Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great privilege to be here today. As I'm no longer Speaker, I once again get the opportunity to talk in the Federation Chamber and also the House. It's been an unbelievable privilege for me to have won the election. The people of Fisher have put their faith in me once again. It is a tremendous privilege—one that I never, ever will take for granted. I'm going to continue to fight for the people of Fisher. I'm going to fight for better roads and rail. I'm going to fight for better mental health services. I'm going to fight for small businesses and local manufacturers. I'm going to fight for Australians and their interests at home and abroad. And I want to protect the special character of our community on the Sunshine Coast. It's about attracting funding for infrastructure, roads and rail—our Sunshine Coast rail, for which we tried desperately hard to get support and which the new government committed to funding just prior to the election. So I look forward to seeing that remain in the budget in October.

For our construction sector, as an ex-chippie I'll continue to fight for all people involved in the construction sector, and I lament the government's decision to remove or gut the ABCC, at our, and their, peril. (Time expired)