Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is an honour to return here today as the member for Mackellar. At my first re-election, and with an increase in my primary vote, I'm gratified to be reinstated by my community. As I know too well, elections are hard work. I stand here as a result of the ongoing support of my wife and daughter and a village of volunteers who gave of themselves and their time for reasons that I wonder at nearly as much as I am grateful. Early morning bus stops, phone canvassing, doorknocking, street stalls on Saturdays—the dedication of this team knew no bounds. I thank them all.

But though much is taken, much abides. The Northern Beaches community expects much from this government and, rightly, from me. Like all communities, we have our challenges and our success stories—those who struggle and those who live the belief that, from those to whom much is given, much is expected. I'd like to speak to some of those here today. History has shown us that government enforced equality ultimately and quickly leads to injustice. But we cannot possibly be a parliament of equality of opportunity if we do not make education our highest priority. Too many of our fellow Australians are condemned to lives of quiet desperation, cycles of poverty that cannot be broken even when the will exists to do so. This parliament has predetermined that the right answer for everyone is a university education, despite the fact that in other nations only around 20 per cent of people choose tertiary education, and these nations provide better outcomes for the economy, national wealth, business formation, productivity, employment and real wages. As just one example, in the United States the vast majority of companies in their top 20 by capitalisation were started after 1975—I believe it is 19 out of 20 of those companies. By contrast, Australia's youngest company in the top 20 was formed just before the Great Depression, in the 1930s.

We continue to ignore best practice and inconvenient truths throughout the education sector. We ignore the fact that decentralised education systems are the most successful, as we continue to do all we can to centralise our education system. We ignore the importance of teacher training and experimentations in curriculum as the major drivers of education outcome, as we plough billions of dollars into a system that is producing decreasing outcomes in education. In Australia, there is currently a negative correlation between spending and education outcomes. We pretend that giving parents freedom to choose is somehow a bad thing for their children, them and our nation. But, most of all, we pander to a conga line of stakeholders whose self-interest goes unchecked and unchallenged. Our children suffer; our liberal ideals are undermined; the cycle of poverty continues; our economy and national dynamism suffers; the quiet desperation of so many continues to go on, unheard and unheeded. No matter, though—the good and the great are satiated. If we are to live up to our highest ideals, then this parliament should advance the cause of a better and more responsive education system for all, not just for some.

All of us in this place come from unique communities. Even so, despite the ferocity with which we debate, there is much more that unites us than there is that divides us. We spend too much time here constructing walls between ourselves rather than crossing the many bridges that already exist. My community, like so many others, believes the only way to create and maintain a fair country is through freedom, for no one person knows the path of happiness for every person. Care and compassion come not from the generosity of the state but from our families, friends, neighbours and those voluntary organisations we choose to join and build. History's surest pathway to serfdom is by replacing equality of opportunity with equality of outcome. Our most solemn duty in this place is to preserve and protect all that is right with our nation for all who live in it. Ultimately, let those who judge us, both now and in the future, do so not on the basis of the treasures we possess but on the basis of the gifts that we have shared.

Australia remains one of the great nations on our planet, and our planet remains the best planet in our solar system, if not the entire galaxy. To be born here is to have won life's great lottery. One of the things that make us so great is that we are always building a more perfect nation in so many areas. One of the economic challenges we face is improving the productivity of our economy. There is little doubt that one of the reasons our productivity has not been better is due to Labor-era laws—whether it is the legacy of corruption and inaction of the Carr-Keneally state government, or the Gillard-Swan spendathon on pink batts or Gillard's trashing of our workplaces through the Fair Work Act. All of these things have made it more difficult for the people of Australia, our hardworking families, to enjoy a better life.

In 2016, the Liberal Party announced the National Innovation and Science Agenda. Its specific goal was not only to increase the amount of research and development going on in our community but also to make sure it stayed here in Australia and got commercialised so that all of us could enjoy the fruits of the great ideas that so many of our fellow citizens come up with. Right on cue, the IMF recently released a report demonstrating that too many of our exports are raw or uncomplex in their nature. The NISAhas never been more important, ensuring that our already competitive advantage in quantum computing continues and is extended.

It is at this point that I want to mention the extraordinary leadership of Michelle Simmons at the University of New South Wales centre for quantum computing. It is no exaggeration to say that the development of quantum computing will be as significant as the discovery of the electron. Reforming employee share schemes so that start-ups can get access to the best and brightest and so that the best and brightest can get their fair share of the benefits of their ideas is more critical now than ever. This is how Silicon Valley was built. This is how innovation will be built in Australia. From pure science to grants, tax reform, capital market incentivisation, and higher institutes of education, and to programs that allow researchers to get a share in the commercial benefits of their work, NISA is a groundbreaking program that is changing the structure of our economy and making all Australians better off.

As we know, some Australians are born in this country, and some Australians are born elsewhere in the world, choosing to make a life here as citizens. It is a frequent honour and joy to attend citizenship ceremonies for those who have chosen the Northern Beaches as their home. I'm often moved to hear the personal stories behind the individuals who make this decision. I think of my own family and how we came to become Australians. My father was the son of a Polish migrant who fled firstly Nazi invasion and then, in 1957, communist oppression. When they arrived in this country, my father was a young man and learnt English by selling encyclopedias door to door. Unfortunately, the standing orders do not allow me to repeat some of the words he learnt in that exercise. His mother, my grandmother, helped to sustain her family by spending her nights screwing caps on toothpaste tubes at the Colgate factory. Many nights, she came home with bleeding fingers. Modern Australia was built by migrants like my grandparents. Those who are welcomed into our community at these ceremonies will, I am sure, make a positive contribution, like my father and his father before him.

This year, I am again hosting a food drive in my office, accepting food donations on behalf of Foodbank. Hunger is a hidden crisis in Australia, with over 3.6 million Australians seeking food relief at some point each year. Half of those are children. The items will be collected at Foodbank on 16 December. So I encourage Northern Beaches residents to consider what they could give this Christmas to support those in need. Foodbank will accept tinned food, packaged goods, and personal hygiene and laundry products.

The 46th Parliament is in its early days. However, I look forward to the three years ahead as a time of action, positive change, and progress, both here and in my electorate on the Northern Beaches. I'm proud to share in the responsibility that we have in our nation and our constituencies. We shall not let them down.

See this speech in context