Pat Farmer (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the year 2000, not long after I finished my run around Australia for the Centenary of Federation, a run that took me 191 days, 14,964 kilometres, I received a phone call from John Howard, the then Prime Minister of Australia. Mr Howard asked me whether I would consider a political career. He said, ‘Pat, if you would be prepared to run for the Liberal Party at the next federal election, I will give you my support and the support of cabinet ministers to get great things done for your electorate.’ One thing about Mr Howard was that he knew how to press all the right buttons. He knew how I felt about the people in my electorate and he knew how I felt about actually getting things done. You see, I have this simple philosophy in my life. This philosophy is that opportunities come along—you either take those opportunities or you live on regrets. I have to say that I have absolutely no regrets about anything I have ever done with my life.

That was in 2001, and I have since been here doing just that: serving the people of Macarthur. During my first campaign I remember one journalist saying to me: ‘Pat, you’re an Irish Catholic. You grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. You’re a motor mechanic by trade, not a lawyer.’ Sorry about that, John. ‘You seem like a typical Labor voter.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I am. But, you know what, I am also an athlete, and as an athlete I believe that if I train harder than anybody else I deserve to win.’ And, do you know what, the rewards of hard work are what the Liberal Party stand for. That is what we are all about. It is about reward for effort. Just as Menzies said, we are lifters, not leaders. We support people who are prepared to get off their backsides and make a difference with their lives. It is important to note that hard work and reward for effort can make a real difference to the economic position of this country. It is not just those people who get off their backsides and do something with their lives, but it is most important that we do that when we can so that we can help those people who are less fortunate than ourselves who simply do not have the means or the ability to be able to do that.

This is why we need a good economic management policy, so that we can have money and prosperity to help those Australians that cannot help themselves. We need prosperity to be able to help Australia meet its millennium goal of 0.07 per cent of gross national income so that we can support the poverty stricken people of this world. I believe that Australians are hard workers and what they need more than anything from government is for government to get out of the way—for them to get out of the way and for them to allow businesses to get on with the job of what they do best, without burdening them with bureaucratic bundles of forms and documents. What people need most is government support, not red tape.

I wish to thank all the people that work in this building in all areas that have supported me. I would like to thank the landscapers, the florists, the gym staff, the Comcar drivers, the security staff and everybody else in between. I would especially like to thank my electoral staff, who have worked tirelessly supporting me to help the people of Macarthur. I would like to thank my colleagues on both sides of this House. I want each and everyone of you to know that I admire you and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work side by side with you. At this stage I would like to thank the Prime Minister and the ministers for making the time available on the occasions when I needed to speak with them about issues in my electorate.

I will dearly miss two of my running partners in this place. Of course I will miss everybody but especially my friend Greg Hunt and of course my favourite running partner Tony Abbott. He is the only one who came close to me running up and down Red Hill.

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