Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—When asked about what they're learning, the children at Ewing Kindergarten in Malvern East and the Windsor childcare centre cite caring for country. They appreciate the teachings from traditional owners of this land, as do I. When elected in 2022, I knew that politics had a shelf life, but I didn't expect mine to be this short—well before my best-by date! The seat of Higgins, established in 1949, was flagged for abolition a mere two years into my term. It is named after Justice Henry Bournes Higgins, who became a peace activist after the loss of his only son in World War I, who raged against the authorities due to their dereliction of care following his son's death and who handed down the Harvester Judgement, which delivered the minimum wage.

As a man of principle, he fought for what matters. I took a page from his book, facing each day with urgency, focusing on the things that matter. I internalised the Prime Minister's 'never waste a day' adage, amplified by the departing member for Barton, who reflected that you can achieve more in one day of government than in years on the opposition benches. I can confidently say that I never took my time here for granted, using it to advance worthy ideas, often from my own community, and to advocate for better outcomes on behalf of the people of Higgins, who in turn advocate most strongly not for themselves but for others. They are a lion-hearted community—a seat steeped in history, producing two prime ministers, Holt and Gorton—four if you count Menzies and Fraser, who lived there—as well as Australia's longest serving Treasurer. This Liberal stronghold, for the first time in the seat's 75-year history, put their trust in Labor.

That I was elected in a seat like Higgins repudiates the claim that people are sick of the major parties. Lifelong Liberals voted Labor. It was extraordinary.

As a child of this pandemic, I was indignant at a distant political class that gaslit frontline healthcare workers, ignored calls for better safety protections and did not step up when we were stepping into harm's way. Add the deprioritisation of women, our embarrassment as a climate laggard and a casual approach to integrity by the former government and I was primed when the member for Macnamara and the Acting Prime Minister proposed this crazy idea. As Mandela said, it's only impossible until it's done.

I chose to be in a party of government because I wanted to act on problems, not just complain about them, and I wanted to pull in a team. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Among my proudest achievements has been the elevation of clean indoor air both on the Labor Party's national platform and to the peak scientific body that advises the Prime Minister. With my partner in crime, the member for Cooper, who is unwell today, enabled by the Minister for Industry and Science and with a recommendation from the long COVID inquiry, which I was part of, we persuaded the Chief Scientist to deliver an evidence synthesis of what works. Arguing the case for clean indoor air at the National Science and Technology Council and subsequently launching the report at a public webinar was a personal highlight for me.

The community response has been overwhelming. Australians understand that we spend 90 per cent of our time indoors and that clean air reduces airborne threats like viruses, allergens and smoke. A community advocacy group supported by experts from the Australian Academy of Science and the Burnet Institute is launching this week in parliament to ensure that leaders don't drop the ball on this. It's not my pet project anymore. Implementation of indoor air quality standards will take time, but when productivity is on everyone's lips, keeping people healthy is low-hanging fruit. Sick people are unproductive; it's as simple as that.

There are other issues I've advocated for which have made it past the budgetary post. A national one-stop clinical trials shop will cut red tape, providing Australians with timely access to life-saving drugs, and will help attract more pharma-sponsored clinical trials to Australia, which could mean billions in economic activity. With hospitals groaning, research for the virtual clinic will help manage illness at home—better for patients and better for hospitals. Expanding the shingles vaccine to patients with weakened immune systems means that disseminated shingles—shingles that spreads all over your body—in the cancer and transplant patients I used to treat will vanish. The newly launched Australian Genomics will allow patients to access personalised treatments that they've read about online for years. Clinical guidelines for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome will be finally updated after 22 years, much to the relief and joy of 250,000 Australians with this condition—all thanks to the Minister for Health.

Frontline community legal centres like Southside Justice and Eastern Community Legal Centre will have funding for youth and domestic violence services, thanks to the Attorney-General. The ill-advised Jobs-ready Graduates program will eventually be dismantled and public schools will get the highest funding ever, thanks to the Minister for Education. I've had a few wins with my state colleagues, but that's for another day. But it emphasises that this federation only works when Commonwealth and states work together. I established parliamentary friendship groups for men's health and electric vehicles, and I thank colleagues from right around the chamber and corporate sponsors, as well as community advocates for their engagement.

Locally, in collaboration with the Minister for the Arts, I helped resolve a funding dispute between the National Institute of Circus Arts in Higgins and Swinburne University. Finally, with the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport, chaired by the endearing and much-loved member for Macarthur, I put long COVID on the radar, ending the testimonial injustice for these patients.

I have held community events, walked the streets, stood on street corners, called up people, jumped on socials—which I do, under duress, due to my gen Z staff—all in the name of doing politics differently. I have tried to be proactive and approachable. One of the most gratifying experiences was striking up a conversation with a pensioner on a bench outside Malvern Central. He disclosed that he was renting and lived with his son. We got him Commonwealth rent assistance. It made his day and it made mine. It's a full bingo card.

Zooming out, I believe that the defining feature of this term has been overlapping crises from the pandemic, energy shock, regional wars and mass human displacement, punctuated by natural disasters due to climate change. Our term has been defined by a polycrisis, also known as a permacrisis—a state of permanent crisis. With inflation and a cost of living crisis unleashed, we responded with support, not austerity, reducing inflation while keeping people in jobs. Going forward, keeping the inflation dragon subdued will demand continuous effort given that global and local shocks may well be the new normal.

But inflation was not the only thing unleashed in this term. Social discord from antisemitism, doxxing and violence has threatened the lives and livelihoods of Australians and Labor parliamentarians and disrupted the wider community, fanned by the unforgivable weaponisation in here of a tragic conflict, for political gain. I repeatedly called this out and I hope that Australians at the next election call time on those political players who peddle division. Throwing manure on police will not expedite peace anywhere.

As Australians, our allegiance is first to each other. Sectarian grievances should not be imported or amplified here. Leave them at the door. That stuff is combustible. We need to learn to disagree agreeably, not with 32 characters in upper case but in a tone more akin to the letters to the editor. Labor recognises that our locus of control is here, not there. That's why we outlawed Nazi and terrorist symbols of hate, introduced antidoxxing laws, appointed a new race discrimination commissioner—because racism is a barrier to belonging—conducted our first-ever multicultural framework review to pinpoint why multiculturalism is uneven and what we can do about it, funded intercultural activities and security measures, installed Australia's first-ever special envoys against antisemitism and Islamophobia, created a national student ombudsman with teeth so that university students feel heard and started imposing social media controls, given that social media has devolved from the town hall into a pogrom. This is our track record of real actions, not empty words.

But there is another threat to our social cohesion—a slow-moving one represented by communities exposed to fading industries. When economic deprivation sets in, social dysfunction follows. The UK community of Sunderland lost one in four jobs between 1979 and 1985 from the decline of its coal and shipbuilding industries. Fast forward 40 years, and the problems came home to roost this year when anti-immigrant rioting needed an army of police to quell. This cannot be Australia's fate.

As a coal and gas nation in a decarbonising world, we cannot be blind to economic realities. In that regard, Labor's Future Made in Australia is as much an economic policy as it is a social one. We aren't picking winners, but we have picked markets in areas where we have a competitive edge. These include low-emission technology, defence, agriculture, critical minerals, quantum and medical science and are backed by massive government investment, like the National Reconstruction Fund, to compensate for declining business investment. We want to give children in the Hunter and Higgins pathways into secure, well-paid, rewarding careers.

I am for AUKUS and for quantum—big bets that will have economic multiplier effects similar to what our car industry once had but on steroids. The tech and talent spillovers into our wider community and economy from a future made here cannot be underestimated. It will be evident as startups, patents, inventions, collaborations, jobs—a million flowers blooming provided that the seeds we have planted are not poisoned by the Achilles heel of politics: short-termism. We cannot keep surrendering the 8,500 PhDs we make every year to the hunger games of academia or, worse, to other countries. They need local industries, and we are pulling levers to make that happen. I'll cop the criticism if it means preventing the emergence of rust-belt towns in Australia. Labor can see the writing on the wall, and we are acting so that no-one is left behind.

Responding to the polycrisis means embedding redundancies right across the economy. In the way critical infrastructure like planes and bridges are overengineered, we need redundancies we can summon at a whim to tackle whatever is coming—terrorism, war, infectious outbreaks which may be natural or man made, cyberattacks, natural disasters or all of those at once. The most important countermeasure, of course, is our people—skilled up, paid a fair wage, pulled back from precarity so that they can be deployed like a trained army when the sirens ring.

One of those armies is our Public Service. It is a national asset that Labor is building up again. Good luck to any government managing the new normal of multiple overlapping crises without a strong Public Service. I recall, at the start of my term, a constituent who in desperation paid someone to camp outside the Passport Office for two days. She was livid. The good news is that we have been on a recruitment drive because Australians rightfully expect decent public services.

A skills update depends on access to decent education. To that end, we have championed education along the lifetime continuum. I never miss an opportunity to emphasise how foundational the early years are to leading a productive life. Better than thanking our early childhood educators, we are giving them a pay rise. However, undermining the efforts of our parents and teachers is an unwelcome house guest: social media. Excessive screen time is associated with myopia in kids, but of more concern is the myopia of the mind it is fostering, narrowing our horizons like tunnel vision, driving us into corners, fracking our attention and killing our negotiation skills. Unscrambling complex problems in the polycrisis era will not be possible if we end up with a generation unable to concentrate, unable to negotiate and unable to listen. Nor can we treat our way out of the mental health harm caused by algorithms targeting boys and girls. This is why we are imposing bans on social media and imposing a duty of care. Social media is more about marketing now and less about connection.

Although education is the most powerful lever against disadvantage, it is not enough. For Australians to prosper, we are building out the scaffolding that helps them succeed, like housing, Medicare, child care and job security. Known as the social determinants, this scaffolding is bread and butter for Labor—bread and butter. Our target of 1.2 million homes in the next five years is ambitious, but so was the Renewable Energy Target set by a previous Labor government. Last week, incidentally, Australia clocked four million households with rooftop solar, thanks to a target set years ago. With people in tent cities and young people locked out of homeownership, we need this difficult Senate to pass our housing bills. Enough's enough.

To my children, Annika and Ash: you make me look like an underachiever! Dad and I are so proud of the way you have grown despite my absences, often during formative events like VCE exams. I couldn't make snacks during those exams, but I did order Uber Eats, often from this chamber! This has been a character-building chapter, and you could both write the manual on resilience. My husband has been a rock for us all. I could only pursue politics thanks to what we built together. To my siblings, Romayne and Steve, who are here, and my parents: thank you for all your support.

I have deep gratitude to my staff. This is not a typical job, because we never switch off and the stakes are high. But you have served Higgins with professionalism, care and attention to detail. Thank you to my longstanding staff: Drew, Josh, Kalida, Brayden, Niamh, Gabi and Ro. Thank you to Llew and to my friends for your counsel and unwavering support. It helps to have a sounding board outside of this place.

I am grateful for the many friendships across the aisle with colleagues from the Liberals, the Nationals and Independents—too many to name. We had laughs while doing business. My community groups, parents and schools in Higgins: a profound thanks to you. Your volunteerism nurtures that which is best in us all. To my federal Labor colleagues, especially the class of 2022: we are a unit. The gender pay gap is at its lowest level ever because of a majority female government which is acutely tuned to the aspirations of Australia's women—aren't we?

I'm straying into dangerous territory now by singling out people, but I wish to thank the Chief Government Whip and the member for Hawke for their care and counsel. Labor delivered cultural diversity, which I hope continues into the 48th Parliament, because having people with funny surnames in this place helps shrink policy blind spots. We should be laser focused, not just on policy but on implementation, especially in health care. I had been reviewing a spate of migrant children—Australian children—dying in Australian emergency departments. But I have run out of runway. Colleagues across this parliament, I urge you to root out institutional bias in health care, because it kills.

When people look back, this government will be remembered for legacy reforms: tax cuts for all—not for some but for all—gutsy, but the right move. It will be remembered for the National Anti-corruption Commission and for not one but two budget surpluses that allowed room for the things that matter, like paid parental leave, super on PPL, and the Housing Australia Future fund. We've introduced electoral donation reform to stop elections from becoming auctions sold to the highest bidder. And supermarket scrutiny—aren't they enjoying that? There have been changes to competition, because it is the consumer's best friend, as well as a climate policy that won't deindustrialise our economy or see the lights go out and has upped renewable energy generation from 30 per cent to 42 per cent in less than three years. There has been student debt relief, free TAFE, Medicare urgent care clinics, Medicare mental health clinics, endometriosis clinics, a national anti-scam centre, a future made not there but here, a better NDIS, confidence in aged care, a nature repair market, tax cuts for EVs, and high-speed rail. Can we go faster on that? The Prime Minister is currently overseas repairing international relationships, because friendshoring in the polycrisis era also shores up supply chains and jobs.

We have shown that you don't conquer the future with press releases or personalities but with policies for today and tomorrow. Populist leaders and their perpetual grievance machines will seek to undermine our legacy, but they trade in a bogus simplicity, hocking simple solutions to complex problems that are hard to deliver in the cold light of day and leaving voters with buyer's remorse writ large.

I entered parliament because of people and purpose, only to find that politics is what gets in the way. But for all its imperfections, this place still gets things done. There is nothing like politics, as Gillard said, for delivering impact at speed and at scale. I've also learned that nothing is preordained. In the face of the polycrisis, the decisions we make today will determine whether or not we emerge with an inflationary hangover. Knowing that we are masters of our own destiny makes me not just an optimist but, as Desmond Tutu said, a prisoner of hope. I am seeing that hope baked into our work every day.

As the first Labor member for Higgins and its last ever member, I reflect that although it is not a utopia it is a strong community, where the environment is itself therapeutic: people living productive lives—close to jobs, close to opportunity, close to services—who are supported from the cradle to the grave. My friends and colleagues, places like Higgins should be the norm, not the exception, in this country. It has been an honour to serve this community and to serve in this Labor government. I thank the House.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I began my first speech in this parliament by thanking the people in my electorate of Forrest for the faith and confidence they showed in electing me to represent them in the federal parliament. In this, my valedictory speech, I thank them most sincerely for that faith and confidence over six elections. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve you—the people of Forrest—during these years, and I've been absolutely grateful for every single day I've had here.

Can I also thank my colleagues who are here in the chamber today? They are here in the same way that many of you supported my maiden speech 17 years ago as the 1,038th member of this House, out of only 1,244 in total now. I was part of the class of 2007, after the election where there were only seven Liberals—Rowan Ramsey, Luke Simpkins, Steve Irons, Scott Morrison, Alex Hawke, Stuart Robert and our one newly elected National Party member Mark Coulton. Even though the coalition lost that election, I can well remember the excitement we all shared. We have worked so well together; this speech is my opportunity to say thank you.

Firstly I thank those who have actively worked with me over the years to identify and help me secure what has actually been unprecedented federal investment in infrastructure projects and programs delivered into the south-west during my time as the member for Forrest. This includes the people in my electorate and my coalition colleagues during our nine years in government who understood and responded to the need for, and supported, this critical investment—investment that was so badly needed in what is one of the fastest-growing, most economically diverse dynamic and productive regional areas in Australia. With mining resource manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, construction, tourism and retail, the south-west is its own economic powerhouse. It's also a region where people increasingly choose to live, to work, to raise a family, to invest and to retire.

The federal government investment has been critical to sustaining and the development of the region. It is often basic infrastructure funding—roads, bridges, the life-saving mobile phone towers, airport freight at Busselton airport, aged care and local government infrastructure—that can be taken for granted in metro areas. Let me tell you that those of us who live in the regions respect and value every single taxpayer dollar that is spent in our communities. We know that this infrastructure is critical and saves lives. It took over six years of work and persistence for me to secure what is now a billion dollars, 80 per cent of the value of the project, of funding for the Bunbury Outer Ring Road—thank you to my colleagues—and the dualling of the carriageway from Capel to Busselton.

My focus, though, for project delivery has been on local procurement in our south-west. I thank the unsung heroes I've met and worked with and for—like our local police, who I believe are at increasing risk every single day they're out on the road. A special thank you to our emergency services volunteers, our transport sector and our amazing truck drivers who are on the road delivering day and night; in my opinion, Australia runs on the back of a truck. The unsung heroes are also our farmers, who, day in and day out, supply us with some of the highest-quality fresh, locally and regionally produced homegrown food—some of the best in the world in our south-west. Our farmers need far less red, green and any other form of tape you want to talk about and less interference from activist groups. As Michael Partridge, a local dairy farmer in my electorate, said: 'I feed 50,000 people every year. How about you just say thank you and let me get on with it.' As a dairy farmer, I agree.

Where water flows food grows, which is why our farmers need ongoing access to quality local irrigation and water supplies. Harvey Water, in my electorate, is a farmer owned cooperative supplying gravity fed irrigation water to its farmer members and fit-for-purpose water for industry through a series of pipes and channels. They are multi-award winning and great at their job, perhaps to the great frustration and disappointment of some who at the time didn't think our farmers were up for the job and openly said that Harvey Water would go broke and fail. Nearly 30 years on, Harvey Water and those very same farmers have proven them wrong. And, no, our farmers are not stupid; they are businesspeople in their own right.

I must thank our community services volunteers and sporting club members, who, in our regional parts of Australia, are often the glue that hold our small regional communities together. These are the people I've loved meeting with and listening to—hardworking, selfless Australians, our volunteers, the ones who stand up when our communities are most at risk or in need. They are also the people I have great respect for because of their direct involvement in their communities and our communities. They know best what is needed and what will work in their own communities. To me, along with our current Australian Defence Force members and veterans, our volunteers represent the best of us, which is in part why regional Australia matters and regional people have earned and deserve respect.

No-one should ever forget that it is regional Australia—its industries, its businesses and its people—that create the wealth that supports the basic services that Australians rely on every day. We should not be merely the dumping ground for endless kilometres of offshore wind and onshore wind, solar farms and transmission lines at the expense of prime food-producing land. We should also not be bearing the brunt of the closure of industries, such as live sheep or live cattle and our globally acknowledged best practice working hardwood forestry sectors. I wish every Australian could visit our south-west Wellington Discovery Forest to see how this most renewable, sustainable industry actually works. Being the member for Forrest, though, has given me the opportunity to provide the strong voice for these regional Australians.

I am so proud of those who live and work in the regions: the tradespeople, our tradies, who work in the businesses and industries that, as I said, create Australia's wealth—regions like the south-west of WA, where my history is and where I was brought up by my parents, both of whom died in 2000, before I entered the parliament. I know they would have been incredibly proud of my work; however, my mother would have been quietly worried sick at some of what I've had to deal with. By comparison, my dad was blunt in the extreme—it's where I get it from; apologies. He would have constantly reminded me, as he always did, since I was a kid—by your indulgence, Deputy Speaker, I would please insert a particular swear word here—to 'please just do the so-and-so job, will you?' That was Dad: 'Just do the so-and-so job. Get the job done.'

My dad was a pioneer of earthmoving and cartage in the south-west. He was the only person I've known to have a licence to cut wood out of Kings Park in World War II, to keep the Princess Margaret Children's Hospital operating with steam. My mother fundraised and worked tirelessly to provide our tiny little home town of Brunswick Junction with its first and second ambulance. This was Brunswick's first ever emergency medical service.

Now, when I was a kid our home phone was the ambulance phone. We had to be able to get an ambulance to the right place with the two drivers each time. Not only was she my mum and an ambulance volunteer but she also provided critical first aid in our house—knife through here, out there—and delivered a baby in the front seat of a car whenever needed. While Dad said to do the so-and-so job, Mum's instruction to us was, 'If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well.' I thank them both for their values, their hard work ethic and their lifetimes of volunteering and working for our community. They were great role models and by their actions gave me a hands-on apprenticeship in what's needed in a small community: get involved, help out, get the job done.

I often refer to my mother as the wind beneath my wings. And my father, who was a migrant, never forgot what he owed this great country for the opportunity it gave him—the opportunity to work hard, to save his money, to put a roof over his family's heads and to run his own small business. What a great country. Now, he was never going to be wealthy, but he was always going to enrich his own community.

My husband and I bought our first dairy farm on the day we got married. He said, 'Don't marry me for my money, because it's all printed in red,' and he was right. Interest rates went from 17 to 23 per cent and, yes, it was tough, but we built a small business. I became very involved in the dairy industry, including in voluntary marketing and promotion with our milk industry group and with the Australian Dairy Corporation. Farming, water and regional issues followed, and as a community volunteer I spent 10 years—it was a fabulous 10 years—as the president of my local AFL footy club.

I thank my husband, Charlie, who encouraged me to take on this role and who, as you will all understand, never made me feel guilty for not being home. I thank him for the many years he did everything he could to make my job easier.

I thank my family. My son, Kim; daughter-in-law, Deanna; and their family took on all the dairy farming jobs over the past 17 years. I make special mention of my three much-loved grandchildren, Dylan, Simon and Sophie, who've grown up with a nonna—if you're Italian or of Italian descent, you'll understand what 'nonna' means—who has missed many of their special birthdays and events but who are great kids who never complained. I thank them for fitting in with my schedule for our family tradition of Italian sausage-making and sauce-making days. Now, they were very patient when people would stop for a chat when they were out with me in public, and, using my grandson's own words, they doubled up as my 'bodyguards' at certain times. I also thank them for what they've had to put up with because we share the same surname.

To my precious daughter, Kylie, who is with us today, thank you for your love, support and strength, and for allowing me to tell the story of your very personal and dreadful endometriosis journey. This motivated me to work with my wonderful colleagues here to deliver the first-ever National Action Plan for Endometriosis, which brought ongoing investment and commitment for women suffering from this incurable lifetime disease. I spent 11 days in ICU with you, sweetheart. All I wanted was for you to live, and so far you have. I'm sorry your partner, Mark, is not here, but together you've catered for—and the Leader of the Opposition can vouch for this—so many dinners and functions at my home, along with our reliable and efficient offsider, Scott Chatley.

I thank my sister, Judy; my brother, Lindsay; and all my family and close friends who have been absolutely unwavering over these years in their love, support and patience. And I cannot forget my loyal Harvey Bulls Football Club crew. Jenni and Nirah Mattila—my dear friends, who live in Sydney—are here today. Every election they flew over to the South West to work on my toughest booths, because they were tough as well. Thank you both. I am so pleased you're here.

I thank the Liberal Party of Australia, and, in particular, our Forrest division branch members for their unwavering commitment and support, and for their practical help and support in manning booths. I also pay tribute to and remember past members who are no longer with us. I thank Dr Steve Thomas, who chaired each of my campaigns. Steve's straightforward, practical approach and advice was a major reason we won six elections, and we've done so much more together since.

A very sincere thanks to the late Senator Judith Adams. Judith showed me the ropes of doorknocking for half a day in Augusta and then said: 'You'll be right. Just get on with it.' Thank you to the colleagues who were there to mentor and support me in the early years: the wonderful Dr Mal Washer and Bronwyn Bishop. I learnt so much from them. They were tough. They were experienced. But they were generous MPs who were prepared to share their wisdom with me.

I thank my fiercely loyal and hardworking electorate office team. Vicki Rake started as my campaign secretary and went on to work with me for 12 years in many different roles, including as whip's clerk in our Chief Government Whip's office team, along with Nathan Winn, whose knowledge of the history and workings of the parliament were, and are, invaluable. Julie O'Sullivan was wonderfully calm and extremely efficient in her role during what was a seriously challenging 45th Parliament that began with a one-seat majority.

The whip's team of Bert van Manen, Rowan Ramsey and our National Party whips worked so well together during this time. Thank you all, and thank you to all of the colleagues who worked so well with me during this time. Thank you very much.

I give a very special acknowledgment to all of my WA colleagues—we all worked so hard to deliver a fairer GST arrangement for Western Australia—and to Kerry Dawson; Jamie Martin; Robyn Roney; Samantha O'Connor; Dylan Gorski, and his carers; and the Newton Moore Education Support Centre students, and their carers, who have done work experience in my office over the years.

My electorate staff deserve thanks for all that you've done not just for me but for the countless constituents, businesses and community groups who you've helped over the years. They were often needing your care and compassion, and you gave it. Ongoing, we have Robyn, who's currently working with the service clubs to help auto-electrician Nathan Reed, who provides second-hand vehicles for women who are escaping domestic violence. Your ongoing work shows your compassion and we will make sure that that gets done by you.

Thank you also to the electorate office staff who have moved on to other opportunities over the years. One of these is Ryan Hadji, who only heard yesterday that my valedictory was today. He flew all night just to be here. Ryan, thank you so much.

I cannot forget my Christmas mail-out volunteer envelope stuffers. You all understand the value of envelope stuffers. We've tallied it up today, and I think they've actually stuffed over one million envelopes in my time. A massive thank you to my assistant regional development ministerial team, who are here today, for their exceptional advice: Sophie Beeton, Sam Shirley, Rob Terrill and DLO Andrew Wilson. Thank you for your hard work and dedication, particularly in dealing with the challenges we faced during the COVID pandemic—the global pandemic—when we looked after the needs of Australia's most remote communities in Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling Islands and Norfolk Island.

I must also thank the 53 Regional Development Australia committees, who dialled in to me at my kitchen table at home, three times a week, to provide live, invaluable and accurate information about what was happening on the ground in each of their regions during the pandemic. From these meetings, we developed a regional intelligence bulletin which was passed on to every ministry—the various ministries necessary—to directly assist in the government's COVID response.

I am proud of what we all achieved together and with our key departmental staff. My teams know that they are just like family to me and, like my family, they are worth their weight in gold.

Thank you to all our truly amazing parliamentary staff—the chamber staff, committee and support staff, security, Comcar drivers, gardeners, maintenance workers, cleaners, hospitality and catering, as well as our baristas who work on the coffee carts—I see many of you using those.

I must thank the AFP, who work so hard to keep us safe. Their constant, protective security deserves our respect. In my opinion, they're legends: those here, in and around Parliament House, and our WA based AFP, who looked after me with great care during a risky situation. I really appreciate everything you do for us, domestically, and for Australia around the world.

Another person I need to thank is Julian Krieg. During his time as WA's regional financial counselling service chair, whenever one of the men had the courage to ring me when they were in desperate personal circumstances, Julian was my emergency go-to for practical help. On one occasion alone, he drove all night to get to a man I was particularly concerned about. To Julian's great credit, each one of those men he helped has gone on with their lives—the best result we could have hoped for in the circumstances.

Equally, many other wheat-belt families and men, supported through the Regional Men's Health Initiative, who have relied on Julian and his team over many years, have made sound decisions about their family and/or their business future. I thank you, Julian, if you're watching, for the lives you've saved. This is more proof that every day we have in this House as a member really matters and makes a difference. It shows what a difference we can make. I love the work I've done with palliative care and in childhood dementia.

In part, when I was elected, I was actually old enough—as you can see—to know that tomorrow is guaranteed to no-one, which is why we need to make the most of every day in life and in politics not only because we owe it to our constituents but also because each day we serve in this parliament is actually one day less we will get to serve in this parliament, particularly when you're in government. Please don't ever kid yourself—and this is the old whip coming out now—no matter what your margin is, there is absolutely no job security in politics. Your own side can take you out, or the other side can take you out or the media can—or all three! So don't ever forget what it takes to get here.

I've kept my very ugly but comfortable first campaign doorknocking shoes. I kept them right where I can see them every day when I get dressed, a reminder of what it took to get here and to never waste a day. Now, as Vicki knows, there was blood in those shoes. It was a very hot lead-up to the 2007 election, and in those days I had a 21,000 square kilometre electorate to get around, along with a range of major towns.

Like many of us in certain areas, I got used to being told where to go in very graphic terms. I admit at times I did get to the point of saying: 'I'm actually looking for directions. Could you please tell me where to go, nicely?' And, yes, I was chased by rottweilers, but the only dog that bit me was a jack russell. It's not even a great war story!

But, on the first day after I was elected, I sat down and thought about what I wanted on my last day as the member for Forrest. What I wanted was the respect of good people who knew what I was trying to achieve and who knew that my heart was in it. I wanted to maintain my integrity in what is rightly a tough political world.

That original class of 2007 became my great mates. We learnt a lot together. A number of us, along with our regional colleagues, have worked year in and year out on every regional and rural issue, such as higher education and youth allowance access issues for regional kids. We've been at it for years, and we brought together 30 of our colleagues as we worked through this. We've also worked on the critical importance and needs of small businesses in regional areas. Small businesses are often the lifeblood of small regional communities, and they employ the majority of the private sector workforce. In our communities, small businesses often give young people their first ever job and, for older people, often their last job. With several of my colleagues, I've worked closely with the dynamic small business minister Bruce Billson to deliver many sound small business policies and initiatives.

Early on in my time as an MP, I was a member of a communications committee which did a report into cybersafety and young people. I realised then, from the survey we did of young people, just what they were dealing with online and how much risk they were exposed to. I quietly developed a set of overheads, and I was encouraged by the Harvey business and professional women's group to offer it to our local primary school. And that was the start. As most of you in this chamber know, I have delivered hundreds—well over 400—of these cybersafety sessions to schoolchildren from preprimary through to high school, very quietly and very carefully. The sessions are aimed at helping them to stay safe online and to know how and where to get help. Mostly, though, these sessions are aimed at encouraging families to be involved from the first day the first device is given to their child.

A number of schools in my electorate have asked me to come in each year or when they had a particular problem caused by online behaviour or the constantly evolving risks with certain games, apps and sites. I want to thank these schools and the parents who've come along to these sessions. Over the years a number of teachers have quietly said to me, 'You have saved lives today.' I knew it mattered and I knew it worked. The mum of an 11-year-old girl, after I had been into their school, rang my office and said: 'My daughter has just come home. She has listened to what you've said and the way you explained it. She was being groomed online now, today.'

I am possibly the first Liberal Party member to have been appointed whip on day one in the parliament. I think it might be true. And, yes, it was a very steep learning curve, but the wise and capable Alex Somlyay was an invaluable mentor. Much of what I learnt from Alex stood me in great stead when I was appointed as the first female chief government whip in Australia's history. It wasn't just the practical and parliamentary organisational side of this role that was so important; a major part was to provide feedback from the backbench to the Prime Minister and to give him frank and fearless advice, even if he may not have always wanted to hear it. There is a great deal of trust involved in this role. I have always maintained and will always maintain the confidences of the Prime Minister, my ministers and members of parliament and staff members who have chosen to come to me. And, no, I will never write a book about those confidences or disclose those or this information to anyone—not one person.

To my colleagues, I don't need to tell you that national security, the defence of this nation, is the government's No. 1 priority. The coalition has always prioritised national security. All my life, this has been a priority for me, well before being elected. My family lived through World War II, and my mother was a World War II widow. Her husband was killed in Papua New Guinea in 1943. My sisters never knew their father, and my family has lived with this loss all our lives. So not only do I know, directly, what it takes to defend Australia—the sacrifices made by my mum's husband Jack Leonard and the over 103,000 brave and dedicated members of our Defence Force who have lost their lives to protect our freedoms—but I also directly understand the sacrifice made by their families, like my mother's and my sisters', which was why I became involved with the Defence Force Parliamentary Program as soon as I came into this place. I acknowledge, today, Major Daniel Tidd, who's here with the reciprocal ADF program.

I took part in as many of these programs as I could. I wanted to meet and listen to our people on the ground, wherever they were deployed. I wanted to hear from them exactly what they were dealing with and whether they had the right equipment and support to do what was needed wherever they were deployed to. One early ADF program had a very profound effect to me. It was the trip to Afghanistan in 2011, which ended in the week leading to the taking out of bin Laden, where I was on the ground with the troops. Prior to that time, I knew we'd problems with the CV joints on the LAVs, and we'd lost one of our first combat engineers in an IED explosion. I wanted to hear directly from his mates what had happened, and I did. It was something I will never forget, and every one of these Defence programs that I've done has reinforced to me what great Australians our ADF members are. And I was given a very direct lesson in how respected our ADF is overseas.

Many years ago, on a delegation, I laid a wreath at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium to honour the memory of the over 1,369 Australians buried there. I followed that up with a visit to Polygon Wood Cemetery. At Ypres, I met the oldest Menin Gate bugler, and I thanked him for the huge commitment he and his volunteers made by playing 'The Last Post' every evening. That was over 30,000 times, at that point. He looked at me very seriously and he said: 'You listen to me. At the time, the Germans were determined to destroy our nation and our people. All we are and all we have is because of your Australians' blood on our soil. The least we can do is play your "The Last Post".'

We all understand how serious the Pacific, regional and global security risk is. On home soil, I've been absolutely devastated by the rise in antisemitism that has been allowed to flourish in Australia. My one surviving sister, Judy, whose dad was killed in World War II defending Australia and its values, said to me, 'This is not the Australia my dad fought and died for.' She is right. It is the duty of each one of us in this place to fight for and ensure that our democracy, freedoms and rights are preserved and protected.

I have great faith in the common sense and genuine goodness of the Australian people. So to every young Australian: You live in the best country in the world. What you can and will achieve is not limited by your postcode. Be proud of Australia, and be prepared to work for and fight for this country.

To my coalition colleagues: as a farmer, a small business owner and a regional Australian, I say that we have never needed a coalition government more than we do right now. I've been farming for over 50 years, and I've never been as worried. And it's a genuine worry, as my colleagues know well. To the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton and our team, including Ben Small, the Liberal candidate for Forrest: all strength to your arms. Make the most of every day, do everything you can to win the election, but never forget the real forgotten people every day, or what makes us Liberals.

I have had some wonderful relationships and friendships on both sides of this House, and I value them dearly. Please all stay safe and well, and look after your loved ones. And a final thankyou to the people of Forrest. I've been grateful for every day you've given me.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—Mr Speaker, I'd like to start by acknowledging you and the job you're doing, particularly your outreach that you are taking out all over Australia. The five small schools that you visited in my electorate were very grateful. It was a two-way conversation. I'm really pleased that you're now much more aware of the finer points of catching wild pigs, and the roles that the dogs do and the various parts of the pig's anatomy that they grab hold of!

But I can say, Mr Speaker, that in 17 years in this place I have never been asked to leave under 94(a).

Opposition members: There's still time!

I don't believe it's because of my behaviour. This is as close as I've ever sat to the Speaker in 17 years. You'd have to have a Speaker with ears like an African elephant to actually hear any interjection from this far back. So, except for the two years I was Deputy Speaker and happened to sit in that chair, it's been fairly uneventful in here for me, apart from misleading the House as a minister during question time. That's a very interesting thing to do! That walk from down there up to the dispatch box, not knowing what you're going to say when you leave down there is a feeling all of its own. And, on my second day as Deputy Speaker, having a motion of no confidence in the chair is also something that I will remember fondly!

It is, next week, 17 years since I was elected. It's appropriate that the member for Forrest and the member for Grey are doing these speeches today—three farmers from different parts of the country. The member for Grey's my next-door neighbour. We've got about a 500-kilometre boundary fence between South Australia and New South Wales. Indeed, I've got one of my offices on South Australian time. So we have a lot in common.

I'd like to acknowledge that we've got some very special people in the gallery. I'd like to acknowledge my family. I've got my sister Joy and her husband, Jim; and my much older brother, John, and his wife, Kerry. My brother Bob is sitting up in the back row. Two years ago Bob was in the intensive care ward at John Hunter Hospital after being within seconds of death from a very, very severe farm accident, so we're really pleased that Bob's with us. There is someone missing, though—our older sister, Viv. When I got involved in politics, she took to it like a duck to water. She was my strongest supporter in Moree, Gravesend and Warialda, and God help anyone that was critical of the National Party or me, because Viv would track them down, and she took no prisoners. Sadly, we lost Viv to cancer about seven years ago, and her husband, John, lost his long battle with dementia earlier this year. So they've left a big hole in our family, and I wanted to acknowledge them.

My children, Claire, Sally and Matt, were young adults just starting out in life when I was elected 17 years ago. Matt's got Anna with him, and, our youngest grandson, Sandy, is sitting up there—there he is—and Claire's son Will, who's managed to wag school today, and Sally's daughter Charlotte, who's just about finished her first year at school. Their husbands, Dan and Bob, had to stay home and look after the other grandchildren and keep the home fires burning. I could speak about the accomplishments of my children, but today's all about me! I wouldn't have enough time to mention—just to say that I'm incredibly proud of the lives that you've built for yourselves.

I've got in capital letters 'Robyn'. I do not want to forget Robyn! He's not here today, but for some reason I can remember the member for Moreton's speech 17 years ago. I was going to sledge him, but he's not here, so I can't really do that. But he said, 'Behind every successful man is a very surprised woman.' I remembered that. But it's not really relevant in our case because Robyn's never been behind me; she's always been beside me. I like to coordinate events in our relationship with celebrations, so it kills two birds with one stone. I believe today could be the 44th anniversary of our fifth date, which involved Robyn riding around the header while I was harvesting wheat. Mind you, that level of attention didn't last that long, but, 44 years ago, it was pretty exciting to have a pretty young schoolteacher riding around the paddock with you.

But Robyn has been with me—we had fairly separate lives. She was a schoolteacher most of her working life. We decided to do this as a team. For the last 18 years—we spent a year campaigning beforehand—we've travelled together, and in a big year we've probably spent the equivalent of 20 40-hour weeks in the front of a car, Robyn reading the emails and me dictating messages back to the office. With an electorate the size that I've got, you don't have a budget to have staff with you all the time; you just cannot do that. So we've travelled, and we've done that. She's had very sage advice and no issues as to when I've said the wrong or silly thing, because it gets pointed out! Robyn is very well regarded in the Parkes electorate, and, quite frankly, many people would be quite pleased if she was the member. Mind you, things would be a bit tougher if she was!

There's only been one incident where we've had a complaint to the Electoral Commission. Peter Bartley is up there; he received that because he was my campaign manager. Robyn and a senior adviser, who's sitting over in the adviser's box and shall remain nameless, were manning the pre-poll at Cobar and got involved in a ruckus with a hippie that had got off the bus from Wilcannia. They forget the basic law of politics: you should never argue with a fool. Anyone that argued with Robyn and that unnamed adviser clearly was a fool because they came off second best. That's the only blemish in her 17-year record.

For a long time, pretty well the whole time the coalition was in government, Robyn was the chair of Parliamentary Partners and Teresa Ramsey was the secretary. They ran that very important organisation for a lot of years and provided support to partners of all political persuasions for that time. Indeed, a very exuberant reporter once said the Parliamentary Partners was the most powerful organisation in Canberra; I wouldn't be one to disagree with that!

I acknowledge my staff, past and present. There are a lot of them here; a lot of them have travelled over lots of distances, and there are too many to name. They are the true heroes in this. They are the true servants of the people. The reason I've been able to do this job for so long is that with everyone that rang either my electorate office or, when I was a minister, my ministerial office, their issue was treated as the most important issue my staff were dealing with at that time. They gave exemplary service. We've had a lot of people that have come through, and many of them have gone on to other careers and occupations. I'm incredibly grateful to all of you that have come back, and to my current staff as well, for the job you've done.

We had a big incident in Dubbo some years ago where a suspicious package happened to turn up. It was seeping. One thing led to another, and the Hazmat team was called and the centre of Dubbo was locked off for a couple of hours—only to find it was two bottles of organic prune juice. The constituent was coming to complain about Australia Post, and things got a bit out of hand.

I also acknowledge my National Party supporters and friends who have come from a long way; some have got off headers to come down here. It's a very effective political organisation. I think we've got nearly a thousand members. They're not zealots; they are just good people who want to be involved in the representation of their area. It's not a room of parties. One of my executive in the Parkes electorate has a lineage going back 60,000 years, and another one is a Bangladeshi migrant that's been in Dubbo for 10 years. They come from all occupations and all towns across the electorate. The Parkes electorate council reflects the people we represent. The general public that don't think about these things mightn't realise it but they should be very grateful for the work that these people do in the background, not seeking any public acclaim for the work they do. I think I joined the party 28 years ago, and I think I haven't missed either a Gwydir or a Parkes FEC meeting in that time. I'm grateful because these people from across a big area have become my friends. I'm very grateful that they're here today. And there's not one beneficial billionaire amongst them. If we did have a beneficial billionaire that wanted to join the Parkes FEC, they'd be welcome! But mostly it's just good, hardworking people that are doing their bit for democracy in their area.

I'd like to acknowledge my party room and the opportunity that it has given me. For the second time I'm the Chief Nationals Whip. What a lot of people don't know about being the Nationals whip is that one word of command from me and everyone does as they please! But a lot of people don't understand why we have political parties. It's the division of labour. I'll talk about the coalition in a minute because I am a strong coalitionist, but we've got people that have different backgrounds and different skillsets. The job is too big for one person. You need to rely on your colleagues to do some of the work so you're best prepared. Our party room—I've seen it at the best—was only 13 members when I was elected. There was a report written suggesting that we should just fold up the kit, disappear and become members of the Liberal Party. I'm glad we didn't. We have a role for a group of people who only focus on regional Australia. I know we have regional Libs, but we're different in the fact that that's all we are concerned about. And so I thank the Nats party room for their support and I wish them well. I've served under four leaders, and those leaders in different ways have given me different opportunities to work at a different level.

The coalition party room—I couldn't believe the first time I sat in there with the people that I'd only ever seen on TV. As a new member, you've got to very quickly say: 'Hang on a minute. I'm not here as an observer. The people that put me here don't want me to come here goggle-eyed and watch on.' As quickly as you can, you've got to know your way around so you can effectively represent those people.' Because of the 'Rudd-slide' when we came in, I ended up being in the shadow ministry before I got sworn in. I was a fairly lowly rank. For those in the gallery, in shearing shed terms, I was the tarboy in the shadow ministry, but it did give me an insight in the early days and a great opportunity. So I'm very proud. I believe in the coalition and I'm proud to have served in it for this time.

I'm also a parliamentarian and I believe that, if you want to have a say in this country, you get yourself elected and you sit in here or with our Senate mates over there—and I acknowledge my Senate colleagues behind me. There's no truth in the rumour that I said my retirement plan was to sit in the Senate for two terms! That's being a bit facetious, because the Senate plays a valuable role, and I appreciate very much the work that it does. But, if you want to be running this country, you're sitting here, not up there. A degree in communications at a university does not give you the right to run this country. You've got to sit in here. You've got to use this seat. I'm proud to be in this place. Not many people have got to do it, and I'm pleased that I have.

My constituents in Parkes—half of New South Wales. It's an economy underpinned with agriculture and mining, and that's very important. We are seeing probably one of the biggest grain harvests in the history of the electorate being harvested at the moment. There are massive crops out in Western New South Wales, averaging six tonnes to the hectare—unheard of a few years ago. Largely because of the techniques, the efficiency and the professionalism of the farmers, we're now growing crops in places like Walgett, Coonamble and out west of Moree.

There are also the miners. We've got coal. We've got silver, lead, zinc, copper and massive reserves of gold but also the new minerals: the cobalt, the lithium, the magnetite, the scandium and the rare earths that will be dug near Dubbo. All these minerals that people are talking about with our new economy, our technology, are in the Parkes electorate.

But it's more than miners and farmers; it is all the people who serve those industries. I get very frustrated when we talk about a health crisis in the west. Sure, we need more doctors, nurses and aged-care workers, but don't forget the ones who are out there. You can get good service. Those people—our teachers, all of those people—are out there doing their bit. I say to my staff: 'Our job is to represent the people who aren't thinking about us, who are just going about their daily work.' If I'm doing my job, I'm not on the front page of the paper. You should be largely invisible if you're doing your job properly, because people then are settled. Sometimes your successes with issues become invisible, because if you fix the problem people stop talking about it.

And so to innovation. A lot of people wouldn't realise that you could be in one of the top hospitals in Europe or America getting a heart valve inserted, not through open heart surgery but through an artery in your leg, and that biomedical device started its life in a lab in Dubbo. The coalition government put money into developing that lab. Biomedical pieces that are saving lives all over the world are coming out of Dubbo.

There's been a lot of talk during the last term of parliament about our Aboriginal people. I believe I represent the second highest Aboriginal population, by percentage, in an electorate of this parliament, after Lingiari. As to the way the Voice in Canberra has been portrayed—and I don't want to be too negative—I just want to remind people that at the local government election in the Parkes electorate we got a mayor, a deputy mayor, a general manager. Most of the councils that have Indigenous populations have Aboriginal councillors on them. You go to our schools and we've got teachers and we've got healthcare workers. We've even got a young bloke from Goodooga who, at 18, went to New Zealand and beat the Kiwis at shearing. The Aboriginal constituents in the Parkes electorate are just people. Sure, we've got some disadvantage, but your DNA doesn't predict your disadvantage. We should be addressing disadvantage at the individual level, not making assumptions about an entire cohort of people from here. I'm not being a pollyanna; we do have some issues at the moment and we need to address these issues of disadvantage. But we need to deal with them at an individual level.

In my first speech here I mentioned education. The Clontarf Foundation is in my electorate, and I was actually one of the first people to be involved with Clontarf. I think we've got 11 or 12 academies, maybe 13. In that time there would be more than a thousand young Aboriginal boys who have finished school and gone on to employment. We've got girls academies. We've got SistaSpeak. I was at the senior college graduation in Dubbo a couple of weeks ago. Seventy-seven of the graduating class were Aboriginal students doing year 12. So when we talk here about some of the things that go on, we mustn't forget about our successes, because these young people are really cracking on. I'm incredibly proud of what they've done.

The temptation in this job is to point to shiny things as to your worth. That's a pretty good thing to do, but my job hasn't been to go home on weekends with beads and blankets and curry favour with my constituents. I think it's deeper than that. But there are some examples of shiny things that I'm very proud of. The Western Cancer Centre in Dubbo now is world class. It has the only PET scanner west of the range in New South Wales. It's treating people who formerly would not have taken treatment. They would have chosen to die rather than go through the trauma of going to a capital city. They're now getting that treatment in Dubbo, and we've had medical professionals come from all over the country to work there.

The Inland Rail—just build it, for God's sake. I'll say this one more time: the Inland Rail is not a train; the Inland Rail is a railway line of 1,700 kilometres from Melbourne to Brisbane. It will give cheaper freight—it will make items on the shelves in those two cities cheaper for those people to buy. It will take trucks off the road. It will lower emissions. But it will mean that western New South Wales through to the Parkes electorate will have the benefit of being connected to every capital city in Australia in the opportunities for our grain farmers and our cotton farmers but also for other businesses to be established on rail. History shows us that, wherever rail is built, prosperity follows. We had a report by Kerry Schott last year. It did not say to halt construction. If I'm not here next time and I don't see a bit of action, I'm going to park at Aussie's every sitting day and harass whoever's in charge of infrastructure, okay?

The Australian Opal Centre—it's a big hole at Lightning Ridge that's going to have this magnificent building that's being constructed now. The Baaka Cultural Center at Wilcannia—I chaired the first meeting of what can be quite disparate groups in that town, and they decided that this was going to be a game changer. So, instead of a burnt-out old shop when you cross over the Darling River now, there will be the Baaka Cultural Center, a magnificent building. It will be open by Christmas time. There's the library in Broken Hill—and even smaller ones. I see the former mayor of Gunnedah and the best damn candidate for the next election, Jamie Chaffey, sitting up there. Don't worry folks; he has been doorknocking for eight weeks, and he's allowed to come down here today! We had a road, the Grain Valley Way—it was dangerous, there was a lot of production on it; the school bus and all that. The local government, the federal government, the state government—it's fixed. No-one talks about it now because it's a good road.

We talk about pork barrelling in the bush—$10 million to the Bourke council to help with the infrastructure for a small animals abattoir. It's now owned by Thomas Foods. Now, there are 150 people working in that abattoir in a town that had shocking unemployment levels. Not only this; they've brought more workers in. The people that have come with those workers have now opened businesses. There's not an empty shop in the main street of Bourke, because of that. Now tell me if that's not a good investment by the Australian people into a disadvantaged community. They're the shiny things—some of the ones I can point to.

But, on some of the things I'm probably most proud of, I just want to premise this by saying I did this as part of a team. We had wonderful ministerial staff. We had public servants. We had our party and our backbench committees. Everyone worked towards these things. But a lot of the things that are achieved here are done without recognition. If you're only seeking recognition, it's not going to go particularly well. The generalist pathway, which is training doctors with more skills to work in rural areas—general practice is still languishing with the number of young doctors wanting to go into it. The generalist pathway, on which I worked with ACRRM and RACGP—we significantly increased the numbers with the rural health commissioner of the time, Associate Professor Stewart—is now oversubscribed. The medical school at Dubbo had over 520 applicants for the 30 places, so we're training local doctors in the area. People don't talk about that now, but it's just happening. The single-employer model, for which I set up five trial sites, where we are getting a better cooperation between the federal government and the state government with funding medical practitioners in small regional areas, has now been taken up by New South Wales as a broader policy. We did the trial work on that. We transitioned the training of doctors from the RTOs to the colleges, ACCRM and RACGP.

With these longer term ones, it's difficult. When someone comes to you and says, 'We haven't got a doctor in town,' and you say, 'Don't worry; it's under control, and, in 10 years time, it's all sorted,' that's not the answer people want to hear. But, in an attempt to fix that in the short term, we've made bigger problems. We're now paying doctors who go to work in a town part time as a locum twice the salary of a doctor that wants to go there and hang up their shingle and work full time. So we've created a bigger problem. We're seeing that now in aged care, where we've got agency nurses getting paid more than the local nurses to fill the gaps in aged care.

Decisions that are made here make a difference. When the distribution priority area changed straight after the last election—where doctors can now declare Wollongong, Geelong and Newcastle to be regional—western New South Wales lost six doctors from some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country in that week. So decisions here can make a difference.

I graduated the rebate for Medicare. I don't know that anybody here even knows that if you're a doctor working in the higher MM areas you get a higher rebate for every patient you see than the ones in the cities. Frankly, when the current government increased Medicare, that increased exponentially, and it has made a huge difference.

Trade—that was an amazing thing to do. And I see my trade adviser sitting up there. I was involved in, I think, six rounds of the RCEP, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, negotiations in the ASEAN region, forming a trade relationship with our emerging nations to the north. I represented the country a couple of times at APEC on tourism and trade. I was at the first ministerial meeting of the TPP-11, which was the biggest trade deal done in the history of the world. I was fortunate. I don't know where the trade minister was. Clearly, it was fortuitous that I got sent there. But what people wouldn't realise, when the farmers are going to the silo and looking at the price of barley, is that one of the buyers now is Mexico. They're buying barley to make beer in Mexico because of that agreement that we made. They're not thinking about that. When they're having their big crop and filling up the grain storages that they got off their tax in one year, as a policy to prepare farmers for drought so that they can store their grain and manage it better, they're probably not thinking that that was a decision and a discussion that came out of our party room—or a backbench committee in the first place. But those sorts of decisions are making big changes for people. So going to Tokyo and signing that agreement in a room chaired by Shinzo Abe was a pretty good thing to do for a bloke that had stepped off a tractor to come to parliament.

Local government—I was previously a mayor. With my colleague in front of me, the member for Riverina, when he was infrastructure minister, using the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure fund and local government—527 local governments across the country—to deliver that money into those communities during the pandemic quickly, without bureaucracy, was a masterstroke. We should keep doing that. This government has stopped it. I think we did six rounds of LRCI.

I wanted to reform federal assistance grants. I was not so successful there, mainly because of the reluctance of some of the larger regional local governments. But, thankfully, the grants commission in Queensland took that on, and now those smaller councils in western Queensland are getting a much fairer cut of the pie because of that change.

I was minister for regional communications for a while. The Regional Tech Hub is now helping people with this transition. Communications is no longer a static thing. You can no longer sit at home and expect that the government is going to supply all of your needs. You need to be out there and understanding that it's evolving. Our need for data and communications in the regions is growing exponentially. It's actually growing faster than the way to deliver it. We are seeing innovations—the low-orbiting satellites. I once said rather flippantly that in 10 years time our Telstra towers will just be used at Christmas time to put lights on, because that's evolving. You can drive around Australia now with a thing on your roof and get connectivity in every square inch of the country. That's all changing.

I just want to leave with maybe a little bit of a message. I think we've lost our way. As a country we've been very successful, but I think that sometimes we've forgotten some of the basics. When we were in school we learnt the three basic needs of human beings: food, clothing and shelter. I spoke, in my first speech 17 years ago, of my concern that we had lost the ability with the shelter bit, because we'd lost the timber industry out of the Pilliga forest—incidentally it now burns nearly every summer since it's stopped being managed. But the food and clothing bits are important.

Since the day I turned up here, emissions reduction has been the undercurrent. It has seen prime ministers come and go, and it has seen governments come and go. I've been called a denier across the chamber; I'm not. But we talk about 2035 and 2050—what about 2100? What about 2200 and 2500? We've got to remember what developed this country. Our forebears cleared land to grow crops. They went out and found mineral resources and developed them, at considerable effort and expense, and we seem to be taking that for granted.

So when you take your family to Disneyland and tick the box that you want to offset your carbon emissions and pay a bit more money, and that money goes to plant trees on a productive farm, you are then sending a future generation to have to worry about food security. And if you want to put solar panels all over farmland its the same thing. My electorate was adopting solar before anyone was talking about it. Three-quarters of the houses in Dubbo have got it on their roof. Every farmer in my electorate would be pumping water with a solar array and shearing their sheep with solar, but they don't want to see the whole of the countryside covered up.

We've got some environmental champions in this place. I do get into trouble sometimes, but I once did say to a certain member of a certain minor political party—that might sit over there—that my dung beetles had actually done more for the environment than he had. And it's true. These words have consequences, and if we're going to treat regional Australia as a magic pudding, that every time we want to do something we just pink a bit away, and every time you lock up a western New South Wales sheep farm and turn it into a national park or you buy water out of the Murray Darling Basin, then you are subjecting future generations to have to worry about food security. It's not just us. We feed 50 million people outside of Australia, so we've got to keep that in mind. We need to have a more holistic, broader approach to what our future generations need—not this narrow approach at the moment of trying to meet targets on emissions, because it will be a problem.

The other thing that I've noticed is we're making our children fearful of their future. Every generation of mankind, humankind, has had issues. Quite frankly I don't think the issues that we're facing today compare to what our forebears did when they dealt with the Depression or the world wars, or even before that. Encouraging our kids to superglue themselves to a railway line is not going to create the future for this country. We need to be telling them that this country will offer them all the opportunities—they need to work hard, they need to study hard, they need to apply themselves, and they can do whatever they want. We shouldn't be making them fearful about their future. I've seen speech, after speech, after speech in this place that have done nothing but scare the life out of our young people, and it's got to stop.

I said in my first speech that I have a deep and unshakeable belief in inland Australia; I still believe that today. It holds the keys to the future prosperity of our country. There would be no better place to live in the world than Australia, and no better place in Australia to live than in western New South Wales. It's been an honour and a privilege to serve as the 129th member—I beat Nola by a few—elected to the Australian parliament. It's time to move on, and I thank you very much.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I must say, coming fourth in the line after some very fine valedictories, I feel a bit like I'm the last speaker in the session after lunch and I'm stopping people from going to drinks!

Seventeen years—you wouldn't believe it would go so quickly, quite frankly. It's more than a blink. It's more like a hard day's work out in the paddock, quite frankly; it's tough enough while you're there but it's over quite quickly. It doesn't seem it was 17 years ago that I got here. I must admit, I went to a meeting this morning and got out on the wrong floor; I started off 17 years ago like that! I am reminded, in that sense, of the way life rolls on. A good friend of mine, Josie, said one day, 'Life is like a toilet roll; the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.'

I love this job. I'm not tired of it, and I'm fit enough to keep going. It seems like I've got a growing task sheet; there are as many things on my desk at the moment as there's ever been. And I think, arguably, I'm the best in-form person in Australia in the seat of Grey. So why not keep going? The answer is, quite frankly, as I told my party room back in March, increasingly our friends are falling into three groups: those that are touring either Australia or the world, or towing a caravan around Australia; those are trying to die; and those that have been successful in the attempt. Teresa and I have collectively decided we're going to spend a bit of time in the former group before we get to the latter, and smell the roses along the way—even though, I must admit, Teresa is facing some trepidation at the idea of having me home full time. But we'll get along with that.

This job is never complete in rural and regional Australia. We still have an education gap. We struggle to attract teachers, health workers, aged-care workers and professionals. We have childcare deserts; in fact, Grey is listed as having one of the worst childcare deserts in Australia, and that is holding back communities in my electorate. When you try and get somebody to come, to recruit them to come and work in your business in one of the small towns, the first thing they say is, 'Where do I put my kids in child care?' The government's spent a lot of extra money on child care recently, but we're not getting any new places in regional Australia. We need that to change. Those of us that do live and work in and who were born and raised in regional Australia are a bit bewildered by the fact that so few people want to come and share this lifestyle, as the member for Parkes said. There will be a number of things he had to say that I'll cut across to. It's pretty good out there. For anyone that's got skills, you might be interested to come and live and work in the seat of Grey, and I just say: 'Go for it. You won't regret it.'

Part of that is that Australia doesn't connect as well with its traditional roots—its rural roots, its regional roots. And a lot of that is because, when we were younger, almost everyone in the city knew someone who lived in the country—an uncle or aunty who lived on the farm or a grandma and grandpa. They'd go up in the school holidays. But, increasingly, that's become a rarity more than the norm, and so there are whole swathes of the population now that are basically intimidated by the thought of going into the country for anything more than a short visit.

It's been a privilege to be a member of the federal parliament. I don't think any of us should ever forget what a privilege it is or forget who put us here. And I note, in that sense, the Liberal Party's gone through the process of preselecting someone to run in my place at the next election. I'm very hopeful that he'll be successful, and, to Tom Venning up there—it's his first visit to the parliament, so welcome, Tom. I hope, when you come back, you won't be sitting here; you'll be on the other side of the House. A very enjoyable experience.

It has been 17 years, and there have been some very significant achievements in my electorate in that time, and one would hope, for that kind of timeframe, there would be. On some, I've been the prime mover. On other, I've lent my support to the ideas and the dreams to assist the passions of others. It's how we get things done—working together in our communities for the common good. And I think members of parliament have a unique megaphone. Many times, we can actually use that public megaphone to get somebody in the Public Service to do what they should have been doing in the first place or to draw attention to an opportunity or a miscarriage of justice. But I think that megaphone is best used if it's not overused and if you actually pick your targets in where you can make a difference and throw your shoulders to the wheel on those. Equally, there is so much to do, because we need more of those skilled professionals that I touched on before.

We have plenty of critics on the work we do in this place. Someone should come out for a bit of a stroll some time. There are not as many as who would drive you out of it, but there are plenty of people that have a fairly low opinion of politics generally. And I just say to them: 'Okay. I can see that not everything we do in this place is perfect, but where do you think they do it better? Just start pointing to those dots on the map around the world where they have a better democracy and where they have better outcomes,' and, generally speaking, I find them speechless. I do offer in there, if you can find the place, I'll see if I can set up a permanent visa for you. But there is no doubt in my mind that, if you're born in Australia, you have won the lottery of life. We are so lucky. We're the envy of the world in many cases. In most surveys, we're in the top half-dozen economies of the world and the highest incomes. We have the fourth longest uninterrupted democracy in the world. That's a pretty amazing thing for a nation whose Constitution is 123 years old. It just shows you how unstable the world can be—that we are the fourth longest. We have world-class services, generally speaking. They're all under pressure, and we all know that we could all do better in certain areas, but don't undersell what we have here. By comparison with many other nations, this is a very enviable place to live.

On that theme—once again, the member for Parkes touched on it—Donald Horne is the often misquoted author who wrote the book The Lucky Country, but what he was saying was that Australia was lucky, but we're in danger of squandering our luck, and that our luck would run out. I actually think I'm more worried about that today than I would have been in 1963 when he wrote the book, because we seem to be loading the dice against Australia and Australia's industries at the moment and disadvantaging ourselves in comparison with other nations around the world.

I've just come back from leading a delegation to Morocco, joined by some very good parliamentarians, including the member for Adelaide over there—thanks, Steve. And the dynamism of the place—their ability to get something done in a short timeframe—just leaves you wondering whether they're 50 years behind or 50 years in front of us, quite frankly. They've set up a free trade agreement with Europe, and Renault have built this enormous car plant there and are shipping the cars straight back in. They have economic tax-free zones—all these things. They are an innovative country on the move, and I think maybe we need to reflect on how they got to that place.

Our falling per capita productivity is a great concern, as are drifting education standards. We know that our schools are not keeping up with our neighbours', in our own neighbourhood. There are stifling regulations and ever-expanding responsibilities of employers to pick up the bill of national objectives—for example, domestic violence leave. And it's not a bad policy—it's a perfectly admirable thing to do, the right thing to do—but how on earth did it end up being the employer's responsibility rather than the responsibility of general society, of the taxpayer? That's the kind of thing we pop onto employers all the time, such as when a government in South Australia suddenly decides to declare Easter Sunday a holiday and the pay goes from time and a half to double time and a half for people who are trying to run a cafe. It wasn't theirs to give away! They are giving away the money of private individuals and businesses, and I think we always need to be mindful of that in a place like this, where we make decisions about what those impacts are on the ground.

As Australians, we're always seeking increasing standards. The nursing home, the level of health care, the style of holiday and the number of appliances that our parents accepted aren't good enough for us. But it all costs money, and we expect this great country to foot the bill. So, those aged-care facilities that are too small for us and don't have the connected bathroom and all those kinds of things, but that all costs money. I think there's a fair argument that we are actually not contributing enough to our nation to make it successful, to pay for all the things that we are demanding as a population. I think that's something we could all reflect on—how we do a better job for our nation. A very famous president of the US talked about what we could do for our nation rather than the other way around. I think we are reaching that point. So, while people will make claims now to work a four-day week, for instance, or they don't want to come into work at all, thank you very much, or they want to have more holidays, I think we need to reflect on that level of productivity and what on earth is going to pay for all these extra things that we want in our lives. There's a money-go-round effect here.

More and more Australians are involved in the service industries—and good on them; I'm not saying that's a bad thing to do. But, on the other hand, service industries do not create new wealth for this nation; primary producers do. In the very broad term of when I went to school, primary producers were people who actually farmed or produced something from scratch, like a miner or a manufacturer. Increasingly there are fewer in that cohort and more in the area of service delivery. That's all very well as long as the country can pay for it, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so, and I think we need to reflect on that.

The electorate of Grey has achieved much over the last six parliaments. The member for Parkes talked about big shiny things, and I'm very pleased to report that we have a twin bridge in Port Augusta called the Joy Baluch AM Bridge—

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the second one. I had to walk three transport ministers over that bridge—another one down here I think!—to actually nail it. And it is the right kind of investment, because the north of South Australia, the regions, is where the mineral wealth is. In fact, every major mine in South Australia is in the electorate of Grey, which covers a mere 92.4 per cent of the state.

There is the Port Wakefield overpass and the dual lanes we have commenced on the Augusta Highway, which is now only going to go as far as Lochiel and not keep going all the way to Port Augusta, which I had hoped. That's reprioritisation with the current government, but we should keep going on those things. The upgrades to the Horrocks Highway, Eyre, Augusta—the whole lot of them—have had major upgrades, and there is the sealing of the Strzelecki Track. I don't know how many have been up the Strez—once again, the member for Gippsland has been up the Strez with me. In fact, we had a photo in front of the sign that spelt Strzelecki wrong! That's been fixed up, I can tell you. That road will become one of the great tourist routes of Australia, connecting Queensland through the outback and bringing you down into South Australia, into the Flinders Ranges if you turn left—or you can go right and go up to Lake Eyre. It's not a bad little option, really. And, of course, the mighty Moomba basin sits right in the middle of it. That was a god outcome.

Then there are the tens of millions of dollars that have gone into BBRF programs, sports and community facilities, town sewerage systems, marine facilities, historical precinct preservation, bike trails, tourism—it goes on and on. They're are all good projects. There is the Mobile Black Spot Program and an enormous expansion in coverage. Is it complete? No. It will never be complaint. Perhaps that was touched on again with Starlink; you can't get behind every rock with a radio frequency. But it's certainly made a big difference.

Another thing I've been involved with is how Defence has a penchant for going out and compulsorily acquiring properties. We've had a fair bit of it go in the electorate of Grey. I've been sticking up for the landholders' rights, which I think are treated terribly in this situation. I've got people I helped out who had 25 years to reach settlement. I've got others now that are approaching the 15-year mark on the compulsory acquisition around Cultana. I'm pleased to be involved with these good people. I'm a bit concerned now that it's all done that the Army is going to abandon Cultana anyhow. It's been a difficult time for those things.

The establishment of four headspace units across Grey is a great thing. I wanted another one in Port Pirie and haven't been able to get it, but just a couple of weeks ago we opened a Medicare mental health facility there, and I'm indebted to the former minister Greg Hunt, who put those on the line to fill that space. As for those four headspace units, we've got one in Port Lincoln, one in Whyalla, one in Port Augusta and another one in with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. They are doing great things reaching out to our young people.

And there is the dog fence. Where are you, David Littleproud? There he is. The dog fence is a 120-year-old fence that snakes across outback South Australia, protecting sheep farmers from wild dogs and dingoes. We were struggling to get this one up at the South Australian level, and we managed to get David Littleproud to come open the Jamestown show. His staff said, 'We've got a couple of hours free in the morning; have you got anything you could do?' and I said, 'Yes, I've got a really good idea.' So I got a hold of the people at the dog fence and they came in for a meeting. We were about 10 minutes into the meeting and, to his great credit, David said, 'Yes, I've got it. I understand what you're saying, and we're going to make this happen.' And we did with a $5 million contribution from the federal government, $5 million from the state government and $5 million from growers. What I got out of it was an increase in my levy! But the fence is now about two-thirds complete and making a real difference across the outback. They are really good wins. There are the regional airports. I don't think there is a remote airstrip in a remote community that is not sealed for the Royal Flying Doctor Service to get in, and that has been the remote area airport subsidy.

Here in the House, we all belong to all kinds of committees and different organisations. There are a couple I'm going to mention here. Unfortunately, the member for Moreton is not here today, but the enemies of diabetes is an organisation we had to rename. I didn't really want to be a 'friend' of diabetes, so we renamed it the 'enemies'. Graham Perrett's been the co-chair with me for the last nine years of these three parliaments. We're both leaving, and I wish him well in his retirement from federal parliament as well. We are very alike, Graham and I, in personality, I think—like the two moons of Mars, as it were. But when it comes to opinions on things political, we're more like other things celestial—Venus and Mars—I think. There's a fair way between us.

There was another committee that I worked on. I was chair of the agriculture committee. I went to Ian Macfarlane at the time—I can do a reasonable job of imitating Ian, but I won't do it here in the chamber—and I said, 'I want an inquiry into country-of-origin food labelling.' He said, 'Why would you worry? It's been done to death. There's been about eight inquiries before.' And I said, 'Yes, I know that.' And he said, 'Well, you're not going to get anywhere.' So I said, 'Look, all of those inquiries—I've looked at the reports—say that the government should do something about it. We should have a country-of-origin food-labelling system. You give me a go at this and we'll tell you how to do it. How about that?'

So we got permission. It went ahead. We had to get permission from Barnaby Joyce as well. And then we delivered the report. Some circumstances happened and we managed to get it implemented. So when you go down to the supermarket now and you pick up the food and you see the bar graph on it and it tells you how much of that content is Australian, that came from my committee. I wrote the report, basically, but with the support of the rest of the committee. That's just what you can do when you actually dig in there and find the answer.

At the time of the inquiry, I said, 'There are a whole lot of people in Australia who need to push that shopping trolley down the supermarket and fill it up with the cheapest food they can to feed their family, and they shouldn't feel bad about that. I say, "Good on them." But there is a whole lot of people in Australia just like me who have a high enough income to make a choice about whether they want to support Australian manufacturing or whether they want to support Australian growers, but they can't do it if they haven't got the information, and now they have.' I'm pleased that that will now spread on to fish, but at the time I knew that was a bridge too far. It would have got too complicated and bogged down. So we made the move, and that was a good outcome.

There's an old adage that holds true: you cannot please all the people all the time. We know that's true, but I say to electors that they should elect an individual to this place whom they trust to make an intelligent decision on their behalf when that individual is in possession of the facts. You may not always agree with the conclusion that the elected person comes to, but you should elect someone you trust to make an intelligent decision. It is better summed up, I think, by Edmund Burke, the Irish philosopher-politician of the late 1700s, who said, and excuse the sexist language; it is of its time:

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

My reading of that is that we should not be in this place to slavishly follow the latest poll. We shouldn't be driven by those ways of making decisions. We should be here to provide our judgement and to lead our communities through challenging decisions. There are two obvious areas where I'd claim to have done so, and these areas have delivered success—I must say, sadly, only to have it reversed by the current government at the change of government.

The first is Ceduna and the cashless debit card. Out there we'd had, I think, seven deaths. We'd had a coroner's report into people sleeping rough and into drug and alcohol abuse. It was really a very tragic story, and one thing led to another. We'd had a number of interim outcomes, and then Twiggy Forrest suggested to a joint party room one day that we pursue a cashless debit card and, with the great support of the local community in Ceduna, we led the nation.

I thank Allan Suter, mayor at the time, and also the Far West Aboriginal Communities Leaders Group, which was established at the time. It took some real guts and determination for them to withstand local pressure, as you would imagine, to back the card in. Once again, I think Mr Chester was with me when we were at a meeting and there was this old pastor. I thought the meeting was going a bit rough—we had a few public servants in there—and then he stood up and we all listened to what he had to say. He cleared his throat and he said, 'I reckon we ought to do it. I think it'd be a good thing,' and we knew we were over the line. And it was a good thing. It made such a difference. There are people who sit around—they've taken surveys or whatever—and say, 'Oh, it's inconclusive.' I can tell you it's as clear as night and day. In fact, of the two of the mayors who led the community through that time, one has sold his house and is leaving community and the other one is leaving in the next 12 months, because they can't bear to see what's happening to their town.

So I'm pleased that our leader, Peter Dutton, has said we will be bringing back the cashless debit card. It does not take income away from people; it just says you can't spend it on drugs, alcohol and gambling. Three things—that's all it prohibits. Everything else you can buy. It made a difference to rates of domestic and public violence and to admissions to emergency care. The rates at the moment are far higher than they were when the card was in action. School attendance has fallen too.

The other place where I would claim to have led the community was in my home town of Kimba, where I raised the possibility of and led the push to establish a national radioactive waste management facility. I'd had an opportunity courtesy of one of the round-the-world trips that once were available to parliamentary members who'd served more than one term. You could go around the world once in pursuing your study topic. We'd had a big desalination plant planned for the Upper Spencer Gulf, and I was very interested in the environmental impacts of what that might look like. Of course, I've still got one of the world 's biggest uranium mines—it's a by-product of its being a copper mine—in the electorate, at Olympic Dam, or Roxby Downs. I had the possibility of going to Europe, and the French, the Swedes and the Finns showed us a wonderful time and took us through their facilities. We looked at the uranium fuel site from top to bottom, including disposal. When the opportunity came up for a low-level waste repository, I really thought this was money for jam. It just needed somebody to recognise what it was. But how could I ask somebody else to nominate their property when I was sitting on my own piece of land and could nominate my own? That's exactly what I did. In the end, I was rubbed out by protocol, it would be fair to say, but by then others in the community had offered their properties. Some of them are in the chamber today, and I'll come to them in a little while.

In Kimba we went through a survey and then two full plebiscites. In every one, support for the facility grew, to the point where we reached 62.2 per cent. For the record, that was about the same as for same-sex marriage, which was an overwhelming, landslide result, if I remember rightly. So it's worth putting that in context. Then we managed to get it through both houses of parliament. There had been claims from an Indigenous group. The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation twice had their case thrown out of the Federal Court. They went back for a third attempt and, on a story whose basis stretches belief—and I've spoken about it in this chamber before—it was halted by the Federal Court. The Federal Court left the door wide open for an appeal, but, in the shadows of the approaching Voice referendum, the current government abandoned ship, and there's still no solution for Australia's storage of low-level waste. Something like one-in-three families benefit from nuclear medicine. It's a weak decision by the government. I'm sorry to do that in this kind of address, but really I'm very sad about it. I'm very grateful to those families that stuck their hand up in the local community.

To go on with this theme, it's instructive that the Voice referendum was rejected in a landslide, 60-40. It was actually closer to 80-20 in my electorate. Rightly, Australia rejected the notion of two classes of citizen. I think we've taken a backward step as a result of the Voice referendum, and part of the reason it was rejected, I think, is that native title has become an extortion racket. Projects have been halted or delayed at the penultimate moment by a claim of significant religious or cultural interpretation. Rampant conservationists are edging in and misusing native title groups. I have absolutely no doubt about this. It's an unholy alliance. By doing so they are eroding Indigenous people's standing in the general community. The intolerance to this in the general community is rising.

It all started with Hindmarsh Island, a case back in the 1990s where there was fabricated evidence. More lately we have seen the refusal of the Blayney goldmine and the Santos Barossa pipeline project. Again in Grey, there was a small desalination project at Port Lincoln. It had some community resistance, but the South Australian government, not worried about that community resistance at all, were quite happy to go ahead with it, but then of course, when the Indigenous owners—well, they're not owners, because this is freehold property. Once again, it was the Barngarla people who put in an objection, and it all seems to have fallen over. When the community objected, that was okay. When the Barngarla people objected, it became a stopper. Australians don't see this as fair and reasonable treatment, and that's why I actually decry the fact it's causing more problems than it's fixing.

I've allocated a large amount of time in my 17 years in politics to try and better understand the issues and opportunities of Indigenous Australia, particularly remote communities. Eight per cent of my electorate identify as Indigenous, and around 40 per cent of those live in remote communities. For the ones that are living in the bigger communities, things aren't perfect, but we are absolutely making progress. The member for Parkes touched on this. I'm seeing success stories—people in jobs, getting their kids to school, driving good cars, living in good houses, living a good life, enjoying the Australian dream. But I can tell you in remote communities we're not there, and we're not there by a long way. I fear we're actually going backwards.

I think I've gained a lot of respect in those remote communities simply because I go there regularly, and I'm prepared to sit down not only with the leaders but with anyone I find outside the shop or in the village square. We sit down in the dust and talk about what it is they want and what they'd like to see changed and what drives the place. I think I get respect for going there. I absolutely claim that I have their best interests at heart, and I've delivered investment on many levels—and friendships.

The billions of dollars we're spending in these remote communities, delivering improvements in schools, health clinics, shops, roads, dialysis units, communications—it's all very evident. But, I have to say, despite all that investment, improvements to their actual outcomes are hard to identify. The gap is not closing. The education system is failing. The reason it fails is because kids aren't at school. No teacher can teach children who don't attend school. Here's the sad news for them as they grow up: if you can't read a label or the safety directions, in this modern world, there isn't a job for you. It's virtually impossible. So we've got to break this cycle.

Remote communities are totally dependent on taxpayer dollars for their existence, and we should be able to have a grown-up conversation, not just here but with them everywhere, about the wisdom of a policy that maintains and grows a population in a part of Australia where there is not a genuine economic possibility of underwriting that existence. Men, particularly, have been totally stripped of their role in society. The men's roles were to deliver shelter and food, to find water, to defend their family. Now all that comes from the government. They go down to the shop. One of the biggest sales on the APY Lands, for instance, is frozen kangaroo tails. It tells you about that disconnect from their traditional lifestyle.

I give a speech on this recently in the Federation Chamber, and the member for Clark was in the chair. I'm sure he won't mind me sort of quoting him. I don't want to get it wrong, but he came up to me afterwards and said: 'I've never heard anyone explain it to me like that before. Clearly, you're not speaking from ignorance; you are speaking from experience.' I don't know if that will change his attitudes on anything, but he was generous enough to grant me that concession—that it was heart felt and that it came from experience. Enough on that.

We'll get to the thankyous. Serving in this place is a privilege, and that electorates put their trust in individuals like me and like all my friends sitting around me at the moment is an honour within itself and is a wonderful thing. I've had wonderful opportunities to travel at least some of the world—I just spoke about Morocco before—to meet national and local leaders and the best and brightest people with plans and ideas to improve the nation. That's a privilege. I've laid wreaths on delegation at Hellfire Pass and Brunei Bay in Brunei. I've been to Menin Gate twice for the evening service which has been carrying on since about 1926, I think.

I have walked Kokoda in a private capacity and attended an Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli. On that occasion, I'd only attached myself to the delegation at the eleventh hour. It was a freezing cold day. We were sitting at Lone Pine, and I heard them say: 'On behalf of the Australian government, Mr Snowdon will lay a wreath, and, on behalf of the Senate, someone else will lay a wreath, and, on behalf of this, someone will lay a wreath. On behalf of the House of Representatives'—I thought, 'I wonder who they'll get to do that.' Then they said, 'Mr Ramsay.' I thought, 'Right!' I'm rugged up; I've got my gloves on, got the scarf on, got the coat on, and off it's all coming, as fast as I could go. I got there in my suit, so I didn't look too bad, went up and laid the wreath. That's quite a special moment.

It even got better because my sister who's in the gallery at the moment said: 'You wouldn't believe what I saw when I turned on the news after Anzac Day. The first thing that came on the ABC was my brother going down to put a wreath up at Lone Pine.' There you go. After all the best laid out plans for everyone else that wanted to get on the ABC that night, it was down to the member for Grey!

They are wonderful experiences, but I think perhaps the greatest reward for this job is actually when you fix up personal problems. From the outside, I don't think you rate it, but, people come to you when the system has chewed them up, spat them out and not taken any notice of what they've had to say or it's just—everyone's seen Little Britain'computer says no.' You can do anything you like up until the computer says no. My staff and I put our shoulders to the wheel and achieve an outcome that should have happened in the very first place, but you just know that you made such a complete difference to their life. It is a privilege.

What getting ready for a political life doesn't prepare you for is that you become a counsellor. People will tell you the best and the worst of their lives, and I think both of them are a privilege. People share some of their darkest moments with you and don't necessarily want you to fix it but to instead just listen. That you can be that person is a very rare and pretty privileged position.

I've come to thank some of the people who have given me an opportunity, but, before I get there, once again it was the member for Parkes who touched on the Rudd-slide. We were bright eyed and bushy tailed—the six new Liberals and the one new National that arrived here in 2007. Of that group of six Liberals, four have already left—actually I must have that a bit wrong because my maths doesn't add up. Three are delivering valedictories today, and there's still going to be one left. Something doesn't work quite right there, but anyway. We walked into the party room on the first morning, and, of course, there was a lot of licking of wounds going on after the years of the Howard government. We'd lost government. There were six new Liberals there who thought it was a wonderful thing—they'd just elected us—but everyone else was a bit down. The redoubtable Senator Bill Heffernan said, 'The reason we lost this election was all the deadhead candidates we had.' We all looked at each other and said, 'He must be talking about us.' We became the deadheads. For some years, we used to meet as the deadheads and get people with political experience to come in and speak to us. And, I think in fine form, we decided to appoint Bill Heffernan as the patron saint of the deadheads, and we used to have an award called the Billy for the person who had caused the most problems to the government that week or the week that we met in. It was a good time. Including Scott Morrison, after this next election, we'll be down to just Alex Hawke, who I can't see here at the moment. He will have to carry on without us.

Just on the three valedictories today—the three from this side of the chamber—I must say it is very fitting that we give them together. We came in together and we're going out together. Nola, from day one, a pocket rocket or—and I know you won't mind me saying this—a pint-sized milking maid! But don't get on the wrong side of Nola. She was determined for her electorate every time, and I am a great admirer—and she's a great friend, and we will remain friends.

To Mark Coulton: we have so much in common, Mark. We're both life members of Apex. We're both farmers. As farmers, we both understood that if you wanted to droughtproof your farm you had to marry schoolteachers! They are sitting together behind me at the moment, Robyn and Teresa. Together they piloted the parliamentary partners association for six years, and I think that is a very important organisation. If we could get more of the partners to come more often to Canberra and share in their partner's experience, we might be able to keep them together on a bit more of a regular basis, rather than having so many of them split up. I think anything that brings you closer together through those times is a very good and important thing, and I thank them both for that.

To the electors of Grey—six times they've seen fit to appoint me to represent them: thank you so much. I don't say that lightly. To the more than 400 members of the Grey Liberal Party who journeyed up to a 1,000-kilometre round trip back in 2006 to preselect me: thank you so much. And they've just gone through that process again. If I'd never been the Liberal candidate for Grey, I would never have had the opportunity to be the member for Grey. To the 800 people who make up the membership of the 22 Liberal Party branches across Grey: thank you for your work each and every election, keeping the flame alive in the community—because we all believe in the same things, even those we have differences with across the chamber. We all believe in a better Australia. A lot of us just believe in a different pathway to get there. I'm absolutely thankful for their support. To my home town of Kimba and my lifelong friends who have supported me—some of them that are here today, some of the most important; not all of them—certainly, through that period of the radioactive waste management facility.

I'm just the third member for Grey from the Liberal Party. The seat of Grey was formed in 1903, and I'm only the third Liberal. In fact, from 1943 to 1993, we held it just once. That's 50 years. We held it for one term in the 1966 parliament, when it was won by a fellow called Don Jessop, who later had a career in the Senate. In 1993 Barry Wakelin won the seat for the Liberal Party, and I succeeded him. Now we've held this seat for the last 31 years. Barry is from exactly the same home town as myself, Kimber. I think that's quite a remarkable outcome. So, for 31 years, my small community on the northern edge of the Wheatbelt has provided the member for Grey.

It's a community of just over a thousand people. I think we punch above our weight right around South Australia. The current chair of the South Australian local government association is the Kimber mayor, Dean Johnson. And, with Caroline Schaefer and her father, Arthur Whyte, Kimber has contributed a member of parliament at either state or federal level for 40 of the last 48 years, and for 17 of those years we had one at state level and one at federal level. I think that's quite remarkable. It's something about living on the edge. It's not easy making a living in Kimber, and I think it's always attuned the people of the town to what the exterior threats are and why we need to have a common purpose when we come together as a community and work for those outcomes.

One of the great joys of the job is the plethora of new friends we've made right around the electorate, people that we would have never, ever met in another life. Obviously, there are too many to mention. But a special call-out today for Anthea Kennett up there in the pink—thank you, Anthea—who's come here from Wallaroo today. She and her husband, John, committed no greater sin than being our friends when we took our kids to boarding school together. I managed to recruit them into the Liberal Party and rebuild the local branch there. They weren't on their own, I must say, but thank you for making the effort of being here today, Anthea.

The team from Kimba, Jo and John Schaefer, Jeff and Jenny Baldock, Graeme and Heather Baldock—Heather was my first campaign manager—are still here with me, 17 years later, backing their local boy. I thank them so much. They are just such wonderful, valuable friends. There's another couple who couldn't be here: Bert and Barb Woolford. Barb is a ball of energy and will throw her shoulder to the wheel on any attempt.

Of course, one of the things you need to do is try and get some people up on the APY Lands when you're having an election. Barb was often at the forefront of leading a delegation or being part of a delegation to go and hand out for Rowan Ramsey. One particular afternoon, she and my wife, Teresa, were there—I think they were at Mimili—and there was a fair kind of raucous going on about 50 metres away from the voting station, as sometimes happens in these communities. Just when they thought things might really get out of hand, this big bloke walked in, in traditional dress, with a spear. He went over and, in no uncertain terms, told them they should disperse and get about their lives, which is pretty much what they did. Then he headed towards the voting box with his big spear. Barb and Teresa thought, 'Oh, gee, what do we do when he gets over here?' Teresa said, 'Hold your nerve.' He came up and put his spear down on the ground and then—as he should—he took a 'How to vote for Rowan Ramsey' card and went in and executed his democratic right. Barb's has been a very special contribution. One year, someone from the Electoral Commission got sick and they only did half the booths, so she headed back up and did the second week. I always say, incidentally, that to get to the Lands it's a thousand kilometres without going out of my electorate, from my gate to the turn-off, and then, if you want to go to the WA border, it's another eight hours. I try and do that a couple of times a year.

To my staff, Gen Wells, Fiona Duffield, Neil Sawley, Courtney Stephens, Katie Patterson and Meredith Westbrook, who are all here today: thank you. And thank you to Deb Darby, who came down ill and couldn't make it. They've all been outstanding. Leonie Lloyd-Smith—the reason I just put her on the end is that she's someone most of you in this place would know. She has come to Canberra with me virtually every week for the last 10 years or so. She's the chief organiser of the staff nosh-up on Wednesday nights, so they may well miss Leonie's services. Vicki Manderson is also back in the Port Pirie office today holding the fort. They are a terrific staff—terrific because not only do they serve me loyally, as they should do, but they serve the electorate loyally. When people come in with their problems, they have the time, the patience and the compassion to sit down and talk through those problems. Both the electorate and I are well served by them, and I thank each and all of them. Some of them—in fact, three—have been with me for the entire 17 years, and one, Gen Wells, just a few months short of that.

In the chamber today, we have Teresa's sister, Jackie, and Jackie's husband, Peter, as well as my sisters Beth and Janet and Janet's husband, Andrew. My other sister, Anne-Marie, is watching from home. Thank you, all, for being here and your support throughout my time in this parliament. My three wonderful children are all here today: Alex with her husband, Ben, and our grandson, Arthur. Can you give me a wave, Arthur? There you go! Good on you, fella. To Courtney and Lachlan, wonderful supporters: I thank you. I know you've given up a bit for me to have this career. I hope it's been rewarded in other ways. Certainly one thing we haven't done is lose touch. At the time we made the decision for me to have a go at this job, Lachlan was actually at university in Adelaide and living in our unit. While they always needed us, they didn't need me to drop them off at footy and netball anymore, so it was a good time for us, and for me.

This brings me to the last and most important person, my beautiful wife, Teresa, my soulmate of 46 years plus. In Mark's terms—he treaded the platform before me—many people consider her to be the second member for Grey. We get two for the price of one. She has driven some of the countless kilometres that we've travelled around the electorate, has dealt with behind-the-scenes things like donations—we look forward to those; there'd be a lot of requests coming in for those—and, particularly in the early years—she's an art teacher by trade—set out the materials that come out of the office.

We've been each other's sounding board, not always in furious agreement, sometimes just furious! It proves the strength of our relationship that we can have a very vigorous discussion about things and then just move on. Because there's no doubt we still love each other. I love Teresa, and I'm so privileged to have had her in my life. Many people have said to me over the years, 'You've got a driver, haven't you?' because we do about 80,000 kilometres a year, and I say, 'Yes. I had to marry her.'

It's been a wonderful journey. We made the decision to embark upon it together. We are ending it, I guess in a privileged way, in that we were able to choose the time of our leaving. I'm working on, like I said, being a long time in that first group before I get to either of the second two, and going off and enjoying everything. Thank you all for your friendship and support.