Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great delight that I rise to add my comments to this debate on the Governor-General’s opening speech. What a historic occasion it was to have our first female Governor-General opening the 43rd Parliament with Julia Gillard as Prime Minister. This Labor government sees as important for the future of this country having a strong economy, having a vision for the future and tackling the difficult issues that we are confronted with.

Before I go on to talk about some of those issues I want to take this opportunity to congratulate my Tasmanian colleagues on their re-election to the other place—Sid Sidebottom in Braddon, Julie Collins in Franklin and Dick Adams in Lyons—and I want to make some comments about the new federal member for Bass, Mr Geoff Lyons. He made his first speech to the parliament this afternoon. I congratulate him on his contribution. He has set a very high bar for not only what he will bring to the federal parliament but how he will be a strong, outstanding advocate for the electorate of Bass. I want to take this opportunity as the Labor senator who led the Senate ticket in the election to congratulate senators-elect Anne Urquhart and Lisa Singh. They are both outstanding women who will make a fantastic contribution in this place.

I want to turn now to the issues that we as a government will confront. These things were neglected over the 12 years of the previous Liberal government. They are things like investing in infrastructure in education, tackling homelessness and talking about aged care. I would also like to talk about an issue in Tasmania that was key to our success in the last federal election—the rollout of the National Broadband Network. This is the most important development for Australia in a very long time, as important as roads, rail and electricity. It is certainly the largest single investment in infrastructure made by an Australian government. The benefits are very real.

The opposition talk of the cost of doing this but there is never any mention of the huge cost to the Australian community and to our economy of not doing it, of not making this investment. This would be a missed opportunity for creative talent, for existing businesses and for new businesses to upload their video files without constraints and for health, for education and for all of us to operate in a more secure Internet system.

Debate interrupted.