John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am honoured to have received a vote of confidence from the people of Bennelong and been returned to this parliament with an increased majority. In fact, despite my party suffering from some turbulent results across the country, the voters of Bennelong delivered the biggest swing towards the Liberal Party in all of New South Wales. The seat of Bennelong was held by Labor just six years ago; now, we fell just a few hundred votes short of attaining a 10 per cent margin, the AEC's marker for a safe seat. This was the best result for the Liberal Party in Bennelong since John Howard led us to government in 1996—and at that time his electorate boundaries included the traditionally stronger Liberal areas of Hunters Hill and Lane Cove. This is a result that reflects years of hard work from my office and all of my team. Despite increasing our margin at each election in which I have been a candidate, we have never treated Bennelong as a safe seat and never will; nor have we prioritised support for constituents based on who they declare their loyalty to. I take very seriously my role as the representative of all people of Bennelong, not just the 59.7 per cent of people who gave me their preference.

This election result in Bennelong was only possible because of the hundreds of volunteers who came out to help at dozens of street stalls, train stations and other campaign events in the lead-up to 2 July and, of course, on election day itself. At every election, I am amazed by the demands a campaign makes of its volunteers; yet, at every election, volunteers enthusiastically rise to the task and exceed expectations. Our team stood out for its unity, efficiency and productivity throughout the campaign. I am sincerely grateful to every one for their commitment and work both on election day and on the weeks leading up to 2 July.

It is impossible to name everyone who helped, but I would like to name a certain few people: the FEC president, my friend Mr Artin Etmekdjian, the former mayor of Ryde; and Sarkis Yedelian, the treasurer. They are Armenian, and I have become very aware of Armenia and their great community. Also, there is the wider FEC membership, including Hazel Myers, who has been with us for all six years; Margaret Gibbons; Michael Brereton; my dearest friend Michael Zakka, whom I picked up from outside his flat each morning for train stations; Harry Moskovian and Jerry Yessaeian—a great team of mates; and Daniel Severino, who manned the prepolling station every single day—what a great young man. He was supported by other Young Libs, including Jordan Lane, Tim Burnley-Gibson, Eiofe Hogan, Liam Hawke and the three Davids—David Hogan, David Tregenza and David Yao. Also there is, Hugh Lee, who formed a great friendship with me some six years ago and was one of the great supporters of the Bennelong Cup, using sport to unite our community; Austin Kim; and Craig Chung, who was booth captain at Eastwood, which had the largest swing of any individual booth in New South Wales—an amazing 12.9 per cent increase in support, taking our two-party-preference result from 50.3 per cent in 2013 to an astronomic 63.2 per cent. Craig ran as councillor in the Sydney council elections on 10 September, for which we congratulate him on his election to that important institution.

Also, there is our office team: Nisha de Alwis, Ursula Melhem, Jacob Masina, Simone Stark and Frances Lofgren—our cement. Jonathon Ward organised every train station, every shopping centre stall and blew up every balloon personally it seemed. Josh Bihary, whom I have been with for more than six years, is my campaign manager and long-serving chief of staff; a special thanks goes to your family, Josh—wife Karen and daughters, Maya and Viola—for giving up their husband and their father for much of the time during the campaign.

There is my family, including my daughter, Emily; her mother, Rosemary; her husband, Chris—it's complicated—my partner, Deb; her daughters, Amanda and Nicky; and my cousins—Adam Oakes; my favourite cousin Louise Crisp; my favourite cousins Penny and Warwick Coombes; I have a lot of favourite cousins; my favourite cousins Susan and Robert Alexander; Peter Alexander; Phil Crealy, my first doubles partner, and his wife, Christine, and their son, Philip—a great family of support. These people, along with hundreds of others, were essential to achieving our result. Considering that the seat was in the hands of the Labor Party just six years ago, we have a great deal to be proud of in the work that we have done in Bennelong and the broader Liberal cause now and we will into the future.

There are many possible reasons why we achieved this excellent result. The wonderful volunteers were essential, but I also feel it was the manner that everyone brought to this contest. We engaged with our fellow candidates and our fellow volunteers. It was civil at all times. It was as friendly and as engaging as it could have been in any contest. The atmosphere between the parties was congenial and friendly, and I thank all candidates and all their volunteers for being of a like mind—a great culture. Whenever we met each other at stations or stalls, we would always join in. We assisted each other when things were dropped, as they often are. We would help them pick it up, and they helped us pick up things. When there were shortages of little pieces that were needed, they were given freely.

The debate in Bennelong was a contest of ideas as much as ideology. Conversations invariably strayed from the central issues of the day. We discussed homeownership. We discussed housing supply. We discussed the funding of infrastructure through value capture. The first promise I made six years ago was to listen, and the second promise I made and learnt to keep was to listen, again. A good conversation is one where you listen, you seek to understand, you ask questions and you consider before making any comment.

People love to be engaged. They love to be heard. They love to have their ideas taken on board. As a result, I have gathered many thoughts, many concerns and many ideas, and from those concerns I have sought to hold inquiries. We have held inquiries into homeownership. We have held inquiries into the funding of infrastructure through value capture. In this way, these public inquiries allow us to gather evidence and to gather the facts from which to build recommendations and then for each party to build their policies to take to the next election. I think that this exercise is most worthwhile. We look forward to a continuation of the contest of ideas in this place and to painting the important issues so that we can serve our electorates better in the future.

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