Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that we are meeting on stolen land and pay deep respects to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples and their elders past and present, on whose land this parliament was built. I also acknowledge my First Nations colleagues in the chamber today. It is an honour to work alongside you. The wounds of colonialism still run deep on country, language, history and culture. Here in this place, we must commit to facing the truth of our history and work together to right the wrongs of the past.

I stand here representing Victoria, home to magnificent landscapes, waterways, wildlife and plants: the cool temperate forests of the Central Highlands, home to the precious Leadbeater's possum; Gippsland's forests, foothills, lakes and plains; the Mallee country of the north-west, dry and sandy but bursting with birds, reptiles and wildflowers; the Victorian grassland earless dragon, which was only rediscovered last year on Wadawurrung country after being thought to be extinct; the Burrunan dolphins of Port Phillip Bay; the ancient eel traps on Gunditjmara country; and the superb fairy wrens and Bunjil, who often greet me on my return to Dja Dja Wurrung country in central Victoria, where I was born and raised.

My earliest memories are of helping to plant fruit orchards with my sister, Carla, on the red volcanic soils at the base of Kangaroo Hills, where my family have farmed for five generations. Since I was old enough to write, my late dad, Rod May, was my writing companion, and drafting this speech without him was hard. Dad was a rare combination of deep intellect and visionary who also got stuff done, be it backbreaking farm work in summer or building an elaborate ecovillage in winter. Despite spending most of his life within a 10-kilometre radius of the town where he was born, his worldly perspective extended far beyond the local council that he served on and the rickety fences that border our farm. Dad was one of Australia's first organic farmers, and he drafted certification standards that organic farmers across the world still rely on today. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, local irrigator politics and the latest sci-fi flicks were often topics of conversation at the dinner table. Every aspect of our upbringing was deeply rooted in restoring ecological balance, protecting our soils and waterways, planting trees and leaving the land in a better condition than we found it. Dad recognised more than 30 years ago that monoculture cropping wasn't a sustainable way forward. Nor was relying on the supermarket duopoly, price-gouging Australian farmers and families alike to this day. Instead, he bypassed them and began his own local distribution network of veggie boxes. To this day I still meet people who praise my dad's—Farmer Rod's—corn as the sweetest they've ever tasted.

So when I raise this chamber to talk about protecting our farmland, forests and waterways through innovation and ecological stewardship, this is why. When I rise to speak about issues of justice, intergenerational fairness or gender equality, I do so because of the enormous influence of my dear mum, Viv Hodgins. As a proud public school teacher for more than 30 years, injustice was a daily reality for the students that she taught and mentored. Like so many teachers, mum's work didn't begin and end with the ringing of the school bells. Mum was revered by her students because she refused to accept that they should forgo opportunities based on where they lived or the lack of funding available to them. When I rise in this chamber to demand better conditions for our underpaid, hardworking school and early childhood educators, I remember mum's commitment to tackling inequality. When I fight for our children to receive the best possible start to life through universal, free early childhood education, this is why. Postcodes shouldn't determine the learning opportunities available to our kids.

I don't think mum would have seen herself as an activist, but through thousands of small but important acts she changed the lives of her students, like so many of our amazing teachers do. While neither of my parents are with us today, it is with a deep sense of pride and responsibility that I enter the parliament as a federal Greens Senator for Victoria.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—