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

on indulgence—It's 15 years since I first stood in this chamber. In fact, it was in the seat now occupied by my friend the member for Canberra. I'm now a bit fatter and a bit greyer, but I'm still full of optimism for the potential of this parliament to transform the lives of Australians and our country for the better.

I want to thank my electorate for returning me here to represent them through five elections. Much has changed over those 15 years: the boundaries, the name and the demographics of my electorate. I was first elected as the member for Throsby but assumed the title of the member for Whitlam in honour of the former Labor prime minister when he passed away. There are now suburbs where cows once grazed and horses roamed. But together, over many, many years, we have achieved great things.

In my first term here as a backbench MP in the Gillard government, we worked hard to ensure and secure the future of our steel industry. It was hard work, with big and difficult decisions to be made, but because of those decisions we have a steelworks which remains the defining feature of our region today. It's making profits and providing valuable jobs to thousands and thousands of local families. We've got a world-class university which is educating thousands of local students—my number is 8507404; the hint is in the first two numbers—and it's attracting thousands more to the region. For many, the degree that hangs upon their wall at home is the first such degree that has appeared in that household, ever. I'm proud of that. We've got TAFE colleges which are helping to train the workers much in need of skills and providing the skills that'll drive productivity for generations to come. In fact, the TAFE colleges are the reason that my family moved to the Illawarra. My father trained generations of steelworkers who worked in the steelworks before he passed away.

We've funded halls. We've built bridges. We've upgraded roads and sports fields and provided support to community organisations. All this is good stuff, but the real legacy is not mine—certainly not mine alone—but the ones I contributed to as a part of a team, a Labor team, through Labor governments. We've rolled out the NBN to suburbs. We've provided the National Disability Insurance Scheme for familie2s, providing dignity and sustenance where once none existed. We're rebuilding TAFE, including free TAFE. We're reducing the HECS debts for thousands and thousands of Australian students, and we're doing the slow but essential work of restoring Medicare.

When I first got here my kids were knee-high. They're now young adults. My daughter, Jessica, is up there with us in the chamber. I'm immensely proud of both of my children. Paddy, who I 've spoken about in this chamber before, is at school today, completing his HSC year. Jessica is here; she's finishing her studies to become a nurse—God knows, Australia needs more nurses. My children are amazing humans, but today I want to pay tribute to their mum, Julia; her partner, Luke; her mum Sally; her dad, Michael, and his wife Adrian. They've done so much to raise my children while I've been absent from our household. I want them to know that I never took it for granted. I'll be eternally grateful. I'm really sad that my mum, Margaret, who was here for my first speech, and my brother Adam won't be here for my last, because, sadly, they passed away in my time in this place.

I'm really rapt that that big unit up there in the gallery, my brother Luke, is here as the representative of my family. I'm grateful for his friendship—I'm look forward to spending more time with you too, mate.

My sister, Mandy, is not here, obviously. This is a difficult time of year for her. It's almost three years to the day when I stood in this chamber and I spoke of the passing of her son, Ollie, my nephew. I always think about him at this time of year. I hope for a better world for children to come.

In March last year, Brooke and I were married. Ours is a true love story. She's smart and charismatic, she has a smile that lights up a room and she's my person. On marrying her, I escalated to the presidency of the national society for men boxing above their weight.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

I don't know what the blokes in the room are laughing about; I've seen the membership register and every one of the blokes here is a member of that society, for so many reasons. I'm looking forward to the honeymoon we didn't have and those weekends we know very little about.

I'd like to spend a moment, if I could, reflecting upon some of what I think have been the great achievements of all the governments I've been in this parliament with and experienced over the last 15 years. I will start with a reflection on what I thought was a really brilliant contribution by former prime minister Julia Gillard which I don't think has had enough recognition. Former prime minister Gillard established a royal commission into child sex abuse. Over four years it heard stories from thousands of Australians of abuse at the hands of churches and other institutions. There were over 1,000 individual contributions, 8,000 private sessions and 26,000 letters and emails, leading to over 2½ thousand referrals to police. What was so important about this was that for decades the victims had been denied; their stories, if ever told, were contested, and they were told they were not true. I can say, because I was part of some of those earlier discussions, that establishing this royal commission wasn't inevitable; it was contested, including in this chamber. It wasn't inevitable. It took courage, and I thank former prime minister Gillard for it. When we established that royal commission we sent a message: 'We see you, we hear you and we believe you.'

We often speak in this place of strength and weakness, and we reduce it to that concept of strength meaning power over others. I think there's another kind of strength; it's the strength that comes from the things that you overcome and the strength that knows it's more important to do things with and for people than to them. The royal commission was a really painful experience for survivors but a necessary piece of truth-telling and reconciliation. Survivors, including me, appreciate it—a point I've never disclosed because I didn't want to be defined by it and because I didn't want to detract attention from those who, unlike me, didn't have a voice or didn't have access to power to tell their story. There is power in being seen, being heard and being believed.

I acknowledge the role played by former prime minister Morrison. There was so much we had rancour and disagreement about during those COVID years. I was part of an opposition that genuinely tried to rise above partisanship and say: 'What's in the national interest here? We should agree where we can, and, even if we might disagree on some of the minute details'—God knows everyone knows my view about early access to super! But we put those issues aside and said, 'There is a national challenge here.' It was a really powerful reminder of the role and the importance of government. You will all recall those early weeks when we knew we were going into lockdown. All of us walked past or drove past the Centrelink offices, and it's burnt into our minds that there were lines of people snaking around the block—most of whom were standing in a queue at Centrelink for the first time in their life. And it's at moments like that that we were reminded of the importance of government and the people who work for government.

Within a few weeks, the Australian Taxation Office, whose principal business is to collect revenue, was converted from an organisation that collected revenue to an organisation that distributed it. In excess of 18,000 workers took their laptops, went to their kitchens or their bedrooms and operated from home, keeping households afloat and keeping small businesses afloat, and I don't think that they've ever received the acknowledgement that all of those workers deserve.

Today, there are government workers on the ground in Townsville providing post-flood support, and it'll be those frontline service agencies, whether it's the disaster relief agencies, Centrelink or the other services, providing those first-in emergency services and that information to thousands of Australians when we need it. They're coordinating disaster relief, they're patrolling the oceans to our north, they're going out in boats for weeks at a time—they're public servants. They're patrolling our borders. They're doing the detailed work and design to procure submarines or the equipment that keeps our troops in the field safe and secure. They're processing veterans' entitlements, access to essential mental health supports or payments to keep them sustained. They're providing cybersecurity, they're preparing budgets, they're mapping our oceans or they're ensuring that we have a detailed knowledge of all the minerals that this great nation has as a part of its bounty. It's a really important reminder to me that our government, our national parliament and the people who work for it really matter.

And I've got to say, you can get a headline for saying, 'We're going to slash 35,000'—or 45,000—'workers from our government,' but these are the people we're talking about. You can do it. We've seen the movie. You can slash those workers. We've seen the movie; we know what'll happen. There'll be winners and there'll be losers. The losers will be the Australian people; the winners will be the labour hire companies and the consultants. We can go back there, it is available to us, but I would suggest that it's a really bad call.

I want to thank the Prime Minister for a bunch of things, but, frankly, I want to thank him for backing a future made here. I grew up in a manufacturing region. The year before I left school, the steelworks halved its workforce. It's the reason I ended up a lawyer and not a boilermaker. We can argue about whether that was a good career choice or not! But I understand the importance of a decent, secure job—a skilled job—and the importance of industry to a region and to a country, because a country that makes stuff knows stuff. It has the important engineering skills, the biotechnical skills, all the skills that go into those complex engineering and production processes. Making stuff matters. I want to thank the Prime Minister and my friend, the minister for industry and a bunch of other things, for backing that project I strongly believe in. The world's changed. We need sovereign capability, and we need a vision to drive it. You've got to ask yourself, 'If it's not a future made in Australia, where's our future going to be made?' It's not going to be a secure future.

I want to reflect very briefly on my role as the Assistant Treasurer and the Minister for Financial Services, which has taken in the consumer affairs portfolio as well, responsibilities that I've had the honour of holding for over six years now. I've taken the approach that you're always going to get a better result if you have deep engagement with all of your stakeholders, not just some of them. So I've engaged deeply with the consumer advocates and with all the associations and businesses across the industry, and I think it's been absolutely critical to getting the outcomes we have. In a parliament that's shaped like this one, and in a Senate that's shaped like the one over there, building stakeholder consensus means you get a political consensus, and if you need legislative change that's the best way to get it—and I put a lot of effort into doing that.

I'd like to say a few words about that rancorous topic of superannuation. Everyone knows how passionate I am about it. I was there at the beginning of it. I'm older than I look! I've often thought, and I've always puzzled on this: if you were a complete stranger to the history of superannuation but you knew about the political philosophies of the coalition and Labor, and you came here and you observed our system, you would probably form the conclusion that superannuation was established by the coalition, because it's an essentially liberal idea. It's about self-preservation and it's about making a small contribution on a weekly or fortnightly basis to ensure that you aren't reliant on somebody else when you retire. What could be more liberal than a philosophy of self-reliance? So it has always just driven me nuts that this has been such an issue of political rancour in this country when you think of it like that. I strongly believe in it. I think our economy is stronger and our society is stronger for it. I've been very proud to work with my friend the Treasurer to ensure that we've left the system stronger as a result of this term in government.

In fact, some of the best things you contribute to in this place are not the things you start but the things you stop. I was very proud to be a part of an opposition where I worked with my friends former prime minister Keating and former prime minister Rudd, and the Treasurer and the Prime Minister to stop this idea that we were going to freeze the superannuation entitlements of Australians at 9½ per cent. It always struck me as crazy for us to suggest that we should collect 15 but the mob should only get 9½. At the end of June this year, all Australians will be receiving 12 per cent superannuation, and that's a damn good thing.

Of course it's not perfect. I've been in the forefront of people saying there needs to be reform. Their service standards are just nowhere where they need to be, and they need to lift their game. We need to do so much more to provide a better retirement experience, more retirement products, and ensure that the purpose of superannuation is seen through for the five million Australians who are either at or approaching retirement. But I'm proud to have been a part of a government that is delivering payday super. I'm proud to have been a part of a government that's delivering super on paid maternity leave—with my colleague Amanda Rishworth. I'm proud to have been a part of a government that sees the importance of delivering and improving financial advice. I had a great conversation with our colleagues on the crossbench earlier about the importance of realising our commitment to ban genetic testing for access to life insurance. I say this in front of the Prime Minister: this is Labor government policy, and we will ensure that this is legislated.

Can I say then a couple of words about the digital economy and the work that we've done in this space. It was in its infancy when I arrived. We were all handed BlackBerries. Do you remember them? It has transformed everything. It has disrupted everything. It has brought with it so many benefits. You can buy from your lounge room a product or a service generated just about anywhere in the world, and it arrives in the same week that you purchased it. You can make a phone, nay a video, call to somebody on the other side of the world for less than the price of a phone call. I remember growing up as a kid when it would be the exciting thing you did every six months—to make an overseas phone call—and it cost about a week's wages to do it. So the digitisation of the economy has changed everything, and we're so much better for it. But it has brought with it social, democratic and economic harms.

I've been delighted to work with my friend the Minister for Communications, and, again, as a part of the Treasury team, with the full support of the Prime Minister, on these challenges. The News Media Bargaining Code and the news bargaining incentive picked up and ran with a proposition introduced by the coalition. We improved it and modified it to ensure that it was appropriate to the challenges we now face. It'll be up to the next parliament to ensure that that is legislated.

On digital competition and unfair trading, and frauds and scams, which I'll say a little bit about in a moment, the Attorney-General's made a great contribution—where is he?—in upgrading our privacy laws, improving and ensuring that we knock the problems out of the CDR and digital ID. These are all a part of a comprehensive program of this government to keep people's money and information safe and to improve our digital capacity.

But I want to make this point. The digitisation of everything presents a big challenge for democracy and the sovereignty of this parliament. It brings with it geopolitical dimensions which will require a unity of voice and a unity of purpose. The laws of our parliament cannot stop at the internet, and when we speak to the rest of the world, we have to do it with one voice, not with fractured voices. These will be difficult conversations, to deliver on the things that I've spoken about. There are big forces at play. We need to speak with a single purpose and with one voice. The laws of this parliament cannot stop at the internet.

We've spoken in broken voices and raised tones about antisemitism and racism. They lurk and fester online, but they increase their reach on social media platforms. So we can't be serious about the challenge of fighting antisemitism—in fact, all forms of bigotry and racism—unless we are serious about taking on the online vectors. Again, these are big, tough challenges, but we don't have a serious program to take on antisemitism and other forms of racism unless we are taking on the vectors through which they spread their reach, and they are social media platforms. It's a matter of deep regret that we appear to be going backwards and not forwards in that area.

Prime Minister, I'm asking for nothing—well, actually, that's not true! I'm going to ask for one thing. I want to talk about my scams bill. I put a hell of a lot of work into this one. Australians are losing seven million bucks a day. And we can do better. We have made significant improvements. I've attempted not to politicise the issue, because I think this should be something that enjoys bipartisan support to find its passage through the Senate. We've got a bill before the Senate at the moment. I understand it enjoys the support of those opposite. So it would be really good if we could get your people to talk to my people to get it through the Senate before we get up at the end of the week! Let's get it done!

I want to talk about a big Australian story. I want to just point to a bloke up there, my father-in-law, Fred Muscat. He came to Australia as a kid—a young adult, I should say—and didn't have a cent in his pocket. He worked in all the same jobs that migrants work in. He came from his town in Malta to Australia looking for a better life. Over his years in this country, he built a small business. He's a tradie who built a small business, provided for his family, raised two wonderful daughters and married a fiery Scottish trade unionist—which he passed on to his daughter, I'm pleased to say!

I often reflect on Fred's life and think that this is the Australian story. Too often, through the stories we tell in this place, we narrow and make the Australian story smaller than it really needs to be. It's a big story and it's lots of different colours and there should be a place in it for everyone—a place in it for people like my father-in-law, who have contributed so much to this country; people like my son; people like your sons and daughters; people like all of us. You know, we're a big, motley mob, and it should not be the role of this place to punch down or to make the Australian story smaller than it should be.

I'll finish by thanking some of my people, and I won't be able to do it all. I want to start with the Dharawal and Wadi Wadi elders who have done so much to make me feel at home in their yarning circles and in their community. In particular, I single out Uncle Gerard, better known as Uncle G, Aunty Jodie Edwards and Uncle Richard Davies. They've had a tough couple of years, but they're great leaders and true survivors, and I love them to death. I thank them for their friendship.

It's a mark of a successful life in politics, I think, if you can honestly say that you will leave with more friends than when you started. It doesn't always happen. I'm really pleased that I've been able to do that. It's taken a bit of work. I see a bunch of them up there in the gallery. I see my schoolmates up there in the gallery, which is fantastic. I see Pete up there. It was so good to go with a bunch of guys I went to primary school with to see the Illawarra Hawks wallop the hell out of the Sydney Kings on Friday night. We like beating everyone, but nobody more than Sydney. It's so great to still be connected with the people I grew up with.

I see my friend Senator Gallagher over there. I still remember us drinking wine out of a box and singing terrible songs loudly on the floor of your flat somewhere in Woden long before either of us ever thought we would end up in this joint. I'm really pleased that we're still mates. Pete, Lou, Steve, Cassie, Katy—I'm so blessed to have you as part of my life over all these years.

It's sad that my mate Graham Perrett is going. That reduces the 'parliamentary friends of St George' down to one member, the member for Cunningham, so the weight is on you. To so many of my ministerial colleagues, I've tried to be a team player and I've tried to ensure that I act in the true spirit of solidarity. I can honestly say that I've enjoyed that back in spades and I thank you all for it.

To the Treasurer, to the finance minister, to the assistant minister for Treasury, the economic team that I've had the great pleasure of being a part of; to the Expenditure Review Committee who I've spent far too much time with over three years in government and three of my years in opposition: I thank you for allowing me to be a part of your deliberations.

To my staff—bear with me; I'm going to read a few names out. I'm going to start with Bel Robertson, my chief of staff. She's a truly amazing woman who—I'm going to let your secret through—actually worked for the Leader of the Opposition John Hewson in this building in the nineties. I was delighted to have her come and work for me because she is a competent, loyal, professional woman who has gone above and beyond in the years that she has worked with me. I'm proud to call you a mate and I'm proud to have you serve with me. I thank all of my staff, and I'll go through them all: Caitlin Veigel; Hanzel Pador; Josh Cleaver; Georgia Roff; Tracey Masson; Deputy Mayor Linda Campbell; James Stevens—a very big brain and a big future on that one; Daniel Edmonds, the very same; Sophie Johnson, a friend, colleague and wonderful human being; Whitney Lisson, absolutely sensational; Jarrod Dellapina, who's not with us, but I thank him for many, many years of service; Lior Kalisse; Sam Ellis, Ros Anderson and Danielle Seraphin, to the three of you, thank you for telling me what DLOs do as I now know the importance of what you do as well; and Hugh Phillips.

A lot of staff have worked with me over the years and there are a lot of branch members I would like to thank as well. At the risk of missing one, I've got a list of them here and I'll table them. That way, when you go to google yourself or search in Hansard, you will find your name in there. I thank you all.

I want to, without stuffing your parliamentary careers, thank a few people on the other side. I won't give you all up but I see the member for Riverina here, the member for Wright. I call them personal friends. There is a leftie from Wollongong and a couple of conservatives from the Nationals and Liberal Party, a strange mixture, but I really enjoy their friendship. I find them to be decent human beings and have enjoyed their friendship over many, many years. We were in the same class. There are other people who I have admired from a distance on the other side.

To the secretary of my union—the CPSU—Melissa Donnelly, thank you for your friendship over many years. My life membership of the union sits on my cupboard in my office so everyone who walks in knows where I came from, and I am very proud of it. To all the stakeholders—I see Andrew up there and I know there are others, if my eyes were sharper I could pick you all out—I want to thank all the stakeholders that I've worked with over many, many years. It is important to remember the people you're first with. I see Jane Mulligan up there as well. Never forget the people who were there from the beginning; never forget the people who backed you right from the beginning, and I don't. I thank you, Prime Minister. You've been a good friend and a supporter of mine for many, many years, and I thank you for that.

For now, it's time for me to bundy off. Thanks for the ride.

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

On indulgence—Stephen Jones—or Jonesy, as he's always been known—has a great Labor heart and he's always worn it on his sleeve. He has served our party and his community in this place with passion and principle. I've known Stephen for a very long period of time. We've always voted for each other throughout our careers within the Labor Party and within our broader political engagement as well. I've been a big supporter of Jonesy, and have supported him going back to his heartland there in the Illawarra and on becoming the member for Throsby.

Stephen had a stellar career leading the Community and Public Sector Union, where he stood up for working people, understood that they needed to be valued and respected, and made an enormous difference. So Stephen has been a representative of both wings of the Labor movement—industrial and political—and he has throughout that done an enormous amount and left an incredible legacy. He is someone who leaves this place with more friends than with which he came. It's remarkable, thinking about it, as he was speaking, that I can't think of anyone who dislikes Stephen Jones or would regard himself an opponent of Stephen Jones. I wish throughout my career I could say that but it's not the case. Stephen Jones was someone who, as the representative for Whitlam, brought a real passion to an electorate that sometimes people speak about as being a safe seat. I think this a applies on either side of the aisle. It is one of the reasons I'm against colour-coded spreadsheets to allocate funding. People deserve strong representation and they don't deserve to be left behind or to be taken for granted by anyone. I think that has occurred from time to time with governments, if you look at where funds were allocated for important community infrastructure or roads. Stephen Jones has been so passionate. I have visited BlueScope with him on any number of occasions. We have worked on projects and delivering services for that community, which has needed it. It's a community which has grown and changed, with the boundaries changing as well, but one in which every single member, regardless of what way they vote or what they do in their profession, knows they've had a local member who's been on their side.

I made Stephen the shadow Assistant Treasurer, a frontbencher, and he has grown into the Assistant Treasurer position. I join with Stephen in regretting how long we have spent in ERC meetings together in both opposition and government. The work that Stephen has done throughout the country holding forums—I know they've been held on a bipartisan basis—on scams, informing people out there about how to avoid being ripped off and the challenges which are there, where he speaks about how much is lost every single day—he has been passionate about that. He's passionate about superannuation and the role that it plays. It does not just lift up living standards and ensure that people can retire with dignity and with a decent living standard; it is also a national asset, the extraordinary level of funds that we have. When I spoke with President Trump this morning, I spoke about the combined Future Fund and our managed funds representing US$3.1 trillion—more than the combined funds from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is a huge legacy which has been fought for against those who would seek to undermine it.

I will never forget the role Stephen has played in issues where he has not ducked. Marriage equality is now pretty uncontroversial; I recall that wasn't always the case, frankly, within my party or within this parliament. Stephen was there from the beginning as an advocate, as someone moving private member's bills and as someone arguing the case at Labor Party conferences for people to have the same rights as everyone else. Guess what? Marriage for everyone else hasn't been undermined by more people having access to it—simple as that. I give a shout-out to Brooke. I was very pleased to be one of the guests at Stephen and Brooke's lovely wedding here in Canberra last year. That was such a great celebration of two people expressing their love for each other.

Stephen has always been concerned with looking after the most vulnerable—that social justice principle at the heart of Labor's ideals that people should not be left behind. That is something he has stood up for each and every day.

I've been a friend and comrade of Stephen's for a very long period of time, since well before I came into this place. We attended various meetings around the place—some of them public, some of them a bit quieter—putting together, planning and engaging with each other at the CPSU and around and about. Stephen is someone who's been a friend of mine and remains a friend of mine. Importantly, one of the things about this joint is that the people who you're going to have a beer with when both of you are not here—I've got a while to go yet, though, mate!—are the people whose friendship you really value. Stephen has been totally loyal to me on a personal level for a long period of time. I don't take that for granted. I'm a loyal person too, and I've been loyal to this bloke and will remain loyal to him outside of this place. I wish you and Brooke so much happiness for your future together.

When you came to me and had the discussion, as people do, about wanting this to be your last term and how you had made your contribution and you wanted to go in a different direction in life, I respected that. I look forward to watching with excitement. Everything that you do will make a difference, I have no doubt about that—not just for yourself but most importantly your life is one that's been dedicated to the union movement, to your political engagement and, in your personal life, to making your life better for others.

All of us have been made better and, of course, the government's been made better because of your contribution. I thank you.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—'The Jones Boy':

The whole town's saying he was a good boy

A nice boy

A swell boy

My apologies to the 1953 hit. I came into the parliament with the member for Whitlam in 2010. He was then the member for Throsby, and his seat had a name change. He's always been a friend of mine and a colleague of mine. I used to love the way every time—and I was a bit disappointed that in his valedictory he didn't use it—he would use that hand-shaking movement, rubbishing the Nationals and those Liberals, but he might have an opportunity tomorrow to rectify that.

I've always admired anyone who worked prior to parliament in the disability sector, and the member for Whitlam did that. I will never forget that speech he gave on behalf of his nephew. It was a deeply personal speech in February 2022, I think, and the whole parliament stopped to listen. That speech had great ramifications, and it was quite moving.

He came to Wagga Wagga in June last year for a scams conference. I well remember not just was it a well-attended scams conference—it was very bipartisan on this extremely significant issue—but he was so kind and gentle to a lady in her 90s Barbara Parnell, who's a lifelong member of the National Party. He was just so nice to her, as you would expect any member of parliament to be, and he brought that genuine warmth and sincerity. The fact that he praised me not only to Barb but also at the scams conference—I will remain indebted to him for that.

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

I haven't filled out the National Party membership form yet!

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did give him one of those forms; I'm yet to get it back! He's given more than 1,100 speeches in this place, which is an effort. It'd be in the top percentile for number of speeches given by members since federation. I have got him on that! Every one of them had the passion and sincerity brought to this place from his electorate. I commend him for his role as a local member, I commend him for his role as a minister, and I commend him for his role as a friend.