Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

I, like the member for Chisholm, would like to put on record some recognition of the great work which has been done in this most significant year. To begin with, I would echo the Prime Minister’s remarks about the terrible events of 7 February—the bushfires—and some of the fires in the days preceding and the days afterwards. I believe that what we have seen since 7 February has been the most remarkable unity of spirit in the community. We saw national leadership from our Prime Minister and my senior minister, the member for Jagajaga. We also saw great leadership from the state government, led by Premier Brumby. We saw a genuine outreaching of effort and commitment from political representatives from all sides of politics.

This will be a difficult Christmas for those who went through the terrible events of 7 February. You cannot expunge memories. You cannot, nor should you, expunge the conversations which you will no longer hear, the people who will no longer come through the gate of an evening anymore. But I do know that in the bushfire communities they are very resilient people. Recovery is an individual process; it is a family process. The hills, the creeks, the roads and the paddocks where people have grown up are still there, and it is upon those that we will no doubt see this Christmas some remarkable progress, but there is much more progress to be made.

It would be remiss of me not to recognise the contribution of the Deputy Prime Minister and her great work, particularly in abolishing the demon of Work Choices—the interring of what was never a terribly good idea to begin with. Also, consistent with the other speakers, it would be entirely appropriate for me to acknowledge your work, Mr Speaker, and the efforts to which you have gone to ensure that this most important institution in Australian democracy, the parliament, functions well. Your sense of humour, your sternness, your constant attention to detail and your Solomon-like rulings—including warning me today—have left me in awe of your capacity to administer this parliament. It is also highly appropriate to acknowledge the work of the staff of the parliament. I too wish to echo the comments of everyone and wish the Clerk the best in the next steps in his life.

When we look at what has been done well by this remarkable Rudd government, I should probably start with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, not least because on the chart I have he is the person most to the left. He has been doing a great job in agriculture, equally matched by the Minister for Resources and Energy. He has been doing great work, including helping set up the arrangements for the Gorgon development.

Then we move to the Minister for Trade, whose indefatigable efforts to breathe new life into the Doha Round reflect well both on him and on the attitude of this great trading nation. Then we move to Minister Roxon, the Minister for Health and Ageing. Her effort of reform is, again, remarkable, with the 70 consultations she has undertaken and the visits she has undertaken to that very important medical institution, the Sunshine Hospital, in my own electorate. She shows an ongoing and consistent interest in the needs of people who are often too vulnerable to look after themselves.

Then we have the Minister for Foreign Affairs, whose deft handling of many issues has demonstrated that he is performing his task as foreign minister with great credit to the Labor movement and in the great tradition of Labor foreign ministers, including Gareth Evans, Doc Evatt and a range of others. Then we come to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and Leader of the House. His work on infrastructure matches the comparables outcomes of the other members of the frontbench—at least of the Rudd government, which appears to have more members on its frontbench than are on the frontbench of the opposition, who are not so numerous. It is hard to keep up with what is happening there.

Then we come to our Treasurer. What a magnificent and sterling job our Treasurer has done, especially when tested in the white heat of the global financial crisis. Then we see the Minister for Finance and Deregulation doing a great job, in particular removing the mandatory tendering guidelines within Commonwealth procurement for tenders which go to Australian Disability Enterprises. At Australian Disability Enterprises there are 20,000 people working on a supported wage at 600 different enterprises. They now, for the first time, have the opportunity to really get a red-hot go at the $26 billion worth of Commonwealth procurement contracts allocated every year. Wouldn’t it be great to see more people with a disability being employed through the opportunities in Minister Tanner’s reform of procurement?

Then we have my own senior minister, Minister Macklin, who is almost everywhere. In fact, some days she is everywhere. Between Indigenous affairs and the apology to forgotten Australians, she has been really implementing reform in the best traditions of the Labor government. Then we have the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. He has been doing a great job too. Many of the issues he has had to deal with are complex, such as, most recently, his decisions around dams in Queensland. The Attorney-General has been a real stalwart for the rights of people with disability, helping to drive through the ratification of the United Nations convention on the rights of people with disability. He has also been very vigilant and active in terms of the promotion of Emergency Management Australia and the work which he has done to help make sure that we can best protect Australians from bushfires, especially since the tragic events of 7 February. The work he has done to help drive the COAG reform agenda about early warning systems I honestly believe will help save lives in the future. There is no greater contribution that a member of this place can make than to help improve the safety and personal security of their fellow Australians.

The Minister for Housing has been rolling out a very ambitious pattern of work with social housing, including in my own electorate. It is great that we will finally be able to do something about tackling the scourge of homelessness and providing secure housing for tens of thousands of people, which is a fundamental need in order to be able to establish a share of the great Australian dream of a secure financial and social setting. Minister Bowen has been working very hard in a range of portfolios. I know that in Centrelink he has made sure that those agencies are working responsibly for the needs of people with disabilities. The Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy has been working on, amongst other things, improving the national accreditation of skills across our nation, trying to finally beat down some of the vestiges of our colonial structure of 107 years ago.

Then we have the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science and Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change. He has been doing a fabulous job in two very complex portfolios requiring a lot of attention to detail. Certainly his leadership in this place on the climate change legislation has been, I think, consistent with the aspirations of many of the people who voted for the Rudd government at the 2007 election. Then we come to the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. How could I have not mentioned the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs? With a twinkle in his eye, he is out there promoting the interests of veterans in every RSL hall across this nation. Minister Elliot, the Minister for Ageing, is making sure that as Australians grow older they have the opportunity to enjoy the later years of their lives with support from the federal government. It is fundamentally a very important role.

We have the Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery. He is very active. I should also mention the work he did in his previous portfolio in trying to identify all the great Australian diggers from Fromelles and at last bring some closure for families who wondered all those years ago what happened to their loved ones at that terrible battle in World War I. Then we have the Minister for Home Affairs. I thought his answer in question time certainly rescued the question when we saw four different attempts from the shadow minister. At least, I think she is still a frontbencher at the moment, but it is hard to keep up with what is happening in the opposition as I talk. The Minister for Home Affairs answered that question eloquently. In short, it was an exemplar—

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