Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whenever I stand to speak as the Independent federal member for Indi, I'm grateful to the people of our proud Federation seat who gave me the responsibility and the privilege of being their voice in this place. In 2019, when the people of Indi first elected me, they told me they wanted a different style of politics. They wanted integrity and trust returned, real action on climate change and more opportunities for rural, regional and remote Australians. They wanted me to work for them, not for a party machine.

In 2022, their message remained consistent with that. There was frustration at the lack of progress on climate change and a sense that we were missing real opportunities to harness the transition to new renewable energy technology in rural and regional Australia. But the message that came through the loudest, the strongest and the clearest on the street, at the footy grounds and in town halls—no matter what people's political persuasion was—was that they wanted us to be better representatives. They wanted more accountability, more transparency and more integrity. 'Keep going on integrity, Helen,' I would hear: 'You get that commission, Helen. Clean that place up.' I heard it everywhere, and I worked doggedly in the last parliament on that mission to implement a federal integrity commission.

I met many times with the former Prime Minister, the member for Cook, to talk about my proposal and the need to allow debate on such a vital issue, but I was always told that this wasn't a major issue for Australians and that it wasn't a priority. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that this was absolutely not the case. Integrity in politics and a better standard of behaviour are vitally important to Australians, and we can see that in the election result and in the many new faces in this place—particularly sitting alongside me on the crossbench. There are many, many Australians—most of us, actually—who value integrity. I never doubted it.

I'm proud that already in the first eight months of this parliament we have passed the National Anti-Corruption Commission, and that the NACC will be in action later this year. I'm proud of my role as the deputy chair of the committee that examined the bill, of the improvements we made and the bipartisanship that we brought to that. Now, as the member of Indi, representing the people of Indi who called on me to do this work, I am now the deputy chair of the joint standing committee on the NACC, and I promise I will be an independent voice for integrity on this important oversight body. The work of integrity, of course, is never done. Now that we have the commission, it's not a case of just set and forget. I want this government to know that I will be watching you closely. In the same way that I spoke up to the former government when it fell short on integrity, I too will speak up if and when you also fall short of what Australians expect.

As the Independent member for Indi, I have the privilege of advocating for what my electorate really needs now and into the future. In the wake of the pandemic, I heard again and again of the need for better investment in our health care in the regions. I heard of the difficulty in getting an appointment with a doctor, of accessing the right specialist somewhere close to home and also of accessing appropriate aged-care services close to where people have spent their lives. A major issue in the election campaign in Indi was funding for a new single-site hospital on the border in Albury-Wodonga, to ensure that the growing population across our region is properly served without the complication of services spread across the whole border region. I know the member for Robertson would understand this. People in rural and regional areas have to travel vast distances to get the kind of health care that people in metropolitan areas simply take for granted.

The Victorian and New South Wales governments have since committed to redevelop the existing hospital site in Albury, with a small amount of federal investment. While the funds committed are well below what we as a community have asked for and need, I am committed to work constructively with all levels of government, including this federal government, to ensure that our community gets the top-quality health service we need an deserve. Under the Albury Wodonga Regional Deal, $35 million will be directed to our local health infrastructure projects and to accommodation for workers in the health sector. This funding was promised in March 2022, before the election, and then recommitted to in the October budget, but it needs to be delivered urgently to allow these projects to start.

I also commit to working with the government to secure funding for better health services right across Indi, including the redevelopment of the Bright Hospital Precinct for better access to services for those suffering from eating disorders—young people in particular. The spike in eating disorders across the nation is extraordinary, and in rural and regional areas such as mine access to services is almost non-existent. The psychologists and the healthcare teams across Indi tell me they simply cannot keep up with demand, and they don't have the resources they need to meet that demand. I really hope I can work with government on this one. Rural and regional young people, in particular, should not be left abandoned.

As a former nurse and midwife, and then a rural health researcher focussing on rural and public health, I know the impact that a lack of access to proper health care has on people in rural and regional Australia. Just last week we learned that women in remote areas are likely to die 19 years earlier than their city counterparts, and for men in remote areas it is 13.9 years earlier than their city counterparts. This is simply unbelievable in 2023. It's not good enough. At every chance, I will be working to improve health care for people in regional, rural and remote Australia, so that we can thrive right now and into the future. Surely this is not too much to us.

From big towns like Wondonga and Wangarratta to small towns like Corryong in the north and Alexandra in the south, people of Indi talk to me about health care and, gee, do they talk to me about the crisis in housing! This is the thing: all of these things are interrelated. We are currently experiencing an unprecedented level of housing demand and mortgage and rental stress. A study conducted by national housing welfare organisation Everybody's Home in March 2022 found that 40.6 per cent of renters in Indi experienced housing stress and 61.4 per cent of homeowners in Indi were under stress with there mortgage. That was last year. We haven't got the data for this year, but I know it will be worse. A lack of affordable housing has disastrous flow-on and economic impacts. If 10 per cent of workplace positions cannot be filled due to housing shortages, this flows on to a $200 million economic loss. The regions will lose tens of millions of dollars in economic activity if the housing crisis is not met.

If we're going to improve housing supply, we need build critical enabling infrastructure: sewage, water, electricity. Without that, it does not matter how quickly councils approve lots for housing, they simply cannot be built on. For Benalla and Wangaratta, the cost of enabling infrastructure is out of reach for a small council, and it's a complete handbrake on our housing supply. As a parliament, we simply must address this.

During the election, I campaigned for a regional housing infrastructure fund—a dedicated fund to build critical infrastructure which would help unlock more housing supply in regional Australia. This is about infrastructure from street lights and water supply to community centres and gardens. The government should work with me on this fund. I've spoken to the housing minister about it, and I will continue to. It's so important, because if the government's own ambitious housing agenda to build 30,000 new social and affordable homes can be delivered, they need this enabling infrastructure. If it isn't there, I struggle to see how they could deliver on this election promise.

The government's proposed housing legislative package seeks to provide an ongoing funding stream to build social and affordable Australian homes. This fund, as we all know here, will cost $10 billion—the biggest government investment in housing in more than a decade. With such an enormous amount of money on the table, I want to see legislation that explicitly considers both social and affordable housing, and the critically-enabling infrastructure to make it happen, in regional, rural and remote Australia. Addressing the housing crisis in regional Australia is the first step in addressing our other challenges: the economy, better health care and better opportunities—I've said it over and over. We used to say, 'Build it and they will come.' Well, they've been coming, and we haven't built it. None of our issues can be truly fixed if we don't have places for people to live.

For regional and rural Australia to thrive we also need to think about our local governments. Our councils need appropriate funding to support our growing and changing communities. In Indi, our nine local government areas provide essential services with just small rate bases to call on in really challenging geography. Because of this, they rely heavily on the Commonwealth's financial assistance grants. Over the last three decades grant payments have declined from one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue to just 0.53 per cent, and at the same time the demands on councils have only increased. The No. 1 ask from the nine local governments of Indi, year in, year out, is to increase financial assistance grants. I was pleased to see that the government has committed in its national platform to:

… focus on the long-term financial sustainability of Local Government … including fair increases to Financial Assistance Grants.

So I say to you that we need to see a restoration of these grants to one per cent of federal tax revenue. This is a fair increase. I've been pleased to meet with the Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories, Kristy McBain, herself a former mayor from a regional community, to make this case. I truly hope she can do better than the previous government on this issue, so that our communities have the infrastructure they need.

Action on climate change is a real priority for the people of Indi—a huge priority—and a huge priority for me. When I first ran for parliament, people said that you can never get elected if you talk about climate change. Well, I'm back here again. Regional Australians understand this; that's why I am here. Regional Australians are on the forefront of the impacts of climate change, but we also have the most to gain from smart, practical action to lower emissions and create new industries. Renewable energy is the cheapest form of power, and our country is blessed with the world's best supply of it. This could be our next gold rush in the regions, if we get it right. We must do much more to ensure that we take science backed action on climate change and that we make sure our communities truly benefit from the economic flow of taking that action, because renewable energy could be a huge economic boom for regional Australia. Australia's regions have all the resources we need to fuel our energy future, powered by the sun and the wind, but we have to make sure that the profits from the generation of renewable energy in Australia aren't funnelled offshore. They must not be. We have to be certain that the communities at the point of generation of this new renewable energy truly benefit from it. The money needs to flow into the pockets of rural, regional and remote Australia. And that's why in the last parliament I introduced a bill to create the 'Australian Local Power Agency', with a particular focus on regional communities, where energy reliability, stability and security is not always guaranteed—particularly in times of natural disaster.

The government has introduced the Community Batteries for Household Solar Program. It's a good start to increase energy storage around Australia, to lower bills and emissions, and to take pressure off the grid. That's why, I've got to say, it was very disappointing to me to see the first round of funding from this really important program go to a majority of urban and metropolitan communities. Only 14 per cent of communities who received a grant are in rural Australia. I'm pleased that there's a minister sitting here right now, because I know that he knows that 30 per cent of Australia's population actually lives in the regions. To make matters worse, the electorates that received that funding are almost 60 per cent of Labor seats. I know the government will tell me this is an election promise. Well, make some election promises that benefit rural and regional Australians, and that are equitable. It's not good enough from a government that promises transparency and equity. Do better in the next round!

Community energy is not just about funding batteries. The time is now for the Commonwealth to scale up support for community owned renewable energy. Across regional Australia there are incredible examples of communities working together to own and share renewable energy. In Indi, we have the highest number of community energy groups of any electorate in Australia. These groups are in towns like Yackandandah, Euroa, Benalla, Mansfield, Corryong, Wodonga, to name but some. We are really good at this, but we need more support—we actually need some support! There's genuine opportunity right now for government to review how ARENA can assist these groups. I've spoken to the minister about this. It's really clear that ARENA is not providing funding to these kinds of projects, and I want to see that changed.

The rising cost of living is hitting households across Australia, including in my community of Indi. Outside of mortgage and rental payments, the biggest bills Australians face are their energy bills. Now, the simplest way the government can assist in lowering both energy bills and emissions is to think domestically: help households and businesses move towards electrification and lower emissions appliances. I brought a policy to the election which would reduce the cost of home batteries and offer no-interest loans for low-income families to switch expensive, old gas appliances like hot-water systems and heaters to new, efficient, electrical versions. Now, I didn't make this up. Countries across the world are doing this. We need to get on board. Australian households want to do this but there are economic reasons that are holding them back. This is a really great opportunity.

The government's considering a similar package to be included in the budget. My cheaper home batteries bill that I introduced last year included a plan for no-interest loans as a way to make smart choices, not just for the environment but for the household budget. I plan on reintroducing this bill in this term of parliament, and I really want to work with the government on this one. I think we could do terrific work on this. It's something that would really make a big difference to the home budget.

I want to talk about farming. Farming generates 16 per cent of Australia's carbon emissions, with emissions rising by 3.3 per cent in the year to September 2022. The government has signed our farmers up to hit net zero emissions by 2050 but has given us very little in the way of actual policies, actual real support, to reduce emissions. We've got to support farmers to reduce emissions, not just talk about them. Now, I grew up on a dairy farm, and I still raise cattle today. And as a member for a regional and rural electorate, I know how hard farmers work and I know that they're always trying to do what's best for them and their land. But right now it's way too confusing and difficult to get the right information and support about reducing emissions.

We need to help our farmers protect their access to world markets by supporting them to lower their emissions and to certify their products as zero carbon. My plan would fund 200 agricultural extension officers around regional Australia to help farmers, one-to-one, to lower their emissions, access carbon credits and hit net zero emissions. These extension officers would be qualified and trusted, with the local knowledge to provide on-the-ground assistance to farmers. We've done this in the past when we've seen major transitions in agriculture. This stuff works. The government could then certify those farms as carbon neutral, which would then help them access price premiums for their products and protect their access to overseas markets. Now, I know this government is considering a range of different programs to reduce emissions in agriculture. An agricultural extension officer network is sensible, it's efficient, it's a location appropriate pathway towards delivering these programs, and I really want to work with government on this.

In closing, I want to say that, as a rural and regional Independent—a very, very proud one—I am determined to be a champion for the people of Indi and to bring the perspectives of regional Australia to this parliament. I will continue to be a voice for integrity and transparency, and I will hold this government to account. Residents in Indi know that every time I stand in this place, I will be working to create a community where we have appropriate and accessible health care, aged care and housing. I will stand here for better phone and internet coverage, for safer roads, for action on climate change. I will be working every day of my term as the member for Indi to help our communities to thrive and to be the best that they can be.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today as the member for Chifley. I was enormously humbled to be elected the first time in that capacity to represent communities I've grown up in and care about, and every single election where I've been given the opportunity to represent the community again means a great deal. There are a lot of communities in our part of the world, and in my part of Western Sydney, where it is hard to get the voices of people in our area heard. Some of the communities do it tough, but they're very proud communities of people that know, if they have the chance, they can show what they're made of, show what they can do and improve the quality of life in neighbourhoods across Chifley. I've always seen myself as being a part of that—being a servant of the people of the area that I represent and being able to represent their views, their ambitions and their aspirations in this parliament. When you take into account the number of people that have actually been elected to the House of Representatives relative to the size of the population, it's a small group of people. I mention that because it emphasises, in my mind—and I'm sure in the minds of others, like the member for Robertson, who's here today, and like yourself, Deputy Speaker Ananda-Rajah—that it's a massive honour. Having the chance to be able to represent our communities and, in doing so, having the huge honour of being able to form a government, being able to give effect, in a much greater sense, to what people want is huge.

In my neck of the woods, in particular through the course of the last term of parliament, we were hit hard by COVID, as were a lot of others. But there were communities in Western Sydney where the failure of decision-making at a federal level hurt hard and those failures triggered the lockdown. It's something that is hugely impactful on me when I consider that 60 per cent of the deaths throughout the course of 2021 were felt in Western and south-western Sydney during lockdown, through that delta wave. We needed the vaccines that weren't there. As we got out of it, we needed RATs to be able to get back to work. People were prevented from being able to continue in their livelihoods. It enforced or emphasised to us the massive value in investing in health care. But there are a lot of communities in our area that are under particular pressure in getting access to primary health care in a way that will help them do exactly what they want to do in their lives, exactly as others are able to. It's either in the outer suburbs or in regional Australia—places away from the capital cities—where this is an even bigger challenge.

There are a number of things that I wanted to canvass in my contribution to the Governor-General's opening speech, but health care in particular was the big one that I wanted to kick off with. We've gone through the seismic event of the pandemic. We said that there were lessons to be learned. It's now time to do just that. We've seen that Medicare is under huge pressure. This didn't just happen overnight. There has essentially been an underinvestment in primary care and in recognising and respecting the role of general practitioners in communities. That's particularly so in my area. I look at my communities—from Lethbridge Park, Bidwill, Whalan, Tregear and Mount Druitt—and people who really need to be able to see a doctor are not doing so on the basis that they're making a calculation about whether or not they can afford to.

We are rightly proud as a country of Medicare providing universal access, but that universal access is under huge pressure. I'm seeing that in parts of Western Sydney where people are being asked for the first time to pay to see a doctor. That is a symptom of neglect that has been there—a failure to keep pace with what is going through. And it's doctors and GPs saying to me—I certainly understand this from the doctors I speak with in my area—that they're under huge pressure. Their costs have gone up as inflation has soared, and Medicare hasn't kept pace with that. It's impacting on their ability to provide health care at that point in time when it matters most and where it could be hugely beneficial from a preventative aspect, as well, for being able to identify issues that might cause longer term health problems for individuals in my area—for people in the communities I represent.

We need a strong Medicare system and, again, I come back to this point: being in government, where you can make a difference, is a huge honour. We have seen our colleague the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, take this issue on board. Importantly, he recognises what we need to do to invest in Medicare. There's a lot of work to do there, but I'm sure that he's determined to make a difference. If we don't have improvement in community care in particular, with people able to see their GP in their local area and get the type of advice and support they need at the time that they need it most, then it does have consequences. For example: at Blacktown and Mount Druitt hospitals, we see what happens if people can't go to a GP—they turn up at the emergency departments. It's enormously upsetting to know that Blacktown and Mount Druitt have the worst treatment response times for emergency patients in Sydney. In the last year there were instances where there wasn't enough space for some patients wanting treatment at Blacktown's emergency department. I've heard several times that we have quality health services in New South Wales; but patients are needing to camp outside the hospital. Some patients needing emergency treatment had to wait on the footpath until midnight.

We know that a timely response by hospitals is, in some cases, critical for survival, so residents in our part of Western Sydney being told to wait at the back of the line is simply not good enough. We need to make sure that all parts of the health system are working in a way that avoids that wait. When we get to that point, it's not an issue of thinking it's just a problem at that hospital; there's something underlying that situation, and it needs to be dealt with. From my point of view, as a member in this place, making sure that we have all the pieces locked into place which deliver affordable and accessible health care for people at the time they needed most is hugely important.

I want to thank the doctors and GPs in my area, along with everyone who works with them, delivering the support that they need, in their practices and medical centres. I have started representing the concerns of those GPs about getting the support they need in their practices—and also for getting doctors. We have shortages in GP numbers, and that's playing out in our part of the world.

The other area I wanted to touch on is education. The big thing for people in our area is recognising the value of education in changing their lives and opening up opportunities. We have a very young population, with a lot of students in schools—particularly, if I may say so, in government schools. At the end of the year, I always enjoy going to the presentation assemblies to see how they're going. We need to make massive investments in this and to work with state governments in terms of what will happen with long-term schooling support. In my area, we need to make sure we see a lift in investment in the school-resourcing standard. I know, from talking with principals in my area—for instance, I have spoken with principals out in parts of Doonside—that additional investment saw a transformation in results in maths. It meant they could provide one-on-one student support outside classrooms.

I also know that with the access to technology through the course of the pandemic and lockdowns, there were schools in my area where year 12 students performed their best relative to other generations. This defied expectations that the lockdown would affect them. But it was largely leveraged off them getting access to laptops and mobile coverage. We could see where that wasn't available and learning couldn't occur during lockdown: we could see the results for those who didn't have that access. We could see the impact of not having that technology in year 10 performance. So ensuring that investment is there is really important.

I'm very proud, as I'm sure a lot of my colleagues are, that we have committed to vocational education, making sure that TAFE gets the backing it needs. One of the great things is that we've backed in the value of TAFE and have been talking it up. For too long it has been seen as the poor cousin. It's not that; it's very important in delivering the skills that businesses need and in opening up a career for people which they'll want to throw themselves into.

Our government is committed to close to 500,000 TAFE fee-free places. That's a big deal for people in our area, providing skills that businesses need and—I again come back to this point—opening up careers for people. That means a great deal. On top of that, the commitment that we've made to invest in more university places—the existence of Western Sydney University and Australian Catholic University opening up campuses, to their great credit, in Blacktown as well—is making sure that people from underrepresented groups have access to university education. It is something I'm enormously proud of that is being done by our government. I look forward to championing that as well.

Infrastructure is another huge issue. Our part of the world is expected to welcome nearly 200,000 new residents in outer suburbs. While there are some state governments that love to cheer on the opening of huge tracts of land, believing this will deal with housing supply—and they take the stamp duty that comes with that and pocket that very nicely—there seems to be a difference between the speed at which they take the stamp duty and the speed of turning that into investment in infrastructure. In our part of the world, with major roadways like Richmond Road, leading into Marsden Park, there is a huge frustration by people that we haven't got things right linking in infrastructure. People can't believe that you could have all these new homes appear and the infrastructure not keep pace with what people would expect to occur.

We as a government certainly committed to working with the New South Wales government on, for instance, different stages of Richmond Road, and we committed money to ensure that was available for planning and designing work to happen. But, as residents rightly say in my neck of the woods, a plan's great, but you can't drive on it. They're right. You can talk that talk, but you have to be able to drive that road, frankly. I understand the design work has been done to improve bottlenecks and pinch points on major roadways in my area such as Richmond Road, and yet we have to wait for a state election for a decision to be made about investment, which is, frankly, hugely disappointing and outrageous. People shouldn't be tethered to an election to see whether or not they'll get the infrastructure they need to make their lives easier so they're not stuck in traffic and they can get to and from work quickly, and so, importantly, business in my area can open up. It's not just homes that are opened up to provide a workforce that has to travel all the way into Sydney—in many cases it is over an hour in a car to get there. We should be able to do better.

On that point, the provision of proper public transport so people don't feel like they have to rely on a car is also important. For example, the extension of the north-west metro from, currently, Tallawong station to St Mary's, plus fixing roadways and opening up the M9, will not just mean it is easier for residents to move around their neighbourhood; it will also, importantly, open up economic activity and opportunity for new jobs and industries in our part of the world.

Increasingly, too, we're asking people to go on and take on university education that puts them into careers where they can do much better than their parents, and it's exactly what their parents wanted. Most of us who are parents will say we want our kids to do better than we did. If the type of economic activities present in our outer suburbs doesn't ensure that people with those qualifications and training can be there, the gravitational pull to go closer to the city occurs because they can't earn the same salaries. In my mobile offices I've had people approach me and say: 'I have gone on. I've done my undergraduate degree. I've done my postdoc.' They've had huge investment in their own skills but do not have the jobs locally to use them. We need that talent to stay in our area to drive economic development. I think the big challenge longer term is to get the infrastructure right so we can see the type of firms come in that changes the nature of neighbourhoods and deal with some of the chronic unemployment we've had. If we get that right, some of the economic development that would occur will be close to areas where some of the highest and most persistent levels of unemployment have been—in suburbs, for example, around Shalvey, where we could easily get them access to one of the biggest employment estates. The Sydney Business Park out at Marsden Park is actually the second biggest creator of jobs in Sydney. We could make that happen and connect people to jobs, and I think that is hugely important, because of the type of work that's there—the manufacturing and capability we're encouraging through things like the National Reconstruction Fund, where we're thinking about areas where people can make a big contribution. There are a lot of great manufacturing firms in Chifley that would benefit from that extra support. And talking this up and talking about the need for businesses to work together is huge.

The other thing I think is important longer term for our area is getting the planning right around the Marsden Park area. That CBD in the Blacktown Council area, which is the biggest council in New South Wales, will open up a new CBD, and we can do it free of the colonial footprint that has dominated the design of so many cities in Western Sydney. We do need to get that right. Infrastructure is another thing I will continue to advocate for, for our people in our part of Western Sydney, because it's not just about freeing people from traffic jams but also about opening up opportunity and having a much better quality of life longer term.

The other big thing for people in this term but specifically this year will be the decision we make around the Voice. I'm proud to say that I represent one of the largest urban communities of Aboriginal Australians in the country, around the postcode 2770, and there are terrific organisations in our area that are doing really important work. They recognise the value and the importance of being recognised in our Constitution and being able to have a say on things that affect them—as I'm often being told, 'nothing about us without us'. That is emphasised quite a bit. I think that is the right way to go. We represent people who want to be able to have a say on things that impact them. In terms of First Nations people, we should be able to get this right, and I think we can. So, it is something I look forward to working with communities in our area on, to make sure that we do the right thing, that we put in a positive decision and that we encourage a voice to emerge in our area.

In concluding, I want to reflect on the fact that, as we all know, not only do we get here with the support of people who vote for us, but also there are a lot of people who devote a lot of their own time, and I'm very humbled and enormously appreciative of what people have done to volunteer on my campaign or work with me as the member for Chifley. There were a lot of volunteers from my FEC—in particular, my FEC president, Gayle Barbagallo, as well as the secretary, and a lot of others who contributed. There are so many, so that once you start it becomes a bit tricky to name everyone. But certainly within the branch, within the FEC and the branches in my area—the people who helped out in my mobile offices at the train stations that I visit and all the community events that I went to through the course of the term, even though we had the disruption of COVID-19—it did mean a great deal. I'm very grateful for their continued support in helping me to do my job of trying to make sure I won and was able to hear firsthand from communities about the things they think are important to them and that they need me to lean into and to be able to feed back to them as to what is going on and how we can work together to improve that.

There was also a very close team, both in my electorate office and in my shadow ministerial team, whose names I want to put on the record: Akano Amuda, Katie Booth, Kate Boyd, Brad Bunting, Amanda Feuerborn and Nicholas Petkovic, and also Melanie Bridge, who was with me, and then she and her husband welcomed their first child. I just want to say to Mel that I'm looking forward to her rejoining us at some point. Again, a lot of work has been done to perform a job that has meant a great deal to me so that I am able to have the opportunity to represent people I care a great deal about, who deserve the support and ability to achieve the things they want to achieve in their lives. I think parliament and in particular politics can make a difference if it's done right, and I'm very grateful for the chance to yet again represent those communities as the member for Chifley.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise, with respect to this address in reply, to talk about the needs of the Mayo community. In many cases, these are needs reflected more broadly across regional Australia. The first one I want to talk about is health—health, health, health!—in particular GPs and access to GPs, and then that elusive ability to see a GP and be bulk-billed.

Just yesterday, my daughter went to the doctor. She got sunburnt. I told her off. In fact, I warned her beforehand. I said, 'The sun's really hot. Make sure you absolutely cover yourself in sunscreen.' But sometimes 18-year-olds don't use their ears as well as they should. Anyway, she got quite sunburnt, so she went to the doctor. That's a good thing to do. The doctor saw her. The nurse also saw her. It's amazing to be able to get a GP appointment, because in many parts of my electorate it takes weeks. However, the bill was $165. My family can afford that. She said, 'Geez, I'm not going to do that again.' The thing is, while she says that, there are a lot of people who are also saying that and will go and use the emergency department simply because they cannot afford that bill. Yes, some of the money will come back. I think the out of pocket cost is just under $50.

I do remember standing in this place and hearing many people, who are now in government, when they were in opposition saying that the only thing you need to take to the doctor is your Medicare card. What we are seeing is an erosion of bulk-billing. I don't think there's anywhere in my electorate that bulk-bills. I'm hearing this from pensioners too. I'm hearing this from people who are on all sorts of Centrelink payments, that they are not being bulk-billed. The problem is that the pressure is happening on emergency departments or people are not going at all. Then we're seeing worse health outcomes.

Added to that, with respect to my doctors—I don't begrudge the doctors—some of my providers have closed. Others are saying they're facing huge losses with the cost of running a practice. One said to me they'd lost $90,000, I think, in the year to date. That's just not sustainable. We absolutely need to make this a priority. This is frontline health. This is the gatekeeper to more expensive health treatments, so we absolutely need to fix this.

What we have seen is that the issues around access to a GP, if you live in a regional area, have been made more difficult since the changes to where overseas doctors can practice. It used to be that an overseas doctor needed to practise in regional or remote Australia for a period of time. What we've seen though, with the changing of classification, is you can effectively, in South Australia, be living in Unley and service down at Noarlunga. You don't need to be in the regions. You could be living in North Adelaide and service Elizabeth. We have had contracts cancelled in my electorate, where we had overseas doctors not doing a stint in regional Australia. This is making the health outcomes for people who live in regional Australia worse.

I would urge the government to put the magnifying glass on this. If you are there to represent all of Australia, you will make sure that regional Australia has an equitable connection to the health system. I'm pleased to see that there's a task force report happening and that there's money flagged in the budget, but every day that we have people not accessing a doctor because it's just unaffordable to see a doctor is a day too long.

Other urgent health priorities in my electorate include addressing the funding shortfall for the Southern Fleurieu Health Service hospital upgrade at Victor Harbor, to meet the projected needs of the growing community. It's the oldest community, by median age, in South Australia, and one of the oldest in the nation. I think the median age across my south coast community is over 60 years of age, so our health needs are quite acute. There is also funding for the National Kidney Registry at the Flinders Medical Centre, which will obtain better data and drive improved health outcomes for patients.

I was able to get dialysis chairs into the Mount Barker hospital. Mount Barker is a very large and fast-growing area. It was hard to believe, when I was first elected, that we did not have any dialysis chairs at all in this region. People were travelling down to the city to have dialysis. I surveyed all the GPs in my electorate, asking, 'How great is the need?' They told me about patients who had said: 'Do you know what? It's just too difficult to do this drive. It's the tyranny of the distance.' So they elected to stop having dialysis and subsequently passed away. We're now at a point in Mount Barker where there's a wait list. We need to make sure that we get dialysis into the regions and to keep that up. We need to make sure we address the demand. This is a huge issue.

I'd also like to address another issue that's come to mind and which sits in the health spectrum: age-discriminatory rules under Medicare. If a person needs to have an MRI on their knee and they're over 50 years of age then a GP referral isn't enough to get the Medicare rebate and they have to go to a specialist. This sort of ingrained discrimination against older Australians needs to stop. We're putting barriers up to people accessing health care. If you're 49, you can get a GP referral and Medicare rebate—not a problem. If you're 51, it's a different story. I think that these arbitrary and discriminatory lines that we put in place are particularly unhelpful. Again, I've talked to many people in my community who cannot afford to get that MRI because they can't afford the gap.

I'd also like to talk about sport and recreation. I think that sport is very much the glue that holds our communities together. Not everybody is playing sport, but many people around the periphery are spectators, volunteers or join in for the social interaction. I note that many older people in my community spend their Saturday afternoons going to watch the local football. I love it: many of them sit in their cars—it's normally freezing cold—and then they get out, get themselves a drink and a meat pie, and go to spend some time in the stands. But we saw the whole sports rorts saga, which was incredibly disappointing. We actually had an infrastructure round that could have put money into areas of enormous need for sporting infrastructure across Australia. That was poorly managed—I think by everyone's standards—and rorted. But we haven't seen future rounds, and that's a real shame. When I look at so much of the infrastructure for sport in my community, it was built by volunteers in the fifties. It had a bit of renovation in the eighties or nineties, but it's no longer fit for purpose. In many places, we don't have mobility accessible bathrooms—a lot of our footy clubs certainly don't. And we've got lots of girls teams and we don't have anywhere for the girls to get changed.

Madam Deputy Speaker Ananda-Rajah, I don't know if you've spent much time in a locker room in a footy club, but it's got a certain aroma and a certain, you could say, 'ambience' to it! Perhaps that's not really conducive for women who also want to feel included in that scenario. We need to spend money on this. We recognise that sport assists our community so broadly, including with health and mental health, yet we don't put the resources behind that ageing infrastructure.

To name a few places, Strathalbyn and Districts Basketball Association has outgrown its existing single court—one court in a great big shed—and training is held off-site. New players are being turned away, and that could be the one thing that makes a young person feel so disconnected from their community. We are seeing regional competitions where we're not able to hold them or participate in them, because we just don't have the facilities. We desperately need, just for Strathalbyn, $8 million to develop a three-court venue. That's not a huge ask, and yet we don't have any grant rounds where we can put forward for that. With Willunga Netball Club, players are playing on ageing courts and injuring themselves. One million dollars would help redevelop those courts. Another example that really stands out to me is the Strathalbyn Strikers Soccer Club. They have two portaloos—the kind you see on a building site. That's what they have for all of their kids. This is the fastest-growing sport in my community. They have so many kids playing and taking it up. They don't even have sinks in thee portaloos. Players have nowhere to change. We really need to do better.

Many areas are experiencing huge growth. With the Aldinga region, we've just seen the state government announce that they're going to build more homes up to Sellicks, and yet that whole area does not have any sort of aquatic facility. When we're talking about aquatic facilities, we're talking about hydrotherapy, so, again, there's that link into health.

Going back to the Strathalbyn Strikers, we're not talking about a little club here, with two portaloos. We're talking about 200 players, and they're keen to host—and they do host—championships. Every time they hold those championships, they inject a couple of thousand dollars into the region. People stop at the local bakery, they stop and buy some food and they get some petrol. The club's facilities really do not match the standards that are expected. I'm aghast when I drive through the metropolitan area and I see their flashy facilities. It's extraordinary. They're beautiful. And we're dealing with portaloos.

I also would like to talk about the need for infrastructure in the regions, particularly in my electorate. The roads in the Adelaide Hills, in Mayo, are overrepresented in South Australia's crash statistics. Sadly, I read in a newspaper this morning that we lost another young person on our roads overnight. That family will never be the same. Four per cent of the state's population reside in the hills, yet we have five per cent of the fatalities and seven per cent of the serious injury crashes on our roads. In South Australia, we don't have a very large part of the federal road network, so we are underfunded when it comes to the funds that come in from the federal government towards our road network. I ask the government for $80 million to urgently address the black spot areas, road-widening corridors, ceiling shoulders, modifying embankments, removing road hazards, rehabilitating pavement and improving signage. These are just basic things we need.

Another significant infrastructure spend that we need is a new heavy rail corridor for our Hills. We have been talking about this for ages. We really need to get the freight network out of the hills. That will give us a corridor for some public transport. It's hard to believe that a community that will be over 50,000—that's just in the Mount Barker area, not looking at the broader area across the hills—has no rail. We used to have rail until the mid-eighties, when they decided that it was no longer necessary. There is no tram network. We talk in here about climate change and pollution, yet we're not putting in the infrastructure to allow people to change how they live their lives. We desperately need to have a train network again, or some sort of rail network.

On a positive note, though, I do live in the most beautiful electorate in Australia. We have been voted the happiest electorate in Australia—I think we still hold that title—and part of it is our beautiful scenery. We have a number of bike trails, but we need to connect it all together with the Adelaide Wine Capital Cycle Trail. That essentially will be a cycling pilgrimage across 250 kilometres. They have something like this in France, and it's a huge part of the tourism right across France. You can, essentially, cycle from one point of France to the other, entirely off-road, up and down, through all of the different regions. It's connected with the tourism there, so your bags get taken from one hotel to the other—it sounds very civilised. But we really need to have those visitors come up to the Adelaide Hills, down to the Fleurieu, across to Kangaroo Island—and I should really also say up from the Barossa; I no longer have the Barossa in my electorate, but I think that's what visitors expect. They want to see an experience, and we need to put that investment in.

Further afield, we regularly have 220,000 visitors per annum to Kangaroo Island, but in that area we have just over 5,600 rateable properties. A number of those belong to absent ratepayers, but they're servicing a $400 million road network asset. It puts enormous pressure on the whole of the Kangaroo Island community. I think Stokes Bay was just voted the best beach in Australia. We can't, on one hand, champion these locations and say how wonderful they are and then, with the other hand, not back them in with the resources and the funding that's needed.

One other infrastructure piece that needs to be done is the Victor Harbor Road, and not just the Victor Harbor Road, I might say, but the Mount Compass to Goolwa road also needs to be done. These roads, sadly, are overrepresented with respect to crashes. They are incredibly busy roads, and I urge the government to invest here. It's another area of my electorate that has very limited public transport. I think essentially one bus per day will go up to the city—or maybe a couple of buses per day. Many people call for the rail to extend all the way down to Victor. We need to make sure that we have accessible transport, particularly if they're also very fast-growing regions, as Victor Harbor is.

I'd like to close by talking about the Stronger Communities Program. I was really pleased to see that the Stronger Communities Program is currently open at the moment, and all of us are taking submissions for that. This program has been around, certainly, for all of the years that I've been a member of parliament, and it's a program that our whole community really looks forward to. I think one year I had about $1.5 million worth of applications for just $150,000 of grants. What you could do with $150,000 in your community back in 2016 was very different to what you can do with that now. So I would urge the government to perhaps look at increasing that, because with that program you get enormous bang for your buck, a huge amount of buy-in and in-kind support from communities, and really good grassroots projects. There's no money wasted when the money goes directly from the federal government to the community group. It doesn't waffle through some kind of state and local government puzzle, where money somehow seems to get lost. I would really encourage the government to look at this program with fresh eyes and perhaps to enlarge the program.

We need to make sure that we can also have those other great programs we've had in the past with respect to our school communities. That was another good one, very similar to this. In the year where many of our Soldiers Memorial Halls—which are particularly important in the regions—are turning a century old, why not have a further program to make sure that those beautiful 100-year-old buildings have a life for the next hundred years?

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In making my contribution to the address-in-reply, I want to start by thanking the voters of the Scullin electorate for putting their trust in me for the fourth time. It's a very humbling privilege, and I thank those who did support me. But I acknowledge that many did not. Indeed, there were more who did not at the last election than at the election before it, and that's something I have been reflecting on. I commit myself here, as I go about my work as the member for Scullin, to earn the trust, if not always the support, of all the people I have the privilege of representing. I think that's an important point right now at this juncture in democratic politics, where we know that the trust in politics and political institutions is much lower than it has been, much lower than it should be and much lower than in needs to be. I am very conscious that, for all of us who come to this place, we bring our values, our sense of how the world should be and our sense of the role of government. But for us to be able to play out these debates about how our politics should be, this must rest on an understanding and appreciation across the community that the work we do in this place matters and that it can improve the lives of our constituents and people around the country.

Rebuilding a sense of trust and confidence in this institution, this parliament, is absolutely vital, and I hope that over the course of this term in parliament I can do more to engage with the full diversity of the people who I represent in the Scullin electorate. I also hope that we make a contribution as we go about our work in this place—and I acknowledge the shadow minister, who has just come into the Federation Chamber—to see if we can do better, not always at striving for bipartisanship, because I think that's a false hope, but in working out how we can play out our differences in a more respectful manner, recognising that there are many issues upon which people will disagree by reason of their background or their world view. But I think we need to find a way to better engage all of our communities. That's in the sense—and I strongly believe this to be the case—that what happens in this place is the work of a diverse group of people of goodwill who come to this place with a firm desire to do the best for their communities and to see the best done for the country.

We haven't always conducted ourselves—and I include myself in this criticism—in a way that builds that trust and confidence upon which a strong democracy should rest. I will do my best and, again, I know the shadow minister will hold me to account in this respect as well as in other respects, as he should, to see if I can make a contribution to raising the standard of political debate and dealing with, I think, the greatest threat to our democracy, which is an increasing sense of cynicism towards what we do and alienation from politics and political institutions more broadly.

I do think, in making these reflections, that we can't divorce this sense of grievance and cynicism from how the experience of the pandemic affected so many in our communities. That's something that I have reflected on, as I've also reflected on the particular challenges of being a representative through that difficult time. I want to acknowledge the former Speaker of the House Tony Smith and the former President of the Senate for the work that they did in ensuring that our parliament continued to function. I believe it functioned well through a period of great disruption. I think it was important that our constituents saw us continuing our representative work through that period, and some very important work was done.

I also want to acknowledge the work of the group of people I'm very fortunate to have worked with in my electorate office during that time—indeed, always. I want to acknowledge Lori, Sally, Nick, Alice, Zoe, Eric and Olla, as well as Jim Tilkeridis, who has recently retired. I want to put on record in this place Jim's extraordinary record of service working with me and serving the community, including as Mayor of the City of Whittlesea. He's a dear friend, a source of wise counsel and someone who has made an extraordinary contribution—a contribution that continues, I add. But the work of all of our electorate officers was incredibly important through the challenges of the pandemic. In those early stages, so many people sought to engage with Centrelink, often for the first time in their lives. In a country like ours, a majority migrant nation, the closure of the borders had such an extraordinary impact, with people trapped.

I was so proud of my team's work, in getting people connected to relatives stuck overseas, making such a difference to so many, as well as the work of my team more broadly. I think all of us, in this place, know that we are nothing but for the people we have the privilege of working with. During the period of the pandemic that was particularly so. I'm so pleased at the work the team I work with did, during that time, and that work continues. Some are in new roles, and I want to acknowledge the contributions in my team, right now, from Sam, Hamish, Khadija and Maureen who've joined us in the electorate office.

The electorate office of a minister for immigration has some unusual pressures applied to it, from time to time, both on the phone and occasionally on the street out the front. Again, I want to acknowledge that my staff and, indeed, the staff of all us members of parliament, often have to put up with a lot by reason of our actions or inactions. I'm very conscious of some of the pressures put on them as they go about doing really extraordinary work supporting the communities that make up the Scullin electorate. Right now, the devastation in Turkiye and Syria particularly affects thousands of people I represent. I want to recognise in this place the pressures and stresses I'm seeing in the community, and I look forward to engaging more directly on these things when I'm back in Melbourne next week.

I want also to touch on, in these remarks, the last election itself. I've already thanked the people of Scullin for their continuing support and acknowledged those who did not support me. But there are a couple of dynamics from that election that I saw again in the recent Victorian state election that I found concerning. I made some remarks earlier about my concern, to see our disagreements and disputes in this place play out in a different manner, because I do see a change in the tenor of politics on the ground. I was particularly concerned to see that in the recent state election. I saw some very disturbing behaviours, particularly at early voting centres and particularly directed at female members of parliament and candidates.

Across the political spectrum, I think we are seeing some concerning signs in our political life. We really do need to create political conversations in the community as well as in this place that are respectful and, fundamentally, that are safe. We need to remove any sense of apprehension or disincentive that might deny people from thinking about taking on a role in public life. I am concerned that the tenor of our debate and some of the behaviours we have seen do have that chilling effect on an important aspect of our democracy. That is something I would like to see reflected as we all go about our work.

I was very pleased, as I went through that election campaign, which now seems quite some time ago, to see a number of significant commitments made, in opposition, that will be delivered as part of the work of the Albanese Labor government. I want to touch on two, in particular. One is the funding commitment to the Peter Hopper Lake in Mill Park, a really significant investment in a beautiful part of the electorate that had needed help. The place had been such a focus for community members but had been so degraded. I'm really looking forward to working with the community and the council to see this beautiful lake restored to its pristine state so that it can be enjoyed by early morning walkers and families enjoying the playground and the off-leash dog park next door.

I'm also really pleased that something that I've been fighting for, for a long time, moves a step closer, with the commitment of funding for a feasibility study for rail or public transport out to the growing communities on the north-western side of the Scullin electorate, going into the McEwen electorate. They are vibrant and diverse places but access to the amenity that many Melburnians appreciate as well as access to work, particularly in the CBD, is being held back by the lack of public transport opportunities there.

We see everywhere in suburban communities the cost of congestion to people's lives. It is important that everyone has the ability to access everything that is good in Melbourne—the ability to access a wider range of employment opportunities, as well as all the other great things that make Melbourne undoubtedly the greatest city in our country. I'm very pleased to see that commitment. I look forward to ensuring that, along with very significant road investments, we're going to make it easier for people to get around the northern suburbs and also to get around our city more broadly—particularly with expanding public transport access. I see the enormous difference that the extension of the train line to Mernda has made on the other side of my electorate. To see that play out on the other side, particularly as the Epping precinct expands with the developments around the hospital, is something that I really want to work towards making a reality soon.

At a broader level, I'm conscious that there is much work to do, particularly on addressing two big issues. The cost of living that's impacting on everyone is a critical challenge for all of us in this place. The first act of this government was of course to support an increase in the minimum wage. There is more to be done in that regard, and it will be a relentless focus for me—as a local member, as well as being a member of the government—to work with our economic team and Minister Burke, in his industrial relations responsibilities, to see more done in this regard. The other critical question—and it's a common one—is access to primary health care. That's something that I'll continue to work towards with our community and with our excellent health team.

I was very privileged to have been given the opportunity by the Prime Minister to serve as the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs shortly after the election. It's an extraordinary honour to have these responsibilities, which impact the lives of every Australian and give me an opportunity to play a part, not just in shaping our recovery from the pandemic and that period of border closure but to play a significant role in thinking about the nation that we are and the nation that we might be. In terms of multicultural affairs, I'm extraordinarily proud of the achievements that we have made, and I recognise the bipartisan commitment to multiculturalism that has played such a role in boosting social cohesion and making this country—this modern nation—so great, with our unique blend of the world's oldest continuing cultures and people bringing and sharing their cultures from all around the world.

But when I say this, I am not and I will not overlook the barriers that many Australians face by reason of their background; discrimination still occurs, holds individuals back and holds us all back by denying people the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Ending these barriers is a critical part of my role and, I believe, a critical responsibility of national government. I think a vision of our country as a place where everyone belongs in every place, where we see people represented in proportion in all the places that matter, including in this place, is an important part of realising our potential as a country. Recognising that there are still barriers that hold back too many Australians from fulfilling their potential is something that, morally, we need to attend to as an equal and egalitarian society. But it's also about taking that next step to recognise that this denial of individual equality and capacity is not just a problem for them but a problem for all of us. I want to recognise that.

I want to speak very briefly about one of the critical questions that this government has put before the Australian people, and that is my commitment to all aspects of the Uluru Statement from the Heart—in particular, my strong support for constitutional recognition and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. This is something that matters to many in the community I represent, and I will be working with them to secure strong support for this generous gesture that First Nations people have made and to remind people that, whilst the Albanese government is resolute in its support for the Voice, this is not an idea of the Albanese government; this is the product of a process of engaging so many First Nations people for so long. That is a point which often gets lost in what passes for the debate here, but it's something that I'm very conscious of. What we are doing, in asking Australians to support the Voice, is simply to say yes to an offer extended to non-Indigenous Australians by First Nations people. It's a simple, generous request, and it's a request that we must answer in the affirmative, if we are to fulfil our potential as a nation.

I stand here in this parliament because of the support of the voters of the Scullin electorate, but, of course, I only stand here because many worked hard to make Labor's victory in Scullin a reality. I want to acknowledge some of those people who made a real contribution to my campaign and to acknowledge the debt I owe to each of them.

I think about: Helen Said; Paul, Bruce and Carla Seidl; Rana Javeed; Jim Kerin and everyone from the Men's Shed at Lalor; Tom Watkins; David Cannavo;    Kris Pavlidis, who's given so much to the community for so long, as has my friend Sucettin Unal and all of his family; Connie Boglis; Brian and Ellen Smiddy; Jim Bannon; Vince O'Grady; Anthony Mancuso; Samil Demir; Sonay Dilekcan; Ray Yollie Rosales; Nessie Sayer; Judy Snell; Nora Rocca; Yogi Thurinathan; Yammi El Rassi; Pam Macleod; Maureen Corrigan; Joe Caruso; Stephanie Santos; Sam Alessi, again, a giant of the community; Regina Huning, a person who's done so much and has been going through very difficult challenges in her family—I'm thinking about her and Emily, as I stand here now—Eugenia Pavlopoulou; John Fry; and Joe Petrucci. I stand here because of all your work and your support, and I'm always grateful for both.

I recognise that, as well as the fantastic team in the electorate. Just so it's on the record, I'll go through them: Lori, Sally, Nik, Alice, Zoe, Eric, Olla and Sasha, who worked for me in the last term. And there's Lachlan, who also worked with me in my portfolio responsibilities.

I said, a few minutes ago, that I was proud and feel privileged to be Australia's Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. I am pleased at the role that I've been able to play, with all of my colleagues, in making a difference for the lives of Australians who rely on a migration system that works in our national interest and in the interests of every Australian. I'm pleased that we've been able to get the visa backlog down. I'm thrilled that more staff are engaged—more than 485 in visa processing roles since May of last year. I'm pleased that we've managed to process and finalise more than 4.7 million visa applications and that we've been able to prioritise skilled visas in critical sectors, like health and education, to fill those critical shortages that have been impacting the lives of too many Australians.

As someone who's long been concerned about people seeking asylum, I note, now, that we've filled almost 9,000 visas as part of the humanitarian program, and that, in particular, more than 4,250 permanent humanitarian citizens have been granted to Afghan citizens in this program year, as well as more than 1,300 family visas. There is, of course, more to be done supporting them, and I think we all acknowledge in this place our particular moral obligation to the people of Afghanistan. There's work that's being done, and I acknowledge the former government for their support for Ukrainians who have sought our protection as well. I'm pleased that we're seeing the first arrivals through the community sponsorship pilot. Again, that's an initiative the former government began, but it's one that I believe we can make a big feature of our migration program, as we harness the generosity that's found in communities right across Australia.

I'm thrilled that we're bringing down the citizenship backlog. I can't say how pleased I am that people who've been in this country for a decade and who've been found to be owed our protection can now move their circumstances beyond simply existing and towards living and making the choices that each of us take for granted. That decision, announced on Monday, was one of the proudest days of my life, and I'm pleased that I have the opportunity to continue to build on this body of work.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to put some context into this debate, for all those who are listening. The Governor-General's opening speech to the parliament is basically the Governor-General delivering a message from the Prime Minister, from the government, about what its priorities are for the coming term of government. It's an important speech in outlining what the government hopes to achieve.

I'd like to refer to the Governor-General's speech just to give a sense of where we're at. We're not quite 12 months since the last election, but we're already starting to see some trends and developments—where the government has got some things right and where the government has gone completely off track and is getting a lot of things wrong. My deep, deep concern is that if it continues down the track that it is things are going to get a lot worse, sadly, for Australians, rather than a lot better.

In the opening of the Governor-General's speech, he said the government knows this country faces serious and pressing challenges. The first one mentioned was the rising cost of living. What you would have hoped for was that, having identified this as the No. 1 priority, the government would have been doing everything it can to make sure that it was putting downward pressure on these rising costs of living. Yet, sadly, we're seeing the exact opposite. If you look at interest rates, the Reserve Bank has met eight times since May, since the change of government, and eight times it has raised interest rates.

The sad reality is that interest rates are always higher under a Labor government. The facts prove that. We have the facts, and we can demonstrate the facts showing that under Labor interest rates are always higher. There is a very simple reason: Labor spend more, you pay more. If governments don't spend wisely, spend productively and spend in a way that is in the interests of the nation for the longer term, then it puts upward pressure on interest rates. That is, sadly, what we are seeing. We know you will always pay more under Labor, and the sad reality is that interest rates, as a result, will always be higher under Labor. That's because Labor like to spend more. It's worth remembering: the more they spend, the more you pay. That is one of the big areas of concern already that we're seeing from the government and the way they are going about things. That was the first thing that was identified in the Governor-General's reply speech: the rising costs of living. When it comes to interest rates, sadly, we're not heading in the right direction.

The other thing that is really impacting on people's cost of living is energy bills. Once again, we're seeing rather poor action from the government, which is actually making the situation worse rather than better. I'm going to go to a proof point. This is a proof point that I raised in the parliament in question time in a question to the Prime Minister himself. I raised the example of a constituent of mine, Alan Dennett. He's 80 years of age, and he lives at home with his wife and their disabled son. They received their latest energy bill in the mail. It said, 'Your gas bill will increase by approximately $1,300 over the next 12 months.' Now, for Mr Dennett, this is an enormous increase in his gas bill for him and his family. The Prime Minister needs to explain to Mr Dennett and to many other people right across the nation why he told him and others that their power bill would go down by $275. Now, he said this before the election. 'Your power bill will go down by $275.' He said it on 97 occasions. One of the things that we have been trying to do is to get the Prime Minister to even mention $275 since the election. He was quite happy to before the election—on 97 occasions, he mentioned $275. After the election, he hasn't mentioned it once.

This is not being up-front with the Australian people. This is hiding from the Australian people. If you cannot honour that commitment, Prime Minister, then you should come clean with the Australian people and tell them. You talk about reasons and excuses as to why now you can't deliver that, but why won't you come out and just say, 'On 97 occasions before the last election, I mentioned that your power bill would go down by $275. I was wrong. I can't deliver that. I was shouldn't have said it. I was wrong.' Now, that would be, I think, something that the Australian people would appreciate. They would. They would say, 'Okay, you're being up-front with us.' Instead, he's just playing tricky games and won't come clean, saying, 'Oh, it's this and that and this and that, and that's why,' but he won't actually come out and say: 'We said $275 97 times before the last election. We might have been just gilding the lily a bit. We can't deliver on that. We got it wrong. As a matter of fact, what's happening is the complete opposite.' In Mr Dennett's case, it's not a $275 reduction; for his family it's a nearly $1,400 increase. I can understand why there is growing concern, not only in my communities but right across the nation, about what is happening with energy. One thing was said before the election, and we're seeing something completely opposite after the election.

And it's not just when it comes to interest rates. It's not just when it comes to electricity bills. We're also seeing it when families go to the supermarket to shop. The increase in what they're paying at the checkout continues to rise. The sad reality is that most Australians now are just wondering: 'Well, what is the government's plan to deal with inflation? What is the government's plan to deal with these cost increases?' Now, the government said before the election that it was going to address real wages. They said that they were going to make sure that real wages continued to increase. The sad reality is that real wages are going backwards and they have continued to go backwards since the May election. This is another area where, rather than being tricky and saying that wages are increasing, the government needs to come clean and say real wages—that is, wages adjusted for inflation—are going backwards. At least then the Australian people would know the reality of what they're facing.

They're facing rising cost-of-living pressures when it comes to interest rates, when it comes to energy bills and when it comes to what they're paying at the supermarket, and the government isn't able to address it. The government doesn't have a plan to address it. If the government came clean on that, I think the Australian people would at least be saying the government's being up-front with them. But we're not seeing that.

And it's not just your energy bills. It's not just interest rates. It's not just what you're paying at the supermarket. It's also what's happening with regard to insurance, and it's also what's happening with regard to rents, which are also all going up. So the sad reality is that, right across the board, people are paying more. That's why, sadly, the fact of the matter is that you'll always pay more under Labor. It's worth noting, and I think the Australian people are starting to understand this: Labor spend more, and you pay more. You've got to remember that, when they're out there promising the world and spending more, what they're really doing is making sure that you will pay more.

The second thing that was mentioned as a key priority in the Governor-General's opening speech was that there would be fixed low wages growth. As I've mentioned before, what's actually happened when it comes to real wages—your wages adjusted for the CPI, for inflation—is that they're going backwards. So the government hasn't been able to address this, and the facts demonstrate it. That is why Australians are feeling poorer. The sad reality is that when you speak to many people in my communities and right across Australia and ask them, 'Are you feeling better off now than in May last year?' most of them are saying: 'No, I'm not. I'm actually feeling poorer.'

The third thing that they said they would be addressing is climate change. We've seen the government building on the track record of the coalition but building on that track record in only one regard. We were able to bring emissions down but keep energy prices low. What we're seeing from the government is that they are following our lead in reducing emissions but, sadly, not doing it by keeping energy prices low. That is the thing that they have to get right, because if they don't then, sure, emissions are going to continue to go down but we're going to see either our major manufacturers moving offshore or actually shutting down. That is in no-one's interest.

The real test for the government when it comes to climate change is to reduce emissions while ensuring that all our key industries can remain open and continue to thrive. That is particularly important for those that are energy intensive and exposed to overseas competition, because if you don't get that right then all it will lead to is our productive manufacturers moving overseas or else being forced to shut, because competition from overseas will be so strong. That is in no-one's interest.

In dealing with the tensions of our region and the uncertainty in our world, the government has, I must say, done better than it has anywhere else. That's because they've followed, in a bipartisan way, the approach that the previous government took, and that was to understand the uncertainty of the times that we are dealing with and to make sure that we continue to address that. Under our government, we made sure that defence spending increased and continued to increase and that we were going to have the ability to defend ourselves and defend ourselves strongly. The government is building on that approach. When it comes to foreign policy, the government has continued our priority of making sure we continue our engagement with the region and that critical engagement in the Pacific, and also that we continue to build and support our key alliances, in particular with the US and the UK.

We're about to see how important AUKUS will be to our future over the coming months, because all the work that was done by the previous government in putting AUKUS together—and former prime minister Scott Morrison deserves huge credit here—is about to bear fruit. We're about to hear all about that over the coming months. The only thing that I would point to where I think the government could have done a better job is actually in the trade portfolio. We're still waiting for the UK free trade agreement to come into force. That has taken far too long and shows that the government hasn't been active enough in making sure that that passes through the UK parliament and goes into force. They've also sat on their heels a bit when it's come to the free trade agreement with India. Obviously we have that in force now. It was an incredibly important bit of work. But why haven't we had a massive trade delegation already in India? Making sure we're building on that I think is one area where the government has left a little bit wanting.

The other thing which is mentioned in this reply speech—and I see I'm going to run out of time, which is a great shame, because there's a lot more I could go through—is around the area of infrastructure. The sad reality is that in this speech the government hasn't identified anything when it comes to the regions and, in particular, infrastructure. What we've seen instead is, once again, Labor being true to form and completely ignoring our regions. I had to raise in parliament this week how a constituent who I called told me about his ambulance ride from Portland to Hamilton along the Henty Highway. He had broken ribs and a punctured lung, and along the road he had to be sedated because it was such a rough ambulance ride. The sad thing is that the government, in its October budget, cut $40 million from that road and the Princes Highway in an act of political—I would use the word but I won't, because it's unparliamentary, but it starts with a 'B'—the like of which I haven't seen. They cut $40 million from our roads when I have asked the Prime Minister and the Premier of Victoria to come down and drive on them to see how poor they are, because if they drove on them, they would have no excuse to have done what they've done by cutting that $40 million. I will hold them to account for that, and I know every state MP in my local area will also be making sure that the government is held to account for ripping that $40 million out of our road funding.

We also have seen that projects like the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club and our Local Roads Package, which was extensive, won't be funded. The Elliminyt Recreation Reserve and the Port Fairy Community Sports Hub won't be upgraded. As a matter of fact, very important things like the Portland community sporting complex won't be upgraded. As a matter of fact, all we've seen is the government taking money from our regional projects—important local community projects—and putting nothing towards them. If I have one message out of this speech today, it is to the Albanese government. That is: please, you always do it, but make this government a little different. Actually get in behind and support regional communities to grow and develop. Don't just look after the inner city. Make sure that you also understand that Australia exists outside of our capital cities, because that is the biggest flaw that we always see from Labor governments. They do not understand how important regional and rural Australia is and how important investing in regional and rural Australia is.

In concluding, I thank all my hardworking staff both from when I was previously a minister and now for the wonderful work they do for me. I have one of the most wonderful staff members in here with me today. I thank all those supporters who helped me throughout the last election campaign. We had over 800 volunteers help and support my re-election in Wannon. To all of you—and I said it in the lunch we did afterwards—I say a very, very big thankyou. We have to hold this government to account, and that is what I will be doing.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great honour to be a member of parliament. For each and every one of us, despite the things we show rancour over, the things we disagree on and the policy challenges, the thing we hold in common is that it's an enormous honour to be elected to represent our communities in this place. It's an important institution and it should be treated with care and respect, as our democracy is an important institution—young by international standards and something that needs to be nurtured and respected.

At the 2022 election Labor promised a better future for the people of Australia, including those of my electorate of Whitlam, and we're delivering on that promise. My electorate runs from the industrial heartlands of the coast land to the big suburbs of Dapto, Albion Park and Shellharbour—once a village and now a major city—to the coastal strip between Windang in the north and the famous 'Farm', Killalea Beach, in the south, right up to the Hume Highway in the Southern Highlands. In many respects it is two separate electorates—very different. It is a regional electorate—the farming villages of Robertson, service towns like Moss Vale, once-farming villages but now tourist regions, like Berrima, and the very popular tourist destinations of Bowral and Mittagong. It is a great place to represent—a wonderful honour.

We promised a better future. It's my great challenge in this place to represent them all. It's a great honour to be a minister in this government and it's a great challenge to fulfil my ministerial responsibilities while ensuring that my first and foremost responsibility—representing the locals of my electorate—is fulfilled as well. We understand the economic challenges. There are many, and we're facing into them. We received a budget in all sorts of mess—a trillion dollars worth of debt and a structural deficit that will take considerable effort to wind back. We received an economy with significant supply-side constraints from living in the shadow of the COVID pandemic and all the significant changes that needed to be made, and inflationary pressures in the economy, many of them because of energy price increases internationally, for gas and coal and petrol, influenced by international factors but, as the Treasurer often says, 'received internationally but felt around household kitchen tables'. There were significant structural problems with the budget.

It's not the job of government to complain about the situation we received. It is our job to explain it and to explain to the Australian people what we're going to do about it. We've already taken real action on climate change, legislating out targets, and are now working with the parliament to ensure that our new safeguard mechanisms are able to move through the parliament so that we can do the heavy lifting on meeting our 2030, 2035 and 2050 emissions reduction targets. We've legislated for cheaper child care, knowing that for many households that's a very large and lumpy expense in their weekly budget. We've legislated changes to our workplace relations system which will get wages moving again as well as making a concrete difference in areas that I think all members of this place share—for example, in the area of domestic violence, paid domestic violence leave. Of course, the angels in all of our natures hope that nobody ever has to access that, but we know that in reality domestic violence is a scourge on our society, with people having to take time out of work to attend to moving home, getting care, getting support. Our domestic violence legislation will make a concrete difference in that area. We intend to have a conversation and a referendum on a voice to parliament, to lift up our democracy and our founding document to ensure that it reflects the 65,000 years of First Nations heritage.

We have introduced and legislated—and this is a matter I know you are very engaged with, Deputy Speaker Wilkie—a national anticorruption commission. Corruption, and the threat of corruption, doesn't stop at a state border. It was naive of this place to think that we were immune from the threat of corruption in public life and public administration. A national anticorruption commission sends a strong signal to those of us involved in public life and those involved in public administration that there is a watchdog that will be seriously addressing it. The mere fact that we have one hopefully provides a very persuasive influence on the way that elected and public officials conduct themselves.

In the area of energy, we know it's a big challenge. I have mentioned that most of the problems in the energy market have come to us from the failed energy policies of our predecessors—their failure to take the shift to renewables seriously—together with the war in Ukraine. Again, complaining about the problem is not the role of government; explaining what's going on and putting in place solutions is. Our wholesale energy price caps in the area of coal and gas are legislated. Regrettably, they were not supported by the other side. The coalition parties voted against capping prices—which, we were advised by Treasury modelling in the last 24 hours, are already having a material impact on the prices that people will pay at the household and business level. That's what a serious government does: gets on with business and tries to put practical solutions in place.

Closer to my home in the Illawarra and Southern Highlands, I made a promise to my constituents that I'd continue to advocate for them. With a Labor government in office, they know their voices are going to be heard. We will deliver on promises that we made nationally to every Australian, but also locally. At home, this includes funding for a $25 million trauma recovery centre for families, women and children who unfortunately have had to endure family and domestic violence. This is the first such facility in the country. It will be a pilot and lead the way for other initiatives around the country.

Delivering community batteries involves, again, firming up our energy generation and distribution system, but is also a pilot for the way we might provide energy storage solutions for communities. The beauty of community batteries is that they provide the benefits of renewable energy generation to communities. With solar installation, for example, people who may not be homeowners—or maybe live in units or are renters and aren't going to install solar on a house that they don't own—are going to get the benefits of solar through the installation of community batteries. I'm very pleased to be a part of a national pilot on this in Dapto.

Nine million dollars has been provided to Wollongong Council to build an accessible sport and play precinct at West Dapto. When I was first elected, West Dapto was mostly dairy farms. There are now burgeoning suburbs, which are underserviced in relation to a lot of community infrastructure. New sporting facilities will make a material difference to this growing community. We've hoping to get work underway over the next couple of years. The $9 million will facilitate that.

Over $500,000 is going to the Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens to create a dedicated learning facility. This is a volunteer run organisation. When I was first elected it was a patch of dirt on the outskirts of Bowral. It's now a burgeoning community facility—an entirely community run botanic gardens. They're lifting it up every year. This money will help them put in place an education facility.

There is $450,000 going to the Southern Highlands regional art gallery Ngununggula, another magnificent community facility, for the installation of solar systems to help them power the gallery. What does a solar system have to do with art? It will save them thousands and thousands of dollars a year in operation costs, and they can then convert that money into staff, community programs and bringing more exhibitions into the area. It's absolutely fantastic. I want to pay tribute to Ben Quilty and the team who have been driving the establishment of that gallery and ensuring that it's going to bring art to the Southern Highlands and that all can enjoy that fantastic community-run facility.

Deputy Speaker, I was first elected in 2010—the same year as you!—and I'm delighted to say that this is my fifth election. I couldn't have been elected at the first, second, third, fourth or even fifth time unless it had been with the amazing support of a team of volunteers. The first lot of volunteers are your family, of course. They're conscripted. I want to thank my partner, Brooke. I want to thank my kids, Jessica and Paddy, and my extended family for the enormous support that they give to me so that I can do my job here.

I want to thank the branches and the branch members who are there, year in, year out, during the dark days and the tough times. We were in opposition for nine years. They were really tough times for many of the branches, many of whose members have been members of our great party since before I was born. I want to pay tribute to them: the Albion Park and Oak Flats branch, the Dapto branch, the Port Kembla branch, the Shellharbour and Barrack Heights branch, the Southern Highlands branch and the magnificent Warilla and Mount Warrigal branch.

I'm now going to do something very risky: I'm going to name individuals. There are two risks. One is that I don't get them all named before the time runs out. The second risk is that I'm going to miss out somebody. But here I go, and can I say in advance, if I've missed you out, I'm going to get back to you in another opportunity.

I want to pay great tribute to Illce and Raja Musarevski who are now life members of our great party. They've been staffing the booths at Warilla for decades now. They're great friends and great champions of Labor, as is Lauren Leonard at Warrilla and Mount Warrigal. Jan Merriman of Oak Flats is a wonderful supporter and a magnificent human being. She's had some family tragedy that she's had to deal with over the last couple of years, but she turns out to support us on election day.

Maree Duffy-Moon and Mick Moon, again, are great champions, who are also dealing with family challenges but were out there everyday. Robin Harvey—what a beauty! I describe him as a bloke who has summer thongs and winter thongs and summer shorts and winter shorts. He was out there in the middle of a winter election, campaigning for me. Tom Hawker is a magnificent volunteer as well. Boris Baraldi and his entire family are great friends and great supporters. Thank you so much.

Moira Hamilton, who is also a councillor—thank you for your support. Gary Shaw, Jim Pearce and his partner, Adele Flood, are magnificent humans—thank you for your support. I also thank Denise Hadley; Arthur Hurst; Michael Auld; Brian Forbes, who is a very old mate of mine; and Louise Hogan. Jade Joliffe is a single mum who knocked off from work and knocked off from uni and would be out there doing—you know what prepolls are like? There are long hours, it's often raining and you're up to your ankles in mud. She was out there on prepoll helping me. I'm really thankful for her support.

I thank Joanna Kubota, Sandra Mitrevski—she just had a child, but she's still out there supporting—Marlene Calleja and Alice Scott. She's not a party member but a real trooper, a battler. Everyone in her community knows Alice, and she's always been out there supporting. I thank also Christine Okoniowski, out at Berkley; Maria Di Carlo, a fantastic supporter over many years; my mate Louis Parnis, a stalwart of the Maltese community and the George Cross Falcon club and a big supporter over in Cringila; Emerson Burke; David Haden; John Najjar; Rebecca Dayal; Wendy and Bob Turford, who are absolute troopers; my old mate Simon Zulian, a former staffer but a long-time stalwart and great supporter; Ailis Quinn; James O'Maley; Kristin Dawson and her partner, Marguerite, who are, again, wonderful champions of the community and great supporters; Adam Byrne; and Don Kelly and his family.

Thank you, Carole Faughlin, Aiden Roberts, David Dellapina, roped in by his son who works for me, John Williamson, Nick Haughain, Warren Wiseham, Charlie Habazin—it's been a tough couple of years for Charlie. He lost his wife at the beginning of COVID. Our thoughts go out to you, Charlie. Thanks for turning up and thanks for your support, mate.

Thank you to the Wilson clan. Nothing goes on in Port Kembla and whereabouts without the say-so of the Wilson clan. They're absolute troopers. Michael, James, Norma and the whole crew: love you dearly. You're great supporters. Rhonda Jones, Julie Allen, Geoff McAdam—I couldn't have got through without your support, Geoff; thank you so much. There's Lila Best. I forgot to mention Michael in the Wilson clan—geez, I'll be in trouble at the next Port Kembla branch meeting if I don't give him a shout-out. Dana Nelse, a magnificent human being, runs the Oak Flats Neighbourhood Centre but is also the president of our FEC.

Thank you, Robbie Petrevski and family. Robbie's a councillor and champion of the Macedonian community. Thanks also to George Dimitrievski, Vasel Kocovski, Goce Angelevski—well known, with his community broadcast, in the Macedonian community—Lauren McKay, Josh Leonard, Matthew Badcock, Roy Caddick, Ray Bernasconi, Hetty and Robert Cummins, Jim David and his partner, Bernafe. David, again, was out there rain, hail and shine during pre-poll. Thank you so much. I'm very grateful.

Here's a name many will recognise: Gary Punch, a former member of this place. He got good sense and moved down south to my electorate and now resides over in Warilla, a very nice place. I was grateful for his support. Madeline Baker is an absolute trooper. She coordinated the Southern Highlands branch booth rosters. It's a damned cold place to campaign in a winter election, I can tell you, particularly on a wet evening. Thanks, Madeline.

Thank you, Eric Savage, Dean Cowgill, Ross Hannah, Graham and Linda McLaughlin—all of these people are very dear to me—Phil Yeo and Rodney Cavalier. They're absolute stalwarts. Thank you, Terry Hannan, Mark Coles, Judy McLean and Ed Gilchrist.

I'll do something really risky here. I'm going to name three people: Angus Braiden, Oskar Durst and Leo Schwarze. They are students of Bowral High School. Before school, they'd come and set up pre-poll. They'd go and do their day's school and then after school they'd come and do pre-poll in the evening, shut up and take the signs and everything home. A big shout-out to you guys; you're wonderful human beings and thank you so much.

I thank Kerrie Butson, Jane Miller, Peter Nelson, Christine Goodwin, Jeff Lapidos, Annella Wheatley, Doug and Kathie Blunt, Jim Gasson, Bronwyn Willats, Paul Totman, Denice Welch, Stuart Perry, Stephen Clarke and Mick Jones. They all made fantastic contributions. There's my old mate Glen Vandine—rain, hail and shine—Rowena Perry, Maurie O'Sullivan, I've known since I was a kid, a stalwart of the Southern Highlands branch, and a great asset. If you've got constituents who need to be spoken to in Gaelic, Maurie your man, an absolute trooper and wonderful human being. Dave Kent is fantastic and a great fundraiser up in the highlands as well. He sells a mean raffle ticket.

Thanks to Penny Newlove, Hazel Williams, Margaret Higgins, Michael Lucey, David Baker, Barbara Baker, Warren and Dawn Glase—Warren's had his challenges over the last three years but turned up to help the cause—Barry Costin, Dom Martino, Leonie Stone, Christine Miller, Marilyn Raby, Roy and Anne Elbourne—thank you so much—Peter Rowe, Jenny Bailey, Les Dawes—thank you so much for your support—and Marianne, Alec Hall, Ben Hancock, Michael Valceski, Liam Turner, Harvey Shead, Glenn Hayes, Trudie Greer, Sally Stevenson, Sally Horton, Emma Mattison, Rebecca Chapman, Paula Loustos, Barry Purcell, Robin Petrevski, Dance Volcevski, Steve Naumovski, Mick Galligan, Greg Hannah, Wassel Kich, and Alastair and Michele Graham. And a big shout-out, I've got to say, to Eli and Annie Harris. And thanks to my staff: John Ryan, Tom Iggulden, Jarrod Dellapina, Tiana Myers, Linda Campbell, Ela Akyol, Roman Ristovski, Ben Mofardin, Boris Baraldi and Sara Al Arnoos.

To all my parliamentary colleagues and counsellors who supported me: thank you so much. I wouldn't be here without your great support. And if there's anyone who I missed, I'll come back to you!

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is adjourned, and it will be made in order of the day for the next sitting.