Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to talk about what is ahead for what I am trying to pursue in Wentworth. I will start with someone I've talked about a lot, a guy I met back on the campaign trail, Sean from Bondi. The meeting is still vivid in my mind. I was on the promenade by Bondi Beach and he was wheeling his two- or three-year-old on a tricycle along the promenade. I said to him, 'What's important to you?' He said: 'For me, the environment's really important. I live in Bondi because I love the natural environment and I want to give this to my children.' He said, 'I want us to live a kind society, a decent society.' Finally, he said, 'I'm a small business owner, and economics and the cost of living are very important to me.' Those values are still so true for the whole of Wentworth. They were true on that day and they have stuck with me. Today I want to try to outline what I'm hoping to achieve with and for Wentworth this year.

I'll start on climate, the environment, because that's what Sean identified. What I've seen in talking to people in Wentworth is: they want ambition on climate change. They want us to have targets which are science based but which can also be deliverable—practically deliverable—for the economy as well. So that is why I am advocating for a 75 per cent reduction by 2035, because it can achieve both those things.

But they also want to be able to make that change themselves, in their local community. I think there are really three key things here. That's about household electrification; that's about rooftop solar, particularly for people in my community who are renters and apartment dwellers and live in stratas; and then, finally, that's about EVs—electric vehicles—and electrical charging infrastructure.

That's going to be the focus of what I'm going to do, because we've consulted the community. We had Wentworth's climate action summit last year. We've sat down with the state members and the local councils. There's a real appetite for change on these local issues, but also for making a change at a national level. And that's what I'm seeking to do: work on national issues, but then take local action.

On household electrification, we want to turbocharge the uptake of efficient electrical devices powered by rooftop solar, which is the cheapest electricity in the world. To drive that, we'll need concessional finance in the budget, to help low- and middle-income households to electrify, in particular, and also for the bulk retrofit of public and social housing.

On rooftop solar, there's a critical missing piece—a gap—for renters and apartment dwellers who cannot access rooftop solar. Almost 10 years ago, I was involved in Sydney Renewable Power Company, and we set up a solar company purely to deal with renters and apartment dwellers who couldn't access solar. But, 10 years on, they still can't access the benefits of solar on apartment roofs or if they are renters. So that is a critical area for change. That means broadening the remit of the existing solar banks program, so that strata managers and owners' corporations can access the loans as part of this. We need regulatory reform to break the barriers facing renters who can't access rooftop solar. And we need mandatory information disclosure on household energy bills when renting.

Then the final piece on climate is EVs and EV infrastructure, including driving the uptake of EVs across the country, through things like strong mandatory fuel efficiency standards and targeted investment; through supporting the investment, public and private, in charging infrastructure, particularly on the streets of Wentworth, because so many of us don't have garages or off-street parking; and through an electric vehicle task force, to coordinate a national uptake in electric vehicles. So those are some of the key priorities for me, in terms of climate. But I will also be supporting key actions on the environment, such as the review of the EPBC Act and an end to native forest logging.

The second piece that Sean asked me was to be kind. He wanted an inclusive, kind society. There are some things that people in Wentworth have said are really important to them. They want action on refugees. They want to end the indefinite detention of refugees, and they want to give those on temporary visas a pathway to permanency—a pathway to putting down permanent roots in this country.

Now, I am disappointed that, so far, while the government has made commitments, particularly on giving people a pathway to permanency, we have not yet had the detail or the action. So I will be keeping up the pressure on the government in relation to refugee policy, particularly on the abolition of TPVs and SHEVs.

A lot of people talked to me about the health system. There's real concern about GP access, and, 'What does it mean to have a kind society if people can't access GPs?'

An issue that I remember was raised a lot with me in the electorate was around youth mental health. I heard a lot of that in the election time. I remember, very vividly, one woman coming out of a polling booth holding her daughter's hand and saying to me, with tears in her eyes: 'I just voted for you. My daughter is 13. She could not access mental health support for her eating disorder, and it has absolutely torn our family apart. I want you to do something about that.' I think that it's not just eating disorders. Youth mental health is an absolutely critical issue for the community, but also for Wentworth in particular, because the annual rate of death by suicide has risen from 10 per 100,000 young people to 14—a 40 per cent increase in the last decade. We are getting richer, but our younger people are killing themselves in record numbers. While it's more typical for males than females, the rate for females has almost doubled over the decade, from 3.7 to 6.6. This is a youth mental health crisis. It's also an issue that particularly affects young men, as well as young women. I think young men haven't had a strong voice in this area, and I will be working with my community on youth mental health.

Lastly on a kind society, there are two other things I want to mention. One is about a second public high school. My community in Wentworth wants us to invest in their community, and they want to have great educational choice. We have wonderful private high schools and a great public high school. We have great public and private primary schools. But only one public high school in an electorate like ours is really disproportionate, and we know that families are seeking additional public education.

I will also be very much supporting the Voice to Parliament, and my community group, Wentworth for the Voice, are absolutely passionate about that. As part of this kind society that Sean and others have asked me to pursue, I think that the Voice to Parliament is absolutely critical, and I am looking forward to engaging the community on this.

Finally, don't forget that Sean said he's a businessperson and that's one of his most important priorities. Certainly, as a businessperson, as someone who studied economics, it's also one of mine, and so I will also be leading discussion on economic policy. Frankly, we haven't had economic reform in this country for around two decades, and that means that we are missing out on opportunities to better enable people to access the prosperity that comes with strong economic reform, as well as to ensure that we can supply great services.

The first area I'll be pushing on is monetary policy. We have a huge challenge of getting inflation under control. The RBA, for example, has raised rates again—I think it's for the ninth time—for families, and this is not going to be the last time. We have a huge challenge here. So we are reviewing monetary policy.

We also then need to look at fiscal policy. At the moment, the high level of government spending—it's at a record level of 27 per cent of GDP—is part of the reason why inflation is so high, and we absolutely need to address that. Fiscal policy pays for really, really important things that we all value, but there isn't enough focus on: Is the dollar that we're spending the most effective use of that dollar? Are we getting real value for that? One of my colleagues spoke just now about 'measuring what matters', talking about measuring outcomes that really matter to people, like wellbeing, like health, like education outcomes. They're really important, but we should know whether the dollar that we're spending is getting the best possible outcome for that investment. So I'll be advocating for greater scrutiny and accountability on existing spending projects, including infrastructure spending.

I also will be advocating and have been advocating on tax reform. Again, it's not an area that everybody's interested in, but tax experts, Treasury and international groups like the OECD all agree that we need to change our tax mix, particularly with this high level of inflation. Australian people and Australian workers are paying more and more tax as their bracket creeps up with the really high inflation. It is time to address that for the community. For me, this is about making sure both that we're a productive nation and also that we're fair to the generation that comes underneath.

The last piece I'll be focusing on is ensuring that Australia is the best place to do business. It's going to be a big year ahead, and those are just the things I'm going to try—a lot else will be thrown at me—but these are some things you've asked for, Wentworth.