Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make some further comments on this bill.

Leave granted.

My speech on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2006 Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2006 was, as far as I am concerned, really about thanking the people who were involved in bringing on stream the first new medical school in Australia for some 40 years. I also want to thank the Prime Minister and the member for Herbert, Peter Lindsay, for the work that they did, which was also very instrumental in securing the medical school. Finally, I want to thank Bernard Moulden, the Vice-Chancellor of James Cook University.

At the dinner celebrating the graduation of the first medical students from the first new medical school in Australia for 40 years, he went through all the people that he had to thank and then he said, ‘The quintessential moment at which we secured the school was when I spoke to the decision maker in Canberra, who said, “After reading the submission closely, it is not available to me to refuse your application.” So the person we most want to thank is the person who wrote the submission, the secretary to the committee who secured the medical school and one of the driving forces at all times: Mary Jane Katter-Streeton.’ So I want to put on the record our sincere thanks to Mary Jane as well.

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