Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In my first 90-second statement to this House, I want to address some of the pain that our communities feel at the moment. We all know it. Every single member of this House who goes out into the community sees people struggling. It's confronting.

There are two things that the Prime Minister said recently that I think really define how this government is tackling that. One is that his philosophy is that nobody is left behind and nobody is held back. The second thing is about when you're confronted with an unfair system. He said you can't just throw your hands up in the air and say, 'There's nothing I can do about it; I'm only the Prime Minister.' I think that those two statements really underlie the government's strategy, which is to place government back at the central point of the economy to make sure that we run an economy that is for the people and that works for the people.

There are two things. Look at the government intervening directly to save our critical industries and our critical manufacturing industries, like our smelters in Port Pirie and in Gladstone and our steelworks in Whyalla. I think it really sums up the government's commitment to getting itself back in that central role of government. But also look at the approach to public housing. Undertaking the biggest public housing build in a generation, I think, underlies the fact that there is a role for government and that people feel disconnected because the government has been disconnected from them.

See this speech in context