Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Acting Deputy President, I seek leave to speak for 20 minutes.

Leave granted.

I rise this evening to place on the record the historic result for the Liberals in the Illawarra at the local government elections on Saturday, 3 September. Six years ago I established my office in the Illawarra, and I am thrilled that we have seen another very important step in more balanced representation for the Illawarra. The results show a massive swing against the Australian Labor Party in both Wollongong and Shellharbour. The Liberals have four of the 12 councillors on Wollongong council and two of the seven councillors on Shellharbour council. I would like to place on record my congratulations to John Dorahy and his team in Wollongong and Kellie Marsh and her team in Shellharbour.

Alongside John Dorahy will be Liberal councillors Michelle Blicavs, Leigh Colacino and Bede Crasnich. At Shellharbour, Paul Rankin has won a seat alongside Kellie Marsh. Not only have Kellie Marsh and Paul Rankin made history as the first Liberals elected to Shellharbour council but, in an amazing result, Kellie Marsh was earlier this evening elected Mayor of Shellharbour.

All these historic results need to be put into context. This swing was about two things: corruption and the carbon tax. Let me start on corruption. In March 2008 the Independent Commission Against Corruption delivered part 1 of its report on its investigation into allegations of corruption affecting Wollongong City Council. Part 1 of the report of Commissioner the Hon. Jerrold Cripps QC contains a recommendation, under section 74C(1) of the ICAC Act, that consideration be given to the making of a proclamation under the Local Government Act 1993 that all civic offices in relation to Wollongong City Council be declared vacant. He made the recommendation after receiving a submission from counsel assisting Noel Hemmings QC, who outlined several instances of corrupt activities by councillors and former staff involved in the sex and bribery scandal. Mr Hemmings told the inquiry that councillors and council staff had repeatedly breached the code of conduct, engaged in cosy relationships with developers, leaked confidential information and not declared the exchange of gifts. He said the actions of council planner Beth Morgan had contributed to that corrupt conduct. Beth Morgan told the inquiry she had had sex with three developers and received gifts from them while she was assessing their development proposals. Regrettably, all this brought shame and embarrassment to the people of the Illawarra.

On 4 March 2008 Wollongong council was sacked by the Governor, Marie Bashir. Col Gellatly, Gabrielle Kibble and Robert McGregor were appointed as administrators. Part 2 of the ICAC report was released in May 2008 and part 3 in October 2008. The commission's investigations in this matter resulted from an anonymous complaint received in 2006 that Ms Morgan, a senior Wollongong City Council planning officer, had given favourable treatment to a developer named Frank Vella, from whom she had improperly accepted gifts and other benefits. The commission determined that it was in the public interest to conduct an investigation for the purpose of determining whether any corrupt conduct had occurred. As part of its investigation, the commission held a public inquiry, from 18 February to 4 March 2008, at which 14 people testified and around a thousand documents were tendered. ICAC Commissioner Jerrold Cripps said his urgent interim recommendation was driven by the conduct of four Australian Labor Party councillors who had been accused of soliciting bribes from developers. He stated:

Although all four councillors have taken leave of absence they would be able to return to their duties as councillors at any time. Given this fact … the Commission considers that prompt action is required in the public interest.

Further south, on 3 April 2008, the former New South Wales local government minister Paul Lynch ordered an inquiry into Shellharbour City Council. The council, south of Wollongong, was embroiled in an expensive Land and Environment Court case which exposed the inner workings of council relationships, with the council essentially suing itself over the leaking of confidential information. In his report of the Shellharbour City Council public inquiry, released on 4 July 2008, former Bankstown council general manager Richard Colley recommended that all civic offices on the council be declared vacant. The New South Wales state government legislated for elections to be held on 3 September 2011. The O'Farrell government wanted the people of the Illawarra to return to have their democratic say as soon as possible. Elections were for a one-off five-year term to avoid the cost of another election in 2012.

Wollongong council has organised ongoing professional development training for the lord mayor and councillors, including a series of skills training workshops. May Wollongong never witness another such disgraceful episode again. And one hopes that the Australian Labor Party and those who selected them—namely, the unions in the Illawarra—will learn a valuable lesson. Judging from recent allegations of union mismanagement, somehow I do not think they will.

I now turn to the second reason: the carbon tax. The Illawarra is the carbon tax capital of Australia. The area will feel its impact on the steel and coal industries hard. This is on top of current job losses—something the Prime Minister and the unions seem unable to stop. It is very clear that the carbon tax has played a big part in the local government elections, just as it did at the state election. I remind the Senate of the 18 to 19 per cent swings against the ALP in seats like Keira and Shellharbour at the last state election.

Let me return to Saturday, 3 September. Only days after Julia Gillard visited the Illawarra there were big swings in polling booths all over the Illawarra, including in previously strong ALP areas close to the steelworks. As I spoke to people at polling booths from Shell Cove in the south to Thirroul in the north the message was the same: anti Labor and anti carbon tax. I stood at one polling booth for about 10 minutes where a local member offering ALP 'how to votes' to passing voters was told 'no thanks'. This was borne out by the Liberals overwhelmingly winning this booth.

Let us not forget that the Gillard government's proposed carbon tax will put 12,000 jobs in the Illawarra at risk. But the only job that local MP Stephen Jones is concerned about is his own. He has convened the so-called Labor Members Manufacturing Group—all too little too late, Mr Jones. You, Mr Jones, and your colleague Sharon Bird, the member for Cunningham, should have had the gumption to stand up to Julia Gillard and stand up for your constituents in the Illawarra and demand no carbon tax. Mr Jones called for special treatment for the steel industry, which was a desperate attempt to negate the effects of a toxic tax that will hit at the very heart of his electorate. Arguing over whether or not the steel industry is partly or fully exempt is just not good enough. The former member for Throsby, Jennie George, and AWU branch secretary Andy Gillespie have both publicly disagreed with Mr Jones. Mr Gillespie wanted the steel industry exempt and Ms George has said:

There is no compensation for a job that is lost and not replaced.

There would be no jobs lost to a carbon tax under a coalition government, because there would be no carbon tax.

And of course the workers have now been left to decide whether to take redundancy or be forced to leave. In the end the workers in the Illawarra steel and coal industries will have Stephen Jones and his colleague Sharon Bird to blame, when they lose their jobs because of the impost of this toxic tax.

This morning in Canberra the Prime Minister spoke to the Australian Steel Institute. She talked about 'clean energy jobs'. What is a clean energy job? She did not explain that, but apparently there will be many of them—opportunity for all. That is one that has obviously passed the focus groups. Speaking before introducing the carbon tax legislation in parliament the Prime Minister said: 'It is about the nation's future. That is what we are bringing to the people today. People will be able to work in clean energy industries.' They will not be able to work in steel manufacturing because these jobs are disappearing. But Ms Gillard did offer this platitude this morning:

Friends, I know today there are hundreds of steel workers facing a difficult future as they leave the industry. That is why as soon as BlueScope announced its plan we were immediately on the ground with $130 million in assistance, including $100 million as an advance facility of our $300 million Steel Transformation Plan.

This is money that has not even been collected. The legislation to create the Steel Transformation Plan is tacked onto the end of the carbon tax bills, which were introduced in the other place today. They are robbing Peter to pay Paul before Paul has had a chance to get his hand in your pocket.

As Tony Abbott said in his address to the Australian Steel Convention on 12 September:

There is no way on God’s earth that you can have a solar powered steel mill, just as there is no way on this earth you can have a wind powered manufacturing plant and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.

But this is only a stay of execution for steel in the Illawarra, and it is designed to keep one job. Let me explain. On 6 April 2011 Greg Combet and Paul Howes went to Port Kembla to address steel workers. I understand that Mr Howes began by telling workers there would be a carbon tax and they would just have to live with it. After lots of finger pointing and very heated discussions it was a different tune. All this is about and all the Steel Transformation Plan is about is just one job and one job only. Paul Howes realised at that meeting at Port Kembla that his job is on the line and, potentially, his job in this place as a member of parliament is on the line. So this is the payback for Paul Howes helping the Prime Minister in her political assassination of Kevin Rudd. He helped install her as Prime Minister, not the Australian people. He handed her the knife that ended Kevin Rudd's prime ministership on 23 June.

Paul Howes then went down to the Illawarra on 1 September and talked to the 1,500 Port Kembla workers and tried to deflect blame for this onto the company. Where was the Australian Workers Union during the so-called alleged period of mismanagement that he is now accusing BlueScope of being involved in? He said:

For the company to deflect blame about this announcement simply to external macroeconomic conditions is simply bullshit. This company has played a major role in its downfall.

Well, I think the person with the animal dung problem is Mr Howes and the AWU rather than BlueScope. One only has to look at how the unions operate in New South Wales—with a stench. The member for Dobell, Craig Thomson, and of course Michael Williamson from the Health Services Union are the standard bearers for unions in New South Wales. That tells it all.

Ms Gillard announced details of the carbon tax in July and it was a few days later that I and my Senate colleague Senator Barnaby Joyce were subjected to loud protests in Wollongong from so-called 'steel workers', later revealed to be union officials, who insisted that the coalition should support the carbon tax. A month after warning unionists and protesters at that meeting in the mall in Wollongong of the dangers of the Gillard government's carbon tax, it was not surprising to hear that BlueScope was reviewing its Australian operations. I could have told them that a long time ago. I took no comfort from hearing this, but the members of the Socialist Alliance and the Greens who joined the union protests should immediately evaluate their support for the toxic carbon tax.

As I said, the carbon tax compensation package offered by the government was always a sop to the unions, a stay of execution. Of course the Illawarra will be one of the regions hardest hit. New South Wales cabinet documents have shown that there will be 7,000 fewer jobs created by the end of the decade. Ms Gillard lied to the Australian people before the 2010 election. This tax will bring no benefit to the Illawarra. It can bring no benefit to the people of Australia.

In turning back to the local government elections in the time left to me, I want to put these results on record. Let me share some of the results for the Lord Mayor's ballot. There were 62 polling places in Wollongong. John Dorahy, the Liberal Party's candidate for the lord mayoralty, got more votes than the ALP at 42 of the 62 polling places. In 68 per cent of polling places we beat the ALP and we are talking about polling booths in places like Austinmer, Bulli, Coalcliff, Coledale, Corrimal, Fairy Meadow, Farmborough Road, Figtree, Gwynneville, Helensburgh, Keiraville, Mount Brown, Mount Kembla, Mount Ousley, Unanderra, Wollongong, Thirroul, Towradgi and Narooma. Many of these have previously been strong ALP booths. It was a fantastic result. We have only ever had one other Liberal on Wollongong council. I am sure and I hope that Councillor Dorahy will be elected to the position of deputy mayor when that position is contested in the next few days. While the Reverend Gordon Bradbury secured 33 per cent of the total vote, the Liberal Party came in second with 22 per cent and the ALP came in third with 18 per cent of the vote.

I move to the councillor vote. In ward 1, which is in the northern end of the Wollongong local government area, the Liberals did very well. Of the 30 polling places again we outpolled the ALP at 22—that is, 73 per cent of the polling places. I congratulate Councillor Leigh Colacino and his team, David McKenna, who just missed out by a few hundred votes, Lorraine Rodden and Jennie Colacino.

In ward 2 the result was even better. Of the 23 polling places we topped the vote and beat the ALP in all but two of the polling places. We secured 91 per cent of the polling places, with 37 per cent of the vote against the ALP's 23 per cent. I acknowledge and congratulate Councillor John Dorahy, Councillor Blicavs and their team Brendan Birmingham and James Foster.

In ward 3 the Liberal Party won booths such as Berkeley Community Centre, Farmborough Road public and Mt Brown public to secure about 28 per cent of the vote, with the Liberal vote level-pegging with the ALP in booths such as Dapto and Figtree. I congratulate Councillor Bede Crasnich and his team Jim Christensen, Hans Bradley and Danny Henley-Martin.

Let me turn to Shoalharbour Council where the Liberals elected two councillors, Labor two and there were three Independents. Labor's vote was reduced to 27 per cent. We beat the ALP in booths at Albion Park, Shell Cove and Shellharbour and level pegged at other booths such as Flinders, Lake Illawarra and Warilla, again previous ALP strongholds.

The Prime Minister said, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' That is what she promised the Australian people before the 2010 election. It is a promise she is willing to break to cling to power in the Green-Labour-Independent alliance, a folly that is bringing this nation to its knees. When jobs are lost and the cost of living spirals up and up under a carbon tax, I will remind the people of the Illawarra about Paul Howse and all his union mates and their so-called 'concern' for the workers of the Illawarra. Those union officials have only ever been concerned about their own jobs. That is all it has ever been.

I was born and bred in the Illawarra. I have watched the unions absolutely screw workers in the Illawarra. All they have ever been concerned about is their power and their power base and now they will walk away. They will all get their cushy little jobs and the workers of the Illawarra, many of them migrant workers, will just be left to fend for themselves. So the people of the Illawarra have now had their say. They had their say at the state election. They had their say at the local government elections with absolutely massive swings against the Australian Labor Party. I hope and pray that when the federal election comes along those baseball bats will be out in equal force and we will see the same massive swings that we saw at the state election and at the local government election. The people of the Illawarra are telling the Australian Labor Party, 'Enough is enough. We have had enough of your corruption. We have had enough of you. It is time to go.'