John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call Senator Williams, I remind honourable senators that this is his first speech. I therefore ask that the usual courtesies be extended to him.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President, and I congratulate you on your election as President of this Senate. I am sure you will be a fair and just umpire. It is truly an honour and privilege for me to present my maiden speech to this parliament. I begin by saying that I am not an academic and I do not have letters after my surname but if I were to ever qualify for a degree then I would hope it would be from the university of real life experience.

I was born in Jamestown, South Australia. It is a magnificent country community where the people could be described as ‘salt of the earth’. It is a community where people were and still are willing to lend a helping hand to others. My primary schooling was at St James Convent, run by the Sisters of St Joseph, in Jamestown. It was here that I received a solid grounding in my primary education as well as my first involvement in sport by learning to play cricket, tennis and Aussie Rules football. I am a keen supporter of sport. I believe that all parents should encourage their children to be involved in sport as it is a great way not only to exercise but to keep our children off the streets and to teach them teamwork, mateship and leadership.

My secondary education was at Rostrevor College in Adelaide, run by the Christian Brothers. This is a magnificent education facility. Rostrevor was an excellent grounding in all aspects of life for me, especially in economics where I had a brilliant and strict teacher in the late Tom Kendall. We learnt and we were disciplined—which I am sure I needed—but above all we were taught respect and appreciation for what we had. I sincerely thank the Christian Brothers for what they did for me. At the completion of my secondary schooling I was fortunate to receive a Commonwealth scholarship to attend tertiary studies. I did this for just three months because the urge to return to rural Australia was far greater than the urge to complete a tertiary degree.

On returning to Jamestown I spent most of my years either shearing sheep, driving livestock and grain transport, bookmaking or working on the family farm with my brother, Peter, and my late father, Reg. They were great days, and the way I would describe them is that we worked hard and we played even harder. Because we had just two small properties in South Australia we decided to move to Inverell in northern New South Wales in late 1979, where we purchased some 7,000 acres of grazing land. I was most fortunate to move to another wonderful country town and community and a place that I am extremely proud of. As I sometimes say, ‘Home is not where you are born but where you are prepared to die.’ That is why I call Inverell ‘home’.

We went through the normal experience of farming—droughts, floods and both high and low commodity prices. We built a piggery in 1988, only to find soon after that the then federal government allowed the importing of Canadian pig meat. Do I support the importing of food to Australia that has the effect of shutting down our domestic food producers? The answer is a simple no, as the world trade game is not played on a level playing field. There were six large piggeries in the Inverell area and now there are none. I realise that to export we must import, but governments should not take our food producers for granted simply because we have such a huge supply of good quality, well-priced food. We all know what happens if we do not eat.

The hardest of all these experiences on the land was when we decided to take a foreign currency loan in Swiss francs in 1985, after some great sales pitches from some in the Commonwealth Bank. I soon found out that I was in more trouble than the early settlers. This battle with the Commonwealth Bank continued for almost a decade and I can assure you that it was not an easy time—paying a 25.25 per cent interest rate was no fun. After many years of fighting in the courts we did have a win in the appeals court, with all three judges ruling in our favour. As I said, this was an extremely tough time for my family and me. But I have always had the opinion that when a heavy load is placed on your shoulders one of two things happens: you either get weak at the knees and collapse or you get stronger and are more capable of shouldering a heavy burden. I hope I am the latter.

One of the most fulfilling things I ever did was to join our local Apex club. I derive a lot of satisfaction from helping people and I look forward to my job as a servant for New South Wales over the forthcoming years. After retiring from Apex it was indeed an honour to be awarded life membership. I am now a current member of the Inverell East Rotary Club. It is my view that we should all contribute something to our community. Whether it be with a service club, sporting club, school P&C or whatever, we should all make a contribution in one way or another to build better communities.

In June 1998 I went to Thailand to establish an importing business. With the rug pulled out from underneath the wool industry and the pig industry now priced on the international market, it was time to look at doing something else. On this trip I was privileged to visit the Thai-Burma Railway and places like the bridge over the River Kwai and Hellfire Pass. I was in awe of learning what our allied prisoners of war, including thousands of Australian POWs, went through during that terrible 1942 to 1945 period. Many were from the north of New South Wales under the leadership of Brigadier Arthur Varley from Inverell—the brave and gallant 2nd/18th Battalion.

It was also a great experience to learn about Thai culture and speak a little of their language. They are certainly decent, gracious and polite people. Three out of the last four years has seen me take groups of around 30 people to Thailand for Anzac Day to remember our diggers who worked in all kinds of terrible conditions and suffered many things, including sickness, starvation and torrential monsoonal rain, along with the constant beatings from those in control. How could in excess of 100,000 prisoners of war and Asian labourers die in constructing a railway line 415 kilometres long? I often wonder. This was certainly a terrible chapter in our nation’s history but a lesson to all of us today about how lucky we really are.

I am now addressing this chamber as one of the 76 senators who will make decisions on how to run our nation. I have always had the opinion that you should run the nation the same way as a farmer runs the family farm. For example, take the typical family farmer living on the land with his wife and children. The farmer looks after his retired parents, who live in a nearby town. So too do we have an obligation to look after our elderly in society, because it was they who handed us this wonderful country. I hope that in the very near future these people will get an increase in their pensions. They have earned it and they deserve it. To have many of our elderly living on or below the poverty line is totally unacceptable. We must also ensure that our aged-care facilities are properly funded, staffed and maintained.

The farmer educates his or her children in the best possible way available. We too must see that there is every opportunity for our young to receive the best education possible. This is vital in our modern world. The farmer must look after his or her land for future generations. We too must see that our environment is protected so that future Australians can inherit a fertile and productive land. I say ‘land’ as it is the soil that is the vital resource to protect. I disagree with a lot that the New South Wales government has done over recent years. Bob Carr had a policy of creating new national parks, which are not managed properly. You cannot simply lock them up and leave them. If you do, fire will destroy them. This should be a stern warning to our present governments, both state and federal. Do not buy good, productive farming land and turn it into a national park. We need to continue producing food, not fires. The family farm must be protected from foreign invasion and takeover. We have an obligation to protect Australia and to see that it remains a free and democratic nation. I congratulate the former coalition government for a real increase in excess of 40 per cent on defence spending during their time in government.

It is here that I would like to mention my grandfather, the late Eric Williams, who was one of 300,000 Australians who volunteered for the Great War of 1914-18 and who fought on the battlefields of France. So too my late father, Reg Williams, who in my opinion foolishly volunteered to be a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber during the Second World War. I have the utmost respect for our diggers, past and present.

The farmer must be internationally competitive. This is difficult when we look at the subsidies of many countries and the low cost of labour in others. In 2005 I quoted on supplying 1,200 tonnes of flour per month to Thailand. I was keen to get the job. My quote was US$400 a tonne. My customer in Thailand sealed a deal with Japan for US$300 a tonne. I was not in the race. He told me that Japan was buying subsidised wheat from the United States and that the Japanese government was also subsidising the export of flour. This is what the international trade world is like. That is why I have always supported a single desk marketing system in Australia—at least until subsidies around the world are removed. In my opinion, it was a sad day for rural Australia when this was torn down. The government must work to keep costs and red tape to an absolute minimum so that as a nation we can compete to remain a force in world markets.

I wish that this message could get through to the New South Wales government, who are hell-bent on adding costs, charges and red tape to the business sector—the sector that drives our nation’s wealth. Destroy the business sector and our nation goes broke. That is why I believe that we should only have two tiers of government in Australia, a federal government and regional governments.

The family farm cannot afford to pay wages when the person never shows up for work. So too with our nation. I believe that if you are in good health and are capable of working then you should work. I have seen many who are determined not to work. They are simply getting a free ride from the taxpayers of Australia. It is about time that they received a touch on the backside from a cattle prod to get them off their butts to do some work.

I see workers at Inverell abattoirs who come from the Philippines, Korea and Brazil. All the employees in an abattoir work really hard. Yet just a few hours drive away I see areas on the coast where unemployment is up to eight per cent and nine per cent. In my opinion, if you are in good health and youth is on your side, you should not receive a dole cheque unless you contribute something to our nation. However, I believe that the genuine unemployed should have a safety net and should be helped through their tough times until they find employment.

The family farm cannot carry too much debt; otherwise, when the tough times strike, the farm will be in financial trouble. So too with our nation. If governments build debt, they are mortgaging our children’s future away. It pleases me that the previous government paid off our huge debt. This is something that as a nation we can be proud of. It is surely the envy of many.

The family farm cannot overstock the paddocks. Look at what we are doing in Australia. We have cities like Sydney that are overcrowded. They have water restrictions and housing shortages and the government is spending ridiculous amounts of money to build more roads and rail services. One easy solution is for people to move to country areas, where we have ample room.

The last point of my analogy of running the family farm and our country is that the farmer does need services such as agronomists, transport, and stock and station agents. Our nation needs services such as health, infrastructure, defence, transport and many others. I do hope that many of the policies that were instigated by the Nationals in the previous government remain. If not, I guarantee that you will hear about it.

One such policy is the Rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarship, which has seen an enormous number of country people now studying medicine. To qualify as a GP takes nine years and it is pleasing to see that at the end of this year our first batch of rural doctors will have completed not only their medical degree but the year as an intern and their three years as registrar. It is most important that country areas have doctors and this is one of the schemes that is working extremely well.

It is my hope that in the near future a scholarship scheme to promote rural dentists will be introduced. We have 55 dentists for every 100,000 people in the cities but an average of just 17 dentists per 100,000 people in country areas. The sooner we address this problem the better. It is vital that programs put in place by the previous government such as the Enhanced Primary Care Program, which is having a real effect on solving dental problems, remain.

I am a staunch campaigner for small business. This sector is still the largest employer in Australia. Governments at both state and federal level should realise the importance of small business and see that they are always given a fair go. Let’s face it, the Australian way is always about a fair go. Having been a worker and having run my own business, I believe that I have a good understanding of how the worker thinks and what goes on in the minds of businesspeople. We should never forget that if the business goes broke all employed lose their jobs.

There are many people whom I would like to thank. First of all, there are the members of the Central Council of the New South Wales Nationals. I am extremely grateful for their vote of confidence in me. I am proud of what the Nationals and, previously, the Country Party have achieved for rural and country regions for more than 80 years. When I see the infrastructure—the schools, hospitals, universities such as the University of New England in Armidale—virtually all were constructed because of the Nationals. Our job is surely to continue to fight for a fair deal for our state and especially for those country and coastal communities that we represent.

I thank the community of Inverell for their wishes. I am very proud to be part of this community and privileged to live not only in the best country in the world but one of the best towns in the world. I thank those who have travelled here today to be with me on this special occasion in my life, those from Cairns, South Australia and many parts of New South Wales. I thank Warren Truss and my Nationals colleagues for the warm welcome they have given me, also my Liberal colleagues for the same warm welcome and all those in the Senate. I would like to thank my Nationals senators for their valued assistance: Leader Senator Nigel Scullion and Senator Fiona Nash who, along with her staff, have been simply wonderful to me; my benchmate and father of this Senate, Senator Ron Boswell, for guiding me through this steep learning curve; and my good friend Senator Barnaby Joyce. Mr President, I sit in a unique position in this chamber. When we are seated I look at the head of Senator Joyce and try to work out what is going on in there. I am yet to work that out, so I am like the rest of the world and simply wait for the surprise. I say to my three children, David, Rebecca and Tom: Wendy and I are extremely proud of them. They are well-mannered, polite and prepared to help others. I thank my mother, Clare, who unfortunately cannot be with me today, and I am pleased that my Aunty Valda is here.

I thank my wonderful staff for their great help and assistance. Greg and Debbie Kachel have worked at radio 2NZ Inverell for a total of 63 years between them and I am so privileged to have them on board; Heather Morris, one of the former staffers of the Commonwealth Bank who was so good to me during that long fight I had with the CBA; Garry Lamrock, the comedian of the team; as well as part-timer Pat Dwyer. I would like to thank that special lady of the Senate, the Black Rod; Clerk Harry and all the Senate staff who have done a wonderful job guiding all of us new senators through our learning process. Finally, I thank Nancy Capel, a very special person in my life. Thank you, Mr President, for allowing me to speak.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call Senator Kroger, I remind honourable senators that this is her first speech. I therefore ask that the usual courtesies be extended to her.

Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I rise to give my maiden speech in this great parliament I am reminded that more than anything else Australia is the land of new beginnings. This was certainly the case for my great-great-grandmother, who was transported to these shores in 1841 for the crime of stealing not one but two loaves of bread. My great-great-grandmother’s story was not the fruit of Victor Hugo’s imagination nor was it a chapter out of Les Miserables; this was a real-life event that happened to a real-life person—and not just in my family but in countless others throughout Australia. Like every other penal transportee she was a stranger in a strange land. But while some succumbed to despair and desolation, she seized optimism and opportunity. She chose strength over weakness and industry over indolence. Through true grit and with a feisty spirit she overcame all the obstacles in her life. These were the principles transmitted from my great-great-grandmother through my family and ultimately to me: the belief that individual rights must be balanced by personal responsibility; and the conviction that with a bit of hard work nothing was impossible and no ambition was beyond my grasp.

My father was a man of modest means yet always resourceful—a market gardener who worked every day with his hands. One of my first childhood memories is sitting on my dad’s knee tasting my first delicious steaming cup of hot chocolate after he sold his truckload of produce at the old Victoria market. But while my father was a simple labourer, he knew that education was life’s great equaliser and so my siblings and I all attended private schools. It was not easy for my parents. In essence, they sacrificed their present to provide for our future. They made do with less so that we could have more. My mother and father did what it took to ensure that their children would have a fair go and be able to give life their very best shot. I have tried to say thank you by living my life in a manner that will consecrate their devotion and selflessness.

Since first emerging into political awareness as a teenager, I have always seen myself as a combatant in the public affairs arena. At age 16 I joined the Liberal Party as a rank and file member. Over the past decade I have had the privilege of serving in senior positions. My political philosophy is a simple one: if you do not like the way things are going then roll up your sleeves and enter the fray—advocate for the agenda that you hold dear, push for policies that you think are right, and argue the case forcefully and fearlessly but always with civility.

Because schooling was my ticket to a better life I have an abiding interest in the topic of education, and I fear that many Australian secondary and tertiary institutions have been compromised by political correctness. I learned this firsthand at a parent-teacher interview, where my son was criticised for his lack of appreciation of South American protest poetry. My challenge at the time was calming down his outraged father, who happened to be speculating aloud whether our school fees were money well spent. My son, by now horrified at the prospect of failing the subject, was wondering whether his father’s outburst would mean leaving his friends and moving to a new school. But my challenge now is to try to make a difference from within because this was not just a one-off occurrence. Whether it is the Australian Education Union directing its members to encourage their students to wag school and march in anti-war protests or whether it is our universities where radical lecturers have come to hold unchallenged sway, there is no doubt that Australia’s schools and universities are listing heavily to the left. University course catalogues are filled with bizarre offerings like ‘critical whiteness studies’, which holds that all Caucasians by definition of their skin’s pigmentation are inherently racist, and as a result the Australian narrative has been hijacked by partisan ideologues. Our kids are instructed that Australia is a land built on oppression rather than liberation.

There is a Latin saying: ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ That means: who shall watch over the watchmen? If we have a problem with what is being taught in our secondary schools we should have a look at those who are teaching our teachers. We must revitalise the way that history is being taught, but we will not do so with any real effect as long as our teachers are trained in tertiary institutions that are permeated by partisan bias. We need not only more history but better history.

I am a great believer in choice, and in the educational context there is no more important form of choice than the power of parents to choose where their children will be educated. Some of our state schools are excellent. They have dedicated teachers who do an outstanding job of educating our children. But then there are other schools that are perpetually plagued by low achievement scores and low VCE graduation rates. We must never forget that the real definition of a failing school is one that short-changes its students, and there is no justification for such schools to continue to operate year after year, class after class, on a business-as-usual basis. But the monopoly status of our state school systems allows mediocrity to persist where excellence should flourish.

The best way of shattering our public sector school monopolies is through a healthy injection of competition into the system—competition in the form of vouchers, which will attach the annual budget per student to each individual child. If a school is doing a good job and attracting students, the money needed to educate those children will follow them to that institution. If another school does a disservice to its students through consistent and chronic underperformance, families will rush their children to the exits—and so they should.

The path to high educational performance leads to reinforcing success, not subsidising failure. But beyond the economic theories of choice and efficiency there is an egalitarian moral argument to support such a voucher system. The affluent already enjoy the benefits of educational choice. They have the means to send their children to any school they choose. There is no valid reason why low- and middle-income families should not enjoy the same power of parental choice that the wealthy take for granted. A voucher system will not only be effective but it will also be just.

Some political pundits argue that Australia’s major parties have gradually merged ideologically at the political centre. They argue that there is little of substance to differentiate between the Centre Left Labor Party and the Centre Right Liberal Party. Rather than a distinction without a difference, the core beliefs of both major parties are separated by a vast ideological chasm that is wide and unbridgeable. In its heart of hearts, Labor values collectivism over individualism. By contrast, the promotion of small government, low taxes, reward for effort and the entrepreneurial spirit are part of our Liberal DNA. We believe that playing the class warfare card against some of us only ends up impoverishing all of us.

We believe that small business serves as the primary engine of Australia’s economic prosperity. This contention is born out by the numbers. Australia’s 1.5 million small businesses generate some 30 per cent of the nation’s economic activity, and the 3.6 million jobs created by small businesses constitute 47 per cent of all private sector non-agricultural employment. This sector of Australia’s economy is far too important to ignore. Australia’s business owners are the backbone of our economy and the salt of the earth of our society. They are not looking for handouts or an unfair advantage. All they want is a fair go. All they want is for government to get out of their way. Small business owners and staff just want to focus their energy on what they do best: using their creativity and industry to develop their businesses.

Labor has never understood the essential role that small business plays in our national economy. Its failure to appreciate the role of small business explains in some part why Labor has never been good at economic management. A case in point is the punitive promise to reverse the current unfair dismissal reforms. Certainly, a wrongly treated employee should have avenues of redress to seek justice and procedural fairness. No-one on our side of the chamber would argue otherwise. But the Hawke-Keating unfair dismissal laws went far too far, enabling some disaffected workers to pursue employers with spurious and vexatious compensation claims. Small business owners were almost unanimous in their rejection of the ‘unfair’ unfair dismissal regime, and for good reason. The previous government listened to these concerns and responded with reforms that better balanced the competing interests of legitimate employee rights versus job creation.

I do not believe that last year’s election gave Prime Minister Rudd a mandate to roll back the reforms to unfair dismissal laws. I readily accept that there is a need to make some exemptions for young people and to provide a safety net. But a return to the previous draconian regime will translate directly into fewer jobs and more unemployment. And all the high-sounding rhetoric in the world about being on the side of workers will ring quite hollow if there is no work to be had. I believe that the aspirations of Australia’s entrepreneurs should be facilitated rather than frustrated. I believe that the small business sector should be nurtured rather than neutered and promoted rather than demoted.

None of my friends here today would ever accuse me of being part of the sisterhood, but I draw inspiration from two of my predecessors, former senators Dame Margaret Guilfoyle and Dr Kay Patterson. And I could not let the opportunity pass me by without saying how excited I am as a women to begin my career in parliament at the very time that Sarah Palin is about to shatter the penultimate glass ceiling of politics in the United States.

Like all members of this place, my passage here would not have been possible without the help and support of many people who are, unfortunately, too numerous to identify and mention by name. Many of those people have honoured me again today by attending in the gallery and on the floor of the chamber. I cannot describe how humbling it is that you are all here, and I offer you my deepest thanks. Then there are also those who have made immeasurable sacrifices for me throughout my political journey. My sons, Jack and Simon, have been at the vanguard of that journey, though not through any choice of their own. Jack and Simon make me incredibly proud as they forge their own way through life’s challenges and opportunities. Their sense of humour and, dare I say, constant domestic demands keep me well grounded and in my place. Their proud father, Michael, has also been a great supporter and I thank him for his wise counsel, even on those occasions when I may not have asked for it!

I also pay special tribute to Peter and Tanya Costello and Kelly O’Dwyer, whose friendship, fierce loyalty and support has given me the strength to carry on even in times of adversity and opposition. Peter and Tanya are what I can only call true friends. Those who know me well know also that I have a very special bond with Kelly O’Dwyer, and I know I speak for many when I say that Kelly would make a sensational contribution in this chamber or in the other place.

In politics, the highs can be euphoric and the lows, as we know, can be soul destroying. But I have always known that, no matter how bad the lows could be, friends like Jason Aldworth, Russell Hannan, Rod Kemp, Senator Scott Ryan and my good mate Senator Michael Ronaldson would always be there. Family and friends have always been—and I hope will continue to be—my anchor, my life force and my compass.

Whilst my father has not been with us now for over 10 years, he continues to be with me as a guiding force. But I am blessed that my mother is with me today. Mum: your respect for the decisions I make is not taken for granted and is something I deeply appreciate. My sister, Merilyn, and brother, Colin, mean the world to me. To my extended family, who have kept Qantas going by turning up in force today: thank you all for coming and being here. My sons are particularly fortunate to have a second grandmother, Lorna Kroger, who is well known for her outspoken views. I believe if she had been born in another era she would have been the first Kroger in the Australian parliament. Thank you for your friendship.

In the words of Thomas Moore:

Family life is full of major and minor crises—the ups and downs of health ... success and failure ... is tied to places and events and histories. With all of these felt details, life etches itself into memory and personality. It’s difficult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul.

Thank you.