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

Clearly the whips knew that the member for Fenner would be on duty, because they have put duelling economists on today. However, I suspect that if we leave him to adjudicate which speech won he'll make the wrong decision, so we'll just get stuck into it. I'm going to drop some wisdom on the member for Fraser. He comes from the Austrian school, so he should just sit back and enjoy—oh no, he's leaving.

As we have stepped into the new decade we have encountered an onslaught of unmitigated social, environmental and economic crises. The devastating fires of the black summer, the ensuing floods and storms which ravaged Sydney, leaving thousands of households and businesses without power, and of course the spread of the coronavirus around the world have made it a very difficult start to the decade. However, I can proudly report that, despite these challenges, under the Morrison Liberal government the state of Mackellar continues to be strong. Our economic management, sensible and practical environmental policies and innovative solutions to roads and traffic congestion are resulting in a better, more prosperous Mackellar. The upgrades around the Northern Beaches Hospital site as well as the widening of Mona Vale Road, the introduction of the B-Line and the impending construction of the Beaches Link Tunnel are all assisting in making people's lives less stressful by easing traffic flow. However, it is my melancholy duty to report there is still a thorn in the side of us beach and bush people, and that's the unfinished roadworks at Warringah Road, a two-year project that is now three years overdue. People like to criticise private sector involvement, but it might be of interest to know that these roadworks were spurred by the development of the public-private hospital on the northern beaches. The roadworks started a year before the hospital started being built and they will end four years after it was successfully completed. And, of course, there is Wakehurst Parkway.

When you're in an ambulance being rushed to Northern Beaches Hospital—one of the most successful hospitals in the history of New South Wales—you obviously want to be taken by the quickest and most-direct route to get there. On the northern beaches that is sometimes not possible following rain. The Wakehurst Parkway is one of the main roads connecting the upper northern beaches to the new hospital and the city. However, according to a recent report, it is closed due to flooding over 10 times a year on average, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for a few days. When combined with the fact that we are the only part of any major city in the world whose major link is a drawbridge, it's an extraordinary state of affairs. Not only is this inconvenient but it's dangerous to the people I represent. We are lucky to have a state-of-the-art hospital run by an excellent company that is showing the public sector how to run a hospital in Frenchs Forest, but when access becomes difficult when the road is blocked you have to question how helpful that is. Currently, it is a two-lane road, which is grossly inadequate to cope with the volume of traffic it receives, not to mention when lanes are closed because of car crashes. The people of the northern beaches deserve better, and they deserve this. The council and state government have dragged their feet on this and have dodged their responsibility for too many years. We don't need to hear anymore that it's too expensive or too hard to be done or that they're undertaking yet another report. Indeed, we found out only the other day from the minister for planning that, since 2017, the Northern Beaches Council has been in receipt of $5 million from the state government to fix this problem and, three years later, they still haven't released the report. It needs to be flood-proof and it needs to be widened.

I've written to the Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Alan Tudge, as well as the New South Wales Minister for Transport and Roads, Andrew Constance, and implored them both to work together to get this done for community. I'm glad to report to the House that Minister Tudge has already informally indicated that he will do what it takes to get this done. This project has been talked about for decades, but the time for talk is over. We now need to see action.

Narrabeen Lakes Public School is just across the road from my electorate office and has a long and proud history of educating students in the area. I've been fortunate to meet with those students on a number of occasions, and it became clear to me that there was a need for facility upgrades. Understanding this, under the Local Schools Community Fund I secured $20,000 to restore their outside green space area so the children could have the facilities to play outside with their friends and learn the importance of exercise. It is important to note that this area services a suburb that has large numbers of units and multidwelling blocks. A good education requires balance between learning inside the classroom and outside on the playground, in open space, and I am happy to assist in providing that. I do so despite the fact that the New South Wales Department of Education has close to $3 billion of unspent money that it has received from this federal government under Gonski 2.0.

Under the same scheme I secured just under $20,000 for two St Lucy's classes located in Narraweena and Narrabeen. I notice the interest of Deputy Speaker Wicks in this matter. St Lucy's offers education for children with a disability, and this money will be spent on the installation of hearing loops in their classrooms because we want all students to have the same opportunity to learn in an environment which is suited to them.

A society is great when those within it strive for greatness, not with the intervention of government bureaucrats. Volunteer organisations prove this rule every day of the week and, as we conclude this black summer of bushfires, I don't think anyone could deny that it was not the government which saved the day but volunteers like the Rural Fire Service. The Volunteer Grants program is a wonderful opportunity for the government, for the taxpayer, to provide some assistance to these volunteer organisations. I'm proud to support the Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club with the purchase of a new boat trailer and cover. Our surf lifesavers do an amazing job each summer. When the red and yellow flags are flying, swimmers know they are under the watchful eye of some of society's best. It is also great to know that the Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club, whose clubhouse was built just after World War II, will be getting an upgrade this summer after we secured almost $2 million from the federal taxpayer to help fund the program with the state government.

It gives me a great sense of achievement on behalf of my community to highlight these advances, to know that we as a community achieved so much with so little and that the state of the northern beaches is so strong. Most notably, it gives me great pleasure to do so because I speak of hope and opportunity. These are the creed of the Liberal. We know that all great advances have come from freedom, that when that freedom is couched in a fair society, it is best used by all for all. That freedom in a moral environment that stresses that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us is one that develops the greatest hope and opportunity for all of us.

Today we face many challenges—most notably at the moment the coronavirus. But I have no doubt that we will face this challenge, overcome it and be stronger for it. Why? It is not because of what lies ahead but because of what lies behind. We have faced so many challenges in the past. We have faced them together and we have overcome them all. Economically, we face the challenge of falling productivity. Productivity is the key to all the issues we face. Aristotle, Socrates and Pericles are the result of productivity.

When our civilisation worked out how to feed everyone without needing everyone to do that, it allowed some people to go off and be thinkers, writers, inventors and innovators. If we are to solve the challenges of our time, we need to be able to collect capital and deploy it in pursuit of the solutions, and we need to do more with less. Productivity is the outcome of innovation. It is well understood that Australia's productivity fell badly under Labor when they introduced the Fair Work Act—an act that has done so much damage to our nation and its people but done so much for their donors. If we are to encourage innovation, we need to reward risk and forgive failure. The Labor Party does the opposite. We need to improve our tax systems. We need to renew and revolutionise our industrial relations systems. But, most of all, we need to improve our education system.

Liberals throughout the ages have fought for the rights of all people, no matter who they are or where they come from, to live lives to their fullest potential. Any society organised on Liberal principles will never allow a person's destination in life to be determined by where they came from. 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 live lives of quiet desperation in 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 those nations provide better outcomes for their economy, national wealth, business formation, productivity, employment, real wages and the people they seek to serve. The United States is just one example. The vast majority of companies in their top 20 by capitalisation were started after 1975. By contrast, Australia's youngest company in the top 20 was formed before the Great Depression in the 1930s.

We continue to ignore best practice and inconvenient truths throughout the education sector. We ignored the fact that decentralised education systems are the most successful, as we continued to do all we could to centralise our education system. We ignored the importance of training teachers and experimentation in curriculum as the major drivers of education outcome, as we ploughed 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, and 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 Congo 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.

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 Jewish migrant who fled communist oppression in 1957. When he arrived in the country, my father was a young man and learnt English by selling encyclopedias door to door. I will not repeat some of his learned language out of respect for this chamber. His mother, my grandmother, helped sustain her family by spending her nights screwing caps on toothpaste tubes—many nights she came home with bleeding fingers.

While my story is special to me, it is not unique to Australia. Modern Australia was built by migrants like my grandparents. Those who I welcome into our community in these ceremonies I'm sure will make it a positive contribution, like my father and his before him, and that is what has made this one of the greatest countries in the world.

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