Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I was confronted with a blank screen when coming to write this speech, and, when blank screen brain freeze would happen to me when I was a journo, we were told by editors, 'Just start typing what's in your head.' So that's what I'm doing, and that's what you're hearing now. This is a stream of consciousness more than it is a speech, so my apologies for the incoherence.

Did you hear the member for Higgins's incredible speech last Monday? That demonstrated what a loss Michelle will be for this House, following the Electoral Commission's decision to abolish her seat. It was a speech full of intellect, insight and compassion. Don't expect much of that this time. I say to the commissioners: 'It's not too late. Reconsider. Abolish the seat of Melbourne instead—or, better yet, Deakin. Either would be a definite improvement.''

I'm giving my valedictory today not because my seat has been abolished but because our great party has chosen a candidate other than me to represent it at the next election. It's a decision I understand and a decision I support. As members and candidates, we all believe that we will definitely win our seats at every election we face. We need that self-belief to survive. But the brutal mathematical fact is that my margin sits on 0.9 per cent, or 1,344 votes. It's a margin significantly slimmer than me! My heart tells me that I've worked hard, that I'm well liked and that I can definitely retain this seat. But my professional, political brain tells me that the seat is on a knife edge, that Lyons is exactly the sort of seat the opposition leader is targeting and that, while I'm a hardworking member, I'm not a terrific campaigner. At elections, seats can and do change hands, despite the incumbents' self-belief and best efforts.

So, when the potential arose for another Labor candidate to emerge, my good friend Rebecca White, the former Leader of the Tasmanian Labor Party and a state member for Lyons—I won't go into the detail of Tasmania's Hare-Clark—the opportunity was too good to pass up. I've quipped with a few people over the recent weeks that, if I'd been on the preselection panel and had to choose between White and Mitchell, I'd have voted for White too—and I'm Mitchell! I am confident that Rebecca will be the new member for Lyons, and she will be a great addition to the caucus, to this parliament and to this nation.

When I cast my eye around this caucus, I see an incredible bunch of people from all walks of life. We have dairy farmers, miners, teachers, factory workers, academics, police officers, lawyers, engineers, doctors, nurses, journalists, social workers, allied health workers, soldiers and a sprinkling of trade union officials. A majority of those in our ranks are women, and we have MPs from all walks of life and multicultural, linguistic and faith backgrounds. I am proud—enormously proud—to be part of a federal Labor caucus that reflects the diversity of the Australian population better than any caucus—or, indeed, any government—has in our nation's history.

This group of people I've had the privilege to serve alongside is passionate and committed. In conversations and meetings, all the talk is about how we can do things to make life better for the people we represent. I've never had a Labor minister turn me away or be dismissive of my concerns, and I've been struck often by the compassion and the care shown by members of this group and, indeed, by members of this parliament towards each other when someone is having a tough time—especially when a loved one has died or a member has had a rough trot in the media. This is a group of people that care about each other, and that's reflective of how this group cares about its communities and the nation as a whole. Amongst this group is a new generation of Australian political leadership, and I leave this place knowing the country is in good hands, with people of this calibre to carry the torch. I will miss being part of this very fine group of Australians. I consider myself privileged to have been amongst you.

There are many things I wish I'd further progressed before leaving this place, but there are three in particular that I will mention. First is the need for government to take a much more active role in the preservation and propagation of quality journalism. Quality journalism is increasingly replaced by clickbait because that's what drives eyeballs to advertisers who have stuck with legacy media. I do take my hat off to the efforts of the communications minister, who's worked so hard in this space. Organs dedication to quality journalism struggle because they don't get the critical advertising mass they need to pay the bills. Increasingly, the only people accessing quality journalism are those who care enough to pay for it via subscriptions, and that makes it a niche and boutique proposition. The people who most need access to quality journalism simply aren't being exposed to enough of it. If we really believe that all Australians deserve access to quality journalism, which provides them with the information they need to make informed judgements, it's going to have to be publicly funded.

Before the Treasurer and the finance minister have conniptions, I think it can be done without adding too much to current expenditure. One model is to guarantee a minimum level of government advertising and sponsorship in established media, especially regional and independently owned newspapers, TV and radio, that can demonstrate genuine newsroom bona fides. It shouldn't end up costing the budget much more than is currently spent on a myriad of government information campaigns and job ads already in circulation. But it will mean a dedicated effort to redirect advertising resources towards the primary goals of supporting quality journalism and diverse media ownership, rather than simply dumping advertising dollars with the big corporates and platforms that do not offer journalism. It won't be easy. Guardrails will be required, and any regime will have to be adaptable to changing technologies and practices. But we simply cannot leave journalism to the crippling brutalities of market forces. As a nation, we acknowledge that justice and defence require substantial government expenditure; we don't expect them to survive in the market. We must acknowledge journalism's role as a cornerstone of our democracy, just as justice and defence are. It's too precious to allowed to crumble.

Another issue I would have liked to have pursued—and the Treasurer will get nervous here—is getting more dental and mental in Medicare. I acknowledge the incredible leadership of the health minister, who has done so much in three years to repair the damage done to Medicare over the previous nine. He really has done a magnificent job creating Medicare urgent care clinics and improving bulk-billing rates, but I would love to see more mental and dental in Medicare firmly on the Labor agenda.

The wonderful Carmen Lawrence got dental care into Medicare in the dying days of the Keating government, but it was promptly ripped out like a healthy tooth by John Howard, and there have being no serious attempts since to restore it. I have no illusions about the expense or the difficulty, but it's time to commit to starting a process. Too many people, our people—the old, the sick, the poor—are suffering from poor dental and mental health for us not to turn our attention to it. In the words of the great late JFK, we do these things 'not because they are easy but because they are hard'.

One last thing for the Treasurer to crack a smile about is I would love to see some far-reaching reform on the taxation of alcohol. As you know, I'm the co-convener on the Parliamentary Friends of Australian Spirits group, which I started not least because there are nearly as many distilleries in Tasmania as there are in Scotland. There are some deeply ingrained inconsistencies and injustices in the way alcohol taxes and excises are levied, and we do need some serious reform there to both create a level playing field in Australia amongst distillers, brewers and vintners and make Australian spirits more competitive in the global market. The budget might take a hit in the short term by getting few dollars per litre of spirits sold, but I do think it would make more over the long term by growing the pie overall. Distilleries, and for that matter breweries and wineries, are terrific employers and generators of economic activity across regional Australia, and we should not underestimate their significance.

The other issue that keeps me awake at night—other than all known life in the universe being reliant on a thin strip of atmospheric gas separating us from the infinite vacuum of space; believe me, it keeps me awake!—is the rise, and this is serious, of the extreme political Right across western democracies and the rapid mainstreaming of fascism. What was unthinkable 10 years ago is accepted now and will be firmly entrenched tomorrow unless we do more to prevent it taking root, particularly amongst disaffected young men. Fascism is corrosive to who we are and the values of our country—values that Australian men and women have died to defend. I know it's an issue being dealt with at the highest levels of our security apparatus, but we do need to sandbag our institutions, media, regulators, police, courts and infrastructure to ensure they are protected from this insidious, cancerous menace.

And, despite the concerns I've outlined above, I am genuinely optimistic. We do live in a wonderful country. It is not perfect, and it has dark elements to its history and its genesis, but that is true of all nations. No country has been forged without blood being shed or injustice being meted out. It is important, vital, that we acknowledge the truth of our history in all its facets, both the dark and the light. I reject the proposition that it is a black-armband-view of history to acknowledge the darkness, but I equally reject the proposition that we cannot or should not be proud of the nation that has been forged and which continues to be tempered; the values that this nation stands for, even if it does not always live up to them; and the bright promise that it holds. There is so much to be proud of, but there is an unceasing duty to keep striving towards the light, towards humanity's better nature and ideals, a duty that falls most heavily, if not exclusively, to those of you who remain within this chamber.

Colleagues, I never came to this place with that baton in my knapsack. The member for Grayndler had nothing to fear from me! I only had a passion to serve, to make a contribution and to be part of a team, and I'm proud of the part I've played. Our government's decision to change the stage 3 tax cuts from being weighted towards high-income earners to become tax cuts for every worker, with tax cuts for low-income workers and bigger tax cuts for average-wage earners is something I'm really proud of helping kick into gear, however marginal my role. That one decision, amongst many others, has made a material difference to the living standards of millions of Australians, and nine out of 10 Tasmanians have more money to spend as a result. I am proud of this government's achievements in so many areas in such a short time: cheaper medicines, fee-free TAFE, higher wages for aged-care and childcare workers, and so much more. We've achieved a lot in three years. Let's see what you lot can do in six or nine.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Or 12.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Or 12—thank you! As a local member, I've been able to achieve things for my electorate, not least the siting of a Medicare urgent care clinic in Bridgewater and a new Services Australia centre in Sorell, both of which officially open today. There are many others: sport facilities, factory funding, communication upgrades, irrigation funding and more, but those two I'm especially proud of. I'd like to thank the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the Minister for Government Services for their support. Over my time as the member for Lyons, around $2 million has been disbursed to local non-profit community groups and talented young athletes, with grants ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars, and every single dollar has benefited the communities of my electorate and the people who live in them. I'm sure all members have similar experiences.

Speaking of achievements, the Prime Minister announced the other week $150 million for the Greater South East Irrigation Scheme in my electorate. I've been advocating for months for this project, but it was Rebecca White who sealed the deal. Rebecca grew up on a farm in the south-east, and she was able to make the strongest argument. She's not even in the parliament yet and she's already delivered a $150 million project for Lyons, not as an election commitment but as funding that will be delivered this term.

I've got people to acknowledge: my Tasmanian federal parliamentary Labor colleagues, Julie Collins, Carol Brown, Anne Urquhart, Catryna Bilyk and Helen Polley, for being such great Tasmanian teammates. Of course, I acknowledge Ross Hart and Justine Keay, who were elected with me in 2016 for Bass and Braddon, but who sadly left the parliament in 2019. The class of 2016 is a great class.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

An honourable member: As was 2019.

Hear, hear—as was 2019; that's right. Leave no-one out!

I thank the Prime Minister for his leadership and his vision. I thank former leader, Bill Shorten, for his service and his support; the Leader of the House for his intellect and his enthusiasm; the members for Fremantle, Perth and Chifley, whom I knew long before I came to this place from other lives; and so many of you for the chats, catch-ups, advice and support. It's all treasured. Thank you to the member for Macarthur for trying to keep me alive a bit longer.

Across the aisle there are the members for Riverina, Gippsland, Bonner and Bass, whom I have very much enjoyed catching up with. The members for Indi and Mayo have always been delightful company, and the members for Goldstein, Flinders and Parkes, have been thoughtful and positive contributors on my comms committee, alongside our own members for Macquarie and Corangamite. There is so much more that unites the people in this place than divides us. It's important to have the fights, as the member for Maribyrnong said in his speech the other day. It's important to have the fights—to test what works and what doesn't, to stand up for your beliefs and ideals and to poke holes in the other side to expose the fault lines. But I know most of us would prefer that we were able to do it while being just a little bit nicer to each other.

I must thank the many volunteers and supporters who have door-knocked, made calls and allowed me to litter their yards with posters. There are too many to count, both volunteers and posters. What do you do with old corflutes apart from line your chook pen? I don't know, but I'll find out. And, of course, my staff: Lara von Stieglitz, Ben Dudman, Anthony Corke, Lyndell Jones, Mel Franklin and Tom Price, and Shannan Aherne, who just last week gave birth to Harrison, a new addition to her beautiful young family. I'm pleased to say that I won the office sweep on the most likely date of arrival. Thank you all for your service and dedication to our community. My name is on the door and the letterhead, but I have never forgotten that this is a group effort.

I would like to thank my former staff too for their invaluable contributions, especially the late Sharon Carnes, and Darren Clark, Janet Lambert, Margaret Watson and Lachie Grey, and Natalie Maple, who left me earlier this year after nearly eight years service—she really lost the lottery there—to look after her health. We love you, Nats, and we miss you and wish you all the best. Staff are the unsung heroes whom none of us can do without. Assisting our constituents with their concerns and grievances and helping them navigate bureaucracies and achieve just outcomes are our bread and butter.

I recall not long after I was elected that Margaret dealt with a man who had been struggling for years to access his superannuation. He was a bit aggro in his manner, and it was clear that the people he'd previously talked to just wanted him out; he was too difficult to deal with. But Margaret stuck with him, patiently teasing from him the details she needed to chase up his super. He would grump and harrumph, but she would brook no nonsense. She got the details she needed and she got his super for him—$400,000! This guy was couch surfing. It only happened because that remarkable woman stuck by that difficult man and because I'd been in a position to give Margaret a job. Margaret changed his life. There have been so many other cases where my staff have won results for our constituents through dogged determination. I won't take credit for their work; they deserve the acknowledgement. I wish them all well in the next stage of their journeys.

I thank the Australian Labor Party for preselecting me three times and the people of Lyons for electing me for three terms. It has been the privilege of my life to serve in the national parliament. I know I leave my communities across Lyons in the best of hands with Rebecca White as our new federal Labor candidate.

I must say before I leave that I thank the attendants here, the comm car drivers and everybody who assists us in this role. The cleaners of this place are just wonderful. Dom at Aussies—everybody you come across just makes your life easier and better, and I thank everybody for their service.

Last, but not least—never least—is my family: my wife, Tania, and our two remarkable children, who have allowed me the freedom to do this job, which comes with such heavy demands on time and on bandwidth. My family is everything to me, but as the wonderful Kim Beazley remarked in his valedictory many years ago, the fact is that, with this job, 'our families come second'. I will miss this job and I will miss you all, but my time here is done. In the immortal worlds of Gotye, now I'm just 'somebody that you used to know'.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—We have just heard a remarkable valedictory from a great Australian who has given us an insight into his character and the generosity of his spirit, with the way that he spoke about his staff assisting people and refused to take credit, apart from saying his name was on the letterhead and on the door. But what we know is that one has to be a great parliamentarian in order to attract great staff and loyal staff.

I opened Brian's electorate office after he was elected in 2016, and throughout the last almost nine years, whether it was going to a community centre in Deloraine, a footy game in Longford, a pie shop on the road between Launceston and Hobart—

An honourable member: Ross.

In Ross. We want to get that on the record. I very much recommend the scallop pies down in Tasmania. Whether it was those things, whether it was a distillery that was even better than the pie shop, or whether it was New Norfolk, Sorell, Perth or Swansea, I went to all those places with the member for Lyons, because it's an electorate that basically starts when you land at Lonnie airport—that's in Lyons—and you go all the way to Hobart and you're still in Lyons. It includes every bit in between—the valleys and the coastline of what is a remarkable seat with a very diverse community, with agriculture as well as a services sector. Manufacturing is there as well. The tourism area, of course, provides some beautiful spots along the way.

Brian worked really hard to win his seat in 2016 and to hold it in 2019 and 2022. We have an insight today, with this speech, into how much he cares about that community that he was able to represent. During the first of those three election campaigns, he took a seat off the then government, which is, of course, hard to do, as is holding onto it, as he did. We know Tasmanian seats have a bit of a history of swapping around a bit. He can take particular pride in the urgent-care clinic at Bridgewater, the Services Australia centre at Sorell, the Sorell Jobs Hub, the new base for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Launceston and the New Norfolk community sports upgrade—something he's fought for for a long time—but also, more importantly, the integrity that he's brought to the job.

When Brian and I had a discussion about whether he would contest Lyons again, he was certain that he could win, but he was absolutely certain that Rebecca White was someone who he wanted to see in the House of Representatives, and it's a remarkable thing. I can't think of a precedent for someone saying something like, 'I think I'm a good member, but I think that Rebecca White will make a great cabinet minister in the future.' I have no doubt that she will. As Brian said, Rebecca White is a once-in-a-generation politician.

So, on behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I thank you, Brian, for your contribution. On behalf of the Australian people, I thank you for your contribution as well.

You are a generous, principled, hardworking Australian who wants the best for this country, and you entered into parliament as you leave it: someone who came here to make a positive difference. I have no doubt that, in your future endeavours, you will continue to make a positive difference in the community in which you will continue to reside, but also in whatever endeavours you choose to go into in your future life.

I also take the opportunity to thank your family for their sacrifice, and to thank your staff for their loyalty, to you personally but also to the electorate. And I wish you all the very best for your future.

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For more than 14 years I've had the honour of representing the electorate of McPherson in the federal parliament, and today I rise to give my final speech in this place. During my time as the member for McPherson, I've experienced firsthand the many challenges and the great rewards of serving the Australian people. I've had the privilege of representing those who live and work on the southern Gold Coast and of making a contribution to our nation as a minister of the Crown in areas that I'm very passionate about: industry, science, technology, skills and national security.

As I leave parliament, I do so with a deep sense of pride in what has been accomplished and with enormous gratitude for the opportunity to serve. The work that we do in this place matters—it matters a lot—and the impact that we have on the lives of Australians is something that I have always taken seriously and will never ever forget.

When I first ran for office in 2010, I did so with a great sense of commitment to my community, where I've lived and worked for many years, and to the values that have always guided me: hard work, integrity and a strong belief that government could and should improve the lives of ordinary Australians. During the five parliamentary terms that I've served in this place, I've seen the impact of good policy and the importance of listening, understanding and serving those who have put their trust in me to represent them.

To the people of McPherson, I say thank you—thank you for entrusting me with the responsibility of representing you and being your voice in parliament. Together, we have achieved so much. Around $2 billion of federal funding flowed into McPherson during my time as the member, including to upgrade transport infrastructure, especially the widening of the M1 south from Mudgeeraba; to help local manufacturers purchase new equipment; to assist Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to enhance their tourism offering, such as through the new Australiana-themed precinct, and to the wildlife hospital, to treat injured wildlife; to support our veterans and RSLs; to improve road safety by fixing black spots; to improve mobile coverage; to support our aspiring young athletes; to provide beach safety equipment to save lives; to provide much-needed funds to our sporting clubs and community organisations; and to help victims of family and domestic violence—and that is just to name a few. But none of this would have been possible without the backing of my community.

Now, whilst these achievements have all helped my local community, my greatest satisfaction has come from helping individuals, many who have tried multiple ways to solve the problems for themselves but have come up against roadblocks. One of those was Tammy Hamawi, who was fighting to save her daughter Bianca's life after Bianca was diagnosed with a rare and life-threatening blood disease, aHUS.

Ten years ago, the drug that could help Bianca was considered to be one of the most expensive in the world, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for an annual supply. Tammy had done everything possible to self-fund the drug Bianca needed to live, but time was running out. Financial support came from Bianca's former school and generous donations, but an ongoing funding supply was needed, and we needed an interim solution while we continued to fight to have the drug listed on the PBS. I made a call to a local hospital which gave us the breakthrough Bianca needed, and I'll be forever grateful to the hospital for agreeing to provide the life-saving drug that Bianca needed until we were able to secure its listing on the PBS. Many people played a part in helping Bianca and others with aHUS, and I thank them. To me, power and influence is something to be used wisely and for the betterment of our communities.

In my first speech I spoke about the importance of local transport infrastructure. Without a doubt, the most significant transport infrastructure I've been able to deliver federal funding for is the widening of the M1, firstly from Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes and then from Varsity Lakes south, where construction is currently underway and, hopefully, will be completed in the not-too-distant future. When the widening is complete, it will serve the dual purpose of enabling residents and visitors to get home faster and safer and enhancing the freight corridor between Queensland and New South Wales. I remain committed to the extension of heavy rail south from Varsity Lakes.

Whilst representing the people of McPherson has always been my priority, there is much valuable and essential work that is done by the parliament, often in a non-partisan way. I'm very proud to be on the Speaker's panel—so thank you, Mr Speaker. Over my time in this place, I've been on several committees and participated in multiple friendship groups. Today I'll speak briefly about a couple of those.

At various times through my parliamentary career, I have been a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, including as chair. As one of the oldest investigative committees of the parliament, it's responsible for inquiring into, and reporting back to the parliament on, public works across a wide range of portfolios to ensure, amongst other things, that the proposed projects are cost effective. Public Works is not a tick-and-flick committee, and we have demonstrated this on many occasions, including when the committee insisted on a rescoping of work that resulted in a cost saving of tens of billions of dollars to the Australian taxpayer. This, in my view, demonstrates the importance and value of our committees in delivering a good and better outcome on behalf of Australians.

I've co-chaired Parliamentary Friends of Science along with the Deputy Prime Minister since it was first established in 2012. It's a friendship group that I'm very committed to because of my love of science. The Deputy Prime Minister and I have always tried to find ways to inspire the inner scientist in all of our colleagues and, with enormous assistance from the Australian Academy of Science and Science and Technology Australia, Parliamentary Friends of Science was launched with a masterclass in astronomy by Australia's Nobel laureate Professor Brian Schmidt. Optical telescopes were set up on the roof of Parliament House and, at the allotted time, an eager group of parliamentarians and guests burst out of the lift onto the roof. They looked up and they saw cloud—not a star to be seen. But we were not perturbed. We were not deterred, even. The official speeches went ahead. Professor Schmidt was invited to speak. We looked up, the clouds parted and there was Alpha Centauri. I don't know who was the most relieved on that night, but I'm very sure that Professor Schmidt was very happy to be able to speak about Alpha Centauri that evening. It was certainly a fabulous night and, from there, Parliamentary Friends of Science has certainly gone from strength to strength.

In my view, when parliamentarians are engaged in meaningful dialogue with scientific leaders, we get better policy outcomes. Parliamentary Friends of Science plays a very key role in this. As a mechanical engineer, STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—has long been a part of my life. As a parliamentarian, I've actively advocated for more students to study maths and science at school for multiple reasons, including that many of the jobs of the future will require strong STEM skills. Empowering girls to see a future for themselves in a STEM career was a key part of my work to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from the jobs of the future.

I was first appointed to the ministry in 2014 and served as an assistant minister in industry and science then skills before being appointed to cabinet in 2018 as the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology.

When I was appointed to cabinet, I became the first female federal cabinet minister from Queensland. I also became Australia's 26th cabinet industry minister and the first female to hold that position as well as the 30th cabinet minister for science and the only female science minister to hold a STEM qualification. I was the seventh cabinet minister to hold the technology portfolio and the second woman. Whilst those figures are historically important, what was important to me was the opportunity to bring together industry with science and technology and build a strong industrial base in Australia that would boost our economy and provide the jobs of the future.

Highlights of my time as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology include the release of a road map to inform government's approach to artificial intelligence and the development of guidelines alongside industry to ensure that AI is developed and applied ethically in Australia and delivering the $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy, which was a whole-of-government strategy designed to support Australian manufacturers to scale up and become more competitive and more resilient. The strategy put manufacturing at the centre of Australia's post-COVID recovery. Six key priorities were identified where Australia had a comparative or competitive advantage, and these were targeted for support. They were resources, technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence and space.

Expanding the space sector to boost our economy and create high-value jobs was another highlight, including creating of the Australian Space Discovery Centre and Mission Control in Adelaide; the growth of the Australian Space Agency; strengthening of our engagement with NASA through the Moon to Mars initiative; establishing the National Science and Technology Council to bring science and technology together to provide independent advice to government on key science issues for the betterment of our nation; and appointing the first Women in STEM Ambassador and establishing the Boosting Female Founders Initiative to support women entrepreneurs.

COVID-19 was a global seismic event that challenged the status quo and disrupted lives right across the world. Here in Australia, we weren't immune to its devastating impact. As the industry minister, I worked closely with our manufacturers to assist where possible with supply chain issues and help them make the products that we so desperately needed. Many of our manufacturers pivoted their operations to produce invasive ventilators, PPE, hand sanitisers, vaccines and surgical masks.

Whilst there were many amazing stories about our manufacturers, the one that I'd like to speak about today is Med-Con and surgical masks. As COVID took hold, Australia needed surgical face masks, but our supply chains were cut, and we had only one mask manufacturer in Australia, a company called Med-Con, based in Shepparton, that was producing two million masks per year. Clearly, that was not enough to meet our pandemic demands. Many people told me we couldn't lift our capacity to produce more masks and that we just had to keep trying to source more from overseas. They were wrong.

At the start of the pandemic, Med-Con had three production lines. The first line was operating for eight hours, five days per week. The second line wasn't in use, and the third line just wasn't operational. I spoke with Med-Con several times, and, whilst they were prepared to do everything possible, it would take them time to scale up, and that was time that we didn't have. We sent an engineer to Med-Con to look at the equipment and advise us on timeframes and capability to boost production. It wasn't good news. We needed people and technical expertise, and we needed it urgently. I remember the early-morning call with our engineer when he returned from Shepparton, and it was clear that the only way we could do what we needed to do was to call on the Army.

It was a Saturday morning. I called the defence minister and asked her for assistance. That afternoon, the Army rolled into Shepparton and into Med-Con's manufacturing facility, and, when they left a few weeks later, all production lines were running around the clock, new staff had been recruited and were trained and operating the machines, the Army had scanned all of the equipment parts, and new machines were being manufactured in Echuca, where the original machines had been produced many years before. By year end, Med-Con's manufacturing output had lifted from two million masks to more than 59 million masks. Other businesses pivoted to mask manufacturing and, by year end, the advice I received was that Australia had produced around 400 million masks. Australia went from two million 400 million masks production in a year. What an amazing effort from our manufacturers. There are many similar stories about the extraordinary work done by Australian manufacturers during COVID, so I know that we have the capability to continue to grow our manufacturing and industry sector here in Australia.

But too many of the manufacturing success stories from COVID have a sad ending. When supply chains reopened and the market was again flooded with imported goods that were readily available at a cheaper price, contracts were cancelled, buyers bought elsewhere and Australian manufacturers slowed production, with some stopping altogether. Australia, we can do better than this. If we want to have an Australian manufacturing industry, we have to buy Australian-made products. Every day I wear something that is made in Australia. I read the labels in supermarkets looking for Australian made and I buy Australian products whenever I can. I urge everyone, whenever they can, to support Australian industry, manufacturers, growers and producers, because, one by one, we can make a difference.

Protecting Australians and safeguarding our way of life have always been the highest priorities for me, and it was an honour to be sworn in as the Minister for Home Affairs in April of 2021. It was a tremendous honour to lead the men and women of the Home Affairs portfolio, and I know from firsthand experience that Australia has the best operational law enforcement and security agencies in the world. During my time as Minister for Home Affairs, strong law enforcement action enabled by record funding and new powers saw record seizures and arrests by the Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force. Child protection arrangements were significantly improved. A new national strategy to prevent child sexual abuse was launched. The Australian-first technology detection dog program that trained canines to sniff out electronic devices hiding child abuse material was expanded. And the Stop the Stigma initiative to encourage victim-survivors to speak out was launched.

There were several significant cybersecurity improvements directly benefiting all Australians, including by supporting industries to grow online by launching the National Plan to Combat Cybercrime, cracking down on the cyber criminals by funding a dedicated AFP led cybercrime centre, securing landmark reforms to national security legislation to better protect our critical infrastructure, making all Australians safer through passage of important legislation to revolutionise the way Australian agencies investigate and prosecute cybercrime, ensuring our law-enforcement agencies have much-needed powers to combat crime on the dark web, cracking down and protecting Australians from ransomware through the ransomware action plan, facilitating the exchange of digital information with US authorities by signing the CLOUD Act agreement with United States, and launching a public information campaign to increase Australia's cybersecurity.

Operation Sovereign Borders was strengthened. I finalised the regional resettlement arrangement with PNG, signed an important agreement with Nauru to establish an enduring regional processing capability to protect our region from maritime people smuggling and reached an agreement with New Zealand to resettle refugees. Counter-terrorism arrangements were strengthened, and I listed the entirety of Hamas and the entirety of Hezbollah as terrorist organisations.

I would have loved another three years in Home Affairs but the outcome of the 2022 election meant that that was not possible. While my time here is coming to an end, my commitment to this nation, its people and its future remains absolutely steadfast. I look forward to what comes next, because I know that the values that I fought for will continue to guide me in whatever lies ahead.

So I conclude this chapter of my career with immense gratitude, pride and hope for the future. Serving the people of McPherson, working alongside some incredibly talented individuals and contributing to the shaping of Australian policy have been some of the greatest privileges of my life. But I could not have achieved this on my own. I was fortunate to have the support of so many people during my time as the member for McPherson.

To those who put their trust in me and selected me to stand for the seat of McPherson in the federal parliament: I thank you. To those who spent hours, days, months and years supporting me during five election campaigns, who worked on polling booths, doorknocked, did letterbox drops or helped at listening post and roadsides: I thank you. To those who have supported me in my electorate office and in my ministerial roles: I thank you. To the public servants at the departments and agencies I had responsibilities for: I thank you. To the Australian Federal Police close personal protection team that looked after me and kept me and my family safe: I thank you. I had the privilege of working with the best of the best. To our lifesavers, clubs and supporters, community groups and volunteers: I thank you. To those I had the great fortune to meet over the last 15 years: I appreciate and value the time you spent sharing your stories with me. I thank you. To the wonderful people of the southern Gold Coast: as your longest-serving member for McPherson, I thank you for giving me that honour.

My final thanks go to my family, who have been beside me throughout this journey. Without them, I could not have done this job. My parents, Bill and Moya, taught me the importance of hard work and persistence—that success is not handed to you but earned through effort, discipline and persistence. They taught me how important it is to do what's right even when it's difficult or unpopular. I thank you.

My sister, Ann, who was the first in our family to go to university and our very first STEM graduate, has been a consistent and steady source of support and encouragement throughout my life, and I've always looked up to her. I thank you, Ann.

My husband, Chris—his commitment to my political career has been exceptional. I did ask him if there was anything he wanted me to say in my speech. He originally said no. When I persisted—I said, 'Are there any memories or any highlights?'—his response was, 'I didn't think it'd be this long.' He was there, rock solid, for the best days, the worst days and everything in between. Thank you, Chris.

My final words in my first speech were to my daughters, and today my final words are to you, Emma, Jane and Kate. The life of political children is not easy, and I'm enormously proud of the way that you've navigated growing up under a spotlight. In my first speech, I encouraged you to grasp every opportunity that came your way with both hands. You've done that and more. I encouraged you to believe in yourselves, because I believed in you. But it was your belief in me that inspired me to never give up and always do my best. You've grown into capable, kind, generous women, and you stand up for what you believe in. I could not be more proud of you. So, Emma, Jane and Kate, I think the world of you. You are my world. I thank the House.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—Karen, to you today: that was an exceptional speech and exactly what we would expect of you. You have had an incredibly accomplished career. You have dedication to the people of McPherson as much as you do to your own family. The beautiful words that you finished on, to your beautiful daughters, I think sum up what's in your heart and the approach that you've taken to people in your parliamentary career. We had quite a good discussion in shadow cabinet last week where we were able to talk through some of Karen's accomplishments, achievements and career highlights. She has gone through some of that today, but I do want to particularly acknowledge that her being Queensland's first female federal cabinet minister and first female home affairs minister is something that the LNP and the Liberal Party are incredibly proud of. We recognise that milestone and congratulate you for the dedication and determination that it's taken over a lifetime of career highlights to achieve.

In particular, might I say, as a former home affairs minister and someone who maintains an active interest in that portfolio to this very day, the way that you led that department is a great credit to you. It's tough in this place to lead an operational portfolio. There are issues day and night here in Australia and around the world you need to contend with to make decisions to keep Australian safe, and you did that with great aplomb. I want to thank you very much for the lives that you saved and the Australians that you protected and the work you did with the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation and everything in between. It's a great credit to you.

I wish you every success in the next phase of your career, and I look forward to keeping in touch with you. Thank you so much what you have done for our party, for the people of McPherson, for our great state of Queensland and for Australia. Thank you so much.

Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's an absolute honour to rise on the call. I said in my first speech that this place was a daunting place. It's still a daunting place and rightly so. The customs and traditions that surround this chamber remind us of the history and the very reason that we sit here in this parliament. The fact that you, Speaker, sit from an elevated position and control both sides of the argument and both sides of the debate mean that you are the fulcrum of the scales of justice when it comes to that great Australian principle of a fair go. That's what I'm about—a fair go. The fact that we all sit on an even level means that we are selected by the majority of our constituents to come from the four corners of this nation to represent them without fear or favour in this place, this fair-go place. It's important. The mace is your instrument of appointment, Speaker, with its crown pointing towards the government. Long live the Crown only once we are in government!

The Australian national flag, to me, symbolises the four corners of the nation. That flag means everything to me. I will explain as I go through summing up what was important for my service not only here but in serving the nation in the Defence Force. That flag means everything to me and I look at it for daily inspiration and it gives me strength.

I would like to acknowledge my colleagues today and all the help, support and friendship you have given me over the six years that I have been here. That isn't limited to only this side of the chamber. There are some decent people all over the chamber, and I want to acknowledge and recognise that. Mind you, I've seen some deadset shockers come through here! I want to recognise our leader, and I'll say more about that later.

I have my family here, and that was a surprise visit. My family are up from the great state of Tasmania. Megan, thank you for bringing the kids up. Megan, you have been an incredible strength to me over the last two terms, the last six years. I'm the bloke that's been sneaking into your house late at night when the kids are asleep, sleeping on the couch and then leaving before they wake up!

I want to acknowledge all spouses, or partners, because they are part of our team—the work they do, the rubbish they have to put up with time to time, the support they give us. Sometimes they live a lonely life because we live a life in pursuit of this place and our country. So, Megan, you're a deadset champion. I thank you for that. I couldn't have done it without you, Megan.

Next to Megan is my son, Hamish, with the Matthew McConaughey haircut. Hamish, I'm so proud of the young man that you've become. You were just eight years old when we lost Mum, my beautiful Amanda-Jane. I stood with you at her funeral; I held you, and I've stood with you ever since. I'm proud of the young man that you've become. You know what it's like to be knocked down, but, in the great Australian spirit, Mate, you know what it's like to get back up again. Sometimes you need mates to do that, and that's important.

I remember at Mum's funeral I gave you a little dove to release, mainly because you're a farm kid and you needed something to do to keep you out of mischief. As that dove flew away, I made a promise, under my breath, to the universe. I promised myself that I would never let earning money, paying the farm off and my job come between me and my family. Here I am, many years later, doing exactly that, so I'm sure everyone in this place will understand. Hamish, thank you. I'm proud of you, and I love you.

Then there is little Isla. When you were born, you represented a new chapter in our lives. You're a beautiful kid. You've got a beautiful soul, and I want to acknowledge that you've had to do a lot of things and a lot of achievements at school without Dad being there. Hopefully we'll fix that from now on. I love you, Isla, and you've got a great future in front of you.

Then there is little Elsie. Elsie's had a big trip. Elsie's a little determined and grumpy. She's very focused. It's marvellous what genetics do, and I'm glad she's thrown to her mother.

To my family, I want to say thank you for all that you've done not only for me but for the electorate. You'd had to endure long hours.

I also want to recognise my staff. I haven't had a big turnover of staff; I've had the same staff, more or less, the whole way through. Whilst it would be remiss of me to break communications security and release their call signs on an unsecure network, they know who they are, and I know who they are. More importantly, the electorate knows who they are.

When we speak of staff, I want you to look at your own staff, as we go into Christmas. I want you to recognise the fact that they're on the end of those phone calls, dealing with those hurt people. We all know that hurt people can hurt. If we don't think that has some impact on our staff, then we need to think again. So I recognise all staff, and I mean that sincerely. We couldn't do it without you. You live a very necessary role in doing our job.

As I said before, the customs and traditions around this place remind me of my job and my role and what is important. As I look to that flag, I look to the fly quadrant of the flag, to the Southern Cross. The Southern Cross is important. It's been our navigation tool for many tens of thousands of years. The small star in the Southern Cross is called Epsilon. It is the smallest star, but it's somewhat brighter than the others. It's actually two stars combined. It reminds me of my state of Tasmania, the smallest state. In fact Tasmania is less than two per cent of Australia's landmass. But we receive more than 13 per cent of Australia's rainfall. It's captured in 54 hydro dams, and we have 30 power stations churning away. They've been like that for more than 100 years, generating clean, efficient, reliable baseload energy. In fact, at the moment, we are exporting from the great state of Tasmania via Basslink 278 megawatts of energy. That's going into Victoria. I hope they don't waste it.

The greatest determinant of any civilisation is the production of reliable and cheap energy. It attracts industry and it moves a nation forward. Our nation is at a critical juncture when it comes to the production of cheap, reliable, environmentally friendly energy in this country. Tasmania is somewhat different. Our energy needs are different to those of the rest of the country. Out of the 10,400 gigawatt hours of energy that we consume each year, about 86½ per cent comes from our hydro power stations. The remainder comes from wind and solar. We've also got a line as a backup because we're practical people down there in the great state of Tasmania. It's a line into the mainland of Australia which can import energy if we require it. We've also got a 47-petajoule gas line that comes from the mainland to Tasmania into Bell Bay. That powers our backup generator because we know that we need options. We know that we need reliability but that we also need survivability so that, when one technology doesn't work or is running low on water, we've got others to fall back on.

That diversity, that technology-agnostic approach, is what I believe strongly in. We can't simply go down the ideological road of excluding one technology over another, and that technology mix will be different all over the country. We need to be smart about it, and, as the member for McPherson rightly pointed out, we need to apply some science to that. We shouldn't be frightened of new technology. We shouldn't be frightened of nuclear energy. After all, the beams of sunlight that come through that skylight up there come from a thermonuclear ball of gas in the middle of our galaxy. Have a look at how much radiation surrounds the earth, then have a look at the CSIRO report on radiation levels across the globe.

The CSIRO are indeed a fantastic organisation, and the CSIRO deemed that, in my electorate of Braddon, at a place called Cape Grim, is the cleanest air on the planet. We also have the purest water, but, as I'll explain in a minute, we are also a powerhouse when it comes to the production of industry, agriculture, forestry, defence manufacturing—all these things. We are the engine room of Tasmania's economy. Yet here we are, at the same time, simultaneously, contemporaneously, having the cleanest air and the cleanest water. What does that tell me? It tells me that we can achieve that balance. Just like you, Speaker, achieve that balance of fairness across the chamber, we can achieve that with an energy mix. Balance is important. Nature believes in balance, and so do I.

The electorate of Braddon is like no other. One of the reasons that I put my hand up to serve the electorate of Braddon was that I was basically fed up with previous members from all different parties right across the board talking down our region. 'We've got the highest rates of welfare. We've got comorbidity rates through the roof. This is bad. That's bad. Give us some more federal money.' As I look at my kids up there, I point out to them how bright their future can be if only they take hold of it and take that first step. It's no different with the electorate. Those young people were leaving in droves. They were moving away from our great electorate, away from our great state, to the mainland and sometimes never returning. So I started, with my great team of staff and my family, talking that region up and working hard every day to ensure that they had the enablers that they needed to make their lives and their futures better. And we did that. In my first term, Braddon received the highest amount of federal investment in its history. That didn't just go to wasted pork-barrelling; that went to roads and freight installations. It went to coolrooms. We built a university.

Now I'm a bloke that left school before he turned 15. I did an apprenticeship, and then at 18 I joined the Army. They put me back through school. But I didn't just go back and finish my education. I went back and found education, and I found how transformative that was and how many doors that unlocked. I know how important education is. The University of Tasmania Cradle Coast campus was funded and built, and now it specialises in training health professionals and allied health professionals in Burnie on the north-west coast of Tasmania. It's fully subscribed. We're training RNs. We're training psychologists. We're training physiotherapists. We're training GPs through the royal college, and they work in a ward environment. I'm extremely proud of what we've been able to achieve there.

We've also unlocked our great agricultural industry and our advanced manufacturing sector. On the north-west coast of Tasmania, we also have defence manufacturing down there, with Elphinstone producing the hulls for Land 400, Land 8116 and our mobile 155-millimetre Howitzer. Every day those people in my electorate are working hard. Every day those people in my electorate are taking risks, spending money and investing in themselves.

Robert Gordon Menzies mentioned the forgotten people. Later on Howard called them the battlers. Morrison called them the quiet Australians. I call these people that are working hard every day the real people, and I've always called them the real people. They're the ones that I take the most notice of. They're often the ones that say the least. They rarely whinge. They rarely write a letter to the editor. They rarely stage a lobby on the lawns of Parliament House or glue themselves to some bridge somewhere. But these real people are the ones that are driving this country forward. These real people are the ones that simply roll their eyes. These real people are the ones that are getting up at three or four o'clock in the morning and producing 11 per cent of Australia's fresh milk on the north-west coast. These real people are already awake, so they don't need to be woken up by anybody from here.

I mentioned at the start that we are elected here by the majority of our constituents. It frustrates me sometimes that we come to this place and we waste copious amounts of energy and time—and money for that matter because money is time—on a noisy minority. All the while, these real people are screaming for help. So my message today is: we need to start taking notice of the real people in this world, the real Australians, and applying some real solutions for them.

I had the huge honour of spending two decades of my life in the Defence Force, in the Royal Australian Corps of Signals. I had the honour of serving with literally thousands of this country's best young men and women. That has indelibly shaped the way I am as a person, and I make no apologies for that. I've worked with some damn fine leaders also. So those veterans, those of us that have served, are important to me, and I'm very proud to be able to say to you today that the north-west coast now has its own wellness centre.

Andrew Clarke and I served in the Army together. He was a bomb technician, an explosives expert—or he worked with explosives anyway! On exiting Defence, they said to him, 'Major Clarke, what would you like to do?' He said, 'I want to continue to help fellow human beings,' so now he's a GP. He's one of our greatest GPs. He heads up the Veteran and Family Centre in Burnie. He does a fantastic job. There we reconnect veterans to a new family, because that is absolutely important and critical when it comes to them making the transformation from the military family to their new employment. We find them a job, but you don't do that with kid gloves either. Andrew has a no-nonsense policy where veterans are required to take the first step themselves. The pity parties have ended. We say to our veterans: 'Get off the couch. Someone is always there to help you, someone will always be there to help you, but you need to take that first step.' It's working fantastically.

I've always said, and I want to raise this point very strongly, that I believe the key to our veterans making a transformation from the military to their new life is through their families, because those kids are affected by that trauma that sometimes we go through in the military. Those kids need to understand why mum or dad feels the way that they do. Those kids might actually help veterans through. Andrew is working on a plan, a plan where that family moves through that treatment process and then, at the end of it, when dad or mum gets off the rails a little bit, there's nothing like a gentle reminder from a child—out of the mouths of babes—to bring you back on track pretty quickly. I learned that in that story I told you of Hamish earlier.

I've had the absolute honour and privilege of also serving with many fine leaders. In my first speech here, my maiden speech, I told the story about Major General Cosgrove. We were on the border between Indonesia and East Timor in 1999 in an orders group, during INTERFET, and he got fed up with some of the staff officers. He banged the table and he said: 'I am sick to death of some of you people telling me why I can't do things. You need to start telling me how I can.' Isn't there something in that for all of us here? Those real people that I talked about, that's what they're looking for so desperately. They're not looking for excuses or laws or anything else; they just want the problem fixed.

I was asked by a journalist, following the last election, whether I was Right or Left. To me, that's not how my mind works. I told the story of a lady that I know who works at Simplot, at a vegetable factory. She stands there all night sorting carrots. It was the middle of winter and she'd pulled an extra shift because they couldn't get enough people for the next shift. She did two eight-hour shifts on her feet sorting carrots. She thought about how it's going into winter and those kids needed a new winter uniform. The little girl needed a new tunic, the little boy needed a new jumper. They both needed new shoes. She got in the car after those two back-to-back shifts and drove home in the rain. The car needed new tyres. That's right, the insurance and the registration is due. That was confirmed to her when she got home to make those kids their lunches before they went to school. The magnet on the fridge wasn't strong enough to hold the bills. They all fell off and she said to me that as she's picking them up: 'I just bawled. I bawled my eyes out. Everything I touch has gone through the roof. Everything I touch makes me give up. The only thing that drives me forward is my family.'

She was a real person. She had real problems. She had real issues. She had real kids. And she couldn't care less whether I, as her representative, was Right or Left. She just wanted her stuff fixed. Isn't that right? The real people of this world, I sometimes agree with Robert Menzies, they are forgotten. On this side, we know that they ought to be put front and centre once again because we really do need to start listening to them.

I mentioned leaders. When I mention leadership, I describe it in three words, and they all start with the letter F—are you nervous, Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas? The three Fs that I use to describe leadership are 'firm', 'fair' and 'friendly', and you need to be all of those things in equal measure. If you are—it doesn't matter what severity you are, as long as they are equal—you'll get on in life when it comes to military leadership. It's not exclusive to military leadership. Leadership is important. I've seen many different leaders approach leadership in many different ways.

One of the blokes that I want to mention and acknowledge here today is the bloke that's touched my life not only in the military but also in this place, Major General Jim Molan, or Senator Molan. I miss him every day. Jim used to talk about defending the country and he used to say that it takes more than a defence force to defend a country; it takes a country to defend a country. And ain't that coming true now! Look at the rising issue of the geopolitical situation across the Indo-Pacific, cyber grey-zone operations and state-based actors. I know from my work on the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade that we often focus on the shiny things in life—things like AUKUS, the LAND 400 and the Precision Strike Missile—but, again, I go back to the real people, because at the edge and behind and around each part of those shiny things there is a person, a highly trained individual.

I've always said that you can have the very best and finest rifle in the world, but it's not until you put a well-trained, highly motivated digger on the blunt end of the thing that it turns into a lethal capability. Ain't that right, Phil Thompson?

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Absolutely.

Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Jim was right. Jim was also a philosopher when it came to his love not only of the country but of combining that love with the defence of this nation and the national security strategy that we so desperately need. I spoke of Jim's funeral and I spoke of the flag that covered his coffin that day. Again, that flag is enmeshed and interwoven into everything that I think about. For blokes like Jim Molan, every day of their life is spent in the preservation and the strength of that flag. I think that's why I have such a solemn focus on the power and the strength of that flag.

Jim was a leader in every true sense of the word. When it comes to leaders, Peter Dutton, I see that strength in you. You have the moral compass, you have the moral strength, and you have the moral support on those benches behind you. I know you will stick up for that little girl who's too frightened to go to school just because she's Jewish, or that little Indigenous kid in Alice Springs who's too frightened to go home because dad has been on the drink and she doesn't want to be bashed or raped. It's not very nice, is it? But it's real, and it's going to take real leadership and it's going to take a real plan to fix that—and no welcome to country in this place is going to fix that. Peter, I have a lot of faith in you, and so do the people on the benches behind you.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks, mate.

Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Finally, I guess I should close with some words about our flag and how important that is to me. It's best summed up by a story that I read about following the Great War, when some schoolkids visited a museum and they found an old flag—a ratty and torn flag. They asked the guide from the museum what that old flag was about. He was a veteran and he had his medals on. He said to the kids, 'That isn't exactly a flag; that is called a guidon. A guidon is the battle honours that our Australian Light Horse had'—Andrew Hastie. In the military we have colours, banners, standards and guidons, and they are absolutely sacred. They are the things that the soldiers dress themselves off when they go into battle, that dictate the line of advance and the rate of advance. To lose one's colour or guidon is a fate worse than death. It's a disgrace. And these particular guidons, on 31 October 1917, were in the centre between the 4th and the 12th regiments of the Australian Light Horse, as they charged on those Turkish trenches in a place called Beersheba. They took those trenches and they took those wells and they saved literally hundreds of thousands of soldiers. And the old bloke that was in the museum looked at the kids and he said that it was simply a moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole: 'Now, that does not do much to stir a man's soul. 'Tis the deeds that were done neath the moth-eaten rag, when the pole was a staff and the rag was a flag.'

Look after our flag and all the customs and all the history that it contains, because it will chart a way forward. Protect those real people that I talked about, because they've got real issues. And we shouldn't be frightened to talk about them here.

Finally, I want to say that I am the most humble, the most grateful and the most loyal servant of the greatest electorate of the greatest state of the greatest country in the world. And may it always be the land of the fair go. I want to thank everybody for giving me that opportunity. Thank you.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to pay tribute to the amazing Gavin Pearce. That was a fairly humble presentation, but there were a number of themes that ran through it, and what I know of Gav is that he was a soldier for 20 years, and he went into some detail but didn't do enough credit to his distinguished career. He's been a successful farmer and small-business person—and I mean very successful. And he has had a distinguished career in this place for the last six years.

He spoke of the love of his family, of the loss and the accomplishments. Sometimes, when you think about someone in this place, you can go to particular stories—and we will, as we look back, in the years ahead—about our friends and the contribution that they've made to this place, and there are different words that spring to mind: the word association with somebody. And there is no doubt in my mind that, into the future, and whenever we think about Gavin Pearce, I will always, I believe, have the first word in my mind to be either 'patriot' or 'digger' or 'soldier'.

He's proud of his service here in six years, but not every day has been a joy for Gavin, because he has worn his heart on his sleeve; he's worked hard for constituents; he's sacrificed an enormous amount, in terms of his own family and the time spent with them. But what is most in his soul, and what is most, I think, within his DNA, is his time served in the Australian Defence Force. He is somebody who has a great love for this country—for our flag, obviously—but he embodies the best of our country, and we should look to him for inspiration into the future, as I'm sure his children do today and will, for many generations in his family to come.

So, Gavin, for what you've done for our party and for our country and for your great state, I say thank you, but, importantly—and I know that, as I say, this is what embodies you most—thank you for your 20 years of distinguished service, the young lives that you've influenced, the correction that you've given, the harsh words that you've spoken on occasion, and the way in which you have provided leadership to those young diggers. You're a patriot, you're a true gentleman and you're a great friend to all of us. Thank you so much.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():  It has been truly an honour and a privilege for me to serve the people of Lyne in this House in the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia. First and foremost, I would like to thank the people of Lyne who have continued to send me here since 2013. For nearly 12 years I have given my best, but many of you who know me better than some of the others who know me okay realise that I haven't been my best during this past term. I have had my annus horribilis and I was not able to perform at my peak. Starting at the top, I'll give you a quick run through: vaccine side-effects followed by a serious bike accident—fractured ribs, sternum, vertebra, amnesia for a day or two, pneumonia then pleurisy, kidney damage—and then the ignominy of injuring myself playing cricket. I now have the experience of driving a four-wheel buggy.

It's a bittersweet moment for me to be leaving now as I have really enjoyed my time as an MP in this House, and I will enjoy it to the day this parliament rises. But serving here in parliament as a politician in a big country electorate comes at a cost to other really important parts of one's life, particularly as this is my second career. I had a full-on 33- year career doing even longer hours as a GP, followed by these five campaigns.

I have a whole lot of thank yous to people who helped me get here. Firstly, a massive thank you to my beautiful wife, Charlotte, hiding in the back there, my greatest friend and confidante through this, which is our latest journey but not our last. In fact, it's been a long journey, since 1988. Thirty-four years go in a flash like that. Charlotte has been a constant support throughout all my careers, doing all the hard yards in my junior medical years, coping with me being away on antisocial long hospital shifts by day and night and weekends, then coming home to sit in a room and study and then study again and study a bit more and keep doing exams until I passed. I did not get it the first go and that was the toughest lesson in my life because I used to pass everything first up, but eventually you get there. She then left her international merchant banking career to start our family.

We then moved up to Port Macquarie with Isabel—our little three-month-old over there—where we had no family connections to start my gastro enterology practice. Soon enough we had Ollie and Alice as well. Charlotte was doing it all, being a supermum as well as running the practice and the day surgery which we built for our patients as well, and together we also built our family cattle operation. As many of us realise, after I volunteered, our family—my family—were conscripted.

At the beginning of my political career the kids, especially Alice, explained they were being 'weirded out' by seeing their dad on billboards, on buses and on TV ads like I was stalking them. Thankfully, they are no longer permanently scarred, and all three of my adult children are now confident young adults with careers of their own. I'm so proud of you all. And Ollie, if you are watching or listening over in London, I'm proud of you all and what you have achieved. It's fantastic to see your children flourishing. My deepest apologies for being absent from all your big moments, from family holidays, and from school, university and sports celebrations that I've missed. Thank you, Char, again for your patience, in particular for giving me the time to pursue the latest outrageous idea—that was, to run for federal parliament.

It is a challenge for families, as we all know. Many of you here in the chamber have had similar experiences, but once you put your head above the parapet and you declare yourself as running for a political party and parliament, you're breaking cover. Sometimes that can mean losing some friendships and groups that see the world totally differently to what you're committing your life to. But Charlotte has supported me through all those, usually with frank, fearless and—it's uncanny, she's always right. She's been my biggest supporter and wisest counsel. I'm really looking forward to our next adventures, which we will do together.

I also thank my father-in-law, Martin, who is up there, and my late mother-in-law, Elizabeth Maynard, who can't be with us, and all the Maynards for being great in-laws, great grandparents and great cousins. They have supported Char in my many absences.

Thanks to all the Gillespie crowd up there—my siblings, Maryanne, Mike, Andy, John, Jane. They're all there. Sadly, Pete, my brother could never be here. Mum and Dad are both gone. They would've loved to have been here. Mum got to see me enter parliament. Thanks to Patrick and all the other in-laws, to Pru and Andy for all your support and to all my brothers and sisters, who've encouraged me and supported me. I can't thank you enough.

Next goes a big shout-out to my staff members over the years. You've all been great and you've all worked really hard and for long hours, particularly during campaigns, but mainly on solving problems for my constituents. They've been very well served by your efforts. You've helped them with federal, state and council regulations and bureaucracies. Many of my staff have been there all the way through, from the early years. But long before I had any political office, Rob Nardella was there, helping me as a newbie aspiring candidate. He's been there from day one, and he sits here now. He's been instrumental to my time as the member for Lyne. But I'd like to thank all the others, including Georgie McDooling, Noel Atkins, Jane Corcoran and Bill Yates from way back in 2009 and 2010, when this journey started.

Thanks to all the National Party branch members across the original and slightly different distribution of Lyne and the current Lyne. There are over 700 of those people who can proudly call themselves members of the Nationals. I give a shout-out to them all. Together with my staff and hundreds of other supporters, volunteers and booth workers, they have combined to deliver me into this parliament for four terms, and I thank them. There are some who really went above and beyond—an awful lot of them went above and beyond. They know who they are and I know they are, and a special thank you goes out to them.

To all of my Nationals colleagues here that have sat in this House with me over the four terms, thank you for your support. All my colleagues in the opposition, I thank you for all your friendship, counsel and advice in the good times and the bad times. We've been through a lot.

I'd like to thank the late Bruce Cowan, Mark Vale, 'Wacka' Williams, Warren Truss and Andrew Stoner. I also thank Tony Abbott, with whom for years I've plotted politics. He gave me much wise advice and help. Thank you all. I'd also like to thank Barnaby, who called me into the ministry on two occasions.

Being a member of the House of Representatives is a great privilege with lots of responsibility. I've worked out that you need a lot of skills to be a good MP. You are not just a legislator. You're a voice for your constituents. You're an inquisitor in committees. You're a policymaker. You're a negotiator. You're part parish priest. You've got to be an economist. You have to be an industrial advocate, a diplomat, a social media genius, a writer—and the list goes on. It has been a journey and a half, full of highs and lows.

As a rural member, I have found that there are far more geographic challenges, and all you rural members would know the long distances. There are multiple communities that have their own economic drivers and their own view on what's important, and you've got to know them all, because you can be in one and upset the other. But with tens of thousands of kilometres between parliamentary sittings, it's a big job. But it's been worth it in the seat of Lyne because I've seen all these improvements that we have delivered in government for the people of the electorate.

Lyne getting its fair share of our nation's infrastructure build has been fantastic. Before I announced my retirement I asked my wonderful office to collate all the infrastructure that we've delivered in Lyne. It's quite sizeable. I seek leave to table this list.

Leave granted.

The big favourites are the two major Pacific Highway upgrades that bookend the seat of Lyne: north of Port Macquarie to Kempsey delivered in the first term and now the Hunter River crossing. But there is still unfinished business. There are six highway overpass interchanges and several realignments that will need to be completed for it to turn into a full freeway. It's not only for safety. There will be major economic differences if we get those because you get these huge bottlenecks forever. I'll put Senator McKenzie on notice: it's called the Pacific Highway upgrade 2.0. It'll cost about half a billion dollars, but please take note. There have also been two major airport upgrades: within the old Lyne boundaries of Port Macquarie, where jets can now land, and we've got a new terminal, a new taxiway and an apron expansion thanks to the help of Warren Truss, Michael McCormack, Luke Hartsuyker and now Pat Conaghan.

At the southern end of the electorate, we have the big one: the Newcastle Airport, which is now going to truly be an international airport. We were able to secure two grants totalling $130 million. I'd like to give a big thankyou to our former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, again to the member for Riverina and to the member for New England for listening and delivering the funds for that. It will be the best-value international airport in the country, not just for the 750,000 people in the Hunter but also for all the people in the Mid North Coast region, who will all of a sudden have their own international airport. All the inbound and outbound tourism that comes via Sydney can also come via us. It won't go to Brisbane; it could come to Newcastle. We've got huge inbound and outbound tourism capability.

I have noticed that, as a country MP, you see a lot of community and sporting infrastructure and arts funding totally skewed and massive amounts going into capital cities. So I worked really hard to develop sporting facilities in my electorate of Lyne. Sport, in a country town or in a big town, levels all strata of society. If you're in the same sporting team, it's good. It's great for children's development and for teamwork and it unites all layers of society. We've got two major indoor stadium upgrades for basketball: one in Port Macquarie in the old distribution and now a three-court expansion in Taree. New surf club upgrades are scattered across the electorate, including the massive Forster Surf Life Saving Club. Again, I thank the member for New England for the wonderful grant that he organised for that. There were new grandstands, female change facilities and oval upgrades in Maitland, Gloucester and Karuah, and they're just to name a few. We expanded, courtesy of federal money, the Manning Entertainment Centre, and, down the road in Forster, there was a massive project for the Forster Civic Centre precinct, which is an exemplar library and conference centre. It's the envy of other councils.

I'm really proud of the work we did during COVID, particularly in the health portfolio but also with the member for Bradfield when we got together a fund to keep Australian picture theatres—the genuine ones—alive. Another equally transformative institution from critical coalition policies is the development of the Taree Universities Campus. In 2019 I put together a proposal with education and community leaders, and they took to it like ducks to water. We were able to secure two funding grants to make a new campus a reality. It is the Taree Universities Campus with multiple universities, ensuring access for local young people who couldn't afford to go away, mature-age people or those who are looking to upgrade their skills, whether it's their first chance or their second bite at advancing their education. So Manning Valley, Gloucester, Forster-Tuncurry and the region now have access to a multi-university, community owned facility in a permanent campus for the next 25 years. They have 500 students utilising it now. They've had 55 students graduate—huge numbers of nurses. On checking this morning, I see they have another 65 coming this year. Everyone said this would never work and that it would be a white elephant. I'm so proud of it.

In my community, I was known as a doctor, but it was really cool for me to develop and deliver into my own electorate some really important health facilities. There is now a headspace in Taree, and the Manning Valley now has a public hospital MRI in Manning Base Hospital, when they are as rare as hen's teeth, and there's a new radiotherapy unit being built there. In Port Macquarie, in my first term, when I wasn't in the ministry, with the help of Professor Lesley Forster of the University of New South Wales rural medical school, we developed a unique model that would allow a cohort of Port Macquarie students to train not just for three months or six months as a sampler course but to go from go to whoa in Port Macquarie. She went against the grain, so thank you, Professor Lesley Forster. She is now doing that with Charles Sturt University. It has been an outrageous success.

During this time in parliament, we've had some major challenges. We had the devastating, record-breaking 2019 fires after years of really extreme drought. Everyone thinks it's always green on the coast and that the rivers are always full, but most of them are salty. They're tidal. And we had a drought like no other. Some of the rivers on the coast stopped running. But for the tide, they wouldn't have had water in them. Then a year later we went to the other extreme and had the most massive floods since the 1960s. It was really distressing to see houses, lives, memories and animals literally going up in smoke. Hundreds of buildings, including many houses, were destroyed. Then, in the flood, thousands of people were made homeless. Whole houses and huge numbers of livestock were literally washed away. We had literally thousands of people living temporarily in service clubs, like the local sporting clubs, the RSLs—all sorts of places.

I had a few hiccups and a challenge in 2016. We can all get a bad redistribution in the lottery, but I had to speed-date 48,000 new people. They took away Port Macquarie, my home base where I had practised and treated about half the electorate, so that, as a gastroenterologist, I knew them literally inside out. Those I hadn't met at a fete, I had met in the day surgery. But, in spite of what I lost, I gained something even better. I now inherited all the territory down to the Hunter across to Hawks Nest. Just about every tourism and primary industry is now encapsulated in Lyne, plus I picked up the mighty Hunter River and Maitland and all that Hunter history and many service industries and even more people in the mining industry.

On the coast, there were two coalmines. I've got one left, but there are about 20,000 people who work because of the Hunter coal-fired power stations or the coalmines, and they all live in the beautiful part of Lyne. But there are opponents and obstacles everywhere, coming for all these primary industries. They are all at threat with the net zero agenda. Often it's these harmless sounding names like 'restoring our rivers' or 'nature repair' or 'a safeguard mechanism'—like a poison pen in a soft, cuddly name. They are all coming. We have a huge problem because these are all the industries that make us our money. We won't have an energy system, if we don't have base load.

We've got a huge red-tape reform agenda that we really need to start again. There's a heap of confusion in the federal-state fiscal relationship; it's totally unbalanced now. Originally, state and federal responsibilities were very clear. We had a good constitution. States used to do a whole lot more without getting out of bed to get a grant from the feds; it's a complex history. Their revenue and regulatory arrangements were matched by appropriate fiscal ability, but it all changed in World War II when a lot of the powers were temporarily ceded to the Commonwealth, and then they never wanted it back because of the war debt. But now it's all confused. Half the money comes from here. It's like the proverbial structure of a plate of spaghetti if you try and do all the connections between who runs what and where the money comes from.

In his first term, Prime Minister Tony Abbott instigated a federation reform agenda; I'd been whispering in his ear for a long time. In that context—without his knowledge, because there were other matters—I developed a tax reform paper and a parliamentary budget analysis to launch the push for the expansion and increase of a broad based consumption tax. It argued for major reductions in income tax, company tax and several other taxes and imposts as well as for increasing the welfare safety net. It would provide extra revenue streams that better aligned the work that the states and territories have traditionally done like running hospitals, police and schools, and building main roads, dams, bridges and railways. Of those things that I've just mentioned, it's only the police that we don't give money to the states for, so we're on the hook for everything else.

We did get lift-off with that debate, and several states got behind it. It was really encouraging considering I was a backbencher in my first term. I thought: 'Wow. John Howard tried twice and I'm just on the backbench. We're going to get the GST up.' Unfortunately, it didn't fly. As they say in those blogs and in lots of podcasts, the rest is history. But I think we need to readdress the red tape and green tape that is strangling both federal and state governments. I think both federal and state governments have left too much of the policy work to delegated authority in the public service.

There are a few 'to do' jobs and suggestions for you; you're not bound by this, but I just thought I'd put them in there. The cost blowouts in infrastructure are scary. An extra guideline here, another environmental measure there or another community consultation—the next thing you know, building a new highway roundabout can take eight or nine years instead of 12 or 18 months and it costs three, four or five times more. We really have to stop and think, 'Just keep it simple.' Make it all rule by common sense. It would be really good if we did have a deregulation agenda in the next political cycle and require all departments and agencies to begin putting proposals to remove 25 per cent of the regulations that increase costs. Put in a new test, something like 'one in, one off' or 'one in, three off', similar to Paul Keating's competition payments—he started that—or Tony Abbott's asset recycling payments. There needs to be some incentive to get the states on board. It's not the sole preserve of this side to do these things.

In my time as a minister in the health portfolio I worked up many long-term projects that I'm really proud of. As the member for Parkes mentioned last week, things in the health system have a long gestation. It takes about 12 years to become a fully fledged doctor hanging a shingle. While I was there I established the position of rural health commissioner, which is a vital role and doing good work. Of the three commissioners, two have been appointed by me. They have all done a great job. We created more holistic long-term benefits for rural centres so that they could attract, train and retain doctors and nurses: end-to-end med schools; HECS fee relief for nurse practitioners and junior doctors working in rural and remote parts of our country; expansion of the Flying Doctor Service, securing its planning for over a decade; and, as I mentioned before, expansion of the rural medical clinical schools placements from sampler placements for three or six months to end to end, beginning to end. Everyone was clamouring for a Murray-Darling medical school, but it was proposed to be at the expense of the 17 established rural clinical schools that are a great legacy of Michael Wooldridge; they had the sampler variety of placements—maybe six months or a year. But I thought, 'Hang on, the perfect solution is what we did in Port Macquarie.' By wheeling and dealing and getting the heads of the universities around the table, I organised for Melbourne uni to set up a whole medical school in Shepparton in the seat of Nicholls. I got La Trobe a deal that meant the top 12 graduates from their biomedical degree would go straight into Melbourne uni. With that method, Monash did a deal with Albury and Bendigo.

That then started more of a chain reaction. I was able to convince UNSW to do what I did in Port Macquarie without any money but just by rejigging it, to establish one in the member for Riverina's electorate, so now he has an end-to-end one. The members for Fisher and Fairfax will know the horse-dealing that went into starting the Sunshine Coast medical school. You were both there for the opening, with Greg Hunt. Also, for Charles Sturt University's applicant process, I did the policy work and the deals to pair them up with Western Sydney uni. So now the Sunshine Coast has its own medical school, Charles Sturt has its own medical school, Wagga has its own medical school, Shepparton—you name it. When I came back the next time, following my call-back to the ministry, the member for New England and I were able to secure more Commonwealth supported places, so the member for Leichhardt could get an expansion up in Cairns and the member for Barker in the Riverland could get an extended training program for doctors.

During my time in child services, it was a bit distressing. I was there during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, where I heard many harrowing stories. I also had oversight of and insights into the state-run foster-care system. The children there are usually there as a result—it's the same thing—of either drug or alcohol addiction, or both; domestic and family violence; appalling child neglect; or, sometimes, mental health. Back in the old days, they were there because there was shame in being unwed and having a child, so kids were adopted out. That doesn't happen now. These children are coming from, in many cases, a bad space.

You want these children to have what every other child wants, and that is a permanent home. Fostering is meant to be a stopgap measure—and they're glorious people that do it. But there's an inertia in the system, not to change. Instead of foster care being temporary housing until children are placed in a permanent parental arrangement, depending on the state—it's only New South Wales that allows adoption easily these days, but they have open adoption—there are now 46,000 children in permanent foster rotations. When I was in the ministry, it was only 42,000. And it seems to be growing, more and more.

I did have the temerity to suggest that adoption should be made easier and earlier with an open adoption model, where the biological parent or parents know where the child is, the child knows where the mum and dad are, and there are the adoptive parents. So it's open, but the children get permanence and they're not bounced around the system. I still hope there can be some positive arrangement made with the states.

There is sensitivity about the stolen generation. Let's face it: that was a pretty scary and bad period. But permanence is what a child needs.

This experience in my own electorate gave me the resolve to get more children and family services into my electorate, because there is certainly a need. We got a big grant—again courtesy of the member for New England—to finish off the most amazing building—a wonderful, friendly, uniquely designed building and community organisation called First Steps Count Child and Community Centre. It has everything in it, all in a one-stop shop, from playgroups to hearing checks to eye checks to assessment for autism spectrum—any childhood problem—and it's going really well. It's fantastic, and it will deliver long-term benefit.

There is another really exciting thing, but I had to be a bit subtle about this, because I think I might appear on the list somewhere. There was a bit of legislation when I was in the ministry, the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Magnitsky-style and Other Thematic Sanctions) Bill 2021, that was looking for someone to introduce it. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I thought: 'Hey, I've read Red Notice. I know all about this. There are a lot of mad and bad people doing very evil things and moving money into Australia or around.' So we had that legislation. I'm pleased to see it's established. It gets reported on all the time. But I introduced it and shepherded it through this House after it came here from the Senate. So that was great.

Being a minister has its pros, but, gee, being a backbencher is a great honour, and you can get a lot done. Other people have mentioned the parliamentary committees. They are a critical part of parliament. They're an invaluable informal channel for diplomacy and exchange of ideas and perspectives, and they can get ministers and members and senators up to speed on issues that are really technical and important. A lot of these experts will really give you fearless and frank knowledge rather than fearless and frank opinion or policy, which is totally different. The net outcome is that the parliamentary friendship groups, as well as the formal committees, are a really invaluable part of this.

Because of my medical background, I was on every one, or every second one, of the Parliamentary Friends of medicine. There is a long list, as the member the Macarthur would know. We've done a double date on so many things. I'd like to thank him for all his assistance.

I also thank the member for Makin. We've been on a tour through batteries, and I can tell you there are not enough minerals in the world or enough mines in the world to deliver the amount of batteries that will last 10 years. The idea that this world is going to run on electric vehicles is one of the biggest naivetes ever. We've looked at electric vehicles in Korea. We've looked at them in Japan. They are an amazing technology but so material rich it's scary. We will have to mine more copper than has been mined since records began just to get enough copper to get this 'transition' up to about 2030. So the markets are responding. Not everyone wants an electric vehicle, so I think nature and people's needs will sort it out. But that's the importance of these committees, because you find this stuff out. This whole transition thing really should be described as an addition. Electric vehicles are just the latest and greatest new form of transport. If you really want to electrify transport, get our Inland Rail up and then electrify it. Get our high-speed rail up and electrify it. Get more mass transit in our big cities, rather than 'mass transit' meaning everyone buys a smaller car and there are three million cars instead of two million cars. So that was it.

My best thing ever, and probably my most substantial non-legislative role, is setting up the Parliamentary Friends of Nuclear Industries. I must say it's been great fun. I was a nuclear sort of child in my medical career. You do physics at uni as well as high school, but my first job was injecting radioactive isotopes into people. Can you play the dark scary music over there—isotopes! ABC sign from the left, please! Anyhow, radiotherapy and isotopes have allowed medical practitioners like me to diagnose to treat, to cure and to do amazing scans. I have had more radioisotopes on me than I can poke a stick it, but I'm still here. It's only too much radiation that's dangerous.

The idea that any radiation is bad is a totally debunked theory. It's called the linear no threshold theory. It's not a straight line—zero being nothing and the other end being really bad with anywhere along that being less bad. No. To get bad, it has to go up, and then it straightens out. But that's a bit of an aside.

As the minister for ARPANSA, the authority on radiation protection and nuclear safety, twice, I got to see what our amazing capability is in this country, and it is sizeable. It's far greater than even I realised. In the news just the other day was the announcement that we're not part of the gen IV group with the UK and the US, but we are actually the chair of it, and we've been the chair since 2017. It's a research and safety standard setting organisation for six different types of advanced reactors. They're the ones that you're hearing a lot about in the SMR space. They don't boil water and act like a kettle and a steam engine that spins an electric generator; they boil salt or lead or helium at really high temperatures. Our guys at ANSTO have been setting standards for molten salt reactors and high-temperature gas reactors, so there we go.

That same place, ANSTO, has developed this amazing industrial final waste repository system. It's a big factory. It's world-leading. It's called symo, named after Synroc, which is a technology ANSTO developed. It will take permanent transuranic, all the really bad 'iums' with which you can't do anything more, that are a side product of all the medical isotopes and stuff they do at ANSTO. That will deal with our own waste. It is world-leading. I've had American professors and big Canadian engineering firms saying: 'Can we be your agent? We'll sell 11 of these around the world.' It is world-leading. The idea that we don't know what to do with waste is absolute rubbish. But I digress.

I would like to thank the member the Hinkler. He started my electrical engineering tutorials back in the first term. He's taught me a lot about grids. I joined the ANS, the American Nuclear Society, and have been to as many conferences as I can. Along the way I've met some amazing people, and I want to give a huge shoutout to my biggest tutor, Rob Parker, who's up there in the gallery. He's doing a great job with all the lectures and information around the country. I will also shoutout Robert Barr, who's been a sidekick on our tours to North America; Tony Irwin, who has built and operated eight nuclear plants, and he went over when Chernobyl happened and taught the Russians how to really run it, and he lives in Australia. To Helen Cook, Stephen Smith, Dave Collins and all my turbocharged pro-nuclear Argonauts out there in big, wide Australia, being marshalled by Peter Sjoquist—a big shoutout to Peter. He has got to get the award for the most WhatsApp group messages ever.

I would like to thank Tim Stone, in Britain; professors Jacopo Buongiorno and Andrew Whittaker, in the USA; all the engineers at Hatch engineering; AtkinsRealis, which built the CANDU reactors; and Ontario Power Generation, which is the second-biggest power utility in North America, and guess what? It's government owned. It's like our Electricity Commission of New South Wales. The biggest one in America is Tennessee Valley Authority. Hey presto, guess what? It's owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority, another government owned power utility. They've been very helpful too.

The friendship group had lift-off. The aim of educating and convincing members and senators on the nature of nuclear energy and its potential here in Australia has been reached. We in the Nationals have been ahead of the curve. We've seen the light, and our membership and federal council adopted this many years ago. I'm so pleased and proud that my liberal colleagues are now onboard. That is the way to go.

I know there are lots of members on the other side who are secretly pro-nuclear, but they chickened out once they got into government, and they're strictly following orders. But they're welcome back. You can always change your mind when the facts change. That is quite okay. We won't criticise you at all. But it is bipartisan anywhere else in the world, and there are now 31 countries that have signed up to triple their nuclear energy.

One of the other great friendship things we run in this country is the nation parliamentary friendship groups. I reckon that's one of the best gigs going, because you get to meet a lot of really interesting people in the embassy and that come out from whatever country. I've signed up for so many of them I just can't get to them all. But the one that I've really tried to make a difference on is the Australia-Japan parliamentary friendship group, because Japan and Australia are really important to each other.

In 1862, at the start of the Meiji Restoration, when they decided to industrialise, Japan's first load of coal came from somewhere down in the Illawarra. We've been sending energy ever since. They have built that industrial powerhouse with gas, oil and coal from us. They don't and can't have solar panels, so that's why they need us. In places like Korea, they're exactly the same. We shouldn't feel guilty at all. It is absolutely rubbish that our ecowarrior extremists are trying to make out that Australia is bad for the world. We power with food 100 million people besides ourselves, but we're only 25 million. We supply energy for over a billion people, like those in India, yet we're measured on our carbon footprint as though we're using all the energy and food. It's really not logical.

I would like to acknowledge His Excellency Suzuki and Ken up there. Thank you so much for what Japan has done for us. After the war, thanks your investment in Australia, started by John 'Black Jack' McEwan, we made peace and have moved forward ever since. Your technology is the bread-and-butter technology that we all use in Australia, and your investment has developed our mines, our energy systems and everything. It would be so cool if we could get a high-speed rail gunning up the north coast once we finish the Inland Rail. We will go from strength to strength.

I would like to keep going, but I'm going to run out of time. I just want to say thank you, Peter, for your leadership, particularly for your commonsense approach to policy development, including on nuclear energy. I think you'll make an excellent Prime Minister. It is lucky that, as I found out from Bill Shorten's speech the other day, I am probably the 220th MP to get to make a valedictory, which sounds a lot more exclusive than the 1,244 that came in and made maiden speeches. It has been a pleasure, Mr Speaker, to work with you on the trade and investment growth committee. It was also a pleasure to serve on the speaker's panel in the last parliament. I would have loved to have done more. One recommendation I can give to first-termers: do some time on the speaker's panel, because then you know all the procedure, and you're not walking around like a dazed person in your first term. You know what all the terms mean and what the procedure is.

I'd like to thank the presiding officers and all the assistant clerks and parliamentary support staff who have assisted me in my duties here in this place. I would just like to leave you a couple of to-do items for when, hopefully, we do get into government. We've got nuclear and electricity covered. It will take time. But the urgent necessity for this nation now is that we've still got an electricity system that works—just. It might tip over the edge. But where we are really thin is on liquid fuel security. We have got to, as President Trump said, 'drill, baby, drill', because we need to get liquid fuel security in this country. Again, the 10 biggest oil and gas businesses aren't BP or Shell; they're state-owned enterprises. So if Australia is really going to develop our oil security, take a leaf out of INPEX, which is publicly owned but the golden shares are owned by the nation of Japan. Maybe that is something we should look at.

I would also like to thank all the coalition leadership team for all the work you're doing. It is really important that we all have our ducks in a row for the next election. I'll be helping whoever wins the preselection on the weekend get to be the next member for Lyne. Timing is everything. As Kenny Rogers said, 'You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them …'

I've been incredibly fortunate to serve the communities and people of the Lyne electorate for the past 12 years. I would like to thank them again. They put their trust in me for over a decade or more to travel down here and fight for the issues that they thought were important. I have thoroughly enjoyed being your MP, meeting all of you and everything else in this wonderful building. For those of you who have had my three-times-a-year newsletters, you would have seen this little catch line: 'he listens, he cares, he delivers'. But I can quite happily stand here, cross my heart and hope to die and say I listened, I cared and I did deliver.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It givers me pleasure to rise and acknowledge the member for Lyne, who we affectionately know as 'the Doc', for what was a great speech that highlighted the legacy he has left for the people of Lyne. His legacy extends well beyond just the infrastructure he has been able to deliver for the people of Lyne; it goes to the heart of his beliefs and his experience in the medical profession. In fact, he missed one. When I first became the member for Maranoa, I fought hard for the Heart of Australia bus. He was the assistant health minister and he delivered funding to that bus. That now has gone from one to six buses that go throughout rural and remote areas, checking out people for heart conditions and it has literally saved lives. It is a great legacy the Doc has left. His indelible legacy will be that of nuclear energy. He has been passionate from the outset and has driven the debate, not only internally within our party but also in the coalition party room.

To Doc, Charlotte, and his family, we wish you all the best. We are losing two of our greatest, with the member for Parkes, who is leaving us as well. The great experience and the calmness you have brought to our party rooms, the pair of you, are something we will miss. But we respect the legacy that you have left us. We will be custodians of it and we will ensure that the next parliament respects what you have both achieved. On behalf of the National Party family, we wish you all the best in your retirement. We thank you for your service. We thank you for your legacy.

Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand here today in the chamber on probably one of the last occasions I will be speaking in my career. I can't help reflect on a journey that has spanned more than a quarter of a century. For a little bit of nostalgia here, Mr Speaker, you will see something and don't be too shocked. This is the first time this term I am actually wearing a tie. For nostalgia, I thought I would wear something that I wore back in 1996, something that was very bright that reflected my electorate to make sure that, as an early politician, people knew who I was and knew I was in the room. I have a great collection of them. I am hoping I can eventually make a quilt out of them and donate it to charity. I thought today was a very special occasion, so for the first time this term I have worn a tie and it represents the Great Barrier Reef.

It has certainly been an extraordinary privilege to represent the people of Leichhardt for close to 26 years. I owe my deepest gratitude to the people of my electorate, whose trust in me has allowed me to serve for so long. From my humble beginnings as a lad porter at the Mareeba railway station at the age of 14, I never imagined where my life's path would take me: cleaning toilets in the railway station, serving in the Royal Australian Air Force, selling real estate, catching crocodiles and rounding up a few feral bulls. For most of my life politics wasn't even on the radar, but life has a funny way of leading you to places where you never, ever expect. It certainly led me here.

In my maiden speech, back in 1996, I spoke of the need for better infrastructure, better connectivity, a better future for Far North Queensland. At the time there was virtually no mobile coverage in the region. Many of our roads remained unsealed, and the idea of sealing the Peninsula Development Road was just a distant dream. But today that dream has largely become a reality. Connectivity, mobile coverage, the NBN have transformed our region and we are well on our way to sealing the Peninsula Development Road through to Weipa, and I'm proud of the progress we've made—although of course there's always more to do.

One of my earliest tasks in this place was working on native title reform with Senator Nick Minchin. There were concerns about native title and the impact it was having on both Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents in Cape York—and that's what actually motivated me to first get involved in politics. The grievances were fierce, the debate was heated. It was through this challenging work that I found my calling in this place actually, a drive to seek balance, fairness and solutions that actually benefited everybody, not just one side of the argument.

There are many moments throughout my career that I look back on with pride, but actually two of the earliest successes still stand out. The first of those happened when I'd only been a member for a matter of a couple of months. It was securing $40,000 for portable cattle yards in Weipa to support the live cattle export through the Cook Shire Council. The second one was even more significant, and again was in 1996. I secured $500,000 in funding for a banana farmer north of the Daintree River who had been devastated by black sigatoka, a fungal disease that had wiped out his entire crop. It was the first time an Australian grower had been able to get compensation for a crop lost through an exotic disease. I remember calling the farmer, Tony Reichelt, on Christmas Day in 1996 to deliver the good news. The gratitude of his voice still stays with me today. It was quite amazing.

Not long after I was first elected, I was involved in the debate about gun control following that tragic massacre at Port Arthur. Prime Minister John Howard had decided to utilise such a sad and powerful moment in time to bring about a profound cultural shift in the attitude of our nation towards firearms. There was a perception at the time that, given my background, I would fall in behind those advocating for the status quo to remain, but that certainly wasn't the case. I supported John Howard's push for reform. When we look back, we can see that those important changes have made Australia today a perfect example of what sensible gun control looks like, and I'm incredibly proud to have played a role in bringing in such important reforms.

On a less serious note, I recall in 2000, as our nation prepared for the Sydney Olympics, the Cooktown community was left disappointed when the Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee, SOCOG, decided the Olympic torch relay wouldn't be coming to Cooktown. They claimed it was 'too difficult' to include us. But anybody who knows the people in Far North Queensland knows we just don't give up that easily. Instead of lamenting the decision, my dear friends Peter and Kathy Stapley, who owned the Cooktown Local News, and I decided to do something about it. Together, we created our own alternative—NOCOG, 'Not the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games'.

What began has a tongue-in-cheek response quickly grew into something far more significant. With the help of local ingenuity, we crafted our own Olympic torches, including a beautiful crystal torch manufactured by Mitsubishi from Cape Flattery silica sand and a symbolic aluminium torch forged by Rio Tinto in Weipa. To keep the spirit of remembrance alive, we borrowed the eternal flame from the Cooktown RSL. These torches became the centrepiece of our own relay. Our NOCOG torch relay was truly an epic journey. The torch travelled across every Cape York community by road, foot, horse, dinghy, light aircraft and even helicopter. Along the way we shared stories about the Olympics, giving kids in some of the most remote parts of the country a chance to be part of the excitement. At the same time, we raised money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, ultimately collecting over $200,000—a remarkable effort that speaks of the generosity and the spirit of our community.

Of course, NOCOG wasn't just about raising money; it was also about having a bit of fun and showing our resilience. We hosted what we called the 'relaxation games' in Cooktown one week before the actual Olympic Games, with events such as the watching-the-grass-growing competition, fishing without bait, wave counting—provided you had no numeracy skills—and the now famous, or infamous, armchair sleeping competition. I've got to tell you: you're looking at an Olympian. I had the dubious honour of being part of NOCOG's first doping scandal, and I say that with a little bit of embarrassment. After my gold medal performance in the armchair sleeping competition, I was disqualified when it was deemed alcohol was a performance-enhancing drug.

In the end, NOCOG was recognised with a national award for creativity and success, including a cash prize and—would you believe it?—one of the original torches, so we did very well out of it. Today, those treasures are proudly displayed in the Cooktown RSL, a symbol of what can be achieved when a community comes together with determination and, of course, a sense of humour.

During my time in the parliament, I've had the opportunity to serve in various roles—first of all as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources and then as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, positions I held for eight years. Working with Joe Hockey, we delivered the first tourism white paper and secured one of the largest investments in tourism, in spite of the challenges we faced at the time—and I backed Joe 100 per cent on this. The Treasurer at the time was not real keen on releasing funds—we were still looking at paying back debt—but we both said that we were going to step down from our roles unless it was supported. To John Howard's credit, he not only gave us what we were asking for but actually gave us significantly more.

As you would expect from a member hailing from the Far North, I've been actively involved in all things Northern Australian. I've been involved in the production of the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia. I've also been the longstanding chair and now more recently deputy chair of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia. It's been a labour of love, and it has been instrumental in unlocking and supporting our region and dealing with the unique challenges that we face.

In my maiden speech, I also raised the issue of mental health. At the time, mental health services were in a crisis, and week after week I stood in the party room reminding colleagues of the dire need for more investment in this area. The deinstitutionalisation of mental-health care left our streets and prisons as the new institutions for those struggling with mental illness. I read out stories from the media each week, highlighting the tragic outcomes of a system that just was not working. After relentless advocacy, Prime Minister John Howard announced a $1.9 billion investment in mental health over five years, crediting me with playing a very significant role in securing the commitment. It was certainly one of my proudest moments.

My work in mental health didn't stop there. I have long been the independent chair of our local headspace consortium, and I give a big shout-out to Gabrielle Gill and her team for the job well done. I think the work that organisation does is absolutely critical. I am also incredibly proud of being involved with the establishment of the Junction Clubhouse in Cairns. This facility provides a safe space for those transitioning out of intense mental health treatment, encouraging them to reconnect with their community and rebuild their lives. It's a fantastic model, and it's had some amazing success. The Junction Clubhouse celebrated its 10th anniversary recently, and I'd like to thank Suzie Pont and her team for their dedication, as well as all the members that make the Junction what it is today.

One of my more recent roles has been serving as the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef. The five reports I handed down as part of that role challenged even my own government at the time—the government's views on climate change. I made a conscious decision to work only with the scientific agencies responsible for managing the reef, including the GBRMPA, AIMS, the CSIRO and others. The work in this space has certainly helped to move us closer to climate targets and played a role in securing our net zero by 2050 commitment. This work wouldn't have been possible without my dedicated adviser and researcher, Sam Batt. I say thank you to Sam, who was instrumental in educating me, as well as in guiding our efforts. Sam's hard work and expertise ensured that we remained focused on the science and delivered meaningful outcomes for the reef. The reef, like so much of our environment, is a legacy that we must protect for future generations. I leave this place knowing that we have made significant strides. But, of course, like everything else, there is always more work to be done.

Another significant achievement was the establishment of a northern Australian cyclone reinsurance pool, which I'm proud to have brought to fruition. It's backed by a $10 billion government guarantee. The pool offers a solution aimed at reducing insurance costs for homeowners, small businesses and strata properties in high-risk regions. For too long the cost of insuring properties in northern Australia has been unsustainable, forcing many to go without proper coverage. While the cyclone reinsurance pool is a major step forward, it will require ongoing reviews, refinements and support to ensure it continues to deliver for those it's designed to help.

There are a number of causes that have defined my time in the parliament. One of those has been my advocacy for medical cannabis. Some of you may recall in 2014, on a Channel 7 Sunday night program, there was a story featuring Lucy Haslam and her late son, Dan, and the challenge they faced in accessing medical cannabis to support him in his terminal cancer treatment. They were really, truly, national pioneers in this area. After watching that program, I reached out to Lucy and became very firmly committed to that cause.

Another was my journey was advocating for the LGBTQI community. This journey began in the late 1990s when a young naval officer from HMS Cairns approached me with concerns about discrimination he faced because of his sexual orientation. He'd been promoted and was ready to be transferred. They were taking him, all of his furniture, his dog, his budgerigar, his car and his boat, but they wouldn't take his partner because they were a same-sex couple. I was outraged; I couldn't believe it was true. I went and saw the then minister, Robert Hill, and he fixed it. I thought everything was fixed and done, but, of course, there was still a lot to do. I then found out—and I vividly remember—the story of John Challis and his partner, Arthur Cheeseman. John was a retired public servant with a defined benefit pension—some of you may or may not know what they are—and Arthur was a retired pharmacist who'd worked during a time before superannuation was widely adopted. The couple had been together in a loving, totally monogamous and committed relationship for over 50 years, but, because they were a same-sex couple, Arthur was not entitled to John's superannuation benefits should anything have happened to him. Together, they had a modest apartment in Sydney, and, again, if something had happened to either one of them, other family members could've disputed their estate. This held profound implications for both gentlemen and could've resulted in their homes being taken away from them, with a significant reduction in their retirement income should either of them pass away. This injustice, and many like it, continued to drive me to push for the removal of the legal and financial discrimination against same-sex couples. Even in my absence from this place, I was proud to see that the legislation I had been working on for so many years for the removal of discrimination went through the federal parliament unopposed in 2008, supported by both the then prime minister Kevin Rudd and opposition leader Brendan Nelson.

As I just alluded to, and as many of you would know, I voluntarily retired from this place in 2007. I made this decision so that I could fulfil a commitment I made to my son when he was quite young: that when he became a teenager he could come and live with his dad—it was dad's time—so that I could spend quality time with him in his teenage years. I never expected him to remember it, but, unfortunately, he did. When he turned 13, and I got a phone call from his mother saying, 'Are you ready to take your son?' I had to say yes. He's sitting in the gallery here—right there, the fellow with no hair and the beard!

It was a very, very difficult decision at the time because I had a lot of work that I hadn't finished. But I believed that it was the right thing to do: to walk away and leave this place behind me, with the work that was left. But I've got to tell you, it was the best decision I ever made, in all the time I was in politics. Thank you, Jacob, for not forgetting that promise that I'd made to you. I certainly cherished the time that we had together. I'm still proud that I could fulfil that promise to Jake. It was Jake who actually convinced me to recontest Leichhardt in 2010, as he was getting ready to head off to university. And, of course, I successfully did that at the 2010 election.

Arriving back in Canberra in 2010, I was proud of the fact that I was not only the first Liberal member for Leichhardt; I had now been elected twice over. I was informed by the then speaker of the House, Harry Jenkins, that I had, in fact, set another record, insofar as I was the first member of the federal parliament since Federation to have voluntarily retired from politics then recontested the same seat for the same party and won. I can now proudly add a third record to that list. I am now rapidly approaching 26 years served in the parliament and I am now, by a margin of over a decade, the longest-serving member for Leichhardt.

Once I'd got my feet firmly back under the desk, I was determined to pick up where I'd left off and to continue my advocacy efforts for removing discrimination against the gay community. However, this was in 2010, and both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott had both individually committed to not dealing with the matter of marriage equality for the entire term of 2010 to 2013. While I was prepared to respect the leaders' position, I made it very, very clear to Tony that I would honour his commitment in the current term, but I asked him not to make the same commitment in the next parliamentary term, and, to Tony's credit, he gave me that commitment and he definitely kept it. I say, thank you very much for that, Tony Abbott.

I served as the chief opposition whip from 2010 to 2013—a whipette, down there with Nola, who was one of my whips as well. That period of time provided me with an opportunity for my first significant piece of collaboration. I worked closely with Graham Perrett, sitting over here, and Sarah Hanson-Young, and together we established the first ever parliamentary friendship group for the LGBTIQ community of any parliament in the world. I'm proud to say that, in 2024, I remain the only remaining founding parliamentary co-chair of that group, which is still very active to this day. I'm sure they will continue their important advocacy efforts, even after I finish in this place.

At 10.13 am on 4 December 2017, I had the privilege of introducing the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 into this place. At 6 pm on Thursday 7 December, the bill passed through the chamber, and the rest is recent history. I say to those who stood beside me, both inside and outside this chamber: thank you. Together, we made history. Initially, I did not agree with the postal plebiscite process at the time, but I thank our leader for that, because I'd tried to do it once before, unsuccessfully, and Peter came to me and said, 'What about this as a way?' and I said, 'We'll try it.' It was his idea; he went with it and got it up. While, as I said, I didn't agree with it at the time—I thought we could just go to a conscience vote—I'm certainly glad that we did it now. I do believe it was the right decision—thank you, Peter—because there have been absolutely no challenges to the legislation. What we've seen is very strong acceptance throughout the Australian community. Today in Australia, I'm proud to say, we do not have gay marriage; we simply have marriage. In Australia, I'm proud to say, we don't discriminate, and I think our society is a better place for that fact.

As a brief footnote to the chapter, the gentlemen John Challis and Arthur Cheeseman, whom I referred to earlier, were able to marry. I'm very happy and proud that we were able to enable them to do that. They did that five years before Arthur's passing.

On another one of my campaigns—I think this next story might illustrate to members that if you focus and persist, you can move all sorts of mountains. After the passing of my very dear friend and colleague Don Randall in July 2015, I felt that it would be an appropriate and fitting tribute for members who passed away while serving in office that they be commemorated within the parliamentary precinct. Given Don's love of roses, I put forward a proposal for a portion of the rose garden at the entrance of the House of Representatives—it was known as the Zonta garden—to be dedicated for those members who died in office. At the time I thought it was a very fitting and worthy idea; however, I soon learnt that even the gardens within the parliamentary precinct are in fact heritage listed and were not for change.

Persistence—I was persistent, I was determined and eventually it paid off. I would like to thank the former Speaker Tony Smith, who worked with me and assisted in making it possible. It only took about 18 months, but we now have a beautiful rose garden at the House of Reps entrance, dedicated to members who passed away in office. I was fortunate enough also to have even convinced them to agree to plant some of Don's favourite roses: the Dolly Partons and the Double Delights. I won't say why they were Don's favourites, but nevertheless they were. I actually visited the garden this Thursday, and they look absolutely magnificent.

For those people who frown on plagiarism, on this occasion I'm happy to endorse the Senate's recent decision to install a memorial plaque in the same garden, recognising senators who have also passed away in office. I would encourage members, if you haven't had the opportunity of seeing what's been achieved at this beautiful garden, to go down and have a look, and enjoy the serenity.

I would like to say that, when members leave this place, there's often unfinished business and sometimes even regrets, and I do have one regret. After 25 years of working to give my community north of the Daintree River an option for mains-equivalent renewable power, the project is at a crossroads. It's been a long time coming; the money for the project was set aside prior to the 2022 election. There has been an enormous amount of work done in the community, led for many years by Russell and Teresa O'Doherty and strongly supported by Richard Schoenemann and Phil from Volt Advisory. Over time, the project has been able to achieve all the necessary approvals and the permits for construction, and they now hold all the necessary licences to proceed. This is quite extraordinary given where the area is. They did this in record time. The project is nestled between two World Heritage listed areas: the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

Finally they've secured excellent, credible, experienced investors for the project. But unfortunately our region experienced Cyclone Jasper at Christmas last year. It was absolutely devastating and impacted the commencement of the project. We're only now, nearly 12 months on, getting access to the site. The impending wet season, due to permits from the Wet Tropics Management Authority, means that we couldn't start working on the commencement of the project until at least after the wet season in April next year.

Before the natural disaster, it seemed like the current government was on board. We had environment minister Plibersek proudly declaring on Facebook, 'We have ticked off a solar project that will power the entire Daintree community. The project alone will prevent four million litres of diesel from being burnt.' The project's proponents were deeply engaged with the Kuku Yalanji traditional owners, and they were brought on as a major partner for the construction of this renewable grid. Even better still, the Kuku Yalanji traditional owners were going to own the grid and be the operator, the wholesaler and the retailer. We were all set up for a unique and inspiring project that would be Australia's first Indigenous majority-owned renewable electricity grid. This was going to facilitate the opportunity for the Kuku Yalanji people to start bringing home families that had been displaced from the area many years before and, ultimately, help them to build homes on their traditional lands.

But Mr Bowen, his department and his bureaucrats have done everything in their power to prevent this project from going ahead. They bluntly refused to release the money that had been set aside by previous governments. It is an absolute disgrace and, in my view, an act of political bastardry. The irony of this situation is we have had the Prime Minister at Garma Festival declaring that his government is committed to, as a matter of priority, unlocking opportunities for Indigenous communities to be involved and to participate in the development of renewable energy projects right around Australia. But his own energy minister seems to be intent on undermining a fantastic project, ultimately ruining the Indigenous community's vision of self-determination and economic empowerment.

The government has spent millions of dollars on the Voice referendum but, at the same time, has ignored the voices that they claim they wanted to listen to. Quite frankly, it is a disgrace. Indigenous communities don't need slogans and they don't need hand-wringing; they need partnerships and a government that supports their aspirations. I say to Minister Bowen: do the right thing, listen to the voices of the Kuku Yalanji people, the voices of the very senior elders like Aunty Francis and Aunty Kath Walker, get out of their road, stop playing politics, release the funding and let them get on with the job.

In my electorate I have been proud to secure funding for many projects that have transformed the area, from the Cairns Esplanade boardwalk to the peninsula development along with JCU medical, dental and veterinary schools and the upcoming university hospital to name just a few. These projects continue to have lasting impact on our community. But one of the causes closest to my heart has been securing the recognition for the Torres Strait Infantry Battalion. Their service during the Second World War went unacknowledged for far too long. Thanks to the tireless efforts of people like Uncle Etti Pau, Vanessa See Kee and my 'three generals' Serico Stephen, Carulas Isua, Waraka Adidi. In 2001, we finally were able to secure the recognition these brave soldiers deserved, with the Pacific Star Medal finally granted 54 years after their service. The last two of the 880 Torres Strait Islanders that served in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, Mebai Warusam, Awati Mau passed away within a week of each other. They enlisted together on Saibai Island and served together. Sadly, their passing brings to a close a unique chapter of our history. The legacy of their service lives on and I am deeply honoured to have played a role in ensuring that their service has been given the recognition this truly deserved.

I also ensured that the Australian War Memorial has received the memorial videos which I had commissioned for both Mebai and Awati's funeral. They are part of the Etti Pau collection on the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion in the War Memorial.

Reflecting on the Torres Strait, I would be remiss if I didn't note the importance of a major infrastructure program. In 1998, Australian and Queensland governments came together to address infrastructure needs in the Torres Strait and the Northern Peninsula area through what they call the MIP. The initiative focused on delivering essential environmental health infrastructure including fresh water supply sewerage systems, waste management, road sealing and more. Helping to advocate and secure that funding for the MIP has made one of the most impactful differences for this region. I'm very proud of my involvement. Over the years, more than $300 million has been invested, transforming these communities and significantly improving health and living conditions.

The relationships that I've built over many years have been some of the most rewarding aspects of this journey, and I'm deeply grateful for the friendships and bonds that have stood the test of time, transitioning the political divide. There are people like my good mate Brendon Nelson. Patty Secker was another one of the whips when I was the chief whip. Donny Randall is no longer with us, nor is Nicky Dondas. There's Jane Prentice, Jimmy Lloyd and Patty Dodson, my mate from Broome. There's Teresa Gambaro, Bob Baldwin, Joel Fitzgibbon and Steven Georganas, who was sitting in a seat here earlier on. There's Maria Vamvakinou, Kay Hull, Russell Broadbent and Warren Snowdon. That's just to name a couple! They've been mates.

And, of course, there's you, Mr Speaker. For anybody who's going to go on delegations, if the Speaker is leading those delegations, go with him. He is brilliant, and he has become a very, very good friend. I'm not sucking up to you too much. Nevertheless, I am stating a matter of fact. Thank you very much indeed for your friendship.

All these have been dear friends whose friendship I have maintained over many years. There are others here, including Scotty Buchholz, who is sitting over there, nodding his head at the moment. It's been great. Thank you all for being part of the journey with me. The camaraderie that we've shared has made this experience all the richer. I respect all those friendships, and I will carry them with me long after I've left this place.

Thanks to both the Liberal and the National parties and, more recently, the LNP. All those amazing members and volunteers and supporters over nine election cycles have provided amazing support to me. Each and every one of you can take credit for the success of those campaigns. I won't start listing names; there are just simply too many. I'll just say thank you to all of you.

Thanks to my staff. I have a couple sitting up here in the gallery at the moment. There have been many over the years. Thank you for all of your contributions. You've kept the wheels turning. I couldn't have done it without your hard work and dedication. The overwhelming success that we've had across the electorate is because of the work that you guys do and, while I've been the recipient of much of that credit—I keep saying this—you are the ones that actually make the magic happen. I couldn't have done it without your hard work and your dedication.

Thanks to my current team. Natasha Sambo has been with me over 14 years. Rosie Korman, who's sitting up there in the gallery, has been with me for over 10 years. Sam Batt has been in the electorate office for eight years. Tanya, who is up here, has been with me for over seven years. Then, of course, there's Zac Webster, Karina Hussey and Tay Laifoo, who's the newest starter. Thank you for everything you've done for me and for the electorate. Of course, I cannot leave without mentioning Tamara Srhoj here. Although she has moved from my office, she has been amazing, and I have to say thank you very much. She was a very important part of my team for many, many years.

Thanks to my family, particularly my wonderful sons, Jason, who's not here, and Jacob, who surprised me today. He blew me away when he walked into my office. Thanks to my beautiful daughter Mackenzie Lee. Your love and support have been the foundation that has kept me going through tough times. Serving in the parliament comes with many sacrifices—which we all know—none more so than the time spent away from our loved ones. I couldn't have done any of this without your encouragement and your support.

As I prepare to step away from this place, there's just one thing I'd like to say to a lot of the newer members here. You will note that I was actually on the executive for eight years. I was the chief whip for three years. But for a long period of time I chose not to be involved in the executive because I had things that I wanted to do. Unlike the other side, we can reserve our right. I couldn't have done the work that I did with gay reform et cetera had I been a member of the executive. I was able to do that by staying as a humble backbencher. Those changes have changed the country, and I'm very, very proud of that. Remember that when you are tacking out your political career.

As I prepare to walk away from this place, I do so with a heart full of pride and with a deep love for my community. My hope is that the work we've done together—the big things and small things—will have a lasting impact on Far North Queensland. Leichhardt will always be my home, and, while I'm no longer your representative in the chamber, I'll always be there to advocate for the region. I look forward to what the future holds in Far North Queensland, and I know that the next generation of leaders will continue the work we started.

I've often said that my career has been a storied one, full of challenges, triumphs and a few laughs along the way. I've had the privilege of being a part of some of the greatest national policy shifts in Australia's history, whether it be the gun law reform, introduction of the GST, the establishment of the Future Fund or paying off our national debt in 2007. When the government changed, we didn't owe a cracker to the world.

Although we've changed dramatically since then, with the GFC, COVID and a couple of Labor governments in between, the point is I was and still am very proud to be part of a government that really flexed its economic prowess and has put us in a great position to respond to the challenges that came from the GFC and, of course, from the pandemic. It enabled us to adequately support the economy and, particularly in my patch, we were able to deploy targeted support to a range of tourism entities that needed the financial life support. Whether it was JobSeeker or JobKeeper, zoo and aquarium support packages, large tourism operator support packages, the TTNQ-specific package or chartering airfreight for live coral trout and crayfish export, the extensive array of support kept our region alive. Some of those packages were actually born out of my office. I want to give thanks to the then minister Simon Birmingham, who came up and worked with me, and, of course, Prime Minister Scott Morrison. That work allowed us to recover from the COVID crisis and has helped us to emerge from the global crisis as one of the strongest economies in the developed world at this time.

I've secured millions of dollars of funding commitments and support for my region. I've advocated for equality and strong environmental policy. Often, I've often found myself in politically challenging circumstances, but I wouldn't change a thing. I say unequivocally it's been one hell of a journey. I reckon it's not too bad for a 14-year-old toilet cleaner from the Mareeba Railway Station.

Lastly, I remind people that this is merely a retirement from politics and from political life. I'll still be around. There are plenty of things that I've got left to do. I will be maintaining my fierce advocacy for the eradication of tuberculosis, so I'll be continuing my longstanding relationship with the Global TB Caucus.

I will also continue my work with another passion of mine, the National Threatened Species Institute, working closely with my dear friends Peter and Val Gowland up there and their son Daniel, breeding threatened native species, particularly small mammals and birds, for release back into the wild. I'm proud to say that we've been incredibly successful in these endeavours. We have a number of successful releases of captive-bred new holland mice and smoky mice back into the wild. We're now one of the largest breeders of orange bellied parrots in the country, and we have the only eastern ground parrots in captivity in the world. After 2½ years, they're absolutely thriving, and we're looking forward to the pitter-patter of small feet.

I'd like to give special thanks to the House of Reps staff, the attendants, the cleaners, the Comcar drivers and all those that help make our great democracy function. Thank you to you all for your assistance over many, many years. It's been a pleasure getting to know you all and working together.

I'll conclude by thanking the people of Leichhardt again for their overwhelming and unwavering support and the faith that they've placed in me. There is a part of me that will miss this place and the work that we've done here, but I'm certainly looking forward to the next chapter of my life. I wish you all the very best. Take care of each other, and never forget the privilege it is to serve in this place.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I want to say to the member for Leichhardt that that was a fairly sanitised version of his contribution to the party room, I might say. My recollection is somewhat different. Entschy was a case study in tenacity and the ability to stay on message and to demonstrate passion about what was important to him—he named a few of those topics, starting with mental health—and he did not give up. He didn't give up in relation to same-sex marriage. He didn't give up in relation to insurance for Far North Queensland. He didn't give up in relation to many other issues where he saw injustice and where he had a desire to try and make a difference to the people of Far North Queensland.

I don't speak on behalf of all my predecessors, but on behalf, I'm sure, of John Howard and also Brendan Nelson, Warren Entsch was a tour de force in the Howard years. He had a particularly forceful way in the party room, as I say, and John Howard felt that. It was as a result of his advocacy that he did make a very significant contribution. Similarly, Entschie, I might say your loyalty to Brendan Nelson was a hallmark of your character. You stood by him particularly at a time when he wasn't treated very well in this place. I know that he will never, ever forget that, and I'm sure he would want me to mention that today.

Just finally, Warren Entsch came into this place with a CV that has never and will never be matched in the history or future of this country. When he came to this chamber and into this parliament having been a crocodile wrestler, a bull rider, a cattle producer—which he was too modest to mention before—and many other things in between, you knew it was going to be a pretty interesting ride. Entschie, for all of those who've worked very closely with you and have respected you during work on same-sex marriage and migration matters as well, where you wore your heart on your sleeve and really put in effort for people who otherwise wouldn't have enjoyed time this country that they deserved, and for the people of Leichhardt and Far North Queensland, you really have been an exemplar. You've been a great ambassador of our party, and I'm sure we will continue to work with you in the next phase of your life. You have been a wonderful member of parliament, and we wish you health and every success in the future.