Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak to a number of matters but firstly to pay particular tribute to two Central Coast people who we have lost in recent weeks. I note formally the passing of two wonderful coasties by the names of Banjo Pilon, a young 10-year-old, and Michael Dean, a participant in the Southern and Ettalong United Football Club who lost his life while he was playing the game he loved.

Can I speak first about Banjo Pilon. My own 18-year-old son fell in love with the freedom and joy of riding a skateboard. It was a big transition for him to move from being on a razor scooter to a skateboard. Many of the boys on the coast share a great camaraderie and Banjo was no different. He was sharing time with his friends when very sadly by the side of the road he was hit by a car and he is no longer with us. Banjo belonged to a family of incredible hope and love and the way in which they have shared that grief and modelled incredible leadership and care for one another in our community is really worthy of note.

I first met the Pilon family through their very talented son Fletcher, who participated in the Seniors Concert that I held earlier this year. You could tell immediately what a wonderful family this is by the interaction between Fletcher and his mum. He is not only a brilliant performer but is a young man of great dedication to his craft. I want to acknowledge how that family has shown a way forward in the darkest time. Jilly wrote a very moving tribute to her son, whom she described as being 'full of huge smiles, filled with love, always having fun and living in the moment'. I note that the family were very generous in enable organs and tissues from Banjo to be given to other children. In their grief, that has given them some comfort. They are a truly remarkable family who have garnered the attention, respect, love, affection and care of the entire community.

Can I also put on the record some remarks about Michael Dean, whose story was recorded very eloquently and with great respect by Geraldine Cardozo in our very important local paper the Central Coast Gosford Express Advocate. Michael was a very proud member of the Southern and Ettalong United Football Club and I know he is going to be sadly missed by his friends. In the article in which his passing was reported his brother Mat Dean described him as:

… a great brother, a great husband and great father who loved playing the game.

One thing I would say, is if you met Mickey and didn’t like him, then you had a problem. As a member of the Army Reserves, an RFS volunteer with The Bays and former Umina Surf Life Saving Club member he was there to help everyone.

He will be remembered for his warmth, beautiful smile and the mateship he shared with all he met.

I offer my sincere condolences to the Dean family and to all the friends and community members who knew Michael and miss him.

On a much happier note, I can report that on Sunday I was very pleased to join with the Central Coast arts community to celebrate the extraordinary talent we have on the coast and the incredible drive by the dedicated arts community to grow and prosper in spite of the barrage of funding cuts and disappointments that this government has wrought on the Central Coast arts community. The Central Coast Philharmonia was joined by the Katandra Voices and soloists, including a wonderful young local singer Lauren Turner. They were accompanied by traditional Irish instruments as they presented a collection of beautiful and heart-warming traditional and contemporary Irish songs. Indeed, the second half of the performance was from a choral suite arranged by Mark Brymer entitle Letters from Ireland with songs like The Cliffs of Doneen and beautiful pieces of instrumental music like Planxty Irwin and Black Berry Blossom, along with songs that would be known to Irish people all across the world, Lanigan's Ball, Skibbereen and Muirsheen Durkin. I felt, in hearing this for the first time, that I was replaying the soundtrack of my own childhood.

They very kindly invited me to participate and to read some of the letters that came from the 1800s in accompaniment to the instrumental music. I would like to read one of the letters that was read by Peter Mara, the gentleman's voice, who actually cited Jonathan Swift. I think that this goes to how political Irish music is and why it is such a resonant set of words around politics and the country of Ireland and its resumption as a republic and the commencement of that journey in 1916, which will be acknowledged next year at the centenary. This is the letter from Jonathan Swift.

The people have already given their bread, their flesh, their butter, their shoes, their stockings, their furniture, and even houses to pay their landlords and taxes.

I cannot see how any more can be got from them, except we take away their potatoes and butter milk, or flay them and sell their skin.

To my friends I leave kind thoughts, to my enemies the fullest possible forgiveness, and to Ireland, the undying prayer for the absolute freedom and independence which was my life's ambition to try and obtain for her. Yes, Ireland will be forever more.

That was pretty much the close of it, except for The Wearing of the Green. That is an interesting song which records the joke of being told by their landlords that they were not allowed to wear the colour green and the form of resistance that they found just in nature's blossoming of green. It was an absolutely wonderful afternoon, attended by over 200 local participants and the audience, and they just really enjoyed it. I do have to confess that on the show 75 per cent of them did indicate that there was some Irish connection. So there might have been something in that.

Apart from the wonderful event and the fact that the Anglican Church generously provided the space, I was once again struck by the need for a home for the performing arts on the Central Coast. I have previously spoken in this place about receiving a petition last year signed by more than 2,000 Central Coast residents calling on the federal coalition government to honour the indication of a commitment to a Central Coast performing arts centre if a commitment was made by the state government. Before the 2013 federal election, Labor—with me as their candidate and member at the time—committed $15 million towards a performing arts centre. That did not happen when we did not gain government, but there was a commitment to consider this $10 million from the federal government if $10 million was given by the state government. That has been committed and I do hope that the member for Terrigal will be a very strong voice that. I know that the member for Gosford, Labor's Kathy Smith, and Labor's David Mehan at the Entrance and David Harris at Wyong are certainly very keen to see this project go ahead. But there has been a deafening silence since the election about where that $10 million from the state might come and an even quieter response from the federal government.

We need to make sure that coasties are not overlooked yet again. We are still waiting for the $7 million that was committed to the Kibbleplex project, was a renewal for the centre of Gosford. This $10 million needs to be delivered. I am very, very keen to make sure that people on the Central Coast have the same top-class facilities as those available to Sydneysiders and, indeed, to many other large regional cities across this great country. The petition sends a very clear message to Miss Lucy Wicks, the member for Robertson, and other Central Coast Liberal members that our community is demanding action, and the project that needs to be delivered is a performing arts centre right in the heart of Gosford.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics found that in 2008-09, the arts made a very significant contribution to the Australia's GDP—to the tune of $86 billion; that is, seven per cent—and $13 billion of that flowed directly from our field, literature and print media. We need that kind of generation of new industry on the Central Coast. We already have a blooming country music scene. There are many, many musicians who live on the Central Coast. It is a crying shame that a community of over 340,000 people have no major town hall and no performing arts centre in which to gather.

In the break I was able to attend to some of the needs that I think are very pressing in a number of duty electorates that I have across the state of New South Wales, and I was very pleased to visit Wagga. Sadly, while I was there, I was informed once again of the neglect of a critical area of need with regard to health in the Wagga area. It is a very sad statistic that the men of Wagga Wagga and surrounds have a 28 per cent higher chance of getting prostate cancer, according to the Cancer Council, than other regions. It is even sadder when their elected representatives are not representing them and providing an adequate response. There are about 350 men living with prostate cancer in the Murrumbidgee local health district, which gives the region one of the highest per capita rates of the disease in New South Wales.

On the face of those figures alone, you would think that would make the Murrumbidgee a prime candidate for extra attention when it comes to the treatment of prostate cancer—but apparently not. For the second consecutive year, the Riverina region has missed out on being allocated a specialist prostate nurse to be based at Wagga Wagga Hospital. The Murrumbidgee was one of 35 applicants for the $6.2 million in federal funds for 14 specialist prostate nurses dotted around the nation to work in prostate cancer hotspots. I ask you to recall that people in Wagga Wagga have a 28 per cent higher chance of getting prostate cancer. But, despite that evidence, Wagga missed out again. Wagga was overlooked in favour of Bunbury, Adelaide, Mornington Peninsula, Ballarat, Geelong, Footscray, Mildura, North Ryde, Kogarah, Port Macquarie, Orange, Cairns, Rockhampton and Greenslopes in Brisbane.

Orange got a specialist nurse. Its rate of prostate cancer is 186 per thousand men. Wagga's rate is 239 cases per 1,000, and it did not get the prostate cancer nurse. Geelong got a nurse. Geelong is only 75 kilometres from the huge medical hub that is Melbourne. The people of Wagga missed out because, too often, National Party members take their constituencies for granted and they are not fighting for them in this place. I think the expression is they are lions in their own electorate and they are meek and mild back here—not only in this chamber but also in the other place.

I am very concerned that this lack of evidence base in decision making is revealing itself over and over in the decision making of this government—questionable decision making, hidden decision making. It is a government that lacks transparency. It is a government that does not follow science. It does not acknowledge science. Clearly, decisions have been made that have prevented the people of Wagga Wagga getting a fair response and securing one of those prostate cancer nurses. It is quite a disgrace on the part of this government.

The allocation of nurses under the government's $6.2 million prostate cancer nurse initiative is made by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. You cannot take anything away from the awareness that they raise, but this extremely worthwhile program needs to go in a targeted way to the areas where it is most required. The nurses provide really important support within 72 hours of diagnosis, and this is often when a patient and their families are feeling the most vulnerable. It is a vital touch-point for patients, providing everything from guidance about access to services and support during and after treatment. It can also help the individual and their family deal with the effects of a regime of drugs, therapy and surgery, which is quite specific and differentiated according to need and age. They carry the burden of navigating the complex health system to provide these cancer sufferers with the smoothest possible road to recovery. And as you can imagine, that road can be a rockier route in the bush, in places like the Murrumbidgee. Given the distances that need to be travelled and the availability of services in each region, that really puts them in a very difficult spot.

During a recent visit to the Riverina, I was handed a petition containing 1,009 signatures gathered by Labor's state candidate for the seat of Wagga Wagga, Daniel Hayes. He was accompanied by Tim Kurylowicz, who is a community activist in the area. Dan and Tim told me that they had spoken to locals of all political persuasions and, regardless of their leaning, they were really eager to sign the petition to get a nurse for the area. This is how they described it to me, 'Hold on mate, I'll just go and get a few of my friends and I'll get them to sign it as well.' This is something that is real and live in Wagga Wagga in the Riverina area and it needs a response. Daniel and Tim did the job of the sitting National MP, Michael McCormack, in taking the fight up for the people of the Murrumbidgee. I want to put on the record that I will continue to be a voice in this parliament to make sure that they get something done. Just because they are in the bush, does not mean they are far from Labor's gaze. We will stand up for them here.

I note that the member for the adjoining electorate of Farrer, Sussan Ley, the Minister for Health, has a rural background. Surely, she should know the hardships of living in the bush and the tyranny of distance in terms of access to health care. Surely, she would be aware of the need for evidence based decision making in this context. I hope that she will make sure that a better outcome is achieved. I will certainly be watching that one.

Finally, in the time remaining, I would like to speak about a number of recent visits I had to university campuses to check in with students about how they are feeling about their degree and the certainty of advancing in their degree, given the ever-present threat of a $100,000 degree debt hanging over them, with Christopher Pyne intending to push that through the House of Representatives and up into the Senate again.

While I was in the Riverina, I visited the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University as part of my Ed-U-Action Week campaign. At that time, students were reeling from the cutting of the pharmacy course. It had actually started there but is going to be removed back to the Orange area. The university is making that sort of decision because they are having to look at every single cent that they spend. This is a big loss for the community in Wagga Wagga and they are very concerned about what this will mean for them. This is just the start of the rationalising and the diminution of offerings in the future for universities that are struggling to manage money in the constant chaos that has been the signature of the Abbott Liberal-National coalition government in this period. Students and families just cannot imagine footing a bill of $100,000. These are challenges that distract students from their work, from doing their studies and getting on with their job.

I held meetings and met with students around the barbecue at the University of Newcastle campus at Callaghan and at Ourimbah on the Central Coast. As well, I met students at the Parramatta campus of the University of Western Sydney who spoke with me about their genuine concern about possible changes to fee structures. Whether they were local students or international students, they understood that this government is determined to create a two-tier Americanised system.

The Abbott government's changes to higher education are a triple-hit to student fees, cutting Commonwealth funding for undergraduate places, deregulating universities to allow them to charge whatever they like, and interest rates on the rise is compounding the impact of these costs. The young people that I met are very, very bright. They have a sense of their own future. They are engaged with what they are doing, but they were very angry that they had not been told that this was part of the Abbott government's plan before it came to power. They are very angry that this government is determined to push towards an Americanised system of universities, where people do not ask you what degree you have; they ask you where you studied. Here, it does not matter where you get that degree—a teaching degree from Charles Sturt University or a teaching degree from the University of Sydney—you know the quality of it and you can actually go out and get a job. The quality of the degree in America is so differentiated—those who pay have high-value and high-status degrees; those who cannot afford it end up in the second tier or further down. It is a very cheap, mean and awful way of creating two tiers in society.

Some of the students actually said that they felt that the elements of the Abbott government university deregulation had been purposely hidden from them and they indicated that they would not be able to continue their studies if this continues to be pushed through. Do not worry, Labor will stand up for education. Labor will support the students. We will not leave you behind. (Time expired)