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

I have the pleasure tonight to discuss my experience of travelling through my electorate last week. I have the largest federal electorate in the southern hemisphere, and I do not need to tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker Hogan—you also have a large electorate—that to be effective representatives we have to keep moving. We have to be on the go all the time in order to travel vast distances.

On Monday of last week I was in Kununurra in the East Kimberley, attending a forum for the northern Australian local governments. It really was a fantastic and robust forum, where we explored the many issues faced by growing and improving communities in the north-west of this country. I presented on what we could to collectively to improve the shires' access to federal infrastructure grant funding. These types of grants are of vital importance to grow infrastructure and investment, and to encourage people to move permanently to some of the most remote, but also some of the most beautiful, parts of Western Australia.

My colleague and friend Senator Linda Reynolds delivered a very thoughtful address on the current and future Defence presence in the north-west, on how local and state governments can best encourage increased Defence industry and Defence personnel locally, and on the federal government's record planned Defence spending.

I also had the pleasure of visiting the Kununurra Clontarf Academy. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Matthew Hamdorf for organising this really fabulous visit, as well as all the boys for presenting me with my very own signed Clontarf footy. How excited was I! I took the opportunity to ask the boys about what they would do if they were Prime Minister for the day. I was really blown away and quite touched by most of their responses. These students almost exclusively spoken about wanting to help other young Indigenous kids access the same services and education that they themselves were experiencing. They wanted all their friends to have the same experience, and they also wanted their schools to have greater resources.

Sadly, more than one student said that if they were Prime Minister for a day they would make sure that all the kids would be safe at home at night. Heartbreakingly, behind closed doors there are real and systemic family violence issues in country Australia. Sadly, Indigenous kids are often the victims.

This is one of the reasons why I pushed so hard for the introduction of the cashless welfare card in a number of locations around my electorate. That includes Kununurra, where, indeed, I was visiting these young people. We know that this parliament does have an obligation to keep those kids safe and to help them thrive. Certainly, we are seeing that currently with the use of the cashless welfare card.

I then had the opportunity to travel to Karratha, which is some 1,800 kilometres away, with my colleague the Minister for Employment and Minister for Women, Senator Michaelia Cash. We had the pleasure of attending a lunch with a group of local businesswomen. I would like to thank the CME representative, Nicole Roocke, for organising and the representatives from Yarra Fertilisers, Citic Pacific Mining, Woodside, Chevron and Rio Tinto for attending.

We discussed a variety of topics, but chief among them were the federal government's reforms to child care and the challenges faced by women in the workplace, as well as the good news about the increased funding for WA schools via this federal government. We also had the opportunity to drop in and speak to the year 11 and 12 girls at the Karratha Senior High School. Pleasingly, the Karratha Senior High School is going to receive $17 million in extra federal money under the coalition's full Gonski school funding arrangements. I would like to thank the principal, Jennifer Mcmahon, for her hospitality and generosity, and all the girls for their optimism and positivity.

We spoke to these bright young women about their hopes and aspirations for the future, and their plans post high school. It was inspiring to hear these young women speak, with the vast majority of them heading to university in Perth and also beyond. It was an opportunity for me to explain to them that the federal government has committed another $15 million to the Geraldton Universities Centre model, which is based in my electorate, which was very pleasing. Once I left the girls in Karratha I then travelled to Geraldton, where I had to the opportunity to speak with the Geraldton Universities Centre about the commitment of the federal government and also their plan for the Pilbara. Maybe in a few years time the sisters and their brothers of those girls in Karratha will have the chance to study at home. That would be a fabulous outcome.