Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have much to be thankful for in the Longman community and in this great country we live in. Families are struggling with the costs of living, and we are enduring tough times. However, my experience has been that the greatest lessons are learnt in defeats, failures and times of uncertainty. Every government has extraordinary events thrown at them, be it stockmarket crashes, recessions, pandemics, conflicts—there's always something; that is life. But it is the job of the government of the day to put in place legislation and solutions to soften the blow of any of these events to ensure that the pain for the Australian people is minimised. When I speak to constituents, they say they are tired of hearing the problems from politicians; they are crying out for solutions. They're not interested in the personal attacks and the slanging matches that are commonplace in this place. They are desperate for their political leaders to do just that: to lead.

I've seen and served under great leaders in my life, whether on the sporting field, in the corporate or business world or in the political world. They had many great character traits, but there are two I would like to mention today. The first is that truly great leaders accepted the cards they were dealt and went about finding solutions, not constantly talking about the problems. Secondly, they didn't blame anyone else—their predecessors or outside factors. They just got on with the job of developing and implementing solutions to the issues they faced at the time.

Unfortunately, in this place far too much time is spent worrying about the next election. With three-year terms, this creates so much short-sightedness and a lack of long-term vision. It is imperative that as a country and a government we have not only a short-term vision of up to five years but a 10-, 20-, 50- and 100-year vision as well. I'm talking about visions like a water grid that covers the vast barren inland of our continent. The benefits of this would be substantial. One benefit would be decentralisation, as much more of the land would be habitable. This would create less demand in places that are overpriced and overpopulated now, such as South East Queensland, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and therefore drive prices down in the real estate and housing market, an issue that simply must be addressed, or most of the next generation will never achieve that great Australian dream of owning their own home.

Sadly, I am not hearing solutions and vision now; all I hear is doom and gloom and the reasons things can't be done, and too much time is spent lamenting about the past. It's time to lead, to talk with courage and positivity about our future and to get on with delivering for our current and future generations. So, to the people of the Longman community, I say: stay positive; be grateful for the great location we live in and that we reside in the greatest country on earth; and things will get better in the future.