Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to finally be able to deliver the comments that I wanted to make on the address-in-reply to the Governor-General’s speech. The last time I stood in this Main Committee it was to provide my own comments on the extension of the apology to the stolen generations and so it seems quite a while since I gave consideration to the Governor-General’s speech. Reviewing the notes that I had prepared at the time, I must say that given last night’s budget it is probably even more pleasurable to deliver my local perspective on the election results in my seat and the expectations of the local community on the new government forming the 42nd Parliament.

In light of that, I would like to take the opportunity to place on the record my appreciation to the electors in the division of Cunningham for re-electing me to be their representative in this place for another three years. As members would appreciate, the Labor Party lost the seat of Cunningham in a by-election to the Greens and I took it very seriously that we had to rebuild faith with the local population. So, for me, being re-elected by them and with a significantly increased margin is a great privilege, and I appreciate the faith that they have exhibited in me to continue doing that job in this place.

It was very strong support across the Illawarra region. I and my colleague Jennie George had swings in double-digit figures on our primary votes and I think that it reflected the fact that we took a suite of policies to the election that people felt were addressing the issues that were a concern for them and their families. We very much appreciate that they are putting a lot of trust in us to deliver on those for them.

There is indeed no greater honour than to be able to represent your local community and region in this place. At the last election I made the observation—and I repeat it here—that it is quite astounding when you look at the number of people who seek to sit in this place as a representative of the community. I think that something like 10 for every one of us that get elected have actually stood at the election. I still get that little thrill of anticipation when I come back after an election and realise that I have been given that great responsibility and I think that we should never forget as we come into this place that it is not only an enormous privilege but an enormous responsibility.

I have listened to many of the first speeches that were delivered over the initial sitting weeks by colleagues on both our side of the House and on the opposition side. I would like to put on record my congratulations to all of the new members. I thought that their speeches were quite inspiring. They were extremely varied. These are people from a wide variety of walks of life and experiences with all sorts of local perspectives and challenges that they were here to take up. I thought it was a particularly impressive group of new people coming into the parliament and I am sure they will make outstanding contributions over future years. I look forward to working with all of them.

The Governor-General’s speech at the opening of the 42nd Parliament outlined the new agenda for Australia’s future, and that agenda has already seen the passage through this place of a more balanced and fair industrial relations bill. In addressing that bill when it was before the parliament, I said that Australians know the differences very clearly between the industrial relations policies of the former government and this Labor government. There was certainly no mistake in my electorate, in the Illawarra region, about what that choice was. People were very profoundly committed to putting the fairness back into the industrial relations system. I have no doubt—and I am sure many of my colleagues on this side of the House would agree—that that was one of the most significant factors for them in deciding how they were going to place their vote. Many people in areas like ours have large mortgages. We are a very popular, wonderful part of the world. If nobody has been there, I would encourage you to come down to the Illawarra. Despite recent media commentary, it is a beautiful and wonderful place to be. Many people who live in the area had certainly been struggling with increasing mortgage payments and costs of living and quite clearly they were very fearful that their capacity to earn income was going to be affected. Additional incomes like overtime and penalty rates in particular were very important to them. So they gave us a very strong message that that was an important part of their decision on how to vote at the election.

There was also no mistake that Labor offered a better way forward on education policy. It is an issue that is very close to my own heart, having spent three years teaching high school and seven years in TAFE. A digital revolution was needed in our secondary schools. I have two sons who went through high school carrying those ubiquitous backpacks full of massive textbooks. I was very conscious of the fact that that experience was unlikely to be repeated at any point in their future life, because so much of what we do in the work world is now computer based. To be carrying a textbook, for example, that was supposed to be the holder and font of all knowledge that they would need on science was just outdated and was no longer a relevant approach to their education and their future. So the promise to provide computers for secondary students from years 9 to 12 I think was a really important commitment. I know it has its challenges, as any significant change like this does, but there is no doubt in my mind that it is a critical part of revolutionising our secondary education.

We also place an emphasis on skills and training. Over recent weeks, the government have already encouraged Australia’s secondary schools to apply for funding to establish new trade training centres. I am pleased to see that, for example, those centres can also include multimedia type centres, because we have a growing industry in multimedia, web design, film animation and those areas. Many young people need technical skills in those areas as well. I think that is an excellent initiative.

Not taking the skills shortage issue seriously had obviously contributed to inflationary build-ups and particularly to capacity constraints. That was brought home to me by the local mining industry, where apprentices had not been put on for many years. Some of the senior tradespeople were saying to me, ‘Well, they’d better start putting them on soon because I’m about to retire. Who’s going to train them?’

The other area that was important to local people was infrastructure. The Rudd government’s commitment to establish Infrastructure Australia was very well received. I was a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services in the previous parliament, and we did a substantive report called The great freight task: is Australia’s transport network up to the challenge? Sadly, the answer was no. We identified that there needed to be significant investment in freight movement, particularly if we were going to have some of that massive growth in the task moved from roads to rail. Given the issues around port access and competing demands on roads—increasingly, for people in cars as opposed to trucks—the committee believed that there was a great need to move much more of the freight on to rail. So that was a really important report, and I think it made some significant points. But the consistent message from many of those key players was that they wanted to see an independent national infrastructure planning body. I think that the Infrastructure Australia proposal will meet with a great deal of support.

In my own area in particular, Port Kembla has been expanding from a small port mainly used by BlueScope Steel and coal users—and including a dedicated facility for grain users—into a transformed facility to unload vehicles. It is soon to have some cargo container capacity as well. That expansion was funded by the New South Wales government. Around $140 million was invested. Sadly, the previous federal government did not put a great deal of money into that port expansion or the feeder avenues into it, either road or rail.

I travelled with the chair of the transport committee at the time, Paul Neville, up to his electorate. I remember saying to him, ‘I am going to choke you,’ when he kept pointing out to me all the federally funded roads and loops and things that he had in his electorate. But in the spirit of bipartisanship I have to say that he certainly did not hesitate to recommend that the port of Port Kembla needed some investment as well. So I was very pleased last night that the budget confirmed the initial funding that this government has committed in order to get a rail link from the Maldon-Dombarton line underway again—to have a look at the feasibility study and get it moving. It is a really good initiative.

I am very pleased to acknowledge that, from the beginning of this month, we have had an operating Medicare licence for the MRI machine at Wollongong Hospital. It is something that I have been banging on about, as the member for Gilmore would know, for quite a while.

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