Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Schools) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I spent last weekend on the beautiful west coast of Tasmania with Justine Keay, Labor's candidate for the seat of Braddon. It was great to be there and to see the warm response to her evident everywhere I went, particularly in the towns of Zeehan and Queenstown, where I spent a lot of time with Justine doorknocking, at community functions and engaging with community members. I think this reflected the deep appreciation by people on the west coast of Tasmania of Justine, her determination, her compassion, her care for constituents right across north-west Tasmania, her attentive listening and her resolve to solve problems big and small.

As everywhere in Australia, there is evident on the west coast of Tasmania a lot of cynicism towards politics and its possibilities. I think the way in which Justine went about her job on the weekend, and how she went about it while she was in this place, proved a great antidote to that cynicism. She showed very, very clearly her determination to fight for everyone in Braddon. The contrast with her opponent in the by-election could not be more stark. Brett Whiteley in this place actually stood in the way of his constituents' interests. Of course, he supported the 2014 budget of the member for Warringah and Treasurer Hockey and all of its savage cuts—cuts that impacted with particular savagery on the communities of the west coast of Tasmania and that constituted a deep attack on our social compact. This issue, and particularly his support for the GP tax, was raised often with me on the weekend.

Too many people on the west coast of Tasmania are doing it tough. This was particularly and painfully apparent to me in Zeehan but also in Queenstown, despite a fantastic win by the Queenstown Crows—only 154 points!—over Somerset. I take this opportunity to congratulate them and to thank them for the warm welcome that they extended to us in their clubrooms after the game. What was made clear there, as it was everywhere I went, was that people on the west coast of Tasmania need a government on their side—a Shorten Labor government. They also need a fighter as their local representative in this place—a sincere, hardworking, passionate and effective local MP, as Justine Keay has showed she is and as she will be after 28 July.