Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

I rise to deliver my valedictory speech to this House, and to those from the other place who are in the chamber: thank you for attending; I appreciate it.

This is something I thought I would never be doing, but then again I never thought I would do a first speech. In early 2010 the former member for Leichhardt, Jim Turnour, or 'Scooter' as he was known, told me, 'Ironsie, you're a nice bloke, but you're a oncer'—a little bit of irony there. Anyway, my speech today is for the good people of Swan, my family and the future generations of the Irons family to read in years to come. So, to the audience, please indulge me.

I'm following up from the member for Dawson, and he said a lot of things I probably would have said. But my speech is going to be a lot more vanilla than yours, George. I won't be talking about any achievements because I've been talking about infrastructure achievements in my 14½ years in parliament forever and a day, so I haven't got enough time to talk about them again. Today's just going to be about my time here.

Being a member of parliament was never a career option for me, even though I had a deep interest in politics. That interest developed over many years growing up in the Irons family, with dinnertime debates on everything—including politics. As most people know, I came from a family of 10 in Victoria and was born 'Stephen James Dix', spent three years in an orphanage and then was fostered by the Irons family. I'd just like to talk quickly about why they fostered me. They wanted to adopt someone, but they chose to foster me because I was the oldest child in the orphanage and was due to go to a boys home. The reason they fostered me was that they wanted to thank the country that adopted them. They had migrated from South Africa in 1959, and that was a way of them saying thank you to Australia for adopting them.

I moved to WA in 1981 for 12 months and have been there ever since. It's still like being on a holiday. I have been representing the people of the federal seat of Swan for five terms, since the 2007 election. Everyone in this place knows Swan is a marginal seat, and I'm sure those on the other side of the chamber think it should be in their stable of WA seats. But I've been very pleased to disappoint you for five terms and hope I've given the people of Swan enough reason to continue voting for the Liberals and candidate Kristy McSweeney, because, through the coalition government only, over $2 billion of infrastructure funding has been delivered to Swan while I've been in parliament.

I must say that I could not have won the seat of Swan without the support of the Liberal Party, who I was preselected by, and the hundreds of volunteers and supporters, who are too many to mention but they know who they are and they helped me win five elections.

I believe everyone has an expiry date, and my decision to retire was not taken lightly. I know it's the correct decision for me and my family, just like that little champion Ash Barty did last week—we knew when our time was up. Too many people hang on, and, as a dear friend and mentor of mine once told me, you don't say, 'I wish I'd spent more time in my office' on your headstone. Jeremy Buxton from the WA Liberal Party division contacted me shortly after I announced my retirement to give me his thoughts and some facts about Swan. Actually, when I saw Kim Beazley, another former member for Swan, on Australia Day, I suggested he and Jeremy should put their heads together and write a political history book on WA politics. I'm sure each topic would have a different version.

Jeremy told me the following interesting bits about Swan. I'll be the first member to retire from the seat of Swan since Federation. Two members have passed away in office; four members, one who I just mentioned, moved to safer seats; and the rest were defeated in elections. So, based on those facts, I'm probably the first-ever sitting member for Swan to deliver a valedictory speech. The other comment Jeremy made was, 'Political parties shouldn't expect marginal seat winners to hang around until they get defeated.' So I'm not.

I'd like to acknowledge that my wife, Cheryle; my son, Jarrad; my brother Robert; and my brother-in-law Robin are in the gallery today. Family is so important to me. To have them here today along with some of my friends and supporters is special now WA has sort of opened the borders. Jarrad was here for my first speech when he was just a lad of 15 years of age and sat with former member for Hasluck Stuart Henry and a few of my mates, who flew in from all over Australia. Stuart is here again today. It's fabulous to have you here, Jarrad, and I do apologise for all the years we missed. I do look forward to all the years we now have to catch up. Today also happens to be my foster father's date of birth. If he had been alive he'd have been 96 today.

For anyone who knows me, they'll know I have a love of music, and music has played a big part in my life and provided me with many hours of listening pleasure whilst flying across this great country to be here in parliament. So, in my speech, there'll be lines from songs of many bands and artists, and it will give some people a smile if they know them and something to do if they want to go through this speech and work out which ones are which songs.

I should have known right from the start—and that's one of those lines—in 2007 that this five-term journey I've been on would create great friendships, enduring friendships, happy times, times of achievement and excitement but also many testing and disappointing times. I'll try to focus on the good bits of my time in parliament, but if the bad bits are relevant I'll mention them and if the people don't like them they'll just have to get over it.

I arrived here in February 2008 after the 2007 election that saw 42 new members elected. This was a very foreign place to me as I'd not worked for a member of parliament, so I wasn't a staffer, and I'd only been active in party politics since 2004, and I'd visited Parliament House once and not during a sitting week. I had a lot to learn and there was no shortage of advice from wise members. Wilson Tuckey gave the new WA members some salient advice, and that was: 'You are now a VIP. Know it, but don't show it.' My friends Nola Marino and Luke Simpkins took that on board and were and have been humble members of this place, as I hope I have.

Christopher Pyne also gave me some advice and that was: 'Keep asking questions. Don't pretend you know what's going on when you don't.' The one question I forgot to ask was: what does it mean when the speaker stands in his chair? I quickly found out when Harry Jenkins stood to quieten down the chamber. Michael Keenan had asked Julia Gillard a question about guaranteeing jobs, and the noise that followed from both sides was like a football stadium. Harry stood up and I thought, 'What a perfect time to get my response in.' As the chamber fell silent I yelled out, 'Can you at least guarantee Kevin's job?' Harry tossed me straight out. He had no choice but Pyne did say the comment was worth getting tossed out for, and Don Randall added that I now had a badge of honour.

The Speaker mentioned, the next time he saw me, that he had to toss me and asked if I understood the reason why. I did, and only once more in my time in parliament have I been thrown out. A wise member said to me, 'Do you want to be known for getting thrown out in your parliamentary career or do you want to be known for other things?' so I made my mind up not to get thrown out again. I must admit, the expulsions did remind me of my time in school when I got removed from the classroom on numerous occasions. Actually, there are many things in this place that remind me of school rules!

I've just mentioned him but I'd like to acknowledge the former member for Swan and Canning, Don Randall, who left us too early in 2015. He was a rogue but also a fierce advocate for his electorate and his ideals. Don also said to me, after I won the seat of Swan in 2007: 'Steve, you're a good bloke. Just to let you know, at the next election, it's every man for himself, and leave my donors alone.' Don also carried the cardboard cut-out of Kevin Rudd into this chamber on a sitting Friday back in 2008 which caused an uproar and saw the beginning of the end of Friday sittings. What a disaster that was! I wonder which Labor strategy genius thought of that!

When I arrived in this place in 2008, even though I'd been through an induction program, I had no idea what was going on or what the processes of this place were. Fortunately I had some experienced staff working for me: Karen McGrath and the late Norm Haywood, who guided me through the initial stages of my parliamentary life. Without our staff, all of us in this place would have an extremely difficult life. To all my staff who have worked for me over my time in parliament: I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'd particularly like to thank Jonathan Martin, who was with me for a decade. I felt like I lost an adopted son when he returned to the UK. I wish him well for his whole life. He was a great staffer, and he did all the worrying! I know other staff are listening in, like Amber Newton, Roman Gowor, Jennifer Cahill and Annette Livesey, who's in the gallery here today. I've appreciated all the contributions of all my past staff and my current staff, led by David Hobbs, who have been fabulous since the last election. Another staffer, not mine but who works in this building, is in the gallery, and when I describe her to my wife, Cheryle, it's as sister, aunty and mum all rolled into one, and that's Helen Lewis. Thanks for everything, Lewis.

The whip at the time when I came into parliament was Alex Somlyay and he put me on nine back bench committees, so I was a bit busy in my first term. Stuart Robert, who's sitting next me, actually nominated me as secretary for about four of them, so I was pretty busy. The following term I reduced that to three. I made sure I went to the formation meetings so that I didn't get nominated by another colleague to be secretary of a committee. They were the days of good starting times for sitting days. Monday was 12 am and Tuesday was 2 pm for question time. We'd usually go to Timmy's for lunch with the book burners club and come back in time for question time on Tuesdays. We did sit a bit later in those days, often until 10.30 at night or four in the morning. The first sitting day of parliament 2008 saw us sit late, and I thought I'd sit in the chamber until we closed to try and get an idea of how the place operates. It was there that one of our experienced colleagues warned Stuart Robert and I that if we kept interjecting one of our interjections would be taken as our first speech.

In my first speech I spoke about the death of seven-year-old Shellay Ward in Sydney, who had died from abuse and starvation, which segues me to the next part of my speech. Somewhere in early 2008 I received a phone call from a lady called Leonie Sheedy; I see a few smiles in the chamber because many of you have dealt with her. We all think she's batshit crazy, but I love her for what she's done and the energy and passion she has committed to helping people receive redress for sexual abuse in institutions across Australia. Anyway, her phone call put me on the path with Richard Marles and Jason Clare at the start of our parliamentary journeys, and we are still on it. Hello to Jason Clare, who's at home, sick in bed. I know Leonie is listening, and I wish her well, and I say hello to all Clannies around Australia. I became the unofficial spokesperson for the coalition on matters to deal with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia, and I thank all the ministers who have been involved with redress and helping the victims of abuse since that royal commission.

My involvement has been a personal one as well, as I spent time in an institution as a child, as did two of my biological siblings, who were abused, but both have passed away. The stories I have heard, the anger I have seen and the sadness and desperation of my fellow Australians has been traumatic to share. But I felt privileged to have been able to hear them and then comfort them with a hug, a touch or a kind word. The sharing of these stories meant they lived through the trauma again, and it meant a lot to me that they were prepared to share it with me. I believe them and their tragic stories.

One of my best experiences as a member of parliament was to engage a group of victims of abuse with the younger generation of victims who had experienced various types of abuse, ranging from domestic violence to drug and sexual abuse. They sat together for a couple of hours telling stories, and the companion for the young victims phoned me later to tell me that the young group had cried in the car all the way back home because they were so moved by the stories they had heard. It had been an emotional experience for them, and it had made them aware that abuse in Australia hadn't just happened to them; it had been generational. This is the type of thing MPs do which makes this job worthwhile. The work Leonie does will continue, and I was proud to secure funding for the Orphanage Museum, which is now being established in Geelong and which I am a committee member of.

Another area I quickly focused on when I got to parliament was getting as many industries involved in coming to Canberra as possible to engage with the processes of legislation that directly affected their industries. I was amazed at the lack of input to legislation by industry, as it was being done a lot of the time by people who had no experience in actually running a business in that industry. Some of those industries are in the gallery today, and I'll mention a few of them that have been as supportive of me as I have been supportive of them: AMCA, the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association of Australia; the lighting industry; Australian Owned Contractors, who are here again pursuing the raising of their tier 2 status and tier 3 status to tier 1 status or to get tier 1 opportunities; Plumbing Products Industry Group, who are here as well and have been great supporters of mine, and they've got a lot of things that need to still be done, but I'm going to handball those things to other people or to the new member for Swan; and the training industry and particularly RTOs who I engaged with during my time as assistant minister.

Next, I'd like to thank all the employees in Parliament House for helping me make my five terms as easy and friendly as possible. To the clerks, the attendants, the committee staff, security, the cleaners, the Comcar drivers and booking staff, the maintenance people—Alan was great, and, Rick, you've got big shoes to fill—the Serjeant-at-Arms staff, the Speaker's panel staff and the whip and their staff: your efforts and assistance have always been appreciated, and your cheery 'good mornings' and quiet 'good nights' have always been respectful and welcome.

I'm not going to mention the GST, as everyone else has claimed it, but I know who did it. He's not here in the chamber, but we all know it was Scott Morrison, as the Treasurer and then Prime Minister, who sorted the GST out for Western Australia.

There are ministers I want to thank for the 14½ years of access I had to ministers to get funding, to get programs or to get infrastructure for Swan. To my mates: Nola; Scotty Buchholz, sitting in the chair there; Craig Laundy and Ian Macfarlane, who have both left; Alex Hawke; Ken Wyatt; Stuart Robert; and obviously the Prime Minister as well, Scott Morrison—I've enjoyed your friendship. And he's just walked in, right on cue! Your support and friendship and the advice you've given me over many years has been absolutely appreciated, and I thank you. And Prime Minister, I have to say it: you are not a bully. This man is not a bully, and anyone who calls him that has got it totally wrong. I spent five years flatting with him—and with Stuart Robert; now, Stuart might have been a bully! In the kitchen he was terrible! But seriously, they are both great guys. And PM, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you as a mate and a friend and to see what you've achieved since you've been in the parliament.

People ask me how I came to be in the Liberal Party. It's simple. It's the party that enables people to get ahead, and it's the party that wants everyone to get ahead and doesn't punish people for being successful. We don't always get it right, but that's what I and my colleagues are for: to help the public servants make it right. Compare that with the Labor Party—and I know their ideology, because I lived it when I was young. I'll give you an example. I worked for the gas and fuel in Victoria, on the roads. I worked out of the Vermont depot for the elite leakage survey department. We would get, say, 10 jobs given to us each day, and we would head out at about 7 am. Now, if we had jobs in a nice, quiet suburban street, we would put those to the back and head out to the main arteries to disrupt, particularly if they were in well-off areas like Toorak. The thought process amongst me and all my workers was, 'Well, if they are well-off enough to live here, let's teach them a lesson and we lowly workers can stuff up and disrupt their lives just as much as anyone else.' That is what I learned was the basis of Labor's ideology. It's simple: punish people for being successful, and disrupt their lives; drag them down, don't lift them up.

There are some further things I want to say, but I'm not going to. I'm just going to go on to other things, like dreams. Many of us here in this place have dreams, and dreams become reality. They might become reality in years and years to come, and I just want to talk about something I delivered to the energy minister the other day, and it's the idea of pressure and gravity energy. Just remember that: pressure and gravity energy. It might not happen now, but it's going to happen, I can tell you.

I'm going to finish off my speech with my family. Robin, my brother-in-law: it's great to have you here. Bobby, a brother I didn't grow up with but we're now best of mates: I wish I had grown up with you but I didn't, and it's great to have you here. Jarrad, my son—all those years we missed and the times we'll make up for it. I've still got a lower handicap than you at golf, so you've got something to aim for, mate! He did get in front of me for a short while, but I've been practising retirement, so my handicap's come down a bit further. To my beautiful wife, Cheryle: I spent 52 years looking for you. I don't think there's much more I can say. She's just fantastic. She finishes my life. She brightens up my life. Everyone knows Cheryle. You never wonder what Cheryle's thinking; she'll always tell you! It's made my last 10 years here so easy. And she's the best campaign manager I've ever had—seriously. She's got things done so well, and that's one of the reasons we won Swan the last three times. I did say to her, in 2011, when we got married, that I would only run once more, but it was a joey—and Cheryle knows what joeys are, so I won't go into that. But I've run three times more. The time has expired to get out of this place. I'm leaving it in good hands, and I hope to see my team back on the government benches after the next election. I think we've done a great job during the pandemic period. The economy's going strong. Unemployment's down. And, in Western Australia particularly, wages are going through the roof. So, there's no lowering of wages; they're actually going up. This government deserves to come back.

Anyway, one of the things I want to say is: no more pager, no more bells. I'm going to finish by mixing a couple of lines from an Eagles song and the song about the yellow brick road: they may lose and we may win, but I will never be here again, because my future lies beyond the yellow brick road. Thank you.

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