Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very proud to be part of this government, the Albanese government, in this 48th Parliament. I say so because, No. 1 and as we just heard the member say, it's an absolute honour to be elected to this place, regardless of what political party you're in or what your political views are. It's something that is an honour, and there is no greater vocation than to have your peers elect you to this place. It's something that is very, very special.

This was my 10th election. I've run in 10 elections. My record is seven out of 10, so it's not bad. I first ran in 1998 and then in 2001, missing out both times by a tiny margin, and then scraped through in 2004, in one of the most marginal seats in the country, with 108 votes. I went on to win in 2007 and 2010, losing in 2013 and making a comeback in 2016—again, scraping through—and, certainly, winning in 2019, 2022 and again in 2025. But, regardless of the margin or the results, I am, as I said, immensely proud to represent the people of Adelaide—to be their voice, their conscience, and to ensure that we listen to the electorate, that I hear the electorate, and that I bring those views to the parliament. That's our No. 1 role as members of the House of Representatives. If you look at the title, it says House of 'Representatives'. Representatives—we represent those people in our electorates. I'm very honoured to be here again at the will of the electors in the seat of Adelaide.

For someone who's been a long-term supporter and defender of multiculturalism in this country, it's great to see the changes in this parliament. I'm delighted to be part of such a wonderful, diverse parliament that has changed immensely from when I was first elected in this place. The electorate of Adelaide is a diverse community, and, when I look around, this parliament indeed reminds me of that community I'm so proud to serve and represent, where over 72,000 people—around 36.8 per cent of my constituents—were born overseas. It is a very diverse electorate, and I'm absolutely blessed to, every weekend, attend an event, whether it be an Ethiopian Orthodox Church service or a Hindu temple for a particular Hindu event.

My family were migrants. When they came here in the 1950s, I was born here. I was lucky enough to have been born here—very blessed to have been born in this wonderful nation. I know that my parents came here in 1954, worked in the lowest-paid jobs, had no command of the English language and no skills whatsoever, but they managed to make a life for themselves. Why did they do that? Because of the laws and legislation that were in place—the pillars of our democracy. And that's what we're here to do: to uphold those pillars to give generations of Australians—whether they're second-, third- or fifth-generation migrants—the same opportunities that we had. That is very important.

I'd like to thank the people of Adelaide for placing their trust in me to serve them in this 48th federal parliament. I'm truly humbled and honoured to represent them here. The Albanese government is getting to work straightaway, and we've seen legislation that went through this place at the last sitting and will go through this sitting to deliver more help with the cost of living. That's the No. 1 issue at the moment for all of us. That cost of living is something we must focus on, to make it easier for those people that put us here, as is more investment in the next generation and more support for working Australians. I'm very pleased to say that every household in Adelaide and across Australia will see $150 taken off their power bills, while three million minimum- and award-wage workers are getting a 3.5 per cent pay rise.

We've strengthened Medicare to protect the PBS, delivered generational reform to the aged-care sector and secured the future of the NDIS. These are all very important pieces of legislation being brought forward in this place. Our legislation to reduce student debt, which will wipe 20 per cent off every single student's HECS, saving students an average of about $5,000. I'm very pleased and honoured to represent the universities in my electorate: Adelaide University, the University of South Australia and, with the merging of Flinders as well, the many, many students who live within the electorate of Adelaide.

We're also investing in Australia's future in education and training. Eligible students—nurses, teachers, social workers and midwives—will now be paid during placements. If you're training to be a tradie—to help build those homes that Australia needs—there will be support there as well. The superannuation guarantee is increasing from 11.5 per cent to 12 per cent, giving more security to Australians, as they retire in their old age, that they will be able to live with dignity. Working parents will now get two extra weeks of government Paid Parental Leave—to spend more time with their children and families—and, for the first time, will earn superannuation while on government Paid Parental Leave. That is a big step towards closing the gender retirement gap.

My electorate is focused on growing our community and sporting clubs, as well as our multicultural groups, by creating housing, focusing on the cost of living and addressing important infrastructure matters around roads and transport—being a CBD seat with surrounding suburbs. I am very proud to be part of this Labor government, which takes infrastructure very seriously.

Now this is very important—climate change and energy. We know climate change is something that we are absolutely committed to—ensuring that we reduce emissions. In Labor's last term we passed strong laws to make big polluters cut their emissions and committed to 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030. We're committed to net zero and embracing renewable energy, and we've already ticked off more than 87 renewable energy projects—enough to power more than 11 million homes. That's 11 million homes which will be powered by renewable energy projects, bringing down emissions and meeting our targets in the future.

It's very important that this government is also investing in circular industries and the circular economy, with Australia's recycling capacity increased by more than 1.4 million tonnes a year to prevent more waste going into landfill. In my electorate of Adelaide, in the suburb of Kilburn—that you, Deputy Speaker Boyce, would be very familiar with—a company called Recycling Plastics Australia received $20 million in Australian government funding through the Recycling Modernisation Fund, RMF, plastics technology stream to install advanced polymer separation equipment, which will be able to recycle more plastics. They're already recycling thousands of tonnes. The project will expand RPA's existing operations—a HydroDyn cleaning and purifying hot washing plant will be installed to process 14,300 tonnes per annum of problematic soft plastics to a purity level capable of making new soft plastic packaging. It is described as the world's best advanced mechanical recycling of post-consumer soft plastics, replacing virgin resin in packaging. This is cutting-edge technology in one of the suburbs not far from the CBD. It has already been touted as the world's best advanced mechanism for plastics and will no doubt be exported to other countries in the very near future.

The government is helping households, small businesses and community groups bring down their energy bills with the Cheaper Home Batteries Program that was announced. I am pleased that South Australia has one of the highest uptakes already. This will save households with existing rooftop solar up to $1,100 off their power bill every year, and those installing a new solar battery system could save up to $2,300 a year—up to 90 per cent of a typical family's electricity bill. The Albanese Labor government is fixing that by giving all Australians a proper leg up towards the cost of a battery. That's around 30 per cent or around $4,000 off the cost of a typical home battery.

As a proud South Australian, I'm delighted to see that five of the top 10 electorates in the country for the take-up of the Cheaper Home Batteries Program are in South Australia, and Adelaide is No. 7 in the nation, with 495 installations as of 18 August. I was very pleased to welcome Minister Bowen to the electorate recently, for a forum to discuss this new program with constituents on 5 August. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank a particular group who are doing some great projects in the electorate of Adelaide, Electrify Adelaide, who were there speaking to people about the different projects that they can assist them with.

There are some great infrastructure projects taking place in my electorate. As I said earlier, this Labor government takes infrastructure seriously. In May this year—in fact, it was exactly 5 May, because I remember it was the Monday after the election—I went out with the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport in South Australia, Tom Koutsantonis, and we announced that construction had officially commenced on the non-stop South Road project. This project will allow motorists to bypass 21 sets of traffic lights between the River Torrens in the electorate of Adelaide and Darlington, saving up to 40 minutes of travel time in peak-hour traffic. The project will support approximately 5,500 jobs. So, it's not just the infrastructure; it's also the jobs being created—5,500 jobs per year during main construction, with 90 per cent of labour hours to be undertaken by South Australians, which is a great thing for my electorate and for South Australia. The government is also contributing $7.7 billion of the $15.4 billion, half the funding for this project, with the other half coming from the South Australian Malinauskas Labor government.

Another project is Marion Road and Sir Donald Bradman Drive, which is very close to the airport. It gets congested traffic, back to back, bumper to bumper. For years this has been going on. For years I've had constituents talk to me about it. Major works commenced in May on the upgrade to the Marion Road and Sir Donald Bradman Drive intersection. I just have to make a correction—when I said 5 May, it wasn't for that particular project; it was for this project, because I remember it was two days after the federal election. This is $85 million, which is being jointly funded by the federal Labor government and the state Labor government. More than 60,000 vehicles pass through the corner of Sir Donald Bradman Drive and Marion Road every day. It's a very busy intersection, and there were 28 crashes at this intersection between 2018 and 2022. So you not only fix up the bottleneck but also avoid serious injuries et cetera. This upgrade will make the journey through this intersection safer and more reliable.

Then we have Grange Road and Holbrooks Road. It encompasses three suburbs: Flinders Park, Allenby Gardens and Hindmarsh. It's a huge bottleneck as well. There's $90 million going into that. That project has started. It forms part of the $850 million package of broader network upgrades that are being undertaken as part of the River Torrens to Darlington project. These are all offshoots of that project. The intersection upgrades include two through lanes on all approaches, two dedicated right-turn lanes for traffic going from Grange Road into Holbrooks Road and travelling south. Those people that live around there will know what this means for them. It's certainly very welcome. Those are just some of the infrastructure projects.

We've had Medicare urgent care clinics. There are three Medicare urgent care clinics in Greater Adelaide thanks to this government. They're located close by in Oaklands Park, Royal Park and Para Hills. Following the election in May, there will soon be one in the Norwood/St Peters area adjacent to my electorate, which is very close. I look forward to these clinics being established in the future, which takes the load off our public hospitals. That is the whole purpose of these Medicare clinics. You have a place to go after hours which bulk-bills so you don't have to line up in hospitals, clogging up serious injuries et cetera that need to go to the emergency services, so it's very important.

We've also announced the Thriving Suburbs Program in my electorate. It's very important funding. There's a contribution for Karkungka Reserve of $3.6 million, together with the City of West Torrens upgrade to community facilities. It's a reserve project which will be called Karkungka. There's an existing reserve there, the Keswick reserve. This will include upgrades to the National Servicemen's Association building, which is housed there as well, and the former Child and Family Health Service building. The new centre will be a remembrance centre, and it will replace the existing National Servicemen's Association building and provide space for the NSA, the Hilton RSL sub-branch and other service and veteran groups to connect. The space will also be available to other community groups as residents use the programs, activities and events.

And we've got a great new community recreation facility at Cowandilla Western Youth Centre. The Western Youth Centre is a great organisation. Many sporting clubs are associated with or are members of the Western Youth Centre, and it forms part of a number of things, from judo classes to kinder gym. I'm very proud to say that, as a child, I used to go to the Western Youth Centre. We used to have Boys' Brigade. I don't know if anyone remembers Boys' Brigade and those blue uniforms. When my kids grew up, they used the Western Youth Centre. They played tennis there. They went to kinder gym there. Now my grandchildren are there at kinder gym. I'm very proud. I've seen the great work they do, and that's why we've contributed $7.53 million for this new facility. I thank Mayor Michael Coxon and the City of West Torrens for their support and their efforts in making both these projects possible—both the Karkungka Reserve project with the National Servicemen's Association and this particular project. I've got to say that Mayor Michael Coxon's a true asset to the community that he represents.

There's also the Unley cultural club through the Thriving Suburbs Program grants. We contributed $2.66 million towards the creation of a new cultural hub in an expansion of the existing Unley Museum, and the upgraded museum will provide for an increased and improved gallery space with the capability to feature national and regional exhibitions.

And, of course, there's the Hutt Street revitalisation project. This is within the CBD. The government has contributed $7.32 million towards the Hutt Street revitalisation project in the City of Adelaide. The street is lined with cafes, restaurants and small businesses, and this project will beautify the street and bring more people into Hutt Street, making those businesses more viable. I'd like to thank Dr Jane Lomax-Smith, the lord mayor, for her efforts in helping this project come to fruition.

There was also the Unley Swimming Centre, which has been electrified—not to confuse that with electrifying the water and causing damage! Basically, it was about their pumps and the energy they used. There was an announcement from Chris Bowen during the campaign of $1.055 million from this government to electrify the entire swimming centre through the electrification project, and I'm very pleased that the Mayor of Unley announced that during the lead-up to the election.

Some of the other things that we've been working on include a great announcement we made a few weeks ago about the Adelaide United, the A-League football club in my electorate, and AMES Australia, which is a settlement service for refugees and migrant communities. In other words, they've partnered to be able to use the club and its players to help settle some of our newest arrivals. A lot of them gravitate towards the club, and they feel like they're at home when they play soccer or football. You can imagine it is an extremely lonely time when you've arrived in a new country, and sport is a great facilitator in getting you into the community, whether it be through football, cricket or whatever. Adelaide United have played a big role in partnering with AMES.

Earlier this month I was joined by the Hon. Emily Bourke, the South Australian Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing; Grace Portolesi, former South Australian minister for multicultural affairs and a good friend; Catherine Scarth, the CEO of AMES Australia; and Nathan Kosmina, the CEO of Adelaide United, to announce this wonderful partnership and this wonderful foundation that will promote and assist new arrivals and people of refugee background to help settle into our communities. It's important that we make people feel part of our community if we want them to integrate.

More than most sports, football or the round-ball game allows for the joining of individual efforts through the foundation of shared passion, optimism, belief and commitment, and this ability of sport to create, connect and cement relationships explains the authenticity and nature of this great partnership between the club. It champions the efforts of its young migrant players. We've seen many players come through Adelaide United that are playing at the top level.

Thank you to everyone that assisted on the campaign, and I look forward to working hard for the federal seat of Adelaide over the next three years.

See this speech in context