Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to start by thanking the Governor-General for his remarks upon the opening of the 47th Parliament last year. His Excellency highlighted the fact that 'in hard times, Australians have been at their caring and courageous best'. We saw that over the summer when Australians were getting out there and helping one another in the floods across this country as they were dealing with natural disasters. Indeed, the member from Forrest has also just highlighted—and I want to attach myself to her remarks—the courageous work that we have seen from those in her electorate in the south-west of WA who have been fighting fires.

I thank our emergency services professionals and volunteers and, equally, those who came not just from across WA but from across this nation to ensure that we did everything we could to help communities around Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley that were affected by 15-metre-high floodwaters. It is something we had not seen before and something from which we know it will take many years to rebuild the community and other infrastructure that has been damaged.

Again, as His Excellency said:

In hard times, Australians have been at their caring and courageous best.

Sadly, we see the reminders of that during particularly awful natural disasters. What we have seen over the last three years is Australians showing great strength and resilience. Our new parliament has given Australia a fresh start to come out the other side—a new opportunity to talk about the future of our nation, to show our love for this great country we call Australia and to talk afresh about what we can achieve together.

As His Excellency said, this government will seek to lead by example. We will seek to lead by example in who we choose to send to this place, and you see the diversity of thought, skills, experience and background in the caucus that makes up the Albanese Labor government. We are leading by example through our open consultation with Australian industry, looking at new ways to work together to get things done. We've seen that in the parliament this week with the progression of the paid parental leave expansion, an idea that came from working together across industry, unions and the community sector as a result of the Jobs and Skills Summit that was held here in September last year.

I also thank His Excellency for noting that the role of the Climate Change Authority would be restored, and it has been. That was one of the first acts of the 47th Parliament, because we know that Australia's standing in the world is enhanced when we are seen to take action on climate change and when we do our bit on the big challenges that face not just our country and not just our communities but communities across the world.

I also note His Excellency mentioned our commitment to the voice to parliament. This is a commitment to build a better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It will be a better future for all of us and this is an opportunity for every Australian—not just the 151 people who serve as representatives in this place but all 17.2 million Australians—to have their say on writing the next chapter of our Constitution and on writing a shared future for Australia through both constitutional recognition and having a voice that can speak, in all its diversity, to this parliament and to the executive to make sure that we improve the quality of policy design.

We also had His Excellency highlight the economic policies of the Albanese government—policies that 'will promote economic growth that creates opportunities for Australians' and will 'steer Australia safely through' the issues we are facing. I think that is worth recognising as well. It's an honour to be part of this parliament and part of this government, and to see the changes that have started in this place.

I was recently reading Senator Margaret Reynolds's valedictory address from 1999, where she remarked how diverse and enlivened the Senate had become over her career from the 1980s to the 1990s. If you look at the parliament now, in 2022 and 2023, we have the most women in history in both chambers: 43 in the Senate and 58 in the House. There is more work to be done, but it's an absolute step change compared to how things were, even when Margaret Reynolds was talking about the changes that had been made back in 1999. We have 11 First Nations members of parliament. We have so many different faiths and backgrounds being represented in this place. It is always a joy, a privilege and an honour to work in this place, but I feel that that joy, privilege and honour only deepen as we expand the breadth of this parliament to ensure it looks as much as possible like the Australia we represent. It's a sign of the fairer Australia that we all seek to build, and it gives us the opportunity to make sure that we have all of the policy ideas necessary to deliver the big, lasting change we need. We are determined not to waste this opportunity. We are determined to be a government that seeks to unite Australians, not divide them, while recognising we have an important role in this place to debate things, to thoroughly examine them and to make sure that all views are considered when we make decisions.

When it comes to the capacity of this parliament to make good decisions, one of the most fundamental things that we need is to have all the information available. One of the things that was such a surprising start to this parliamentary term was that we learnt of the absolute lack of transparency that existed under the former government, when the member for Cook briefed some journalists about the secret ministries which had started in and expanded across the Morrison government, breaking faith with the Australian people, breaking faith with the parliament of Australia and breaking faith with the conventions of the Westminster system within which we all operate. This side of the House, this government, will seek to uphold and protect the conventions of parliament. We are doing that with the Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022, which is before the parliament at the moment, to make sure that never again can any Prime Minister swear themselves into one, two, three, four or five secret ministries. That was a deception of the Australian people. It also undermined not just faith in democracy but our Australian Public Service. We did what you would expect when we learnt in an otherwise very good book—a very revealing book—about these secret ministries that had proliferated across government. We did the right thing. We asked former justice Virginia Bell AC to inquire into it, we sought advice from the Solicitor-General and we put legislation to this parliament to act upon it.

While I'm talking about ministries, obviously the member for Cook was a Treasurer, not that any of us knew it at the time—not even Treasurer Frydenberg knew it at the time—but maybe it does mean that the trillion dollars of debt that former Treasurer Frydenberg left should only be—

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There wasn't a trillion dollars of debt.

Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a trillion dollars of debt. Okay, I'll be generous: I'll allocate $500 billion of debt to the member for Cook and $500 billion of debt to someone who, I understand, may become the new member for Aston. We have seen in reports today that we might have a member of the shadow executive walking out the door and being replaced by former Treasurer Frydenberg. The former member who gave Australians a trillion dollars of debt is now going to come back to finish the job. Will he try to add an extra trillion dollars of debt?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I raise a point of order: that's misleading the House. There was not a trillion dollars of debt then, and there's not now. He can't say things that are not right.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Perth, will you correct your reference?

Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't know, maybe there are some sensitivities amongst the coalition parties about the idea that the former member for Kooyong might return to this place. However much he spent, we definitely know billions of dollars were wasted in JobKeeper through poor policy design. That's the talent that is being brought back into this place. Indeed, the former member for Kooyong, who may be the new member for Aston, has the record as the highest taxing Treasurer in Australian history. I note that when I say 'highest taxing treasure in Australian history' I am not being pulled up on accuracy, because it is a fact.

The other thing we as a government have sought to do, in dealing with the decade of inaction presided over by those opposite, is make sure that we once again look to the future on the important work of acting upon climate change. Embracing the transition to clean energy and the opportunities in front of Australia brings with it 600,000 jobs. We know that those jobs are good, well-paying, secure jobs, jobs that have a very bright future, and we should be looking to do everything we can to encourage those jobs to come here to Australia as we seek to be the renewable energy superpower that will not just power Australia and Australian industry into the future but also help provide the energy and resources of the future for our neighbours and friends abroad. Australia has always had a proud history of being an energy exporter. That is a history we embrace. It is our present role in helping many of our friends and allies around the world with their energy security needs, and if we want to make sure that we can continue to do that for many, many decades to come, we need to be serious about embracing action on climate change and about embracing the opportunities presented through further expansion of our critical minerals industries.

We also saw a change in how we develop policy in this place, when it came to the climate change bill. We saw a government that was happy to take sensible suggestions from other parts of the parliament to improve the legislation in front of us. The Australian people expect us to work together to make sure that we do grab good ideas from wherever they should come. It was pleasing to see that legislation become law last year.

After some productive work, I note that we now have the coalition that designed the safeguard mechanism refusing to implement policies they previously supported to help act on climate change. These are policies that have been developed in partnership with industry, after talking to industry about what they need, about how we make sure that we work together to reduce emissions while supporting Australian jobs and Australian industry. That's what this legislation is all about. But in an interesting change from the party that for many years did not support net zero by 2050 under the former Deputy Prime Minister—I commend him for shifting the coalition along towards the proposition of net zero by 2050—now in opposition they are backtracking from all of those commitments by trying to block action on the safeguard mechanism.

When it comes to making sure that Australians have a reliable, clean, secure energy supply, we need to make sure we are putting in place the good, long-term measures that will ensure energy security and job security for all. So I urge those on the opposition benches to do everything they can to work with us to deliver those sensible improvements to their safeguard mechanism.

When it comes to the question of walking together and looking at how you can find the big shifts in policy that will help support the future of this country and make sure we do walk as one, there is no simpler proposition than that put forward by the authors of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the statement that was written in 2017, handed in generosity to the previous parliament, handed in generosity to the previous government, and that seeks to find a way to work together. It was based on feedback from Prime Ministers Abbott and Turnbull about what was needed, about what was the sensible Constitutional amendment that would enable us to do recognition and respect and to work with the First Nations of this country.

This is a huge opportunity. I welcome the fact there is ongoing dialogue between ministers and shadow ministers to ensure we get the referendum machinery provisions right. I welcome the fact the Leader of the Opposition has met with the referendum working group. I welcome the fact we have open hearts across this parliament to try and find a way to, after 122 years, properly recognise the First Australians in our Constitution. This is beyond party politics. It's beyond individual members of parliament. It is something for 17.2 million Australians to have their say on. It's something that has been worked on in one form or another for 15 years. In the words of the Prime Minister, released more than six months ago at the Garma Festival, there is a basis for every member of this place to have a say on what that constitutional amendment would look like, and once we've had our say it's then over to the Australian people to have their say.

I echo the words the Prime Minister said about this question on the first day of the 47th Parliament: 'You can either have a source of pride or a source of regret.' We look to next Monday, which is the 15th anniversary of the apology to the stolen generation. That was a moment of immense pride not just for this parliament but for this nation. We have an opportunity this year to put another moment of immense pride for our people into our national history books and write a brighter future for all Australians.

We find ourselves inheriting not just a trillion dollars of debt but the interest rate rises that began under the coalition. We had interest rate rises start under the coalition. We had a trillion dollars of debt racked up by former Treasurer Frydenberg. And, on top of that, we enter the choppy waters that come with the emergence of China from COVID restrictions and the changes that come to our energy markets as a result of Russia's illegal and immoral war in Ukraine. And we have to work with our partners on the increasingly challenging strategic environment in which we find ourselves, as the Deputy Prime Minister so ably outlined in his remarks to the House. It is why we need a government that has policies focused on spending that creates growth, making sure every dollar is spent effectively and every dollar we spend has an economic benefit to the people of Australia—doing things like boosting participation and lifting productivity, doing what we can to increase wages and ensuring that people get those secure, well-paid jobs that enable them to further invest into our economy.

That's why we are so committed to our National Reconstruction Fund, because we know that will give us the next base of manufacturing, the next base of Australian industry, and make sure we grab those opportunities for our sovereign manufacturing capability. Just two years ago we had the biggest wake-up call any island nation could have—that we do not have as much capability here as we need to supply the things we need for ourselves. We are seeking to act by bringing in our National Reconstruction Fund. Again, I urge those opposite to back this in.

If I look to my community and what we continue to do, I have been pleased to work with the now minister for immigration and citizenship in a previous capacity on the ideas that would help improve and strengthen the Perth City Deal—a deal which is a partnership between the federal government, the state government and the City of Perth. We will continue to re-energise this deal, that $1.5 billion of investment, to make sure we have the universities we need in the heart of the CBD. The vertical campus by the Edith Cowan University is looking very exciting. Edith Cowan is a great university. It's in my electorate and in your electorate, Deputy Speaker Goodenough; the leadership of Edith Cowan chose very well as to where they placed their campuses, and I think that's something we can both celebrate.

Equally, I think something that can bring us together is the work happening on the Aboriginal Cultural Centre, with a $50 million investment from the Albanese government and a $50 million investment from the McGowan government, making sure we have that great new cultural institution in the heart of the CBD to help with truth-telling and to help with sharing the great history and cultures of this land. It's a tourism asset. I always say that if we get this right it'll rival the Sydney Opera House for its architectural brilliance, its tourism potential and the statement it makes, not just to all Australians but to the world, about our determination to work together for a brighter, fairer future.

In closing, I want to say that the other piece of infrastructure that will continue under this government—and I note that Prime Minister Albanese was the first minister ever to back this project—is the Metronet project rolling out across Western Australia. I had the joy of riding with the Prime Minister on the Forrestfield Airport Link connecting Bayswater and Perth to the airport. For the first time, people can catch a train in Perth to the airport. It's a welcome addition, and there's so much more to be built. (Time expired)

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in this address-in-reply debate and firstly note that when the motion was moved it was of course to the Governor-General representing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and in the intervening period of time this address is to the Governor-General representing King Charles III. Again, as I did in the condolence debate, I acknowledge the passing of Her Majesty and the remarkable service she gave to the entire Commonwealth, particularly to the Commonwealth of Australia.

I want to start by thanking the people of Sturt for placing their trust in me to serve for a second term in this parliament. It is the greatest of honours that we all share—the distinction of representing our communities in the federal parliament. I know we all hold the same view as to what an honour it is and how lucky we are to be here, and I certainly continue to cherish every moment I have here in this chamber, to participate in the important work we do, and just as much—if not more so—continuing to be in my community all the time, working with so many people to help them with the issues and concerns they have. We of course at times deal with people in some of their most vulnerable states, and they need their local democratically elected representatives to help them with challenges from a variety of issues. Sometimes there are things they need from the federal government, and the government at times can do better in the way in which we support and look after people, also hearing the issues they have more generally. It certainly informs the perspective that we have in coming to this chamber and contributing to the debates we have and the decisions we make. So, my deepest thanks and appreciation go to the people of Sturt, in the eastern and north-eastern suburbs of South Australia. I hope to live up to the very high standard of representing you again for the next three years—or 2½ years, as it is now.

Equally, this is an opportunity to talk about the election campaign. I want to thank all the unbelievable volunteers who contributed so much to my campaign for re-election—all the staff in my office, all the members of my FEC and the many volunteers beyond Liberal Party members who helped and contributed in the campaign. We are at least the equal greatest and most vibrant democracy on the planet here in Australia, and election campaigns remind us of that. Of course, when we are out there doorknocking, phone canvassing, holding our supermarket stalls, meeting with people, attending events and in a campaign, all of that goes on to top volume. And there is a whole range of other things in the heat of the campaign—debating other candidates, participating in the great contest of ideas. I acknowledge all the other candidates who contested the seat of Sturt. We had 11. A couple of colleagues have mentioned that they came close to that or that they too had 11 candidates. That's a great thing. We welcome as many people as want to contest in their local electorates. So, to the other 10 candidates who contested the state of Sturt, thank you very much for putting your hand up and wanting to represent your community and making sure there were many options for the people of Sturt to consider. Having more candidates helps to make sure that there are more ideas about both our local community and how we run our nation, and that's an excellent thing.

To my team, I really appreciate the sacrifices and the work done by staff, party members and volunteers and the team in the Liberal Party campaign headquarters. Andrew Hirst is the campaign director. The member for Cook, former prime minister Morrison, was our party leader. Party leaders do an enormous amount in election campaigns. I have seen up close leaders of parties in campaigns and the hectic schedules that the campaign directors and all the senior ministers had. I thank them so much for the enormous effort they put into contesting elections, and it should be acknowledged.

At a local level, we made some important commitments that a re-elected government would have delivered. I was very proud of those being things that were very worthy, locally developed ideas that were brought to us and that we made commitments to support, particularly those from the local governments in my electorate. I always find local government really do an excellent job in my area of identifying really worthy projects that they are prepared to invest in themselves. But, of course, they can only do so much within their budget envelope, and there are always opportunities for us to partner with local government, so we made a series of announcements during the campaign that we would have committed to.

Some of those are ongoing, despite the fact that we were not re-elected, because they were committed to before the caretaker period. In particular, the new government has reconfirmed—and I will certainly be holding them to this—that the allocation of funds to the Parkinson Oval redevelopment at the Kensington Gardens Reserve that was in the pre-election fiscal outlook will be proceeding. That's a vital co-investment between the Commonwealth, the state government—which had already committed funds and, in fact, surprisingly deposited them in their bank account before we had finalised our commitment—and the local council. Three levels of government are committing to that $8½ million redevelopment, and it has been indicated that that will still proceed because it was in the pre-election fiscal outlook document. I am pleased about that.

I am disappointed that other commitments that I made won't be proceeded with—in particular, the Campbelltown Urban Village. The Campbelltown Council will attempt to proceed with that without federal funds, and I hope that they can. If they can, they will have to use more of their own resources, and that just means other things they could have done with those funds won't occur in our community, so that's disappointing.

A project that I am very passionate about is investing in the River Torrens Linear Park precinct throughout the city of Adelaide. This is something that doesn't only benefit my electorate of Sturt but absolutely benefits every riparian electorate and every community along the Torrens, which is from the beach right up to the source of the Torrens in the hills. I am still committed to making sure that we are delivering an investment in that very important piece of environmental investment that also has very significant recreational outcomes.

Most major cities in this country were colonised on a river. The Torrens, as everyone would know, is the river that runs through Adelaide, from the Adelaide Hills, through the eastern and north-eastern suburbs of my electorate, through the city and down to the beach. We didn't always have the highest of standards in the early days of urban development throughout that catchment. The project that I was able to secure a commitment towards—it would be, again, a partnership between state and local government—involves us investing in both environmental projects and recreational enhancements throughout the entirety of what we call Linear Park, which is either side of the River Torrens. Linear Park runs all the way from the beach, through my electorate, into the Adelaide Hills. Linear Park and the River Torrens are really one and the same thing, and there are opportunities to improve, from an environmental point of view, that corridor and, more broadly, the Torrens catchment. There are equally opportunities for us to have higher standards and more consistent recreational investment throughout that corridor—with things like better and wider paths so we can share those tracks across a variety of recreational pursuits; more, better and safer public toilets; and lighting, from a safety point of view. There are a whole range of things that are opportunities if we invest in that. I'm going to keep very much focused on that throughout this term, and I hope to take a similar commitment to the next election.

Another very important issue of focus for me locally is bushfire preparedness. We had a bushfire on the cusp of my electorate only a couple of weeks ago, in Montacute. Some residents in my electorate had to evacuate their homes. It's a really significant reminder that we have to be ever vigilant to the risk of bushfire. We need to be prepared, and I want to make sure I'm doing a lot within my community to keep that awareness as heightened as it needs to be in the suburbs where people must have a bushfire plan, must know what to do when a risk develops that may mean that they have to leave their property. People must also make sure that their property is in the best condition it can be in, to assist our heroic firefighters and volunteers where there is a risk. We must make sure we keep fuel loads low, make sure people have got their bushfire plans et cetera and make sure that the resources are there for our local Country Fire Service brigades and the other emergency services that engage in protecting our community from the very real risk and threat of bushfires. Next week is the 40th anniversary of the Ash Wednesday fire, which was a devastating bushfire in the Adelaide Hills that traversed the electorate of Mayo and came into my electorate of Sturt. That's a good reminder to all of us of the need for bushfire preparedness.

The other important issue is local recycling and making sure that we keep a very high awareness of it in households and businesses in my electorate and across the nation—but I can do my bit locally. We need to make sure people understand how they can maximise recycling in the household, in particular. Of course, we work with local government, who have responsibility for waste collection, and East Waste, who are the alliance, predominantly, in my electorate that do waste collection. I had the privilege to attend, on behalf of then Minister Ley, the opening of a major recycling facility in suburban Adelaide in late 2021. It was a great example of government investment in increasing and enhancing our capacity to recycle. I'm very passionate about improving even further the amount of recycling that we do and trying to reduce as much as possible what goes to landfill and increase as much as possible what we can re-use, and using that circular economy principle as broadly as possible.

Those are three very important things locally in my electorate. The other thing that is extremely important to my electorate, and to the whole state of South Australia, is the full implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. There was a terrible mistake when the Australian Constitution was ultimately finalised and adopted, and that was that the Commonwealth did not have power over interstate waterways, and it absolutely should. I'd love to see, in my lifetime, the Constitution amended so that the Commonwealth has power over interstate waterways, because obviously water resources flow from one state to another, and one of the great advantages of our Commonwealth government is that we are in the best position of anyone to manage competing interests.

Nonetheless, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is something we should all be very proud of. It addresses the deficiency in our Constitution whereby the Commonwealth does not have responsibility for interstate waterways and, through the agreement of those that do—the constituent states and the ACT area within the Murray-Darling Basin—it creates a Commonwealth-supported funded entity, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, develops the plan and is implementing it.

It's something to be proud of. A lot of people around the world look at it and ask, 'How have you done this as well as you have?' There are parts of the world that struggle with this. Even though we have our challenges, most look to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan as examples of world's best practice in managing the challenges of securing the water that is absolutely necessary for the environmental sustainability and health of the Murray-Darling Basin against the obvious competing interests of human sustainment and economic use.

This is a problem for watercourses around the world. Hopefully, fully implementing the plan is something that we will achieve and get right. The now government made a big deal about this in my home state of South Australia, that they would be implementing the plan on time and in full. I expect them to honour that promise, and I intend to be part of holding them accountable for that.

The plan basically involved looking at all the water that was being diverted out of the system—the baseline diversions—then taking a science based approach to determining a sustainable amount of water that could come out of the system. The gap between the baseline and the sustainable amount is the water that has to be recovered: the 3,200 gigalitres of water.

Everything the now government needed to know about the plan's status and the requirements for its full implementation was well known during the campaign, when they made the commitments they made. I wish them well in honouring that promise and keeping that commitment. It is going to be a challenge. There are competing interests. I hope we do not descend into battles about who is more worthy of this scarce resource. We all understand that there's a challenge in competing interests, but the commitment was made, and it's very important to South Australia. No excuses will be acceptable for not implementing the plan on time.

I make these comments at a time when we have flooding through the Murray-Darling Basin system, and the last thing on people's minds is scarcity of water in the basin. But people in the basin know full well that, whilst we are having floods right now, and we always hope to have consistently excellent rainfall, there are going to be droughts and tough times for the basin. The point of the plan was to make sure that, once it's fully implemented—by 30 June 2024; less than 18 months from now—regardless of where in the cycle we are between heavy rain and drought, we have a long-term plan to sustainably manage the basin. That's why it absolutely must be implemented.

In the last few months in particular, in my community, as in every other community in this country, the most consistent thing people are raising is cost-of-living pressures. We are in a cycle of significant wealth reduction in our economy right now, which is absolutely terrible. We have people whose home value is decreasing while their mortgage repayments are going up and their real wages are decreasing.

The current rate of real wage reduction is really frightening. It's at a level that I've never seen in my adult life. Inflation is running at 7.8 per cent and wages growth is at 3.1 per cent, so people are really going backwards out there. It is really, really tough. I urge everyone in this chamber, particularly the government, to prioritise the really tough times that people are going through at the moment.

Whilst they have an agenda to implement from the election and a whole range of other things that they seem to be choosing to focus on, cost of living is clearly not one of them at the moment, but it needs to be. I implore the government to understand the pain that people are feeling out there. Prioritise that. There are all the other competing things that you could spend your time on as a government, but the thing that people need is relief from this cycle of wealth destruction that they are going through. It is really tough, and we need this to be a priority of the government so that people's wages aren't going backwards and their mortgages aren't spiralling out of control while their home values also deplete. With that, thank you again to the people of Sturt for sending me back here for another term. I commend the address to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.