Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I second the motion moved by Senator Wortley thanking his Excellency the Governor-General for his address to parliament yesterday. I also take this opportunity to congratulate the new ministers and parliamentary secretaries who took their seats for the first time in the parliament yesterday. After 2½ years for me, and up to 11 years for some of my colleagues here, it is a great feeling today to be sitting on the right side of you, Mr Acting Deputy President.

The opening of the 42nd Parliament was a very special day. For the first time in our parliament’s history, we had a welcome to country ceremony. It is hard to believe that it had not been done before. I think that for many years most senators would have attended conferences, events and government functions where a welcome to country ceremony was expected and always occurred. It is good that we have finally done it here. It is unfortunate that it took so long. The welcome to country ceremony was a strong sign that this parliament and this government will be different to those of the past. I am heartened to know that future openings of parliament will also incorporate the welcome to country ceremony.

In his speech, His Excellency the Governor-General pointed out how fortunate we are to live in a nation where governments change peacefully as a result of the free expression of the will of the people. We live in a democracy that is truly democratic, where people can safely and secretly vote with the confidence that their vote will be counted and that they have a say in who runs their country. Not everyone in the world is as fortunate as us. It is indeed a feature of our democracy that we change governments peacefully, and it is also a significant feature of our democracy that it began from the roots up rather than being created by special interest groups. This fact was noted by South Australian representative Josiah Symon at the time of Federation. While members on this side of the chamber do not share all of Symon’s philosophies, he was right in making a distinction between us and the founding structure of the British parliament, for example, which was frustrated by power struggles between royalty and landed gentry.

Although in our early history there was a failure to include Aboriginal Australians, there were at least sentiments expressed about a people’s parliament. This historic week in our parliament is a step towards achieving a more inclusive system. The political liberty Australians have in being able to change governments democratically and peacefully is one that other nations do not have. Some nations do not have that opportunity, nor the opportunity to establish their democracies from scratch. Before a democracy can come about in some countries a lot of pain has to be endured while regimes which are not representative are replaced. One example of such a country is Myanmar. In its recent history Myanmar has suffered a military dictatorship which has severely curtailed the democratic rights of its citizens. Who could forget those terrible images we have all undoubtedly seen of Buddhist monks and democracy protesters being fired at with tear gas and rounded up to be imprisoned? Pakistan is another example where the fight for democracy is characterised by violence. Less than two months ago, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was murdered by extremists. She had shown great courage and defiance in her resistance to extremism as she campaigned resolutely for democracy in Pakistan.

Recently, Kenya has also struggled for democracy as it faces civil strife and allegations of vote rigging following the recent elections there. Subsequent to those elections, we have seen violence which has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Kenyans and is reported to have displaced more than 600,000 people. Even in the ex-Commonwealth country of Zimbabwe, where the history of the British system and conventions on parliamentary democracy would be presumed to be stronger than in some other countries, abuses of executive power leading to an undemocratic regime occur to this day. One emerging democracy which must in time experience the democracy that Australia enjoys is East Timor. However, currently this young nation is beset with political instability which saw the country split following the last election. The instability was further expressed in the recent attempted assassination of the country’s President and Prime Minister.

I would like to take this chance to remind the Senate that our government is strongly committed to seeing democracy prosper in that nation, our nearest neighbour, and we have deployed extra troops and police officers there in an effort to maintain order at this particularly volatile time. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our troops and the Australian Federal Police officers serving in East Timor and in other countries, including Iraq.

In contrast to those examples of nations struggling for democracy, on 24 November last year Australians went to polling booths and voted according to their own free will. Australians used their democratic right and they voted for change. The trust and confidence of the nation has been handed to those of us in the Labor Party. It is a significant step for a nation to change government, and with change comes much responsibility for those who are assuming government.

A key difference between the new Australian government and the previous one is that under a Labor government the focus will not be on the individual. We have the ability to look at the bigger picture and we are committed to improving the lives of all Australians. We believe in a fair distribution of the benefits of economic growth, continuous improvement in the welfare and living standards of the Australians people and the reallocation of resources to those most in need. Labor is proud to bring these principles with it into the new government.

I was very encouraged to hear the Governor-General outline the government’s plans for the future. We do not just have plans; we implement them. When elected, Labor hit the ground running, and we will not be slowing down anytime soon. As His Excellency mentioned, one of our first actions as a new government was to ratify Kyoto. From the beginning of the election campaign, Mr Rudd outlined Labor’s commitment to the environment and our commitment to addressing climate change. This commitment has been evident since our election, not only in the ratification of the Kyoto protocol but also by the creation of the climate change portfolio. That change to portfolios means that the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, is able to dedicate herself to the issue.

The government has also committed to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by the year 2050. We see that climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our generation and, if the Australian government does not take action, it will undoubtedly continue to be one of the biggest challenges for generations to come. The previous government unfortunately was full of climate change sceptics and made little effort to protect our environment and develop ways to counteract global warming, but we will take action.

Labor has developed a strong plan of action to address the environmental issues that are currently facing Australia and the rest of the world. As the Governor-General outlined, our plans for the environment include managing the water crisis. As Senator Wortley said, this is an issue of particular importance to my state of South Australia. For urban areas, the new government will be establishing a $1 billion fund to invest in both old and new water supplies. A number of rebates will also be made available for families across the nation to assist them in making their homes more water efficient.

Those in rural areas, particularly farmers, have been impacted the most by the water crisis. For this reason the government has a drought policy that will ensure that those farmers receiving government assistance are better equipped to deal with drought. That includes climate change adaptation programs, which support farmers to change their practices to better deal with changes in the environment.

One area that really suffered during the reign of the Howard-Costello government was the education sector. So, shortly after the election, senators and members were directed by the new Prime Minister to visit schools. These visits were invigorating. It gave us all a chance to get out into the community and find out what is needed in our education sector. I took the opportunity to visit public and private schools in metropolitan and rural areas of South Australia and it provided me with a very good understanding of the issues faced by our schools. It was exciting to visit the schools and to present our education revolution, particularly our digital education revolution. Everywhere we went principals, teachers, students and parents showed great interest in this initiative and looked forward to improving and expanding the information technology systems in their schools.

University students continued to suffer because the previous government introduced voluntary student unionism and broke its promise of no more full-fee-paying university places. As we know, there are now 104 domestic full-fee university degrees costing over $100,000—three of which cost more that $200,000 per student. Labor believes that everyone has the right to a good education regardless of their socioeconomic background. Therefore we will be keeping our promise of phasing out full-fee-paying courses so that by the year 2010 students will be entering universities based on merit, not on their household income.

Working families have also suffered over the last decade through Howard’s draconian and extreme industrial relations laws, the decline in housing affordability and the rising cost of living. Those three elements combined have led to a lot of people doing it really tough at the moment. The Rudd Labor government acknowledges those problems and is committed to addressing them.

I am proud to say that the government will bury WorkChoices. Changes will include abolishing AWAs but respecting existing contractual arrangements; providing 10 national employment standards; creating a fast and simple unfair dismissals system; simplifying and modernising some 4,300 awards; and creating a new independent umpire—Fair Work Australia.

Throughout the campaign we outlined a comprehensive plan on how to address housing affordability and homelessness. This plan incorporates first home saver accounts, the release of Commonwealth land and talking with the states and territories to develop a national housing affordability agreement. That agreement is just one example of the new cooperation between state and federal governments that will bring an end to the so-called blame game that we saw the previous federal government use extensively as an excuse for doing nothing.

An area that is of great importance to the government is Indigenous affairs. The experience of the last day and a half in Canberra and in Parliament House has been unique and I feel very honoured to have been a part of it. The events that have transpired are truly momentous and are without doubt a highlight of this nation’s history. Today’s apology in both houses of the parliament is but the first step in developing respect and equality amongst all Australians. Our next focus must be on closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Australians can already be proud of the government, as we have already shown strength and energy—disproving claims that we would become a ‘me too’ government.

The Governor-General referred to a ‘modern Australia’ in his speech yesterday. A modern Australia can be interpreted as a country which is prepared to be active and is not shackled by conservatism. A modern society also sets targets and takes action. While conservatism is by definition a tendency to resist change, this change of government will see a refreshing approach to how we view the world and how we treat our citizens. We do have a lot of catching up to do.

One area where we need to catch up very quickly is the skills shortage. By not acting on the Reserve Bank predictions of a skills shortage, the former coalition government made this country much less able to take advantage of opportunities in this first decade of the 21st century. Rather than rhetoric, the Labor government has set targets for change. In the Governor-General’s address, for instance, we see specific targets and time lines. I would like to outline a few of those time lines. The government aims to deliver a budget surplus of 1.5 per cent of GDP in 2008-09. It aims to provide an additional 450,000 training places, which will be established over four years, including 65,000 extra apprenticeships, with the first 20,000 places available from April this year. The government has committed to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050. A major study to help Australia set robust shorter term emission reductions will report in June this year. A national emissions trading scheme will be established by the end of 2010. The time line for an apology to the stolen generations is immediate. Targets have been set for improved education and health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The government will withdraw all Australian combat troops from Iraq at the end of the next rotation, due in the middle of the year. Australia’s overseas development assistance will increase to 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2015-16. There were many other initiatives outlined in the Governor-General’s speech, including plans to reform the health system and to build a world-class education system, as I mentioned before.

Apart from setting targets for a modern, fairer and more efficient and productive society, Labor has demonstrated already its commitment to being modern, as the Governor-General put it, by addressing contemporary and future issues. Under that banner, there are many other things those of us in this chamber would like to see the government implement so that the nation is truly inclusive and fair for all. Personally, I hope that one day soon we can agree on a sensible scheme of universal paid parental leave and stronger legislation to ensure women do not continue to be disadvantaged in the workplace. I would also like to see government legislation amended to remove any provisions that discriminate against Australians because of their race, gender, disability, religion or sexuality. I look forward to the term of this government and look forward to working with all my fellow senators to make a better future for all Australians.

Debate (on motion by Senator Ludwig) adjourned.