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

It remains a great privilege today—as it was just over nine years ago, when I was first elected to be here in the Australian parliament—to be re-elected as the member for Brand in this 48th Parliament.

I'm deeply honoured that the community I was born in, grew up in and live in have chosen to elect me for a fourth time to represent them and the wider community of Western Australia. As many know, I was born in Calista at the Kwinana Maternity Hospital that was built for the community that emerged to build and then support the extraordinary Kwinana industrial precinct, which has been integral to the WA economy since it was created in the fifties and remains to this day. I've spent much of my life in Shoalwater and Rockingham and I'm very honoured to represent my hometown here.

In March this year, Western Australians also expressed their strong support for my friend and member for Kwinana, Premier Roger Cook, and elected him and his government for another term. I want to congratulate the state MLAs in the Brand electorate—Magenta Marshall, Reece Whitby, Paul Papalia and Premier Cook himself—and I look forward to working with each of them over the coming term on continuing to build our community together. And, at the opposite end of the Perth metropolitan area, I want to congratulate my good friend and WA Labor president, Lorna Clarke MLA, who is the newly elected member for Butler.

It's fair to say federal Labor and WA have come a long way since I was first elected in 2016. On the eve of my first election, the Australian Labor Party held just three Western Australia seats in this federal parliament. After 2 July 2016, Labor held five seats in WA. In 2022, that number increased again to nine seats, and, after the recent 2025 election, Labor now holds 11 of the 16 seats in Western Australia. That support is founded on a great many things, such as trust in our government to deliver on our promises, to deal with the unexpected challenges that inevitably arise and to implement policies that reflect the concerns and needs of the community.

But it is also due, in large part, to the hard work of great candidates, their teams of volunteers and supporters and the commitment of their families. I want to acknowledge Trish Cook, the first member for Bullwinkel; Tom French, the new member for Moore; Ellie Whiteaker, our new WA senator; Tania Lawrence, the member for Hasluck; Tracey Roberts, the member for Pearce; Patrick Gorman, the member for Perth; Zaneta Mascarenhas, the member for Swan; and Sam Lim, the member for Tangney.

I also want to acknowledge those I was first elected with in 2016—Matt Keogh, the member for Burt; Anne Aly, the member for Cowan; and Josh Wilson, the member for Fremantle. I also want to congratulate Senator Varun Ghosh on his first election to the Senate after his appointment in February 2024. I also want to congratulate Senator Sue Lines on being elected once again as the President of the Senate.

I want to make a very special acknowledgement to Senator Glenn Sterle, an extraordinary advocate for northern Australia who has served WA for 20 years in the other place. I see him regularly in the Kimberley and the Pilbara doing great things, representing the long-haulage truckies that make this country tick and helping out the communities by personally driving many thousands of kilometres to deliver donated mattresses and other goods for those who need it in the north.

I want to congratulate all new members and senators. I've enjoyed the many and varied first speeches of the new parliamentarians. There are far too many new MPs and senators to mention, and I look forward to getting to know you all better as we serve together in this great place.

I do want to make a very special mention of one returning member of the House, and that's the wonderful member for Pearce, Tracey Roberts. During the election campaign, Tracey bravely shared some of the serious health challenges she is facing, but even a diagnosis of multiple system atrophy, as well as an injured ankle, couldn't stop her from engaging with the community she has worked for over two decades. The member for Pearce just kept on working hard and reaching out to people because that's who she is.

The people of Pearce re-elected her with confidence. They know she puts her community first. And it's also because she has delivered so much in just one term as the first ever Labor member for Pearce. But no campaign is fought alone, so I'd like to thank all of the amazing staff and volunteers who stood by Tracey and have supported her throughout her campaign, including, of course, her very lovely husband, Pete. The member for Pearce's return to this House is a victory for her community and for compassion in politics. I'm immensely proud to call the member for Pearce a friend, and I really look forward to continuing our work together in WA.

I want to extend my thanks to the trade union movement supporting my campaign and all of my campaigns, including Ben Harris from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, Tim 'Smoky' Dawson from the Transport Workers Union of Australia and all the great members of the Australian Workers' Union. Many of you work in the resources sector and, like my dad, work in the Kwinana industrial area.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:53 to 18:07

In continuation, I also thank delegates from the Mining and Energy Union, the AMWU and the MUA, all of whom engage productively in all areas of policy. I want to thank Sally McManus and the ACTU for their support. The union movement has always stood up for working people by fighting for fair pay and safe workplaces. I welcome their engagement on policy development just as I welcome the participation of industry and the wider community.

As the Prime Minister has noted, families often pay a high price for the long absences, travel and demands of us as elected representatives in this place. Those absences are often greater for MPs and senators from Western Australia, and, indeed, for my friend from the Northern Territory the member for Solomon and those from other areas that are a long way from Canberra. I take this opportunity to pass on my thanks to my husband, Jamie, for his constant support during the campaign and throughout my parliamentary career. I don't think it is possible to serve in this place without the support of family and friends, and I would like to take a few moments to talk a little about some people who have been very important to me and supportive of me as the member for Brand.

Toward the end of May, shortly before her 94th birthday, we said our final farewells to a wonderful woman, Adelphe King. Adelphe is my husband's stepmother. She married Walter King and raised Jamie and his sister and brothers from a very young age after the loss of their mother. I'm enormously grateful to Adelphe for being so welcoming to me as part of the remarkable and joyful extended King family over 25 years ago. Adelphe and Walter were fixtures of the historic town of York, the oldest inland town in Western Australia. They were both conservationists and environmentalists in the true sense of the word and volunteered extensively at the local tourist centre. A few months ago I attended a memorial for Adelphe at the Holy Trinity Church in York, where she and Walter had been parishioners and volunteers for many, many years. It was a wonderful, joyful and very full memorial. It says much about how highly regarded Adelphe King was in York that her contribution, and that of Walter, to the restoration of the riverbank landscape of Avon River has been acknowledged by a charming memorial by the well-known waterway. Thank you so much, Adelphe, for all your support over the years for the whole of the extended King family.

It is something of an indulgence to speak here about a constituent that you are related to. All of us who serve here know that so many of the people in each of our constituencies all around the country are worthy of tribute—the salt-of-the-earth, hardworking, caring people who make our communities what they are. One of these people was Diana Morris. Diana was a pioneer of Rockingham and Shoalwater Bay, having lived there since 1959, and she was also my mum. After finishing up on a very rainy Anzac Day a couple of years ago, I got a text from our next-door neighbours Bob and Dorothy saying that Mum had had a fall and been taken to Rockingham General Hospital, and that is where we had our last conversation. She died peacefully two days later in the wonderful care of the staff at Royal Perth Hospital, just over the road from St Mary's Cathedral, where she and my dad, John Morris, were married in 1959.

This is my very belated thanks to all the doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff at the Rockingham emergency department and at the Royal Perth Hospital for their care of our mum and of me and my brothers, Matthew, John and Peter, and our sister, Rebecca, in those moments when we, quite frankly, didn't quite understand what was happening and we had to make some very serious decisions as a family about our mum. Our health workers deal with these very intensely emotional and painful moments every single day, and there are the police officers and other workers who assist the coroner and assist families like ours who have to identify a loved one. We don't much think about all of those jobs that happen until we run into them, usually in the midst of some pretty serious grief, and I want to thank them all for what they do for our entire community. I personally want to thank those strangers who helped our Morris family in the last week of April and into early May in 2023.

Diana Morris had an interesting start in life. She was born in 1936; her name then was Diana Pizer. She was raised by her mother, Hannah Pizer, known as Peggy, and her grandparents Thomas and Mary Ann Pizer. In the very conservative Perth of the 1930s and 1940s, it wasn't socially acceptable to have a child without being married, so Mum was raised in the belief that her father had died in the war. That was not true, but it was a kind lie so that Diana had something to say that wouldn't draw scorn and judgement at school when she was asked. When Mum was born, there was pressure for Peggy Pizer to give up her baby for adoption, but my nan did not do that. Her parents and her sister supported Peggy and gave her and Mum all the love and help they needed to stay together and make a really courageous choice for the times, in spite of those societal expectations. Much has changed since then, and that is a very good thing. These were not good old days when women and families had to go through such sad subterfuges to remain a family.

Diana and John Morris built a home together in Shoalwater, and it was in this home that they raised a family. Mum lived there from 1959 until she died in 2023. She would remind me that she was the first in her family to own her own home. Her mother lived with us, and her grandparents retired from the Goldfields to social housing in West Perth, where my mum grew up. It goes to show, I think, that homeownership has not always been a matter of course for many working families in this country. We talk a lot about the importance of homeownership, and it is really important, but for many in Australia the dream of homeownership is only, maybe, one generation old and heading into its second generation, and it cannot be taken for granted.

John and Diana were both pioneers of Rockingham, having lived there since the fifties. I often refer to my mother's shop, her family drapery and haberdashery on Railway Terrace at Rockingham Beach. My office now is literally five doors up the road. Mum and Peggy worked together in that shop, The Family Traders, for a number of years. It was a much-loved meeting place for many women in the community. There was always lots of chatter and lots of laughs. It's been over 30 years since Mum and Dad retired and sold The Family Traders, and for a long time the shop itself has not been there, but locals still mention it fondly as part of their memory of old Rockingham.

Like so many retirees Diana volunteered in the community for many years. Diana, with her great friend Faye Winter, volunteered at Meals on Wheels for what seems like forever, delivering meals to those who needed it at their homes. She only stopped when her knees could no longer help her get in and out of the delivery van. I think of all the volunteers across all of our communities and reflect that, without volunteers in our communities doing all manner of things, we would not have the fine communities and support that we all need.

Mum and Dad's home in Shoalwater has been a place that all of our family have returned to again and again for over 60 years—us, our partners, our families, my nieces and nephews, their partners and their children, and, of course, all of the very many Morris dogs. I was really fortunate that my mum was able to travel here to the parliament to see me sworn in as the member for Brand in 2016 and then as a minister in 2022. She was an integral part of three campaigns, and, as I noted when I spoke at her memorial, I really lost a superb campaign asset in 2023. Diana Morris loved coming here to share in the excitement of these events and the work of the parliament. She was a fine Australian. She will be missed by many, but in particular me.

Many members and senators lose loved ones while serving in this parliament, and some of those losses are so much more tragic and heart-wrenching than the natural order of things of a parent passing. While the public often—indeed, usually—see this place as the height of contest and debate, it is also remarkably kind in the manner in which colleagues from all quarters offer their sympathies and kind affections in those very sad moments. So I thank all of those colleagues who wrote to me, or simply spoke to me about it, after my mum died a couple of years ago. It means an awful lot. I'm sorry if I never responded, but I remember each and every one of your kind wishes.

I also want to thank my ministerial office and my electorate office staff, who kept the wheels turning and provided enormous support for me and Jamie at a very challenging time in my life. They're really good, hardworking people. They care for the community. They care for the policy that we work on in this place. They care for our nation and for ensuring it is well placed into the future. I thank them for their commitment to me as an individual—and, I guess, as their boss but I hope as a work colleague—and for helping me out. I am sure that's the same for many of us here that have experienced such loss. We really rely on our teams; they're very good people.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the retiring Labor members that I had the really great good fortune to work with in past parliaments. These all retired at the election: Linda Burney, the former minister for indigenous affairs; Brendan O'Connor, the former minister for skills and training; Bill Shorten, the former minister for the NDIS and government services and the Leader of the Labor Party when I was elected in 2016; Stephen Jones, the former assistant treasurer and minister for financial services; Maria Vamvakinou, the former member for Calwell; Brian Mitchell, the former member for Lyons; Graham Perrett, who was a wonderful friend and a great travel companion when we went on some committee trips together; and the now retired senator Louise Pratt.

I would like to pay a special tribute to Louise in mentioning her. She was first elected in 2007, lost her seat in 2013 and was re-elected again in 2016—you've got to say something for her persistence! Throughout her life and parliamentary career, Louise has been an incredibly strong advocate for the rights of the LGBTQI community. Her tireless work has left a positive impact on the lives of all Australians. It has been a privilege to work alongside Louise in standing up for Western Australians here in Canberra. Her retirement marks the end of a remarkable parliamentary career, defined by tireless advocacy and passion, and I wish her and all her family the best. Bec has been by her side for many years now, and I remember their wedding—I think it was up in Broome—and their lovely young son, Jasper. I wish them well in her retirement.

I just want to reflect once more for a few moments on the election itself. As we all know, politics is a team sport, and nobody who makes it to this place has done it alone. I've spoken about how families support each of us here, and it takes a really great and dedicated team to get any candidate elected. So I want to give my deep thanks and lasting gratitude to the team who supported me, not only in the campaign but throughout my time in parliament. To all those volunteers across Brand: I want to thank you. To the supporters and branch members who keep turning out time and time again, not only to our great branch meetings but also at the polling booths and at the prepoll: your commitment and unwavering support across the campaign was truly special, particularly since it was only two months after the WA state election. I want to thank you each for your doorknocking and letterboxing and your efforts at prepoll and on election day.

And, of course, I mentioned my electorate staff and ministerial staff earlier in the context of supporting me through a personal moment, but their remarkable work in the campaign, especially that of my electorate office, was truly very special. I thank you all for that. The dedication and tireless work over the past three years of my ministerial staff were invaluable in developing policy that has really put this government in an excellent place to be able to develop further policy and implement it for the benefit of the Australian people. They're very hardworking people, very smart people, thoughtful people and, of course, very kind and generous people. And I thank them for it.

In my last couple of minutes, I want to reflect on the remarkable new members of this parliament, and there are a lot of new members, which is a really amazing thing. They have made incredibly varied speeches. They have a diversity of backgrounds—and I mean members across the chamber and in the Senate as well. Traditionally, when I've spoken on the address-in-reply, I've mentioned all the new Labor members and gone through their speech, but, quite frankly, there are too many now, and I can't do that this time. But I really look forward to meeting you and engaging in my portfolio responsibilities of resources and northern Australia. As a Western Australian, I'm very familiar with the resources sector. That might not be the same experience for others in different states. I look forward to talking with each of our new members about the resources sector—how it contributes to our economy, how it contributes to our livelihoods and how it goes towards the greater benefit of the nation. I also want to thank the new members for their great enthusiasm and for the work I know they'll do in the coming term.

To conclude, I want to thank the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. He was a great leader for us, as the party leader, when in opposition and again, as Prime Minister, in the last term and now this term. His commitment to my home state is remarkable. As Western Australian members, we could not have hoped for more. I think he goes to Perth more than I go to Perth, and I'm about an hour's drive south of Perth, so that is saying something. The Western Australian people take his commitment very seriously, and I look forward to serving another term under the leadership of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. I thank the house.

See this speech in context