Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

No, I don't have children; I have dogs. Blue was an 18-year-old poodle-cross that campaigned with us through two campaigns. He was a great campaign dog. Sadly, we said goodbye to him forever last month—good old Blue.

Though the pandemic produced many challenges, team Brand rose to the challenge of helping to elect an Albanese Labor government. I say to all those branch members who selflessly gave up their time, to our local community organisations and to the various volunteers who turned up and made tireless efforts on the pre-poll booths: I appreciate all that you did for me and for the Labor Party once again. And I want to acknowledge some of the difficulties on the pre-poll—not from our main competitors, the Liberal Party, but from other, minor parties that were terribly badly behaved on the pre-polls. I do thank the members of my party, the Labor Party, but also our friends in the Liberal Party, who were all very decent and ran a fine campaign—obviously, mine was better!—and were very collegial. But some of the other actors in the campaign were just terrible. So thanks to all those who withstood some of those behaviours.

To the wonderful team in my electorate office who joined volunteers at the 6 am train-station handouts, the after-work mobile offices and the early morning market stalls: I want to thank you. I could not have run in this campaign without you and the amazing effort you all put in. We had a wonderful result in Brand—a significant increase in support. I want to thank the wonderful team.

I thank, for their support, the WA state members; the Premier, Mark McGowan; the Deputy Premier, Roger Cook; the Minister for Police, Paul Papalia; and the Minister for the Environment, Reece Whitby, whose seats all make up the seat of Brand.

I'm going to mention our new campaign dogs, Ziggy and Bennie, and all the other office dogs that made our lives a bit more fun during tense times: Layla, Muddy and Wombat. Sadly, Muddy has now left us forever, too.

But into our team we did welcome a new human member: little Benjamin, the newborn son of my chief of staff, Laurence, and his wife, who is also the WA Labor President. So we welcome Benjamin to team Brand. Obviously his membership details will be ready to go and imprinted on him as soon as is possible! I think he's not yet at the age for membership, but we can wait.

At the election, Western Australians demonstrated very clearly their support for an Albanese Labor government. In addition to holding Brand, Fremantle, Burt and Cowan with increased majorities, Labor won four more seats in the House and one additional Labor senator—and it was nearly five extra seats in the House. I've been enjoying working with my new WA colleagues, who bring unique backgrounds and experiences to our very strong team. The Western Australian people made it very clear: they wanted a federal government that would listen to them and work cooperatively with their state government.

The WA voters had had enough of the tiresome attacks from Clive Palmer, from former senior cabinet ministers and from the former Prime Minister of the former Liberal-National government. Calling Western Australians 'cave people' and comparing the state that is responsible for the underlying strength of the Australian economy to the 'hermit kingdom of North Korea' was deeply insulting and entirely unacceptable.

When governments change, people lose jobs. It is the toughest part of this contest of elections. I acknowledge those dedicated electorate officers across the seats of Curtin, Hasluck, Pearce, Tangney and Swan, who served their communities during the terms of the former members. I would like to acknowledge the public service of those former members, Celia Hammond, Christian Porter, Ken Wyatt, Ben Morton and Steve Irons. Each of these MPs served their electorates in the state of Western Australia in various capacities, as cabinet ministers, chairs, members of parliamentary committees, members of their party and local members of the House of Representatives. They each deserve appreciation for their work and public service over many years.

I would like to congratulate the new Labor member for Pearce, Tracey Roberts. The member has always been a strong advocate for her community, sitting on the Wanneroo City Council since 2003 and as mayor of the city for 10 years. As president of the WA Local Government Association, she helped elected officials better understand their communities. I know Tracey will serve her constituents well, and I look forward to seeing her continue her advocacy in this place.

I congratulate the new member for Tangney, Sam Lim. The member for Tangney has done it all and seen it all. He grew up in Malaysia in poverty and strained circumstances. With the love and support of his family, he worked hard to become a police constable in the Royal Malaysia Police before leaving to become a dolphin trainer. He then moved to WA, joined the WA Police Academy and went on to win police officer of the year for his work in diverse communities during the height of COVID. He has secured a better future for his family in moving to Australia, and it demonstrates how much we have to learn from our magnificent and generous migrant community.

I want to pay tribute to the new member for Swan, Zaneta Mascarenhas, an engineer, mum of two young kids and now an MP. The member is from Kambalda and her father was a nickel miner—the nickel that ends up in the Nickel West refinery in Kwinana, in my electorate. Like many others from our state, she wears her steel capped boots with pride and has spent much of her professional life working in the resources sector. She spent the last 12 years working with industry to develop practices to lower emissions and, in doing so, saw firsthand the need for leadership and genuine climate change policies at a federal level. I know she will bring a great understanding of her constituency to this place.

I congratulate the new member for Hasluck, Tania Lawrence. She has lived in Mundaring for 10 years, in the heart of her electorate. Her years of experience in policy, governance and negotiation in the public and private sectors will make her a very effective member of parliament. She understands her constituents' challenges, and we are already seeing her valuable contribution in this area and many others.

I want to welcome Labor's third senator from WA, Fatima Payman. Senator Payman's story is an amazing one. Her father is from Afghanistan and, as a refugee, spent time in immigration detention before eventually moving the rest of his family, including Fatima, to Australia. When they first arrived, he worked around the clock as a kitchen hand, a security guard and a taxidriver. He instilled in her the values of hard work and perseverance, and she now represents hardworking people like her dad and other hardworking Australians who are doing all they can to make ends meet.

I welcome the first Labor member to be elected to the South Australia seat of Boothby for 73 years, Louise Miller-Frost. Louise has devoted her entire working life to making a difference in people's lives. As the member for Boothby, she is working to ensure that her constituents never experience the financial hardships that her grandparents suffered. I will resume my comments at a later hour.

Debate adjourned.

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