Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to make a contribution to this address-in-reply debate. Before I congratulate other people, Deputy Speaker Scrymgour, I want to congratulate you on your deputy speaker role. I think it is a significant tick of approval to the person that you are and the contribution you have made since joining this parliament in 2022 alongside me. Well done. I do want to extend my congratulations to the Speaker of the House, the member for Oxley. He has been a fantastic contributor in my time here and has really elevated the role of Speaker, in my view, since my election. I also want to extend that to the Deputy Speaker, Ms Sharon Claydon, a very dear friend and someone who has offered me quite a lot of advice over the last three years.

To the Governor-General, on Her Excellency's fine address to this parliament last week: thank you for everything you've done since your appointment to the Governor-General position, but also I really want to extend very warm thanks for the way in which you engaged with my daughter last week during the reception after your address.

She met Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, her political idol—but you came in at a very close second. So, I do say thank you for that.

To the people of Spence, who have entrusted me for a second term: from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much for the great honour of being able to stand in this chamber and represent your needs on a day-to-day basis. It is by far and away the greatest privilege of my life. As a young boy growing up in Mildura, in country Victoria, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would make it to this place. To have had three years as the member for Spence and then to be re-elected is such a privilege. As I'm sure every member in this place acknowledges, it is an absolute gift to have your name called to speak on behalf of your constituency.

So, to every person who voted for me, thank you. And for those who didn't vote for me, there's still time! Hopefully at the 2028 election you might change your view and swing in behind me, and hopefully we can get that margin up over 50 per cent; that would make my day, for sure. But any day when I get called as the winner of the seat of Spence, I'll be very happy and eternally grateful and will always put my best foot forward to represent our community. So, thank you very much for that.

Whilst I'm giving thanks, I do really want to say thank you to the union movement for having my back over the last three years—a big shout-out to the SDA, AWU, HSU and SA Unions and especially my union, the TWU. To Sam McIntosh and the team down at Chief Street in Brompton: thank you so much for everything you've helped with over the last three years. When I needed help, you guys were always there and really went that extra mile to make sure we got the job done. So I do want to say thank you.

But I also want to acknowledge our great mate, my former boss and a great mentor to me—Ian Smith, the former secretary of the TWSA/NT branch. It's been just over 12 months since his passing. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the contribution and impact that you've had on my life as well as the confidence you had in encouraging me to nominate for preselection and subsequently run as the candidate for Spence in 2022 and re-election this year. Thank you, mate. I'll be eternally grateful for everything you did for me.

Then there are my amazing volunteers. There's not a person in this place who could say, hand on heart, that they got here by themselves. Yes, we get to do all the fancy stuff and turn up to things and get acknowledged for being the member or the candidate. But ultimately we don't get here without the hard, tireless work of hundreds of volunteers in our respective electorates, and mine is no different. I had hundreds of volunteers lining up to letterbox, to doorknock, to help at prepoll, to make phone calls and to help pack booth boxes—to do those little one per cent things that make such a difference for the candidate. There were more than 200 volunteers. There's not enough time on the clock to list everybody and do justice. But to each and every one of my branch members, to my community volunteers, to those who answered the call to come and help us to re-win this seat, I want to say thank you. We have had a thankyou barbecue, and I am so appreciative of the near-100 people who turned up to that. But, for those who didn't, I do want to say to you today: thank you from the bottom of my heart for every minute, every hour, every day you put in on the campaign. It made a huge difference, and I'll be eternally grateful for it.

To Michael Atkinson, my campaign manager: mate, it was quite a journey. I learnt a bit about you, you learnt a bit about me, but ultimately we got a job done.

I am extremely thankful for all of your guidance before, during and since the election. I look forward to our friendship growing over the coming years and will be eternally grateful for everything you have done.

To my beautiful wife, Cassandra, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this. I wouldn't be here if you hadn't supported me in 2022 to put my hand up. Everybody in here knows that it's a huge commitment not just from us but from our families. It takes a toll on them. We have to make sure that we look after our family when we're home. We can't get absorbed into this role and forget about things outside of it, because it's very easy to. Everybody wants a piece of us all of the time. It is so important that we put aside five minutes every day to make that phone call or tell our staff: 'No, I'm sorry. We're having Sunday as a family day.' That's what maintains our relationships. It's what keeps us grounded in this job so that we don't lose sight of what we're here to do.

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