentially subject to a cut in penalty rates. You might recall that the Prime Minister said that it was absurd and a nonsense for Labor—in fact he referred to me specifically—to suggest that there could be further cuts to penalty rates. He attacked me on radio for saying so, and yet there are now three other awards that are now before the commission. And it is as likely as not—probably more likely than not—that their conditions will be changed for the worse as well, because the arguments made in the other matters are comparable to the arguments that will be put by advocates to support the cut.

So there is going to be an immediate cut on 1 July for hundreds of thousands of workers. There are now more awards that are subject to arbitration by the commission to consider cutting their penalty rates, and the government cannot guarantee that there will not be further workers affected beyond that point. They cannot guarantee that and they are living a lie if they think they can say that they know it will not happen. In fact it is happening to more workers, and it may happen even beyond those workers under those three awards, namely beauticians, hairdressers, and restaurant, hotel and club staff, who are already low paid. They struggle and this will make things worse. You add to that the decision by the government to cut the Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B and you see a further 1½ million Australian families worse off—$1.4 billion will be ripped from the pockets of Australian families by this government. Around 600,000 of these families receive the maximum rate of the Family Tax Benefit Part A, which means their household incomes are less than $52,000 per year.

To give you an example of what this cut will mean to families: a family on $60,000 per annum with two primary-school-aged children will be around $440 worse off in 2018-19; a single-parent family on $50,000 with two high-school children will be around $540 worse off; and a single-income couple or a single-parent family with three children under 12 will be around $605 worse off. Government members may not think that is a lot of money, as they have said in part-explanation of why they are supporting the cuts to penalty rates. But when you are living on the margins, week by week, not being able to pay bills—particularly those big bills that come in, like utility bills—pay the mortgage, pay the rent or pay those certain fees that come in from time to time, if one of your family members gets ill and has to pay beyond what can be covered by Medicare, it becomes a real problem. And I am afraid that this approach to cutting low-paid workers and middle-income earners, and also attacking low-paid workers, is really a pathway to what is happening in the United States.

Whilst I have some great admiration for many of the things that have happened in that country, and they have been a remarkable country in many respects, they have very significant inequality and it has got worse and worse over the last three or four decades, to the point where you really have people now working full time below the poverty line, where middle-class incomes have gone backwards in real terms and, in some instances, in nominal terms. The average wage in America has not changed in nominal terms since the Clinton administration. That means that there has been a very mighty fall in real income for those workers. They have hollowed out their middle class. They have impoverished their working class. They are about to rip away the efforts made by the former administration to have some form of universal health care for those people that need it most. That is not the country I want to live in, and yet I think that is the design of many on the other side who want to see lower wages, less support and less investment in education. They want to walk away from needs-based education, having promised it before the 2013 election, and erode access to health care in this country in some respects. The combination of those things would mean that we were heading down that American path, and that would be an absolute shame. It would change this country fundamentally and it would contradict the fair go and the fact that we consider ourselves to be somewhat egalitarian. And that would be a terrible thing.

That is why the government has to reconsider some of its policy positions. It needs to firstly look at the effects that some budgetary matters will have upon people struggling. It should immediately join Labor in supporting the bill introduced by the Leader of the Opposition to stop the effects of the penalty rates decision. It should also, in doing so, say that we should not allow any further awards to have their rates of pay or conditions reduced by cutting their penalty rates without compensation.

These are opportunities for the government to take. We can score political points against them on these matters, but that is not the important thing here; the important thing here is: we know the parliament can fix it; we know it is within the remit of the parliament and within the remit of the Prime Minister, and he should set about doing that.

One of my beliefs as to why he has not done that to date is: he does not really understand how hard it is for people who struggle economically. I am not suggesting for a moment that he has not had his own personal difficulties. All of us have, at one time or another. And he has made a lot of money, and good luck to him. But I do say this: he also made money from money. He was reasonably well off in his 20s, having inherited a lot of money. And he has never had trouble paying a bill; let us put it that way. That might be a problem—that he cannot understand what it means for these people because he has never confronted it—but you would expect, then, a level of empathy or understanding, if you are going to be the leader of the nation.

If he cannot draw on his own personal experience because he does not have any in this area then you would expect him to sit down with the people affected. He made a big song and dance about sitting down with some of the truck drivers and talking about that order of the commission. He sat and talked to volunteers in the CFA because he was concerned about their issues. How can it be that a Prime Minister can make hay in those areas and yet, when it comes to the lowest paid in the country—retail workers, hospitality workers, and, possibly, the way it is looking, hairdressers and beauticians, and restaurant staff relying on tips—not ask them what it means for them to suffer a cut in real income? It is a real indictment on him and on this government that they do not have any understanding. And it appears they now have no friends, either, when it comes to this position, because they are left standing alone in the House and in the Senate. The quicker they come to the realisation that they must take action and join Labor to support this legislation, the better—the better for them but, far more importantly, the better for those workers who are looking towards 1 July and trying to work out how they are going to pay for the bills once their wages have been cut.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time being approximately 1 pm, the Federation Chamber is suspended until 4 pm.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 16 : 00

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Each of us comes to this place with ideals, values, goals and an earnest desire to contribute to the future of our nation. Read the maiden speech of any member of this House or any Senator, and you will see those hopes and expectations in their purest form. You will notice that these speeches are devoid of the vitriol, game-playing and insincerity that the Australian public have come to characterise as the mainstays of our political system. It is a great shame that this perception of Australian politics has become the norm and that public confidence in parliamentarians has been on a downward trajectory for many years. It is a great pity that the 24-hour news cycle tends to amplify dysfunction, characterise debate as division and promote quick fixes over long-term solutions. It is our great challenge, as members of this place, to contest the prevailing culture through hard work, clear thinking and, frankly, better behaviour. It has never been my style to engage in the intrigue, game-playing or name-calling that occurs in this place, and I am not about to begin, but I think we all realise there is a discord between what goes on here and the expectations of the Australian people. We all need to do better.

This debate is an essential opportunity for each of us to revisit the ideals, hopes and optimism expressed in our maiden speeches and to ensure that they are what underpins our work rather than what is trending on Twitter or what appears popular according to a poll. In my maiden speech, which I delivered on 25 October 2010, I spoke specifically about practical priorities for my electorate, including infrastructure, business and veterans. I am pleased to have delivered on all of these three issues and to have worked closely with the McPherson community to strengthen the southern Gold Coast.

In the middle of last year I secured federal infrastructure funding to upgrade the M1 from four lanes to six between Robina Town Centre and Reedy Creek Road. Just last week it was announced that agreement has been reached with the state government and that early construction will commence in the middle of this year. This is great news for motorists who spend considerable time every morning and every afternoon stuck in what is known locally as the Robina carpark and stuck further south of the M1. I will continue my fight for the widening of the M1 through to Tugun. Whilst planning for this further upgrade is about to start, it is essential that there are no delays to construction and that there is a continuous build through to Tugun, not the stop-start that has dogged the upgrade so far on the southern Gold Coast.

But this is not all that is needed on the M1 I have already raised with the state government and with my federal colleagues the need to address urgently two bottlenecks: southbound at the Bermuda Street merge and northbound at the KP McGrath merge. There is capacity already there to extend the slip lanes and by doing so to relieve the delays at those two key points. I can assure locals that I will continue to fight to fix the bottlenecks and widen the M1 all the way through to Tugun as a priority.

Of course, the M1 is not the only infrastructure priority, and over the last three years I have helped secure $95 million for stage 2 of the Gold Coast light rail, $38 million for the Gold Coast City Council in Roads to Recovery funding to improve Gold Coast roads and $1.7 million to fix local dangerous accident blackspots. I have helped secure funding to fix telecommunication blackspots with the construction of a new mobile base station on Currumbin Creek Road and sped up the rollout of the NBN locally. I have also delivered the new smart tracking system at the Gold Coast Airport in Coolangatta. When it comes to local businesses the coalition has certainly delivered over the past three years by cutting half a billion dollars in red tape and regulation, reducing the tax burden by cutting company tax rates and providing immediate tax deductions for assets up to $20,000. We have opened up overseas markets like never before with our crucial trade agreements. In McPherson, I have helped secure important support for local businesses, with over $466,000 in commercialisation funding, $84,000 in industry skills funding, $14,000 in business growth grants and $32,000 for vocational excellence grants.

As I have said many times before, the education sector is thriving in my electorate, with Australia's largest private university, Bond University—a leader in innovation—and many other local schools and training organisations offering cutting-edge skills and qualifications. In fact, I have secured more than $5.1 million in Australian Research Council grants for local research projects; $224,000 in Endeavour fellowships and scholarships, $134,000 in New Colombo Plan scholarships to help local students study overseas, and $140,000 to Southern Cross University for specialty mathematics programs. The coalition has also helped fund the Gold Coast Science and Tech Festival and a range of programs in local schools as well as provided over $2 million in infrastructure funding for local schools.

It would take more time than we have today to outline the full extent of the funding that has flowed to the southern Gold Coast since the coalition came to office in 2013. It has been my great honour and privilege to work with the community, but there is one section of our community, in particular, that I have to confess is my great joy to work with, and that is our veterans and service men and women. During the past term of office we had the incredible opportunity to acknowledge the Centenary of the Gallipoli Landing and many other significant anniversaries. For our local community, I am delighted to have delivered over $130,000 to local RSLs and community groups to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac and practical support for local veterans, with close to $100,000 in BEST grants to help veterans, and provided a range of support through various Saluting Their Service and Veteran and Community grants. These are important in helping ensure that the legacy of our veterans is remembered for generations to come. Local veterans organisations have also had several opportunities to meet with the Minister for Veterans' Affairs as I posted roundtable discussions that have been very productive.

Our local RSLs and veterans organisations are a shining example of our many community organisations that work for the betterment of not only their members but also all southern Gold Coast residents. Our many Surf Life Saving clubs are another example, with so many local volunteers giving generously of their time. It is tremendously positive or our government to be providing over $300,000 to local Surf Life Saving clubs to help them purchase vital equipment.

One of the things that I am very proud of is recognising our many volunteers through my annual McPherson awards. These awards are a way for our community to say thank you to those who have given their time and really are the heart and soul of our community. We have three categories: community achiever, Surf Life Saving achiever and young achiever. Nominations are now open for the 2017 awards, and I encourage the southern Gold Coast community to nominate a local hero. Fostering the spirit of volunteerism and supporting the community is, I believe, an important part of my job as the local member. The intrinsic spirit of our local communities is something I believe in very strongly. It is where the solution to so many issues can be found.

We need to support the community sector, as we have through the Volunteer Grants Program, where 29 of my local community organisations shared in $120,000 for equipment to make their work easier. This is a great program, first introduced by the Howard government, which I am very pleased we have restored. I am also heartened that one of the first pieces of legislation the Turnbull government introduced this term was a bill to stop the hostile takeover of the CFA in Victoria by the union movement. Community volunteer organisations like the CFA do not need more intervention and obstruction. In fact, we need to be removing red tape wherever possible. Smaller government and stronger communities—that should be our aim. So it is a positive sign of our core belief in community that we have moved so decisively in this matter. By contrast, it is a sign of Labor's enduring pact with the unions that they could allow such a threat to the CFA to even eventuate.

It is my hope, and it will certainly be my aim, to ensure that the coalition's policy positions during the 45th Parliament are similarly based on our core beliefs. As I said at the beginning of this speech, our policies need to have the solid foundation of our expressed values and ideals. The values that so many of us articulate in our maiden speeches are a yardstick of why we choose to serve our communities in the parliament. I am not advocating for ideology-driven government. Of course we need to be practical. Our values must always be couched in the mainstream and expressed through the prism of the national interest. By articulating policies founded on our shared values and common beliefs, we will be able to give the Australian public a much clearer picture of what we stand for. Policy that is based on whims, trends or fashion is never as enduring.

I also want to point out that, in arguing for a more constructive parliament, I am not advocating for less robust debate. Indeed, part of the problem with the current political climate is that debate is too often shut down and that tactics like vilifying and name-calling are employed as a substitute for serious discussion. Debates are too often divided along partisan lines and personalities rather than the merits of an argument. Robust debate is the cornerstone of any thriving democracy, and we should never hide from it. So, in arguing for better standards, I am also arguing for more robust debate, but debate where arguments of merit are not drowned out. Common sense must prevail. The national interest has to be put above partisan interests, and we must remember that the Australian people want their elected government to govern. The public want the opposition and crossbenchers to respect that fact and seek constructive common ground.

One of the other qualities that I mentioned earlier that will help change the negative public perception of our political culture is hard work. I have been honoured, over the first term of the coalition government, to have been tasked with a number of leadership roles, including: chairman of the joint Public Works Committee, member of the Speakers Panel, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science, Assistant Minister for Science and now Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills. These are all roles that I have taken up with vigour and in which I am pleased to have made a contribution. These additional roles have allowed me to apply my specific skills and knowledge, especially when it comes to science and technology, and to meet with and gain insights from some of our leading scientists, educators and business people. I take this opportunity to thank the many people around the country who have given me the benefit of their views and experience over the past three years.

I am extremely excited and optimistic to now be working to improve and strengthen the VET sector, which is so crucial to addressing skills shortages and providing alternative pathways to further education. The coalition has always fundamentally believed in apprenticeships and vocational education. We have announced a new, affordable, sustainable and student-focused VET Student Loans program that will restore integrity to the system and ensure it is preparing students for employment. I look forward to continuing to work with the sector, with industry and with students to ensure we achieve the very best VET outcome in the future.

Whatever my additional or ministerial roles, I have always made certain that the people of McPherson remain my first priority. Regular listening posts have always been part of my schedule, and they will remain so. Attending local community functions and supporting local community events is something I will always make time for. And assisting local constituents and small businesses is the mainstay of my job.

I take this opportunity to thank the people of McPherson for re-electing me. It is a great honour that I intend to repay through continued hard work and commitment. I thank the many local residents I have worked with over the years and those who have stopped to share their views with me. Your feedback helps me to better represent you and our community.

There is of course a special group of locals that I have relied on: those who formed my campaign team and gave their time through the long eight weeks of campaigning in manning roadsides and working at pre-poll and, of course, on election day. Anyone who has ever run for office knows it truly is a group effort. It is a testament to our campaign team that in 2013 we achieved a swing to us that was significantly better than the state average and, at the last election, our performance in McPherson was again a standout. Thanks team—we have some impressive runs on the board.

It would be difficult to name everyone, but there are some special people that I would like to thank. Let me thank Peter Barrett, Maggie Bevins, Roger Campbell, Peter Cannon, Wendy Coe, Chris Crawford, Dorothy Davis, Lyn Dyne, Roger Emmerson, Wendy Flett, Mary Flynn, Peter Flynn, John Forrester, Roger Green, Hilary Green, Boyd Hain, Peter Hyde, Elaine Hyde, Greg Ingram, John Kearney, Jeszaen Lee, Anthony Lind, Dick Lucas, Eva Lucas, Nola Mattei, Peter McKean, Ben Naday, Cheryl Pearson, Linda Perkins, Ron Pia, Cherry Pia, Kevin Powell, Andy Rajapaske, Paul Rimmington, Jeffrey Robinson, Barry Skinner, Fran Ward-Emerson, Keith Wright and Ada Wright. Can I also give some special mentions to Bruce and Muriel Duncan, Margo Gates, Jack McLintock, Callum Whitehead and Selma Schuller.

There are some really special people, and let me acknowledge and thank Hamish Douglas and Natalie Douglas and the woman who self-describes as my 'wingman', Janelle Manders. To my mother, Moya, and my sister, Ann—thank you so much once again for everything you have done over the years, and particularly during the election campaigns where you have stood on countless polling booths handing out for me. I really do appreciate it. To my husband, Chris, who, when I was first elected was described as my 'long-suffering husband', and I rejected that at the time: I think that now, seven years past the election, I would say that yes, you are my long-suffering husband. We have recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary—so, Chris, thank you for that. I have three amazing children—Emma, Jane and Kate. When I first spoke in this place I spoke directly to them as they were seated up in the gallery. The words that I said to them are as true today as they were then, and what they will be in the future. My words to them were: always believe in yourself, girls, because I believe in you.

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

I thank the honourable member for that contribution, and can I add that your husband is a long-suffering husband; I know that. And your kids are so perfect, you must be very happy with them.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not placed to comment on the member for McPherson's husband, but I will say that it was a pleasure to be in this chamber for her speech. While I do not share all of the sentiments expressed in it, I think the challenge the member for McPherson outlined in terms of the expectations all of our constituents have on us is a challenge we should all seek to rise to, and I will do my best to begin that process in the course of making these remarks in reply to the Governor-General's speech.

I start, though, by expressing my deep appreciation and gratitude to the people of Scullin for re-electing me in July last year. It is an extraordinary privilege, an honour and a great responsibility for any of us to serve in this place. I know that none of us takes on the responsibility lightly. So I extend my deep thanks to the constituents of the Scullin electorate—obviously, to those who supported my re-election, but also to those who did not vote for me. I am committed to listening to you and working for you through this parliament.

I was particularly pleased that there was a significant swing to Labor in the Scullin electorate, and the credit for that goes to two groups of people. Firstly, to Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, and his campaign team. I acknowledge the work of George Wright, our then national secretary, and Paul Erickson, the assistant national secretary. And I am very pleased to see the member for Cunningham here, who made such a great contribution in important policy areas. I acknowledge the work of everyone involved in delivering a platform of policies that we took to the Australian people and which resonated clearly with my constituents in Scullin, as it did across the northern suburbs of Melbourne and more generally. So that is one chunk of the credit for my having the opportunity to continue to serve.

The other goes to all the amazing people who I have had the opportunity to work with, and for, in the short time that I have been in this place. I extend my deep appreciation to my staff, to Lori Faraone—and it shows what a long time it has been since the election that, on election day, Lori had one child; she and Jason now have a second and she will be returning to work soon, which I am greatly looking forward to, and I hope that she is too! To Jim Tilkeridis, to Sally-Ann Delaney, to Kali Watson, to Matt Dawson, to Justin Mammarella, and to Eleanor Scott-D' Ambrosio: it is an extraordinary privilege for me to work with you. The quality of the work that you do for people in the Scullin electorate is something that I am in awe of. As I have said more than once, almost all the good work done in the office is done by you; any errors and omissions are down to me. I express my gratitude to all of you for your work through what was a very long—and, in Melbourne, cold—election campaign. I look forward to working with you to meet the challenges of this parliament. I also acknowledge the state members that I am very fortunate to work with: my dear friend Lily D'Ambrosio, Danielle Green, Vicki Ward, Bronwyn Halfpenny and Colin Brooks. I was very grateful for your support and for the opportunity to continue to work with all of you on behalf of the communities of Melbourne's north. I was very fortunate to have a terrific campaign team who ran an excellent campaign and gave me plenty to do. I thank my campaign chair, Samil Demir, a young man with a great future ahead of him professionally and—I hope—in Labor politics.

There are many, many people who deserve to be acknowledged in this place. I will concentrate on a few: Koste Kolevski, Liam McColl, Helen Said, John Pathinathan, Nik Cagorski, Joe Petrucci, Katherine Tilkeridis, Vince Morton, Kurt Cauchi, Alex Collum, Rex Ramanathan, Brian and Ellen Smiddy, Gwen Hamilton, Barbara Breaks, Sucettin and Perihan Unal and all their family, Kim Travers, and Jenny and Neil Delaney. Sadly, since the election, Neil Delaney has passed away. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word, someone who made an extraordinary contribution to community, who never asked for anything for himself. So I take this opportunity to think of Neil and his family: I am indebted for the time that I had to spend with you, and I know many others are grateful for everything you did for them. To Anthony Mancuso, Shorsh Ahmad, Rachael Davies, Elvira Tsecouteris, Sasha Nackovski, Trish Mackin, Harry Williams and Jim Bannon—to all of you and to many others who flew the Labor flag in Scullin last year, I give you my thanks. I have enjoyed the opportunity to continue to work for you, and to be inspired by your energy and passion for a fairer society every day that I am in the job.

Out of this campaign, something special happened in the communities I represent. A group of people—Trish, Nik and Alex, who I just acknowledged—came together to form a group called the Scullin Volunteer Action Network, recognising their sense that politics and Labor politics should not just be about elections. It is about building stronger, more resilient and fairer communities. I have been really excited by their activism in seeking to engage others in the political process, and to break down some of the sense of malaise in politics and in our political institutions—something that the member for McPherson touched on very effectively and something I will return to briefly. But I wanted to particularly acknowledge their work in taking action locally to correct a problem that is bedevilling all of the developed world—that is, the rise of a reactionary form of populism and a decline in our sense of faith in politics and our political institutions. While it is critical that those of us in this place rise to the challenge of overcoming this sense of cynicism and alienation, it is so wonderful to see people outside of the formal political process—people who do not enjoy the privilege that all of us have, to speak in this place—take action to show their faith in their fellow citizens; their faith that working together we can make a change for the better.

I have reflected on the last term in this parliament, my first term, and there are a couple of things I would like to particularly share with the House. There were two campaigns that I was associated with in the Scullin electorate that made me feel very proud to be a local member of parliament in Melbourne's northern suburbs and proud to be a member of the Labor team. I am so proud of the way that the communities I represent came together to reject the proposals for a GP tax and how people stood up for Medicare—standing up for everyone's entitlement to health care. But also, more than that, in standing up for Medicare, the communities that I represent made clear to me that they have a very strong sense and they expect from me a strong articulation of our sense of what it is to be an Australian—a sense of a social compact; a sense of a society in which no-one should be left behind; and a rejection of a dog-eat-dog, Americanised society whereby but for the fortune of your birth, you may not be given the security of having the health care that you deserve.

I was also really pleased by the way that the diverse communities that I represent came together when it was proposed in 2014, as it has been proposed since, that laws be changed to license racist hate speech. I was so proud of the way that people came together to speak up for communities that felt under pressure. I was pleased that the shadow Attorney-General, the member for Isaacs, spent much time working with concerned and affected communities in Scullin. I particularly think of those who congregate around the Thomastown mosque to say that we do not believe in our part of the world that there can be such a thing as a second-class citizen in Australia and that we do not believe it can ever be right to license racist hate speech.

The other matter that was important to me in my last term was this process of better connecting people to politics. I took up the invitation of the member for McPherson to consider my own first speech, where I spoke of an aspiration to be a listener and a problem-solver as a member of parliament. I have tried to live up to this, particularly so when it comes to recognising that too many of my constituents—and most of our constituents, I suspect—feel that there is not much point to politics. They feel that whatever happens in terms of their electoral decisions, that cannot change the circumstances of their lives. I passionately believe that they are wrong in this and I equally passionately believe that we must all work harder to correct this misapprehension in the community, particularly when it comes to younger people. We know they are not enrolling to vote in worrying numbers and are not voting or voting informally in very worrying numbers. They are also falling prey to some voices of division within our communities, which must be squarely rejected in this place and in the community. I made it a big priority to try and engage with communities who I felt were marginalised from the political process. I think some progress has been made in Scullin in this regard, but there is much, much more to be done.

I was also pleased over the course of the last term to support the election of an Andrews Labor government. When I think about positive change that has happened in Melbourne's north, I think about the impact of the election of this government. I think about that when I see the physical environment of our schools and the investment in healthcare services in the north, but most importantly I see it in the infrastructure rollout, particularly the extension of the train line to Mernda, which will open in 2019, as well as very significant road projects. These infrastructure projects are a huge investment in dealing with a major concern I also spoke of in my first speech. It is my concern that Melbourne, the world's most liveable city, as I am sure all of us in this place know, is at risk of becoming a city in two halves: a very prosperous core and an outer rim, where access to jobs and access to amenity becomes much, much harder. This is a course that can be corrected, that must be corrected soon. We need to recognise all of the costs of congestion—economic, social and environmental—and recognise that they are disproportionately borne by those who live further from the CBD of our major capital cities like Melbourne.

So, I am proud to have made a contribution, over the life of the last parliament, to a change in our national conversation around urban policy whereby we now have a government that is committed, at least on paper, to an agenda for our cities and to investments in infrastructure that are not solely about road construction. I am hopeful, despite the continued imbroglios over the much needed Melbourne Metro project, that we will again see the sort of city-shaping public transport projects that our major cities need, with significant federal involvement based on evidence, not ideology.

There is of course much more to be done if we are to ensure that all of my constituents, particularly those in the newer, more northerly areas of the Scullin electorate, have every access to good jobs—including good local jobs in precincts such as the Epping central activity district and the precinct in Bundoora around University Hill and the RMIT campus, but also jobs located in the city—and access to all the fantastic cultural, sporting and social amenities that we enjoy in Melbourne. All of us should be able to enjoy them.

Again I will refer to the question of trust in politics. The member for McPherson said, 'We all need to do better.' That is an injunction I hope I can respond to over the balance of this term, and I recognise that it is an onus that rests on all of us who are elected to this place. I feel much more deeply now the concerns about alienation that I expressed in my first speech. Again, I think we must be concerned about the rise of reactionary forms of populism, which threaten our collective sense of government's responsibility, and capability, for doing good in people's lives. The buck stops with us and how we behave—our capacity to have the sorts of robust debates that the member for McPherson referred to, where we do test ideas, ideological propositions and different visions for maintaining Australian living standards into the future. We need to find better ways to do that, with less rancour.

This is particularly pressing when you look at the world as it is today and the drift towards inequality that is happening across all developed economies. In Australia, of course, inequality is at a 75-year high. We are the least equal we have been since the Great Depression. This raises profound challenges for us, as to the sort of society we wish to live in, as well as for our economy. It is clear that the Australian economy today is working for the few and not for the many. This no doubt is driving some of the sense of alienation, some of the appeal of populism, that I spoke about earlier. When we have company profits at a record high and these profits are not being reinvested productively, that is a problem, and it is a problem that does not call for company tax cuts as a solution. We have changes in the world of work that are exacerbating the trends driving income inequality and wealth inequality. Wage growth is at a record low, and growth of insecure work is outstripping good, secure growth in good, secure jobs. Increasingly, we are seeing new forms of work outside what generally has been understood to be the formal economy—the sorts of jobs regulated under the Fair Work Act and its predecessors. These are profound challenges that government must respond to, and I am pleased to be part of the Shorten opposition, which is starting work on that response as well as facing up to the other critical challenges that Australia needs addressed.

No critical challenge is more pressing than climate change. It is beyond disappointing that we have a government that is not facing up to that challenge, to that moral imperative to do good for future generations. Today I had the privilege of receiving a presentation from the Australian Marine Conservation Society about the state of the Great Barrier Reef. To say that the prognosis was shocking is a great understatement, and that is only one illustration of the scale of the challenge we must rise to to begin our journey to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Over the life of this parliament, I have been given the great honour of working in the schools portfolio by the Leader of the Opposition. I am very excited by this opportunity to work with the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, the member for Sydney, Tanya Plibersek, as part of Labor's education team, with some terrific colleagues—the member for Adelaide, the member for Griffith, Senator Cameron and Senator Collins—and to build on the work of people like the member for Cunningham. I am excited about the challenge of getting Commonwealth involvement in schools right, and I am determined to fight every day for needs-based schools funding. I think the two enduring achievements of the Labor governments that held office from 2007 to 2013 will be the NDIS and getting schools funding right, after more than 40 years of inertia and division.

The fight for schools funding is not over. We on the Labor side are looking to the evidence. We are looking to the experiences that we are seeing in every school around Australia. We are committed to holding the Minister for Education and Training in this government, Senator Birmingham, to account for the promises that the government made back in 2013 and for the government's moral obligation to give every kid every chance of a decent start in life, knowing what we do about the value of education—not only as the best guarantor of productive work but also of so many other benefits, particularly in terms of health. A good education is fundamental to a good life nowadays, and for me it is simply unconscionable that we have a government that is rejecting the evidence before it and that has failed to put any alternative proposition on the table. We are nearly in April, and schools, school communities and school sectors have no certainty about what will apply to them next year. This is not good enough.

What is also not good enough in the area of schools is our failure to deal with the pressing issue of making sure that every Australian counts when it comes to school education. There is so much more to be done to ensure that children with disability can effectively participate in inclusive education. This has been left in the too-hard basket for too long, and, of all the challenges I am looking forward to embarking upon over the balance of this term, this is the one that I am most keen on making progress on.

There is not much time left, so I will end where I began: in thanking the people of Scullin for their confidence in me. I will do my best to discharge their faith to the best of my ability, and I am very proud to do so as part of a strong and united Labor team.

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

It is a privilege to be able to stand in this place for a third term of serving the good people of my electorate of Wright in the Gold Coast hinterland. It is a beautiful part of Queensland, an absolutely picturesque electorate, taking in Lamington National Park, the Gold Coast hinterland, and the glorious Tamborine Mountain and the surrounding communities that reside close to it.

Can I suggest that my electorate is extremely diverse in its outlook, ranging from some of the richest fertile valleys in the world—the seventh most fertile valley in the world by way of the Lockyer Valley—where we produce food, including vegetables, for the eastern seaboard and for the Australian table. We produce mostly vegetables in the brassica families: cauliflower, broccoli, corn—which is not a brassica—broccolini, onions, and carrots. We have country that can yield up to 20 tonnes an acre: potatoes, 20 tonnes an acre; onions, 15 tonnes an acre. It is such a beautiful and rich agricultural precinct.

Then you have the surrounding communities in the middle of it by way of the Fassifern Valley, with communities like Aratula. If you are ever driving on the Cunningham Highway from Brisbane to Warwick, never miss the opportunity to drive past the Aratula bakery and pull in and get yourself a beautiful Aratula pie, or to stop off at the Aratula butcher, which is always open on a Sunday, and pick up that Sunday family roast.

I am so proud and so privileged to be able to serve the people of Wright. This is my seventh year in this place. This is not just the result of efforts that I have made; it is a team effort that allows me to return to this place. In the seven years that I have had the absolute privilege of being able to serve the electors of Wright, I have learned that this place, the Australian parliament, is filled with some incredible talent on both sides of the House. It is unfortunate that too many Australians see the Australian political landscape only through the very short window of opportunity afforded when they witness the Australian parliament. Unfortunately, they make their decision on how we perform here by watching a snippet of what we refer to as question time. I can assure the Australian public and the electors of Wright that that is not the norm. That is happy hour. That is the theatre. It is the gladiatorial bluster that happens for the cameras.

The real work is done in the committees. The real work is done when the cameras are turned off. If only the Australian public could see the bipartisanship in this place and how much work actually gets done. I sit with the member for Scullin on the Joined Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. That is never going to be newsworthy when people sit and watch the work that we do, but we influence the direction of the country. If only people could see the work that gets done behind those closed doors and in some of the other committees, such as the Public Works Committee. Recently I tabled some documents in the House outlining no less than $1.3 billion worth of funding that we have invested in this country into refits for Public Service offices, whether it be for Defence, Immigration or other areas. It was all done in a bipartisan manner with the support of the government and the opposition and in conjunction with the Senate. That is how our parliament works. That is the truth.

But people are not going to back up to buy tickets to that. It is not sexy when they see the place working well. People back up to buy tickets because they want to see the gladiatorial blood on the ground in question time, and then they complain about the way that we perform. They complain and say that we are childlike and that if it were a school environment we would be punished for our behaviour—and rightly so. On the rare occasions that I have the opportunity to spend time with my constituents in a pub, it is a great leveller. They will often say, 'You lot are childlike.' They will say to me quite openly, 'You're a good bloke. We like the way that you work for us. You work hard. You get out of bed early. You go to bed late.' But, when they speak about politicians in the collective, the same people who hold you in high regard will group us all up and suggest that we have our noses in the trough and that we are less than trustworthy.

One of the challenges that I have, with the return on the investment for my time here, is to turn around the minds of a few people in my electorate so that they see that there are some incredibly talented people in this place. When you talk about politicians collectively, the first things that should come to your mind is 'incredibly hardworking and disciplined'. I will tell you that if you are not a hardworking politician you are not going to get re-elected. There is only one way to success if you are going to stick around this place, and that is: you need to get out of bed early, you need to go to bed late, you need to work weekends and you need to connect with your electorate. And if you do not do that, you will be treated harshly for it.

It is an absolute privilege for me to serve in this place. I walked up to the House this morning. It has a different ambience from driving up in your car. I was on the phone to my brother and I said to him, 'This is my seventh year in this place and when I walk to this place I am not filled with a sense of pride when I look up on a beautifully clear day and see our flag in full flight.' I feel an immense sense of pride not because the building I am going to work in is one of the most stunning pieces of architecture in Canberra. I am filled with a sense of pride because I know that, when I get to the dispatch box, whether it be in this chamber or in the other chamber, I can enter into a debate rationally, in a safe environment, without fear for my own safety, as every member in this place can do, and knowing that, hopefully, we are influencing the direction of this country to be in a better place tomorrow than it was today. That is the intention of all of us.

It is my hope that, as Australians, we get to break down the barrier of negativity around politicians. I would love a survey to be done or some statistics to be gathered on what we would actually get paid if we were to calculate an hourly rate and then to apply penalty rates and overtime to it; I would love to see what that hourly rate would look like! I would like to be on any hourly rate that anyone would nominate for me! But you know what? I am fortunate. I would probably do this job—no, I would; I would do this job for nothing. It is a privilege.

I do not know if I would want to do this job forever for nothing, because it takes an incredible toll on your family. The time that you, as a politician in this place, spend with your community is at the sacrifice of the time that you would spend with your loved ones: your daughter; your family; your brothers; your sisters. And I want to acknowledge the contribution that my family and my extended family make—including my mum.

I grew up in a very humble household, as one of four brothers and sisters. My mum ran a single-income household on a widow's pension. The other day I had the opportunity to take my mum into one of the air lounges in a capital city, and she thought she was a queen! I felt so privileged to be able to expose her to that, because, outside of a political life, we would never have had that opportunity. Yes, we used to fly a lot in our own transport operations, but never at the front end of the plane. So I suppose, coming from a humble background, you do appreciate the trimmings that this office holds.

Closer to my electorate, I am proud of some of the things that we are doing in the electorate. The largest piece of inland road infrastructure in Australian history is happening in my electorate as we speak: the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, a project worth well in excess of $1 billion. For many years, my electorate was saying: 'When is the range crossing happening? We are sick of hearing about it.' Now we are delivering it. Construction is underway. Dozers are working. We will have traffic on that road hopefully within two years.

The NBN is rolling out, and, again, the NBN was the child of the now opposition, then in government—

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

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

We tweaked it! And there is a debate as to whether or not it is better or cheaper and as to the rollout. But you know what? I think Australians would appreciate a little bit more honesty, and I do not think we would be judged poorly for occasionally offering a compliment to good policy when it is needed, rather than opposing it for the sake of opposing.

People in my electorate can smell—and excuse me—bullshit coming a mile away. And they will resonate to sincerity. I think that, as politicians, if we could have, and be seen to have, a softer heart and to have less of an agitated, always-confrontational spirit then I think we would just get more done in this place. I think there is a desire for us to achieve more. But, unfortunately, if it bleeds it leads in the press. People want to see that gladiatorial conflict, even if it be two opposing members of this place at seven o'clock in the morning on news feeds. And there are virtually whole networks allocated to political commentary. Often the stuff that flashes up down the bottom of the screen is the bad news. But there is a lot of good news that happens in the place—a lot of good news.

Some of the other work that is happening here, which I am proud of, is the work that I do as a government backbencher, in my capacity as secretary to the economics committee and as secretary to the agricultural committee, where we scrutinise bills that go before cabinet. That committee will be meeting tonight and will again be influencing the direction of the country through some of the work that we do there.

I also want to give the Deputy Speaker a quick update on some of the work I do with an organisation that I call A50, the Australian Economic Forum. That 50 is representative of 50 people from around the world who influence the Australian market. I do this in conjunction with Tom Murphy—who started off on the Merrill Lynch desk in New York. He is an Australian who used to play rugby for the Brumbies. How's that? He can play rugby, and is smart and rich! Tommy and I got together and we thought we would pull together this A50. The 50 is representative of 50 people; 20 are the largest buyers in the Australian market. We bring in buyers from around the world in equities, debt, trade, short money, long money, superannuation and hedge funds. We bring them in from the UK, the Middle East, Europe, America, Canada and Asia, and we stick them next to 20 of the top CEOs of Australian listed companies: the banks, the Caltexes, the BHPs, the Rios and the AMPs. We book a room at the Opera House and we put these guys in it. The remaining 10 people in the room are the top 10 regulators of the country so that they all hear the one story. Those regulators look like the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the trade minister, the Reserve Bank governor, the Foreign Investment Review Board chairman, the ASIC chairman, the ACCC and a number of other regulators.

We sell a simple message: Australia is open for business. I make an effort to pull that group together—and we have done it for the second year in a row; it is extremely successful—because the people in my electorate need security in their future through Australia being a net importer of funds. When I am in the pub, people say to me: 'Why would you invest so much time in that? How does that affect me?' When the value of a superannuation fund held by anyone in my electorate is going south, it is mostly because those 20 guys are pulling their money out of Australia, and it has taken the value off. So I add value to their superannuation funds when I can convince those that invest in our markets that Australia is a good bet—it is a good short-term bet; it is a good long-term bet—and convince them to continue to stay here. There was money looking to leave the Australian market in the downturn of the resources sector. We did a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the 20 that were in the room. The net funds under management from that 20 were in the vicinity of $17 trillion. That is what these guys bring to our economy. That is why it is important for me and Tom Murphy to spend time talking to those companies, letting them know that Australia is a place to invest in in the future and that we are a good bet.

I can talk about projects in my electorate—and during their address-in-reply speeches, members will do that—but electorates expect members to deliver projects. You are not going to get re-elected because of the size of the projects you do. You are going to get re-elected if you can connect with your electorate. You are going to get re-elected if you can empathise with your electors, if you can truly believe in your elector's concerns and if you do your best to address them. In this place we so often become consumed with issues that we believe are important to our electorates, but when I go back and sit in the pub they are not talking about gay marriage and they were not talking about section 18C. It is so easy to become distracted because a journalist sticks a microphone in front of your face as you are walking into this place—which we refer to as 'the doors'—and asks you about something obscure that happened in the last 12 hours, as if it is the most important thing to them. It is not important to our people at home—to the people we love, to the people we represent. What is important to them is security. It is making sure that they have enough money in their pockets so that they can live a comfortable and safe existence. What is important to them is making sure that there is an economic environment where they can get a better price for their product at the farm gate today than they were getting yesterday. Unfortunately, that is not often the case—in particular, for a number of dairy farmers who are in my electorate; it is beautifully rich country. At the other end of the scale, my cattle market is extremely buoyant and my cattle boys are performing well. I have two or three major selling yards—Silverdale Saleyards, the Beaudesert Saleyards and Boonah. Cattle are going off extremely strongly at the moment. Our grain prices are strong. And in my electorate we have some of the most beautiful country.

In closing, I would not be here if it were not for the incredible generosity of so many people in my electorate and in the LNP secretariat. I also want to acknowledge my staff. It would humour the House to know that I was fortunate to celebrate my birthday this week on the 27th, and that my chief of staff also celebrates his birthday on the 27th. My constituent officer, Alice Warby, is turning 70—Alice, I should not have told the world that, but happy birthday to you—also on the 27th. It is as if you cannot get a job in my office unless your birthday is on 27 March! Greg Birkbeck, thank you for the work you do for me. You have been with me since day one, and I think that is a sign of the respect that I have for you. Alice Warby has been with me since day one—it is now our third term; again, that is because of the trust that I show in her and the solid nature of the way that she has my back. Coming onto staff more recently is Rochelle Richards, formerly Rochelle Maloney. Rochelle was my first PA, when I first started my transport business back in 1992 and, after having three children, she has come back to work with me. That humbles me. Her father used to work for me in the transport business for nearly 20 years. My PA, Jo Dempsey, an incredibly strong woman, has gone through some hardship, but Jo is just shining every day, as she learns more and more and grows in the position. To all of those within the LNP branches who drag themselves out to attend branch meetings and to assist on election days, whether it is handing out how-to-vote cards, manning booths or sticking up posters—there are too many of you to mention, but I stand here as a result of your efforts and, in return, I will give everything I have to make sure that I earn your confidence to elect me again as your candidate at the next election. God bless.

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It does feel like some time ago that the 2016 election happened, but I have not until now been able to give my address-in-reply speech. While speaking about the 2016 election now may seem odd, it is very important for the completion of history that we document this incredibly important election. I am very pleased to be speaking today about the role that I want to play in this parliament going forward.

I would like to begin by thanking the people of Kingston for re-electing me for my fourth term in this place. I am continually humbled by the support that was, and continues to be, given to me by so many of my constituents. As I have already done on many occasions, I pledge again that I will work hard for you, I will fight for you, and I will not let you down. Importantly, I will represent and work for all the residents of Kingston, irrespective of whether you voted for me. This has been the approach I have taken since first being elected in 2007, and it is the approach I will continue to take. Unfortunately, Labor was not elected to government; however, I will be fighting to ensure that the southern suburbs have a strong voice inside this parliament, and also outside this parliament.

The 2016 election was one where there was a stark contrast between what the different parties had to offer, and a stark contrast between their visions for the future. In my electorate, locals are uncertain about the future. They expressed to me that they wanted a government that would prioritise their children's wellbeing and their grandchildren's wellbeing, now and into the future. They want to see a priority on access to good health care and other government services—access to education, to job opportunities, to affordable housing, to affordable child care and to better infrastructure. They want the government to support connected, healthy and inclusive communities and to provide services that are responsive to the needs of those communities. I will advocate to try and make sure that our community priorities are the government's priorities. I must note that, at this time, that has been difficult. But I will continue to argue for what my locals want.

People in my electorate do not want a government which focuses on just the few at the big end of town. It is for this reason that the Leader of the Opposition's plan—and Labor's plan—for the future resonated in my local community, and it is also for this reason that I was re-elected to the seat of Kingston with a 7.3 per cent swing to Labor, making this the best ever result for Labor in Kingston. In South Australia, Labor focused on the importance of local initiatives to support the creation and maintenance of jobs in South Australia, and access to employment continues to be a source of concern for residents in my local area. Unfortunately, the South Australian community is constantly in a state of shock about the missteps taken by the Abbott government and then by the Turnbull government in awarding the submarine contract, as well as other large procurement projects. Despite the belated announcement by the government, there are workers losing their jobs at ASC now. These are skilled jobs, and ones that we need for the future. We need action from the federal government, as manufacturing at Holden ceases this year. We need to support the many manufacturers of components to adapt and support workers that transition into other jobs. We need the government to support the continuation of steel production at Whyalla. We are entering a precarious situation in South Australia. It is time for the federal government to act.

We cannot afford to have the federal government continue to be aloof and disengaged, with the attitude that they have no role in the future of advanced manufacturing in this country, especially in South Australia. That is why I have been calling for all three levels of government to work together to develop a plan for the south, including the establishment of a southern task force to secure our future. I look forward to continuing to work with all three levels of government, with business, and with other institutions. Not only must we secure our advanced manufacturing future; we must also promote new job opportunities. This must be a priority. So far, we have seen the lack of a plan and a lack of action from this government. We have so many comparative advantages in Adelaide, and we need a government that appreciates these advantages, but also does more than that and promotes them—and not just when they are trying to save a few seats at election time. This needs to be an ongoing attitude and not just a way to save their bacon, so to speak. The approach I am advocating is quite a different approach to the one that the government are taking. The government seem to be saying: 'Give the top end of town a tax break, and cross your fingers and hope that jobs get created.' This is a lazy approach, and not a real plan.

At the 2016 election, health was also a central theme in the campaign. I wish to place on the record my opposition to the claims that Labor ran a scare campaign on the future of Medicare. It has been clear since the election of the Abbott government—since the 2013 election—that the coalition have had an agenda to destroy our universal healthcare system. Need I remind this House of the coalition's first idea, which was a seven-dollar co-payment? A $7 GP tax. And then there was the abolition of the bulk-billing incentives for Pap smears, blood tests, and diagnostic imaging. We have seen the freezing of the Medicare rebate for six years—effectively a GP tax by stealth. There is an investigation into privatising the payment system of Medicare, not to mention the attack on Medicare, the attacks on our health system, the cuts to our hospital system—forcing higher out-of-pocket expenses for medicines—and the privatisation agenda for Australian Hearing. These are all additional moves that this government have taken to cut down our healthcare system. It is for this reason that the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party have been so sensitive about Labor's campaign for a strong Medicare system. Their agenda has always been about eroding Medicare. In my first speech to this place, I said that it was a fundamental belief that your level of health care should not be based on the amount of money you have in your pocket. On my re-election, I have continued to defend this important principle, and I will continue to do that every single day.

A quality education is the best gift we can give our young people, alongside providing opportunities for those who seek a career and reskilling. That is why I will continue to fight to ensure that education is a priority of this government. It is disappointing to see the Liberal Party continue with their excuses about why we must cut early education, why we must cut school education, why we must cut funding to skills and funding to our universities. The government have had three years to make changes to vocational education, but they have just sat on their hands. Education is an investment in the future. It ensures that as a country we can adapt and become more productive and continue to enjoy a high quality of life. The government have continued to engage in distraction in the hope that they can keep cutting funding to our schools without anyone noticing.

Labor and I will continue to hold the government to account on their $30 billion of cuts to our schools. The government will keep making excuses with their mantra that it is not about the amount of money spent but how it is spent. Well, that statement is obvious: it is, of course, how it is spent. But schools need the resources in the first place to get what they need. I have had the privilege to visit schools right across this country to see what a difference the extra investment Labor made when in government—whether it be improvements to consistency and pedagogy, to literacy or to numeracy interventions, or extra support teachers. This money that Labor committed is making a difference. Most importantly, schools know what they need. This is something you often hear from the Liberal Party. Of course, schools know what they need. It is just that the government will not provide them with the resources to get what they need. This is the problem with their funding cuts.

This term I have continued to fight for a decent education for children and young people in my electorate. I will continue to fight to ensure that children in the southern suburbs of Adelaide get just as much opportunity to fulfil their potential as children on the North Shore of Sydney. During the election, Labor made a number of local commitments for my electorate and I will continue to argue that these should be funded by the government. Unfortunately, that commitment has not been forthcoming. I made a commitment during the election campaign that a Labor government would bring forward the investment to build the South Australian Coastal Park trail, linking Hallett Cove, O'Sullivan Beach and Aldinga to the existing Coastal Park along Adelaide's southern beaches. This $3.3 million commitment to link southern Adelaide's pristine beaches would have created approximately 36 construction jobs and boosted recreational use of the beaches as well as tourism opportunities. Creating this local connection is incredibly important for Adelaide's southern suburbs. It would mean that our pristine beachfront is connected and accessible by both foot and bike.

I hope that the Liberal federal government will see the benefit of this project and commit money in its upcoming budget. I have written to the minister to make this request. I hope he pays attention. Equally, I have written to the government to request them to match the $100,000 commitment Labor made to the Hallett Cove Netball Club for the resurfacing of their netball courts. Women's sports often do not attract the same investment as men's sport. After years of temporary repairs, the netball courts are dangerously slippery, and the clubs may be prevented from playing netball matches at home. Resurfacing the courts is vital for the future of these netball clubs as well as the ongoing support and promotion of women's sport in the south.

Government and community services play a very important role in supporting members of the community who find themselves in situations they may not have expected, and that is why I will continue to fight for our local community services to get the funding they deserve. headspace Noarlunga and the Southern Community Justice Centre are just two examples of these types of services that the south needs. These services need support and certainty of funding into the future, and I have recently spoken about there being no commitment—rather, indeed, cuts—from this government.

It is important that these centres are adequately funded so they are able to properly assist those who require help. In the election, Labor made a commitment to the Southern Community Justice Centre for an increase in $300,000, particularly around supporting victims of domestic violence. I hope the government also supports this centre and stops the cruel cuts that are actually going ahead from 1 July this year. It is time the government stopped these cuts and worked to support those who are most vulnerable.

There are many other local projects that I will continue to advocate for, including the rail extension from Seaford to Aldinga, the duplication of Commercial and Beach roads and, of course, the ongoing fight for decent broadband services.

Since the election I have been honoured to be appointed by the Leader of the Opposition to serve as the shadow minister for veterans' affairs and Defence personnel, an incredibly important portfolio. Since being appointed to that role, I have had the privilege of meeting many current-serving Defence personnel, as well as veterans, who serve this country with pride and distinction. I look forward to continuing to work with them.

I would like to extend congratulations—though they are a little outdated, but I have already said this in person—to the Leader of the Opposition, our great leader; our deputy leader; and our whole parliamentary team and all their staff. Big congratulations to our national campaign team, led by George Wright, at the last election. This was a big effort and, while we came close, we did not quite get to government. However, it was a sterling effort by everyone. I would also like to acknowledge all those who ran as Labor candidates. I extend big congratulations to both returning colleagues and new Labor members, while for others: congratulations for a valiant effort. It is the collective work that makes our party so great.

In my patch of the world, the election result in the seat of Kingston on 2 July took a lot of hard work by so many people. Our campaign was a grassroots collective effort where everyone who handed out a how-to-vote card, every door we knocked on and every phone call we made helped us to communicate Labor's message to those residents of Kingston.

I would particularly like to thank my staff who worked through the election campaign—Amelia Peacock, Michael Picton, Adele Lausberg, Tristan Rust, Jemma Slevec and Jason Byrne. You were central to our success. In addition, I give a thank you to the wider campaign team that included Dale Colebeck, Gemma Paech, Sarah Huy and Tom Cicchianni-Jones, who supported me and our office through the campaign.

Special thanks go to our local state MPs in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, who helped on the campaign. To my long-term and good friend, Chris Picton, the member for Kaurna: thank you for your help and support. Thanks to our other state MPs—Nat Cook and Katrine Hildyard—for your friendship and support. We have a great Labor team in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, and we work hard together.

As is mentioned regularly, I cannot name everyone who worked on our campaign, but I wish to mention a few: John and Fran Drew; Phil and Jo Giles; Marisa and John Eitel; Lucy Fordham; John Gauci; Dave Retallick; Thad Taylor; Donna Blieschke; John Secriean—who was the king of corfluting; my dad—who also did a bit of work—and my mum, so I would like to thank them; Anna Syta; Jim and Deb Phillips; Megan Rohan; Cathie King and Adrian Tisato. Thank you for your enormous contribution during the campaign.

I would like to thank Reggie Martin, our South Australian ALP secretary, for his support, as well as acknowledging the support I received from Sonia Romeo and the SDA; John Adley and the CEPU; John Camillo from the AMWU; Nick Townsend from the CWU and Ray Wyatt from the TWU. I especially need to thank Ethne Lange, my office manager, and Honest Lange, her husband and No. 1 sidekick, for their huge support before and during the campaign. I especially thank you, Ethne, for keeping the show on the road during a very long campaign. I am lucky to have you by my side.

To Emmanuel Cusack, campaign manager extraordinaire: thank you for spending every spare waking minute working on delivering my campaign when you could have been out enjoying yourself. You produced a campaign that worked with our community, one that put local issues at the centre. Emmanuel, you have an extremely bright future in the Labor movement. My advice to anyone listening is: if you want to win a campaign, Emmanuel is the person to call.

Finally, I would like to thank the people of Kingston who have put their trust in me. Without you turning up at the ballot box and having your say, I would not be able to do the work I am doing here. During the campaign I was overwhelmed by your good wishes, overwhelmed by your kind words, overwhelmed by the things that you trusted me with. You trusted me with your hopes and dreams. Every time I speak with people, whether they are distressed or whether they have hope, it is moving to know that I can come to this place to represent them and be part of trying to make those dreams and hopes a reality. I promise you, the people of Kingston: I will continue to work hard for you, just as I always have, and be your voice here in Canberra. I will continue to fight for you. I will continue to make sure that the southern suburbs of Adelaide are not forgotten in our nation's capital. I will continue to make sure that those hopes and dreams are realised.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we are just over eight months since the longest election campaign in Australia's modern history. Our opponents thought it would be smart to put our community through a dragged-out, waffle-filled, cliche-ridden campaign that went on week after week, month after month. Some of us—I think on both sides—were wondering if it was ever going to end. It was like political purgatory, except that at least purgatory offers the promise of heaven at the end. We did not get heaven. What we got was the opportunity to stand here eight months later still debating the address-in-reply. Why are we doing this eight months later? Because this government do not have anything else do in this parliament. They are not passing legislation. They are hoping no-one will make a fuss, but I would like to reiterate the gravity of this matter and anticipate, on the public's behalf, a serious response to these inexcusable actions.

The Prime Minister is so utterly obsessed with the Leader of the Opposition that he has mentioned him in question time 570 times since the election. If I were Bill, I would be worried. That infatuation is just a little bit concerning. If only the Prime Minister were concerned about Australians' jobs and not his own. That is something that would be important to us. But that is the whole problem: this Prime Minister does not have a direction and does not have priorities. Four years of Liberal government and the thing we keep hearing about is the plan. It is like 'the Baldrick government'—everything is a plan. It is straight out of Blackadder. 'A plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel,' will be the next iteration of it. Instead of making positive reforms and passing legislation that would benefit hardworking Australians, the Prime Minister has decided his priority is to water down race hate laws and make bigotry more accessible. Instead of making sure that funding goes to our schools, hospitals and small businesses, he is desperate to give away $50 billion to big business and big banks—the same banks, with record profits, that are now closing much needed branches in country areas such as Broadford.

Labor, on the other hand, have stood firm with our priorities. We continue to fight for what matters to Australians: local jobs, local apprentices, protecting Medicare and building a strong economy that delivers for all. One cannot help but wonder just how much better the last eight months would have been had it been Prime Minister Shorten at the reins—a PM who puts the people before himself. We on this side of the House have a pretty simple concept—a concept that those opposite just cannot seem to grasp: we keep our promises.

The Liberal government promised that every single Australian home would be connected to the NBN by the end of last year. But here we are in 2017 and seven million homes are still waiting. This sits firmly at the Prime Minister's feet. The MTM, as it is now called, is the Malcolm Turnbull mess. What are they going to say to the elderly in my community who are left without phones because of the dodgy NBN deals? What are they saying about the countless mobile phone black spots in McEwen that mean that we do not have access to the most basic needs, such as emergency services? I am sick of the promises that have time and time again been delayed and changed—jeopardising small businesses and impacting the daily lives of the towns in our communities because of this government's failure.

Under our plan, the NBN would have delivered a world-class fibre-optic network to more than 90 per cent of homes and businesses. But, under the misguided leadership of then communications minister Turnbull, the Liberal government decided to put in a second-class copper NBN and Australia's internet speeds dropped from 30th to 60th in the world. Since moving back to Whittlesea from Broadford, I have experienced firsthand the failure of the government's disastrous NBN rollout. With no internet connection at home I was forced to pay for an expensive wireless internet dongle. Parts of my town were only just being connected to the National Broadband Network late last year. It means that we are playing catch-up with global internet standards.

It does not matter if you live close to the city or in one of the many towns across our region, you have been impacted by this rollout. South Morang was supposed to be one of the first places to have NBN installed. Communities such as Sunbury, Doreen and Mernda were promised NBN connection by 2015. It is now 2017—and guess what? They are still waiting because of this government's failure. I have constituents contacting me to tell me that they have to drive to their offices in the Melbourne CBD at all hours for conference meetings with European and American stakeholders and business partners. The internet in their homes is so unreliable due to the dodgy NBN that they cannot even be sure that it is going to work.

We have whole communities unable to access the existing internet service, because of an NBN they have not seen and certainly cannot use. What kind of innovative and agile plan is for that a quality, reliable internet in a modern country? It is absolutely unacceptable that less than 30 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne there are families and businesses who cannot get access to broadband. I have lost count of the frustrated parents throughout our communities who have spoken to me about having to bunk down at McDonalds because that is the only reliable source of internet for their children to do their homework. It is disappointing. Because of this government's delays, many of our small businesses have had no choice but to move. That is jobs lost in regional communities because of this government's failure. The severely limited wireless towers in my community just do not cut it. We need results and we need leadership, but they are certainly not going to come from this government.

As the fastest-growing region in Australia, Victoria makes up 27 per cent of our nation's population, with more than a thousand moving to the towns in our community each month. In spite of this, the government is only investing a miniscule 77c for every $10 of investment in infrastructure. This government is starting a growing gulf in critical infrastructure. We need investment. During the last election campaign, the Liberal Party and the National Party—because they both decided to run candidates this time—did not give McEwen one cent of infrastructure promises—not one. The member for Corangamite can snigger all she wants, but these people—

Ms Henderson interjecting—

Sit down. You can't take a point of order on that, because you were sniggering. Don't waste my time.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Is the honourable member seeking to ask a question?

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the member accept the intervention?

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I will just keep going, thank you very much.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am wanting to make it clear that I was not sniggering—

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Point 1: there are countless roads that urgently need—

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could I still raise a point of order please, Mr Deputy Speaker?

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can raise a point of order.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, as we know, in this chamber it is inappropriate to reflect on a member. I would ask that the member opposite not reflect on me. That is an inappropriate representation. I was not sniggering in relation to anything that you said.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is time wasting!

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You made a false allegation. The point of order is that you have reflected on me. I was not sniggering in relation to anything that you said—

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Thank you, member for Corangamite.

Ms Henderson interjecting—

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

Order! Everyone, resume your seats. I have heard the point of order. I note it, but I do not think he impugned your character, which is what you are suggesting. The member for McEwen has the call.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I said: not one cent on infrastructure. After four years we have not seen any infrastructure by this government in the seat of McEwen. We had a Liberal-National government which again did not spend one cent on infrastructure in this electorate. It is an absolute failure of those opposite in the way they treat people in the outer suburbs. There is no denying that; it is a fact.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I reject that contention.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can reject it, but you have done nothing.

Ms Henderson interjecting—

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Corangamite!

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just as Labor promised McEwen residents during the election—

Ms Henderson interjecting—

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Everyone cease! I appreciate you are feisty on this issue, but the member for McEwen has the call.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very passionate about it!

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Passionate', I should have said.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The story that often gets put out is that Labor never invested in mobile phone towers. Well, let's clear the lie. Every single one of the NBN towers that we put in place was built for infrastructure for telephone towers. What this lot have done is to stop building those—

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is absolutely untrue!

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and we still have not got the towers that were promised in 2014. We have got every right to ask why the government has not told the truth. Why are bushfire-affected communities still waiting for the towers that were promised in 2014? They are still waiting because this government does not care.

During the election, we announced funding for the upgrade of Bridge Inn Road in Mernda—it needs to be duplicated because of the growth—as well as announcing upgrades to Craigieburn Road and to the four-way traffic lights at the intersection at Whittlesea. These are just some of the projects that we know would be vital to our community if only the people of McEwen and Victoria were to receive a fair share of infrastructure allocation from this government. But, like the rest of the government's broken promises, investing in safer roads for McEwen was a promise that never was.

As we know, when it comes to education this government does not do things by half. The cuts and the delays certainly do not stop. Not just do the cuts target working people, the elderly or the sick; they also target our younger generations. Under a Labor government, through the promises we made at the last election, every student in McEwen would have had the same educational opportunities as the rest of Australia. Labor's plan pushed for more one-on-one support for students, challenged those students who excelled through extension classes, and focused on evidence-based learning to make sure our students would get the most from their schools. Whether it is axing $21 million from the Gonski funding or cutting the schoolkids bonus, the Liberal government have only delivered cuts. Kids in our communities just cannot catch a break with this lot. At the end of the day, every single one of the kids in the 78 schools across McEwen will be our economic, social and political future. They will drive the 'innovation nation' that this government so strongly support. But eight months on from the election we ask: why aren't they a priority?

Throughout the towns and the communities across McEwen I have heard from parents who have been unable to afford schoolbooks, uniforms, shoes or excursions. I have heard parents tell me that they have had no choice but to send their kids to school with uniforms that are two sizes too small. In one of our schools, 18 students out of the 20 in the class did not have books because their parents could not afford them—thanks to this Liberal government's cuts. It is unacceptable. It is wrong. It is just unfair. Our families are feeling the pressure caused by this government's twisted priorities. We must ensure that school is accessible to all families and ensure all students across the country have the opportunity to thrive in our education system.

What about the government's Productivity Commission review of the NDIS? My constituents know how little this government cares about the NDIS. They have experienced firsthand the attempts to stall the rollout and diminish the effectiveness of services in Victoria. To this government, 'productivity' means making services work harder for less; 'productivity' means making the worse off prove more to get less.

I think of Stuart Locke who came to see me about the future of the special school bus that he operates in Seymour. Stuart was worried that the review would include recommendations to cut the bus service and replace it with other travel arrangements—which, as we have seen, has happened in the capital cities. If this were to happen, the close relationship that his service has built over the years with the school and the students would be destroyed—all in the name of the government's 'productivity'. He is worried that these kids will have to travel in vehicles that are not designed for their needs, without the supervision and stability that helps them get to school safely. In rural communities, where the NDIS does not pay for public transport, this means paying for taxis. Not only are taxis too expensive for those who need them, but also the government does not think and does not realise that there are not that many available for people with disabilities.

What kind of a rort are you running? We cannot stand for this. The government must ensure that the review will focus on making the best possible NDIS for people with disability and not use it as just another cost-cutting service.

Now the government has come out with their latest cracker: they want to cut penalty rates. Again, they have shown that their priorities are all wrong. They are the Irish Robin Hoods—the opposite of Robin Hood: they take from the poor to give to the rich, and serve it on a silver platter with maybe some truffles and a little bit of champagne!

An honourable member interjecting—

That is why I couldn't think of it—I have never tried it; I would not know. The Liberal government wants to make the lives of 700,000 Australians worse off by cutting $77 a week out of their pay. If the Prime Minister's support for and inaction on these cuts does not show you how arrogant and out of touch he is, I do not know what would. He is giving a platform for employers to now come out and make new submissions to cut weekend penalty rates in other sectors of the economy. Thirty-seven thousand people who work in industries affected by unsociable hours live in our community, including 8,500 people who work in retail, 8,000 who work in health care and social assistance—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives

Sitting suspended from 17:33 to 18:12

I represent over 37,000 people who work in industries affected by unsociable hours—that includes the 8,500 who work in retail, 8,000 who work in health care and social assistance and 3,700 workers in the accommodation and food services industry. Removing penalty rates, overtime, shiftwork allowance and public holiday pay means the introduction of around-the-clock work and the lengthening of the working day. I know this because my father worked night shift for 35 years in the printing room of the Herald Sun, and I have seen firsthand the many issues that shift workers face, such as those of health and wellbeing and of family and social disconnection. He was not able to participate in normal family life, because when we were getting up in the morning to go to school he had just gone to bed after a full night's work, so it meant often he would miss out on family functions and school sports events and being there for other activities that a parent wants to spend with their kids. When I worked for the RACV, I had to work Christmas Day and both day and night shifts on weekends. I know this had a big impact on my own family life. I am not going to stand for the Liberal government's refusal to acknowledge the breadth of the impact on our community of these ridiculous decisions they are making.

My office has been inundated with constituents seeking advice about incorrectly calculated Centrelink debt. I know I am not on my Pat Malone there. The state in which these robo-debts leave vulnerable people is just appalling. Take, for example, an elderly woman in Seymour who is currently caring for her 17-year-old grandson, who is disabled. She had been benefiting from family tax benefit A and B to help her support his needs. In October last year, her grandson was approved for the disability support pension and backdated, which somehow leaves her ineligible for family tax benefit. Now she is being asked to pay back the family tax benefit she has received since her grandson's payment began. On top of that, Centrelink will not allow her to apply for an interest free loan, which has left her in the lurch about where to go. She has to pay back money that she did not know was coming from her grandson, because of this government's inability to be able to run even a chook raffle, let alone a social welfare system. Without these benefits, she is going to be unable to register her car or pay everyday expenses, which severely impacts the quality of life that she and her grandson experience.

Centrelink has already started deducting payments from her latest payments, without even having the decency to consult her. It is a clear example of how this government does not care about the little people. Why is this government not committed to providing families with the right information for their situation? Why isn't the government investing in IT, phones and better staffing for Centrelink? Those are questions that people ask every day. It is disappointing that the government is turning its back on families throughout McEwen and throughout Australia.

I am very proud to keep fighting for the people of McEwen because I know that these services are so important to them. It is Labor that puts people first. That was our election promise and it is the bedrock of our values, and it is something that I and my colleagues firmly stand behind. The Liberal government look for ways to cut and save, but what they do not see are the true impacts. They refuse to see that the numbers translate into people, into families and into every single Australian.

This government has backed down on so many of its promises and it has failed to deliver properly for the people of McEwen or the nation as a whole. That is why, eight months on, I am not going to back down until it starts delivering for our communities. One thing I have been very proud of in my time as an MP is being able to deliver every promise I have ever made. I said to the people of McEwen, 'I'm here for you,' and I still will be. I will fight this government tooth and nail until it starts to realise that it cannot keep cutting and hurting people who can least afford it.

Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On reflection, after the 2016 election in Gilmore, it has been a journey. Since I was first elected in 2013, it has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride on so many levels, but I would like to say thank you to the Governor-General for his generous and enthusiastic welcome and opening of the 45th Parliament. We have seen changes in many directions, and I take this opportunity to talk about them and commend the local government staff members, mayors and general managers who have assisted in getting projects shovel ready, planned and processed. In addition, I would like to thank the hundreds of residents and community members who have written, emailed or present a discussion on worthy projects that reflect the needs and our region.

When working through the electorate, I initially had part of the Shellharbour municipality within Gilmore and we worked hard on many projects with those residents, from commemorative stones at Shell Cove Public School for Anzac Day 2015 to extra funds for rescue boats at the Shellharbour Surf Club to opening the youth residence in Barrack Heights after the amazing work of Narelle Clay and Southern Youth and Family Services, which was worth in excess of $5.2 million, to the almost $1 million funding for the KidzWish facility to be built in Flinders. In the next month we will be turning the sod at that facility, and Shellharbour council has already donated the land for this very special project.

Then I worked hard for funds for the $2 million for the Triple Care Farm. This detox centre is a unique facility in Australia. It will be run and managed by Mission Australia and is also part funded by the Sir David Martin Foundation. It is special. It is for young people between 16 and 24 when they decide to make the journey of recovery. I simply could not be more proud.

There were many projects where grants were given to improve pedestrian safety, and this included $150,000 for CCTV in Kiama, as part of the 31-camera network in that CBD, and also in the streets of Gerringong; and $300,000 for three different locations in the Shoalhaven—East Nowra, Bomaderry and Sanctuary Point. I am working on getting more CCTV for the shops in Sanctuary Point. We gained additional safety lighting for Kiama harbour and the dark corner in Batemans Bay near the tourist centre. I cannot wait to switch those on and neither can the residents. There is a theme here, and it is about safety and looking after the wellbeing of our Gilmore residents.

We have had a phenomenal success with Green Army projects, with participants gaining a whopping 30 per cent employment or further study results. But the bulk was for employment. Unfortunately this program was not run as effectively in other parts of Australia, and when we tried to get testimonials from our Green Army graduates we had some difficulty, mostly because they are now working, which was the aim of the game.

I look forward to the rollout of the Launch into Work program and the PaTH program. The PaTH program has a unique approach to inspiring young people who have not previously worked and whose family, for one reason or another, have been unable to find work. They learn how to prepare for work through a mentorship arrangement. Then there is an opportunity of a period of subsidised work, and if it works out for both the employer and the PaTH participant then the employer will get a brand-new and prepared employee. If, however, the potential employee feels that this is not going to be right for them then it is not a major chore to get them back onto income support, as it was never removed. In a day and age when employability is difficult to teach, this is a great option.

Our apprenticeship challenge, which we set in January this year, has met with terrific success. Many single-operator businesses have been helped by the Apprenticeship Support Network. We gained 97 official sign-ups by the end of February when our initial target was just 52. We are expecting even more by the end of March.

One example is a plumber, who has been reluctant to take on apprentices for years because the red tape and everything involved was such a hassle. The network has made a real difference. The new apprentice is Dane. He is 16 years old and lives in Kiama. He commenced his apprenticeship on 30 January and will do a Certificate III in Wall and Floor Tiling at Randwick TAFE. The apprenticeship is four years, with three years of block release at the TAFE. The only minus in this apprenticeship is that the local TAFEs do not do wall and floor tiling courses and he has so far to travel.

This aspect of training opportunities at TAFE is quite a universal problem. I wonder if that is because the government of the day back in the eighties decided that if you did not go to university you were getting a second-rate education? I know that qualified tradespeople are earning very good money right now, and we are going to be critically short of qualified tradesmen and tradeswomen. Congratulations to all those tradies in our region who have taken up the challenge to share their skills for our collective future.

There has been a bucketload of funding for road infrastructure in Gilmore. It is a wonderful coastal electorate, with many hundreds of roads. But they are often damaged in the pouring rain after the blistering heat, as only a coastal region experiences. Road funding has come from a number of sources, but my most favourite to fix is the blackspot funding. Blackspot locations are the sites of accidents, some with many frequent minor accidents and others with a sad history of loss of life. It is great to see when work is done on those projects, because I know that it is going to make them safer for my community.

The municipality of Kiama has to date gained more than $1.25 million for such projects. Currently I am working on the grant of $1.4 million for the museum-library upgrade in Gerringong, and the promised half a million dollars in funding is now confirmed for the amenities improvement at Jamberoo. Half a billion dollars has been invested in HMAS Albatross, including $157 million for the Helicopter Aircrew Training System. In the next decade there will be another half-a-billion-dollar investment in this base, which will further enhance its existing infrastructure and defence capability and increase employment in our region.

I have delivered $1.23 million for the Mind the GaP facility, which is a mental health facility at the University of Wollongong's Shoalhaven campus. It is going to be there to improve mental health outcomes across the region and is also a co-location for the new Lifeline call centre. It will have consulting capacity and research capacity. This is a brilliant outcome for our region, as mental health problems are a really significant issue.

It was a great day when we cut the ribbon to open Turpentine Road, a very important link in our region. There had been a $2 million election commitment, an additional allocation of road blackspot funding of around $1.8 million and then almost $3 million of Roads to Recovery funding, so Turpentine Road was a gift to the people of Gilmore from this coalition government. I am now advocating for funding for a number of other roads that are in need all over the electorate.

But first let me say that the Shoalhaven has in the last three years received a mammoth amount of road funding: more than $22 million from Roads to Recovery; more than $17 million of blackspot funding—the highest in the last three years; and in excess of $5 million for bridge replacement and heavy vehicle road construction. Most important of all, though, was the $10 million for the planning, engineering and environmental studies needed as a prerequisite for the new Nowra Bridge. I continue to have this as my highest priority for business growth, resident convenience and tourism encouragement.

Some $450,000 secured the construction of the section of the Round the Bay pathway at Orion Beach. What a gem that has proved to be. The Dunn and Lewis centre gained $2 million from an election commitment. The lock-up stage is now complete, and I am advocating fiercely for the last stage of funding to see that wonderful project completed.

The 21-ship berthing facility at the Ulladulla Harbour was an election promise, and the plans are on display. That will be a tourism drawcard. It will provide a safe harbour for vessels, a great place for tourists to visit and—you guessed it!—work opportunities. The bridge over the Candlagan Creek at Broulee was the result of more than $1 million from the coalition government, and there have been thousands of dollars delivered to small community groups to help with purchases like tools for Men's Sheds, boxing gear for the PCYC and playground equipment for community child-care centres.

Yet to be delivered are the funding projects for many of our sporting clubs and facilities. Netball in Ulladulla is in progress; the fencing at the Mariners baseball field is confirmed; the Cougars have an enormous project to work on, including change rooms and meeting rooms as well as improved drainage. I have worked closely with many young people in our region to build skate parks in Manyana, to extend one in Sanctuary Point and to help the organisers of Culburra skate park to follow their dreams. That one will be amazing!

We only gave catalyst funding, but they used that for leverage to get an enormous amount of investment. Well done to Alex McNeilly and the wonderful group of local young people, many of whom are likely able to drive now but who I bet still love to skate: Luke Bennett, Daniel Wood, Charley Hayes, Ryan and Matt Byrnes, Tanaya Rogers, Max Feast and Leon Vukelic, who started this project and had the tenacity to see it through.

Jindelara respite facility for young people with a disability was a dream held by many in the southern Shoalhaven. With a delivery of an election commitment of $358,000 this will now become a reality. Indeed, many youngsters with a disability will also have an opportunity in the Moruya region as Yumaro has been funded for their disability residential facility. The Bay Push is an inclusive playground, also the recipient of funds, and I am working on more for the next stage of the build. Congratulations to Charles Stuart and his committee for their tenacity.

On the larger scale of delivery by the coalition government, many in our region have been frustrated by the existence of mobile phone blackspots. The good news is that there are two towers expected in Gilmore under round 1 of the blackspot program: Kioloa, which is scheduled for construction next year, and Nelligen, which was expected to start earlier this year but is now going to be a co-located facility with an NBN fixed wireless tower. Under round 2 there will be an additional tower at Woodhill, but that rollout has not yet been established. Under round 3 there will be four towers built at Kangaroo Valley, Sussex Inlet/Wandandian/Bewong, East Lynne and Clyde Mountain, better known as 'Pooh Corner' to all those who drive along the Kings Highway and see the teddy bears of the same name clustered in the rock cavern. Our tender process to select the operators which will build the towers in these areas is scheduled to commence around mid-2017. I have to say I worked hard to get these towers allocated to Gilmore, because the beneficiaries are the travelling public, my residents and visitors. The result is that the providers are not able to send a bill to anyone, but everyone in Gilmore knows just how essential these towers truly are. By the end of next year we are expected to have a 90 per cent NBN coverage rate across Gilmore. Of course, this rollout has not been without a few hiccups, but with such a massive infrastructure build no-one could expect that it would be a completely smooth process.

One of the best proposals for my region is the $20 million South Coast jobs package. Everybody knows we have a very high unemployment level both amongst adults and, significantly, amongst our youth. A government at any level is not in a position to actually create jobs. However, with a great tax regime as we are planning to deliver, it can inspire businesses to grow and invest, and this ultimately leads to jobs. The jobs package is a dollar-for-dollar grants system that will help give a kick-start to businesses in our region to either grow, export or even move from Sydney or other areas to our region. They have already got their strategic plan. It is mostly agrarian-based, but there are unusual industries like equestrian in the initiative—such as Terry Snow has built down at Bawley Point with his Willinga complex. There are businesses that are waiting in the wings that just need a little encouragement to relocate, and how exciting will that be!

A great deal has been achieved, but there is still a lot to be done. There are two major roundabouts in the Eurobodalla that need to be funded and upgraded: one in central Batemans Bay near the visitor centre and one at Tomakin, which will upgrade Sunpatch Parade to join George Bass Drive. I am working with the minister for regional infrastructure to deliver an improved and better intersection at Hector McWilliam Drive in Tuross Head.

As I travel around the electorate, local residents talk to me of their perceptions and their problems. Some of these include big-picture issues like making sure multinationals pay their fair share of tax—well, we did that this week—and fixing up child care, which we have done, so it does not stop my people from getting extra work. Other issues relate to the need for a better transport system, which is an issue that affects employment, getting to hospitals and getting health care. We have a strategic plan that we began in 2015 and which has since been added to by another group. We are hoping that it is also seen as part of the project delivery for the $20 million package. We are hoping that this will make a big change to our area, because it impedes on all sorts of employment and health initiatives and is a bit of an anchor for everyone, so we are hoping it improves.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 6:30pm, the debate is interrupted in accordance with the resolution agreed to earlier. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.