Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker Bird. I rise to give my address-in-reply. I would first like to congratulate you on your selection to the Speakers Panel. If I had been in the main chamber I would have been congratulating the Speaker on his re-election to the panel.

For the people of Swan I would like to get a few things on the record following the 2007 election. I thank them for giving me the opportunity to serve and represent the electorate in this place again. I do not take this role for granted and will continue to work hard for the people of Swan. To the Liberal Party and its members, executive and staff, I also thank you for the opportunity to carry the flag for the Liberal Party and its values, which I share, and for the people of Swan in the 43rd Parliament.

During the last term I was often asked when I was going to start my next campaign and I always replied that it started on the 14 December 2007, when I was officially declared the member for Swan. Our next campaign has already started and my division members and supporters are revelling in the fact they are involved in a marginal seat—for some of them it is like living on the edge.

Mr Speaker, during the last term to win the seat of Swan we faced many challenges. Once I detail them the value of the thanks I will make to people who assisted me and the Liberal Party will be even more significant because all the hard work they had to do to overcome these challenges placed before the team to win Swan will be apparent. In late 2008 we faced a redistribution that made us notionally a Labor seat. In 2007 I won the seat by 164 votes and after the redistribution, if you use the notional votes from the booths in the new areas, we were starting 649 votes behind. We were faced with winning the seat off Labor for the second time after the redistribution reflected exactly the Labor submission to the AEC.

The next challenge was to face a candidate who was described in the West Australian as a potential future leader. The West also said on 19 July:

Then there is the “notional” Labor seat of Swan, held by Liberal Steve Irons but where Labor held a 0.27 per cent margin after the redistribution. In a state where the Coalition is expected to shore up its support, it is arguably the most fascinating race of all.

“Labor have got a very good candidate … (like Ms Gillard a lawyer with Slater and Gordon, where he specialised in asbestos litigation), and 15 months ago he might have been favoured to win,” Dr Phillips said.

So we also faced the challenge of an opponent who would have the backing of his former employer, Slater and Gordon. I know they also manned at least one booth on election day, along with the people from the eastern states who had flown in to support the Labor candidate. There is a reason they flew in, but I will go into that explanation later.

Next we faced the ballot draw, which placed the Labor candidate in position 1 on the ballot paper, and Labor took full advantage of that by making their how-to-vote card a ‘donkey vote’ card.

In Swan we also faced a concerted effort from the union-Labor Party front called GetUp!. The pretence of independence they sell to the public is a complete fallacy and the recent release of details about them receiving a $1.2 million union donation is proof of that. I will continue to alert the people in my electorate to the fact that this group are a fraud when they represent themselves as independent.

The Labor Party must have wanted this seat desperately and all the big guns came into the electorate swinging. With the state Labor heavyweights already holding three local seats in my electorate—the seats of Belmont, Victoria Park and Cannington, held by the state opposition leader, the state opposition Treasurer and the former state secretary of the Labor Party—I and my team were faced with combating their combined efforts and resources in my campaign to retain Swan. They used every possible opportunity they could to promote the candidate, even to the point of getting him to attend citizenship ceremonies. The citizenship ceremony charter states in section 10 that these ceremonies are for elected representatives, but Labor had no shame in turning them into political campaigning opportunities in Swan, which contravenes the code.

As for the federal Labor heavies, we had the entire cabinet in Swan in May, their last community cabinet in Australia before the election. Many of the locals who attended and had time with the ministers felt that it was a sham and there was little or no interest in local issues from the ministers. They felt the whole night was carefully scripted and an arranged event that never really got to the core issues that many of my constituents face. After that event, up to election day, Prime Minister Gillard came to Swan at least three times and former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, affectionately known as ‘the silver bodgie’, also visited, which he had also done in the 2007 election. Bob Hawke in an election opinion piece on 6 August said about WA:

Overall I did not get the anti-Labor feeling in WA that is suggested by the polls—perhaps I am being unduly optimistic but we may see a net gain over there.

Sorry, Bob, you got that wrong: 12 seats out of the 15 WA seats went to the conservatives. It makes you wonder if Bob had his mind on other issues besides what faces Western Australians.

We had many government ministers visit. It was a continuous stream coming through a revolving door and handing out financial commitments and cheques. All in all there were commitments of over half a billion dollars for the electorate of Swan from the government for this election, and I only hope they start to deliver soon. The downside of their biggest commitment of $480 million was that it was based purely on the MRRT getting up. You would have thought that with the results from Western Australia and Queensland, regarded as the two mining states, the message on the mining tax is loud and clear: the people in these states do not want it.

It is interesting to see that the only three companies that have come to any agreement on this tax are prepared to walk away from the agreement because they believe there has been a clear contravention of the agreement by the government. That comes as no surprise, and I can tell you that none of the mining companies I spoke to in WA, which were the mid-sized miners, ever believed it would go ahead as promised, because they just do not trust this government. They all say that this government says one thing and then does another. If there were any message I could give to the people of Western Australia about the MRRT, it would be that it is a false claim by the government that the MRRT will benefit all Australians and belongs to all Australians. I challenge any government member to tell the people of WA when they ever benefited from the coal in Victoria. We only have to look at the backflips on the promises on carbon tax and the offshore processing centres for victims of the people-smuggling trade that were made before the election—those promises have been broken as well. So I say to the three big miners: you should not be surprised. On behalf of the people in my electorate and the people of WA, the message to the Gillard government is, ‘We do not want a mining tax.’

Since I have mentioned people smuggling I remind the Prime Minister that the people of WA do not want you to enhance the people smuggling trade, but stop it. The expansion of Curtin, and now the plan to utilise Northam in WA, is not what you promised at the election. It is no wonder that the people of WA think this government stands for nothing.

We had the NBN promise to the people of Victoria Park in my electorate, with great fanfare from the Prime Minister and the Labor candidate. Why the obvious choice of Belmont was not picked is beyond me, but I guess the Labor Party saw more votes being gained in the Victoria Park area than in the Belmont area, which had a submission that was ranked highly by the communication minister’s office. Even the promise to the people of Victoria Park is no longer guaranteed, as the focus has moved to regional areas. I do not have an issue with the focus being on regional areas but, when the promise to my electorate was obviously a grab for votes, I would suggest again that the people of Swan will see this government as standing for nothing.

Earlier I spoke about people from interstate being flown in to man the booths for the Labor Party, which my booth workers and I commented on after the election. It was not until I read an article by Robert Taylor in the West Australian on 1 September that I understood the reason for that, which I would like to get on the record. The article’s headline was ‘Divided campaign causes big split’ and it said:

In the aftermath of Labor’s desultory Federal election campaign, questions are being asked about the role of one of the State’s most powerful political figures, a man largely unknown outside the ALP.

The article states that my opponent:

… would not have been the ALP candidate for Swan without Mr Bullock’s imprimatur because the Shoppies control the numbers which decide such things.

It also says that the campaign chairman, the WA upper house MP Ms Kate Doust, confirmed that Mr Bullock ‘hit the roof’ when campaign volunteers rang him not only once but twice to ask if he could contribute to the cause of the Labor candidate for Swan. Ms Doust said that she did not know who the volunteer was. The fallout between Ms Doust and Mr Bullock was that:

… two weeks before polling day, the union boss pulled his considerable troops out of Swan and sent them north to Cowan, where his friend Chas Hopkins was fighting a losing campaign against Liberal incumbent Luke Simpkins.

That is why my volunteers found that there were Labor people on the booths in Swan who were from interstate or did not even live in the electorate of Swan.

While we are talking about Cowan I would like to congratulate Luke Simpkins, who is the doorknocking king of Cowan. Luke and I came into this place in 2007—the only new seats across the country for the Liberal Party in the 2007 election. The other new Liberal members elected in 2007, who are a fantastic group, were all returned in 2010. It is great to see them back; they deserve to be here.

There are many people in WA who I need to thank and congratulate, but I would also like to mention the member for O’Connor, Wilson Tuckey who lost his seat. Wilson owns a property in my electorate of Swan and during my first term he gave me plenty of words of advice—some sought and some unsolicited. His advice was always well researched, either through experience or through diligence, and I learnt some very good lessons on points of order in the chamber, which he was kind enough to frequently raise. Over his 30 years, Wilson has made an enormous contribution not only to this place but to Western Australia. I wish him well and I will make sure I log onto his blog from time to time to check his sage words of advice.

I must also congratulate the class of 2010 and give a warm welcome to all the new members, particularly those on this side of the House. I would also like to mention the new member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt, who is the first Indigenous member in this place. Ken’s first speech was fantastic and I personally related to many of the experiences that he mentioned in his speech. I am sure that he will be a superb member for Hasluck. He has a bright future here and his wealth of experience, both vocational and personal, will assist him and be of benefit to his constituents in Hasluck.

To the other WA members—Nola Marino, Michael Keenan, Mal Washer, Judi Moylan, Barry Haase and Dennis Jensen—I look forward to sharing the long trek from WA to this place with you over the next term of parliament. It is a testing trip, as many of our eastern state colleagues who have done it understand. Standing up for WA when this Labor government seems determined to destroy the fabric of Western Australia’s lifestyle and economic success by imposing the MRRT and short-changing us on the GST is a responsibility that none of us, including our strong Senate team, will shirk. We will embrace the challenge on behalf of WA because the people of WA have put their trust in us by giving the coalition their overwhelming support. We will not fail to take the fight up to the government.

During the campaign Tony Abbott worked tirelessly for the coalition and his stamina was second to none. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for visiting Swan during the campaign. At one stage he and I were pulling out weeds at the Canning River regional park area with local volunteer groups. They do fantastic work in the local area and they are among the many active groups in my electorate who need support from local, state and federal governments.

I cannot thank the deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop, enough for her support in Swan and for helping me make sure we won the coffee bean count at the Belmont shopping centre. Julie and I attended the recent Bali bombing memorial dawn service in Kings Park together. It was a reminder of the many challenges faced around the world today that are caused by terrorists from nations that want to impose their will upon us through violence and terror. Julie, your contribution at the election, not only in WA but across Australia, was nothing short of excellent and I know your WA colleagues are proud of you.

To the member for Canning and former member for Swan, Don Randall, thank you for all your advice about campaigning and about this place and for the opportunity to discuss our love of WA and golf. I know the task you faced in Canning was enormous and I congratulate you on your magnificent victory over former WA state minister Alannah MacTiernan. Every time I heard her on the radio and saw the press reports, I just could not believe how much confidence she oozed—she was acting like she had already won the seat. Don, I knew you could win and I assured everyone who asked that you are a fighter and a scrapper and that you would be very hard to beat. Your experience and tenacity as a marginal seat campaigner is admired by many of your colleagues and you again showed that that reputation is earned, not just bestowed.

Issues such as debt, the deficit and the disastrous mining tax were certainly key election issues. However, there were also key local issues and these were many and varied. Members will have heard me talk about these at length in the past. I want to take the time to briefly mention some of these now. The environment was a key concern. My electorate is surrounded on three sides by water. There are some precious freshwater and estuarine wetland environments containing some spectacular biodiversity.

During the last term, I spoke out against the Rudd-Gillard government’s neglect of the environment, particularly its cuts to the budget of the Perth NRM. These cuts made it harder for the many environmental groups in my electorate to tackle pervasive problems such as the spread of the noxious weed hydrocotyle. That is why a particular highlight of the campaign for me was when I was able to announce with Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett a fantastic $1 million commitment to tackle the environmental problems in the Swan and Canning River systems, including a specific amount dedicated to addressing the hydrocotyle problem. In addition to this, we made some fabulous commitments for the green army projects across the electorate in spots such as Tomato Lake in Kewdale. I assure the people of Swan that I will continue to fight for better resources for our environment.

Railway crime was also an issue. As members will be aware, I have been fighting for improvements to the Thornlie to Armadale train line for quite some time. After a bashing at Burswood train station, I began distributing surveys along the train line asking residents to suggest improvements. There was a massive response. I took briefings from the police and Transperth and inspected the CCTV monitoring facility at Perth Central station. As a result of this research and the community feedback, I was pleased to be able to secure an election commitment of $150,000 to upgrade the CCTV at Burswood train station. I note that the Labor Party also made a commitment of $100,000 to that problem. It is good that we both saw it as an issue that needed to be dealt with. Hopefully, the Labor Party will meet their commitment.

There was also the issue of roads. Several of Perth’s major freeways and road arteries cut through my electorate of Swan. Many of these roads are congested and require upgrading. It was great that the Liberal Party managed to commit to upgrading the Great Eastern Highway and the airport roads without the great big mining tax that I mentioned early in my speech.

I want to talk about another road issue that we were able to address: the Manning Road on-ramp. People have been calling for a southbound on-ramp for the Manning Road since the 1980s in order to reduce congestion and improve road safety. There had never been any action, with the Labor candidate for Canning once asserting it was not a priority despite widespread support. During the election we were able to secure a commitment of $10 million for the on-ramp. The Labor candidate in Swan also called for this commitment, so he did realise there was an issue.

Crime and antisocial behaviour is a key concern in many parts of my electorate as well but, since I am running out of time and there are a few people I need to thank, I will move on from local issues to that. There were many others in WA who should be thanked, particularly the people at Menzies House. They ran such an efficient, smooth-sailing campaign ship that I am sure any private enterprise would be happy to have the people at Menzies House running their business. There were many people from the Swan division who volunteered their time, their energy and their wisdom in supporting the Liberal Swan campaign. I thank the Swan division executive, the branch presidents, the division members, the booth captains and all the booth volunteers on the day. Many of those people also helped with letterbox drops. Throughout the campaign, they helped with envelope stuffing and yard signage. It was a great effort from the many people who are committed to the cause. We also had support from the Swan River division. Their support was a sign of the strong growth in the division since 2007.

I would really like to mention some of the staff, because they did such a good job and I think they deserve some recognition. As you know, staff who work for members and senators also face the loss of their jobs when we face an election. If we do not win they lose their jobs, and so it is under that pressure that they also help us with our constituent work as well as committing their own time on weekends and after hours volunteering in our campaigns. That is what my staff did and they did it magnificently.

First of all, I will mention my office manager, Karen McGrath, who kept running things smoothly. Karen is a wise old hand at campaigns, and she and her hardworking husband—the state member for South Perth, John McGrath—were out nearly every weekend doing letterbox drops for me around the electorate. Karen has resigned since the election and I wish her well. We will miss her in the office. Karen was very experienced, having also worked with Wilson Tuckey and Senator Chris Ellison.

Jonathan Martin is still with me and in Canberra this week; he works tirelessly on the weekends and after hours. His commitment was magnificent. Emma Langoulant has left the team to join her partner in Melbourne; her work ethic and great sense of humour was always appreciated and I wish she could have stayed working with me. But the draw of Melbourne and her boyfriend was too strong and I hope it all works out for her.

Jo Chapman joined the team late last year and has brought considerable expertise in journalism, broadcasting and community engagement by making sure that I was everywhere. Jo brought her kids along to the weekend events and morning walks to make it a real family deal. I also want to mention her husband, Roger, who through his company helped us to deliver a much-needed wheelchair to a woman in Mongolia. One of the charity groups was going to have to pay nearly $1,000 to get that wheelchair to Mongolia but he organised it through his company, which was actually doing some work in Mongolia at the time.

Tisha Grubi was a graduate from the Esther Foundation who joined my office and was always ready to help with whatever needed to be done. Tisha is currently in Uganda at the moment doing missionary work, but will return to Australia soon to take up a cadetship with the ATO. It was a pleasure having Tisha in the office and for me to be a part of her return to society from the disaster that her life had become. Tisha is a star and I just know that she has a great life ahead of her with her beautiful daughter, Sky. The Esther Foundation has done a super job with her and many other young women in Western Australia and throughout Australia.

Over my first term I have been assisted at various times very capably by Marion Shannon, Helen Leslie, Annette Livesey and Victoria Jackson—a big thank you to all of you. I would also like to mention that support I received from WA senators such as senators Eggleston, Back, Johnson and Cormann. To my mates Travis Burrows, Gordon Thomson, Jim Crone, Mike O’Neill, George Jones and Frank Parker, thanks for all your help.

The Young Liberals were just great and I had them out every morning waving signs and banners along various points out on the highways and roads in Swan. To my supporters, many of whom are not Liberals but who give up their time to support me, I appreciate that.

Finally, to my son Jarrad I say that all of what we do here in this place is for the betterment of this great nation, but without your support and the sacrifices you make personally I would not be able to do this job. You have had to become independent very early in your life, and you have had to spend time alone without me or your mother being there for you. The anniversary of the Forgotten Australians apology yesterday reminds me that you had to experience loneliness, but the support network through your school and friends has been of assistance to both of us and you have become a fine young man.

I want the residents of Swan to know that I will continue to do my utmost to represent them.

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