Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hindmarsh is made up of people from many different walks of life and many different cultural backgrounds, with different life opportunities and settlement patterns and at different stages in their life cycle, which naturally bring particular activities and concerns to the fore. Within Hindmarsh there are large numbers of people whose background is other than English. We are blessed with many people of Italian backgrounds, as we are with those with Greek, German, Chinese, Vietnamese and many other backgrounds.

Australians have diverse backgrounds, but each community is essential in defining Australia. Thinking back to the middle period of the last century, it is difficult to conceive of an Australia without the great influxes of people of Italian background. Much of the work that Italian migrants performed around Australia in their early days may not have been particularly glamorous nor especially lucrative, and we are talking about hard, laborious work in factories, on production lines, digging trenches and pouring concrete—literally laying the foundations and building modern Australia. The very hard work that was performed by people with limited English but unlimited hopes and dreams for their new lives within Australia was essential to the development of this nation of ours.

Few populations have contributed as much and on such a scale as those of Italian origin and descent. I am not just speaking of the progress that our nation benefited from as a result of the hard work and sweat of the Italian community; I am also speaking of the more subtle things that become apparent over time which benefit the greater Australian population in an almost abstract way, in a way that is gently noticed over the years, suggesting both similarities and differences in the values and lifestyles with which we have moulded our own lives.

Whether you speak of people of Irish, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese or other descent, one thing that is shared throughout our population but which on occasion I find perhaps just that little bit more noticeable is the sense of community that most of our lives revolve around. The social bonds that come through community involvement through our churches, our schools and our sporting and business interests give us much of our worth as members of our society. Our public lives, through which we contribute with and for our neighbours, are the basis of a cohesive society, a community that cares for each other and a community that can together achieve social changes that can advantage and be used and enjoyed by those closest to us in our private lives.

In my case, today my primary method of community service is through being the representative of Hindmarsh, a position that I am honoured to be entrusted with, as I am sure everyone else in the House is honoured. Previously, my public life consisted more of coaching children’s sport, especially soccer. I was involved with the Lions Club in my area and many other community associations and the like, as are so many people around our area who have contributed publicly for many years.

It is often stated that Australia as a nation would grind to a halt if the voluntary work performed by members of the community through their local clubs was suspended for a time. These are people, community contributors, we collectively owe a great deal to. Their public works keep our communities active, vibrant and sociable. It is difficult to envisage a public person who is not imbued with and does not demonstrate a commitment to the community. As a community, we achieve things that are pleasant, responsible and economical and also things that are more structural, which enable us to better realise personal objectives that benefit the community indirectly but definitely contribute to the community in the fullness of time.

I am speaking about community activity that can lead to better outcomes for our families. One of the terrific characteristics which are shared by most people is the focus on and love for the family unit, but this is perhaps especially evident amongst the Italian community. The focus on family is something I personally relish. Our children are our lives, and I am eternally thankful for the family that I have, as is, I am sure, everyone else in this chamber. Working with and for the community takes on a deeper meaning when you have children, because the work you do and the people you are doing it for are that much more immediate. Your work in making life better for all has a very close intended beneficiary. We are working to give better life options to all, but the most important group is the next generation of Australians. I want our children to be able to do just that little bit better than we have done. It pains me to think of our children having fewer chances to get ahead than we had, and providing those opportunities is becoming an increasingly difficult task. As a parent, a father, I know the joy that children bring, the love that parents give and the pressures that parents endure.

One of the greatest challenges of young families lies in the increasing interest rates. The income that is today consumed by mortgage repayments is crippling compared with that of the past. Irrespective of the reasons for property values rising so dramatically over the last five years, it is highly ironic that at a time when families are doing it tougher than they have for years, a time when families need every available cent to make ends meet, the government introduces legislation that makes it that much harder for families to make ends meet. The legislation is, of course, the extreme legislation of Work Choices. Mortgage repayments are highest at a time when the government has made losing your job easiest and without recourse. Work Choices makes providing for your family that much more precarious.

With financial stresses, people’s focus can become more narrow and the bonds in families can become strained. The government should help secure family life, not rip it apart. I know from experience how difficult it is for parents of young children to balance work and family responsibilities. They are doing it tough, battling just to make ends meet, to provide for their children, to secure adequate income and to provide the children with the best care that they can.

I know through a recent issue in my electorate, the Kurralta Park Child Care Centre experience, how desperate families are to secure care for their children. This is not the first time that parents in the electorate of Hindmarsh that I represent have faced the very real risk of losing a service on which they have relied so much and for so long. A few years ago, another childcare centre within Hindmarsh faced a very shaky future and the parents faced the most unenviable job of finding replacement care. The community and the parents all got stuck into it. We all lobbied, pressured, and secured the childcare centre’s future. Being involved in saving the Lady Gowrie Child Centre gave everyone in the community, including me, a tremendous sense of achievement. I hope that the current situation at the Kurralta Park Child Care Centre will be able to be resolved just as satisfactorily as the Lady Gowrie Child Centre situation was resolved a few years back.

Child care is highly important for working families, as is quality education throughout our children’s school years. We do not want a public school-private school divide. We want all options to give quality schooling to all children. Whether students are educated in a public or a private setting, their development as young adults and their engagement in civil society and the workforce are our priorities. From what I see and hear around me in Hindmarsh, our teachers are doing an exceptional job.

The social conscience of the next generation is such that they themselves call into question the policies of the current administration. The Howard Liberal government is totally out of step with young Australians, and I know this because they tell me. This is what they say. Young Australians are more concerned for the future than the Howard Liberal government is. They are concerned for future jobs, they are concerned about climate change and they are concerned, through their campaigning, about poverty and making poverty history. Young Australians are looking to the future. The Howard Liberal government is looking to the past. Young Australians will work hard for a better future. The Howard government’s nuclear obsession will not help prevent climate change in the limited time available to us.

These same people are also crying out for opportunities to develop skills on which they can build their futures. Instead, they face degrees for up to $200,000 and limited opportunities for alternative training. Those who secure training are on slave wages. Young people are being given a worse deal by the Howard Liberal government. Young Australians deserve more choice than massive university debts or limited access to vocational courses. Under this Howard Liberal government, fewer younger Australians will develop high-paid careers. Where families’ breadwinners are finding their income more precarious under Work Choices, people starting their working lives in low-skilled, perhaps casual, work are finding it even more difficult to get a fair deal. Young Australians are most at risk under the Howard Liberal government’s extreme and unfair industrial relations system. Young Australians are being exploited at work like they never have been before.

This is not the life I would want for any young Australian trying to make his or her way in the world. We focus on our families and try to provide them with the best opportunities, but for all the good work that is done in and around the community by parents with a very clear stake in our nation’s future this Howard Liberal government is continuing to let them down.