Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The last election campaign feels like a long time ago now. I don't think it would be hyperbole to say that our particular campaign in Wills was one of the most difficult campaigns—remarkable in some respects—in recent Australian political history. It was tough campaign; I think that's the best way to put it.

On that, I do want to thank a number of people who made such an amazing and remarkable commitment to such a tough campaign. All the Labor members, all of my staff, all of the supporters, all the people who were part of that Wills campaign—I want to say a really deep, strong thank you to them for everything they did. They should take great pride in the effort they made and in the commitment, the passion and the belief that they kept. We did it together. A lot of people wrote us off, with respect to winning or being re-elected in Wills. Then there were people who kept the belief. They were true believers, in many respects.

We did it against the odds. We did it in the face of what could be considered a barrage of sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We prevailed together because of those people who were so committed. I say thank you to each and every one of you, because you never gave up, you never took a backward step and you never stopped working for Wills. I say thank you, for us to be able to represent the people of Wills and work for Wills. There are a lot of people to thank. They know who they are, and I'll come to some of the individuals in a moment.

One of the key themes in the campaign—particularly at the national level, all the way at the top—was the theme of kindness, compassion and respect. These are important values, and they were articulated regularly by our prime minister during the campaign, before the campaign and at key moments. Part of the respect aspect was that there was this culture war and a debate about the acknowledgement of country. But acknowledgement to First Nations people is a profound mark of respect. Because of the work we do in this nation, we seek a more perfect union of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians across what is an ancient land. That respect is important. The work we do as a Labor government for the peoples of Australia right across this continent—whether it's to uplift First Nations peoples, whose ancestors have been here for over 60,000 years, or whether it is to support newly arrived Australians who've been here for 60 days—is about giving every single Australian an opportunity to fulfil their potential.

All the volunteers, staff, Labor members and Labor supporters who worked on that campaign, I think, understood the core of that, which is that we are here and we have a special privilege being here, as members of parliament, to try and uplift the people that we represent, to give them a better life. Of course, you can't do that unless you win elections and get re-elected, and it is the work of those people—those volunteers and those supporters—that makes amazing victories happen. They dedicate weeks, months and years to victory, and they do it in the smallest possible ways but in the most important possible ways: doorknocking, calling on phones, phone banking, and putting up signs and corflutes in front yards across the electorate. They work at prepoll—which was brutal, sitting there from 8 am to 6 pm every day for over two weeks—and they work on election day as well. They are what makes our democracy tick. I think all the members of parliament, whatever their political stripes—whether they be from whatever party they belong to or whether they be Independent—understand that the work these people do and the commitment they make forms the guts of our democracy. It's what makes it tick as well.

We did a lot of doorknocking and a lot of calling of people—tens of thousands of people—over that period of time in engaging with our community. As I said, it was a tough campaign, and we faced what were very significant obstacles over a long period of time. There was a redistribution. We can't fault the AEC; they're independent from us and they do their thing. But that cut the margin by five or six per cent in my electorate. We faced a very strong campaign from the Greens political party, throwing pretty much everything at us, including lots of money and resources and a full-time candidate, for over a year. That's all normal; that's fine.

But I wanted to just touch on something that wasn't fine and wasn't acceptable, and that is the violence and intimidation that we experienced and that many of our volunteers, supporters and staff experienced as well. Threats against staff and volunteers that were made at the prepoll, including death threats, are not normal. That's not acceptable and should never, ever be acceptable in our democracy. Physical violence and harassment of that nature are absolutely unacceptable. Every person in this country has a right to participate in our democratic processes freely and without risk of violence or intimidation of that sort. That is, I think, fundamental to our democracy as well. Our democracy is built on the idea that we resolve our disagreements through debate and voting and not at the end of a sword. I think the length of the table in the House of Representatives chamber is the length of a sword, or longer than a sword, so that you can't reach over and do harm to your political opponent.

The right to protest, though, is something that I've publicly stated again and again is a fundamental democratic principle and a democratic right of every Australian citizen. Every Australian has a right to freely express their views in public protest, and we should always support that 100 per cent. That's what I've tried to do. But I think it's important to note that with that great privilege in our democracy comes obligation as well—that people don't cross the line into attacking someone because of their ethnicity, faith, gender or sexuality, or whatever attribute, and they don't personalise in that respect. But they can be free to express any view they want, and we can be free to disagree. It's navigating that difference that I think makes our democracy work. It's not just here in this place—this is the pointy end where we navigate difference in robust debate—but every day within our society and within our communities that people must find a way to get through their differences and navigate those differences without resorting to attacking someone else because of who they are.

I would like to say that our campaign—and I can speak for the many people who volunteered and were part of that—rose above some of these petty hatreds that we experienced. I again want to thank those people for being able to conduct themselves with such grace and respect in the face of such unacceptable behaviour. It is not right for my staff to be subjected to physical attacks where they basically had to be escorted by police out of their own electorate office. These are young men and women who are working every day to help people have a better life, as most MPs would understand. The work we do is to help people with their visas, with NDIS, with Centrelink or with whatever it might be. They're helping people. They don't deserve to be spat at or surrounded by a mob and to have to have a police escort to leave their own office. They don't deserve to arrive at their office to find chemical fumes from a hole drilled into the back of that office by activists the night before and to have to evacuate our electorate office for six to eight weeks while a hazmat team sorts it out. They don't deserve that. I don't think any of us as MPs should be subjected to this kind of hate speech, but I want to really emphasise that our staff should not be subjected to that, nor should our volunteers be subjected to that.

Ultimately, one can make the point that the voters rejected these disgusting tactics. This even goes for those people who didn't vote for us. So many people who I spoke to said, 'Well, Peter, I like you, but I'm voting for the Libs'—or, 'I'm voting for the Greens'—'but we think what's happening is disgusting.' I appreciated those people speaking to me in that way. This is not a question of whether you agree with the politics or the party or whatever; it's a question of what kind of society you want to live in and what you think is acceptable. There were many, many good people who did not vote for me, who I represent, who made the point to me that they didn't accept what was going on. I thank them for talking to me about that. The other point I want to make is—and I would hope that the results in overcoming some of what we faced sends this message too—that this kind of campaigning doesn't work. It's not a blueprint for success; it's a blueprint for failure and condemnation. I hope that message is heard.

When you get re-elected, you obviously have a lot of commitments that you made, and it is all about being able to deliver. One of the main things I was talking about during the campaign is the fact that being a member of the Labor Party, a party that can form government, means that we can actually deliver on the commitments that we make to the community. We made some incredibly important commitments for the next three years, and that will make a difference to the lives of the people in Wills, the electorate I represent. It also shows the power of being able to form government and deliver for Australians.

I'm very excited about the brand-new Medicare urgent care clinic that will be set up in Coburg. Expressions of interest opened just the other day for sites, and that clinic will take pressure off emergency wards in hospitals. It will take pressure off the public hospital system's emergency departments by treating locals for urgent but non-life-threatening issues like cuts, burns and breaks. We've all been in that situation where you need more than a GP but less than an emergency department, and this is the gap the clinic will fill.

I also was very pleased to be able to commit $4.5 million for upgrades to the Fawkner netball courts. That sounds like a lot of money for sports, but I can tell you that that community, the Fawkner Netball Club, has built something quite special. It has grown over the last couple of years, and I've been there for the journey with Grace, Jade and everyone there. They've brought in girls and boys—but mainly girls—from so many diverse communities to play netball and to be part of something, to be part of a community. It's a sporting club, yes, but it's also somewhere you go where there's a lot of love and community. It's so important for young people to be physically fit and healthy and play sport, but it's also important for their mental health to have those social connections. There are so many places in our society where there's less and less of that—fewer people are going to mosques or churches or temples or whatever, fewer people are volunteering, fewer people are involved in Rotary clubs—so sporting clubs are still that bastion of community spirit. That's going to make a big difference to the entire team there at Fawkner Netball Club.

I also was very excited to announce $3.7 million for the Linear Parklands in North Carlton, North Fitzroy and Princes Hill. As soon as Princes Hill became part of my electorate, Yarra City Councillor Ken Gomez and others were onto me straightaway about how desperately they needed upgrades to Linear Park, and I was thrilled to announce that funding at a community meeting in April.

But our commitments for my electorate don't stop there. We're delivering $3.3 million for the Gillon Oval redevelopment, and that is an important one, because John Curtin—our great Prime Minister John Curtin—actually played football for the Brunswick Football Club at that oval. He also sat up there in the stands when he was a member of the selection committee for the Brunswick Cricket Club. So it's a very famous and historically important place. Upgrades are desperately needed for all the sporting clubs there, and for all the boys and girls and seniors that play there. Again, it will bring that sense of community. We supported lots of local community groups as well.

Funding for the environment is so important, such as the $1.9 million for Merri Creek, which is the border of my electorate. Thankfully the AEC didn't change that one; it's still there. They can't change the course of the Merri Creek that much; it's a natural feature. It's also so important that future generations can see and enjoy the local flora and fauna along Merri Creek.

I've always said that the best and most important thing about being a member of parliament is serving the community. Service is the No. 1 objective of what we do—serving the people you represent and making a difference to their lives. That's why I'm so excited to be part of this second-term Albanese Labor government. The Prime Minister talked a lot about kindness. If we can keep that as our guiding star in this second term, where we look at all the policies that we're developing and trying to debate and all the rest—and that's great—we'll hopefully improve them through the parliamentary processes. But kindness and compassion for others will remain central to what we're about and why we're doing what we're doing—kindness in the sense of being able to help people who are vulnerable, the kindness of helping those who are struggling and can't help themselves, and kindness to those who just need a bit of a helping hand, to give them the guidance to fulfil their potential. These are, I think, the ways that these values can be so instrumental in the work that we do.

So whether it's getting people into homes, whether it's cutting their HECS debt by 20 per cent, whether it's tackling the climate crisis or whether it's making GP visits free, what does that stem from? It stems from our desire to help people and to demonstrate compassion and kindness in what we do and why we do it. There's going to be a lot of work to do in the next three years. For me personally, that will be reconnecting as well as building new connections with the communities that I represent, and battling those intergenerational challenges that people face. I'm up for the challenge and I know my team is up for the challenge.

Lastly, it is a great privilege to be sworn in and appointed as Assistant Minister for Defence. I was reminded of my place in the pecking order by my 10-year-old daughter when she asked, 'What was your first trip like?' I said I went to RAAF Base Pearce in WA, which is like in Top Gun; it is where we train our fighter jet pilots. She said, 'Oh yeah, that's interesting.' Trying to impress her further, I said I'd gone on the PM's plane and, when I walked down the tarmac, all the military saluted me. She asked, 'Why'd they do that?' and I said it was because they have a protocol where they have to salute the Minister for Defence. She replied, 'Settle down, dad; you're just an assistant minister.' So she put me in my place! But it is an important responsibility and a real privilege to do this work in defending our national interests, our national security and our way of life and supporting the Australian Defence Force in the work that they do.

I'm particularly keen and excited to be working on things like humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. I've already started to do that work as well. I note our place in the world, Australia's role in the world and the responsibility that we have to make our contribution to the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific, because that security and stability is where our prosperity as a trading nation flows from, and the ADF play an instrumentally important role in ensuring that stability and security in our region and maintaining that rules based order, which includes adherence to international law and human rights. So the work that our men and women in uniform do—the humanitarian assistance they provide, the security work that they do and the defence of our nation and our interests—is of such critical importance, particularly in such a volatile period as the one that we're facing. But they're up to the task, and it's our responsibility to provide them with the capabilities and assets they need to do their work.

In conclusion, there's a great movie called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Some of you might have seen it if you are over 50 or maybe 40. It is a great film. My little kids also said to me—

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