House debates

Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Governor General's Speech

10:59 am

Photo of Shayne NeumannShayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great honour and a privilege to be in this place. As someone who grew up in Ipswich as the son of a meatworker, who was a cleaner and a shop assistant, I often find it mystifying and almost magical that someone from a poor background who had the challenges that I had—poverty being the least of them in my family's experience—could be the member for my area. I am humbled by the support that my electorate has given me. This is now my fifth term as the member for Blair. If you think of a country town in South-East Queensland, the chances are I've represented it in the last 12 years. I want to thank my wife, Carolyn, who has suffered from ill health for a number of years, for her steadfast love, affection and support. To my daughters, Alex and Jacqui, and their partners, thank you very much also for your ongoing love and commitment to me. To my extended family, thank you also. I couldn't do this job without your support. To the people of Blair, I will not let you down. I will work as hard as I can, as I've done over the last 12 years, to support you and deliver for you. To my electorate staff, I thank you for what you've done. To my shadow ministerial staff in the last parliament, I thank Jesse Northfield, as well as Tim Dunlop and Melissa Hockey before, for the work that they have done. I want to thank also the branches of the Labor Party—from Springfield in the east to the Somerset branch in the Somerset Region to the north and west, and across Ipswich—for their fantastic support. I couldn't do this without the support of Labor Party members and supporters who stand at prepoll, hand out how-to-vote cards, erect signs, attend at mobile offices, make phone calls, and do phone canvassing, letterbox drops and door knocking with me. Without your undying and unyielding support, this job couldn't be done and our campaigns couldn't be run.

I also want to thank affiliated unions. To my own union, The Services Union in Queensland, to the state secretary, Neil Henderson, and the Queensland president, Jen Thomas, thank you for your friendship and affection, as well as your support of my campaign. I am proud to be a member of a union. I go into every campaign with the Labor Party membership ticket in my pocket and a union membership ticket in my pocket as well. I express my deep condolences to the Australian Services Union for the loss of my dear friend, the national secretary, David Smith, who died tragically and unexpectedly last Friday. He was a mentor and friend to me and he was beloved in Queensland and by the union. I thank the SDA, the AWU, the TWU and the Plumbers Union for your ongoing support as well.

I want to thank the member for Maribyrnong and the member for Sydney. I have worked closely with them for many years and, in the last government, I worked as the parliamentary secretary to the member for Sydney in health and ageing, and I really grew to admire and respect Tanya for the work she does. I want to thank Bill Shorten, the member for Maribyrnong, for his steadfast service to the Labor Party and the union movement and for his leadership. I want to thank all those members across the board—across my home state of Queensland and nationally—who supported our campaign. I thank the Queensland branch and the Queensland office, as well as the national secretariat. The election outcome we wanted wasn't to be, and it is a great disappointment to the Australian Labor Party. But we are coming out of our slough of despond, as John Bunyan talks about in Pilgrim's Progress, and we will be there fighting at the next election as we always do because we believe in the cause of Labor, social justice, equality of opportunity and a fair go for all.

And a fair go for all is what my home state and my city of Ipswich and surrounds have not received under this government. We made a number of commitments in this campaign which were absolutely crucial. Road projects, rail projects, support for health services and for veterans, and civic centre and emergency evacuation centre upgrades are deeply and dearly needed in my electorate, and they haven't been supported by the current government across now three terms. These are critical for the city of Ipswich, growing at the rate it is. It will more than double its population in the next 20 years. I have the satellite cities of Ripley and a large part of Springfield in my electorate, and the population is growing tremendously quickly. But this is a government that seems almost bereft of any form of economic plan for this country. We've got people experiencing wage stagnation, rising prices, and the high cost of essentials with power prices going up and child care becoming more unaffordable. And the government seems incapable of getting this country and its economy moving. Productivity is at record lows as well. And, all through this time, this government talks about its plans.

The economy is struggling. If you go to small country towns in my electorate or to suburban shopping centres—I was at Raceview shopping centre; I think I have done 50 mobile offices since the last election—you will see the lack of cars at the shopping centres and the lack of patronage. During the campaign I had cause to travel extensively to country towns and cities across Queensland. In Townsville, Gladstone, Rockhampton or wherever I was going, there were great swathes of the CBD where the shopfronts were closed. We see that even in my city of Ipswich, where businesses are struggling. The economy is growing at the slowest rate since the global financial crisis. Unemployment is stagnant and is at a very high level. More than two million Australians are either unemployed or looking for more work. Household debt is rising. The current government has doubled the debt. They constantly call it our debt. It's almost as if they're in office but not in power. The government have to take responsibility for the fact that the net debt has more than doubled under them and skyrocketed to record highs. Business confidence is down and consumer confidence is down. We see household living standards decline under the current government to a level lower than when this government came to office.

With all these challenges, you would think that the government would think about investing in infrastructure in fast-growing regions such as the Ipswich and West Moreton regions, but they have not. Even in their most recent announcement of their infrastructure spend, there is simply no new money for my electorate, and money seems to be diverted to electorates which had someone wearing a blue shirt on election day. LNP electorates across Queensland seem to get the preponderance of the extra money that has been allocated. And, even then, it's only about $1.7 billion extra. Certainly there is none for Blair. I am pleased that the government has responded—and I wrote a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister on 7 June 2019—in relation to a shocking intersection on the Warrego Highway, and also the Cunningham Highway. The Mount Crosby interchange should be a priority for any government in Queensland—state as well as national. It's a cause of real angst for people on the Warrego Highway, people who live in the northern suburbs of Ipswich such as around Karalee, Chuwar, Tivoli and North Ipswich and even into Brisbane, around Karana Downs and Mount Crosby. I give credit to the current government for finally coming to an agreement on the upgrade of the Mount Crosby interchange. I urged them to do that, and I made speeches in this place in relation to it. They have come to an arrangement with the Queensland government. It will cost $22 million, but I urge them to even bring it forward. There will be a public consultation process in relation to this matter, and I thank the Queensland government and the current government for finally listening to not just my voice but the voice of the member for Ipswich West, Jim Madden, who has also been advocating for this particular project.

But there seems to be nothing in relation to another road project in my electorate. Across the last close to 20 years, we've had agreement from both sides of politics to upgrade the RAAF base at Amberley. Well over a billion dollars has been spent on what is the biggest RAAF base in the country, which is fast becoming the biggest base in the country.

But the road infrastructure along that area has not been upgraded, and still we've seen the growth in suburbs like the Ripley Valley, Deebing Heights and around Willowbank. Labor made a commitment before the last election to put $170 million towards upgrading the Cunningham Highway from Yamanto to Ebenezer Creek. The current government, to its credit, put money behind it but unfortunately didn't bring the money forward and needs to undertake negotiations with the Queensland government to get this going. I would urge the Queensland government to put it back on the radar so that the Cunningham Highway is upgraded. You can't have thousands and thousands of people working on the RAAF base at Amberley and in the aerospace industry it surrounds and the suburbs that are booming in and around that area without the road that connects the base to Ipswich and beyond being upgraded. It's unconscionable, and it can't go on forever.

So, I urge the government—both the Queensland government and this government—to undertake the necessary negotiation to get this project done. It's really critical for South-East Queensland. You can't have an aerospace industry, can't have a base of this magnitude, without this being done. Economic productivity is being stymied. Thousands and thousands of vehicles a day, including trucks, go through that intersection. It's important for connectivity, for the economic development of South-East Queensland.

There are a number of other things I want to turn to. One of the things I have done since I've been elected is put a focus on disability and on seniors in my electorate. I think it's a tragedy that this government has got the National Disability Insurance Scheme wrong. The underspend of $4.6 billion is a disgrace. Anyone who's in this place, in the House or the Senate, would have dealt with constituents who are constantly having problems in relation to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The current government has underspent and is making it more difficult and has completely botched the scheme. I have been working with my staff on case after case to assist people.

One of the things I have done since being elected is make sure that locally we can get information to people who are living with disability, as well as their families and carers. I have given out well over 100,000 of these Blair Disability Links booklets across 10 years. This here is the 2020 directory. So popular were they that I started the Blair Seniors Links directory, and here I have the 2020 version of that. I am about to complete the Blair Sports Links booklet for 2020. This is the 2019 version, with the Ipswich Rangers rugby union team on the front; it was their 50th year, which is great to see. I'm very happy to support local constituents, and if they want to get copies of those booklets they can come and do that. I've had many people, many organisations, who want to come to our region and who want to be in those booklets. There are many great organisations, and I want to support them as well.

One of the big problems we have in a regional and rural electorate is telecommunications. One of the challenges we have is of course the NBN. This will be the shame of the former Prime Minister and the shame of this government. Certainly the former Prime Minister, Prime Minister Turnbull, when he was the telecommunications minister, completely botched the NBN. Fancy spending an extra $21.4 billion over the budget and getting the whole project four years behind schedule. The multitechnological mix that they've got there is not the original fibre plan, and people know it. In country towns in my electorate they know that they're not getting the upload and download speeds. And we've fallen behind comparable OECD countries and other comparable countries that we test ourselves against on economic development, educational attainment and a whole range of indices, and we have got it wrong in this country. The technology mix for NBN has been diversified, but it's been detrimental and has been at a cost of lower quality of services, and users are having to shoulder higher costs but are receiving poorer outcomes.

So, we need to fix this if we get into government next time. I am encouraged by the headland speech of the new opposition leader, the member for Grayndler, in Brisbane last week—I know the member for Lilley was there as well, and other Queensland MPs and senators were there from the Labor side—in which Mr Albanese put this front and centre. We need to address this issue. It's ridiculous that in the 21st century we're falling behind the way we are. I would encourage the government to reassess this.

While I'm on that, I want to congratulate the member for Grayndler and the member for Corio. I'm happy to work in his Defence team in the shadow ministry. I am happy to have this role and I was pleased the member for Grayndler asked me to work as the shadow minister for veterans' affairs and Defence personnel, particularly with the RAAF Base Amberley being in my electorate. While I'm on the subject of RAAF Base Amberley, I want the government to address an issue that is so important to my electorate: the failure of this government to respond to PFAS contamination.

I feel very much misled by the Department of Defence in relation to the impact of PFAS on my electorate. We need a national approach in relation to this matter. I have written to the Minister for Health about people in my constituency being able to get access to voluntary blood tests in relation to the impact PFAS may have on their personal lives. We have seen more and more testing and investigations undertaken in relation to PFAS. But the Department of Defence has handled this incredibly badly. PFAS contamination is not just linked and limited to Oakey, Williamtown and Katherine. It is across a whole range of our capital cities, major towns and ports. Anywhere this contaminant was used it has affected people, including those in and around RAAF Base Amberley.

As I said recently on ABC Radio, when I was a child we would swim in the Bremer River and we would catch fish—we would use it for recreation. But, of course, in the creeks leading into the Bremer River and the Brisbane River—and people still go on the Brisbane River; I see the Bremer canoe race—we see the contaminants that have been identified. Recently, an investigation showed there were issues in relation to potentially major problems in the suburb of Leichhardt in Ipswich, where water from additional creeks was being used on the then golf links before the Heritage Links development took place. This could have resulted in contamination for 325 residents in Leichhardt in Ipswich. The guidelines say, 'Don't eat homegrown produce or chicken eggs'. People in these regions in and around RAAF Base Amberley use water for their cattle and for vegetables they may have grown. So this goes into our meat supply and elsewhere, and there are really big problems in my region, and it potentially affects hundreds if not thousands of local residents in the Ipswich region. But the government seems to have downplayed this issue. I note the class action is taking place. I am urging the government to be serious about a national approach, and to allow blood testing to take place in my electorate.

So there are a number of issues that affect my electorate—affecting the lives of people. The environmental investigation is revealing more and more problems for people locally in our region. The consultation has been inadequate and issues have been downplayed. Whenever I've been at various events—for example, the Amberley consultative working group and elsewhere—I have discovered again and again Defence handling this issue very, very badly. They should do much, much better.

I want to thank the electors of Blair for their support for me. I won't let you down. I will work as hard as I can in the next three years. Thank you very much for your ongoing support.

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