Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

B MITCHELL () (): It's good to be back again talking about the Address-in-Reply and all the wonderful things that have been done by this government since coming to office back in May. We were talking about GPs and the change in distribution priority area for places like Wallan and Whittlesea and other MM 2 areas of McEwen. We started doing this before the election by going to the Senate committee, where we actually had local doctors talk about the problems they were facing—the shortage of GPs and the inability to attract and retain GPs—because of the changes that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments had made over the previous three years. We promised to fix that, and we did. We addressed that straight away to make sure that we could have more doctors and more opportunities for doctors in our country areas. As I said before, it ends the hypocrisy of what is being said by those opposite that we're taking doctors out of regional areas when in actual fact the decisions that we made mean that we can have more doctors in there.

Part of the problem we've had with doctors also has been due to the pandemic, which is nothing unique to us. It's right across the globe and right across the nation. I was sitting there yesterday as we listened to the contrite speech by the former Prime Minister, Treasurer, health minister, Minister for Home Affairs, minister for Industry, Science, Energy and Resources and, potentially, environment minister—those titles are a bit of a mouthful!—as he claimed that he was the sole reason for getting through the pandemic. I'll say this to the member for Cook: all elections since COVID have shown that in times of need people turn to Labor governments—in South Australia, WA and Queensland and again in Victoria, as well as in May on a federal level. It just goes to show that people know that when they're in trouble they can rely on us to get things done. They can't rely on those opposite, and that's what we had.

I want to turn to some thankyous for people that came out and did so much to help stop the scourge of an LNP government continuation: my family, who support me every day, especially my partner, Lisa; Carmel Barrott, who we call the McEwen matriarch—I reckon she's on par with you, Deputy Speaker Claydon, as someone you don't cross—our office team of Adam, Gareth, Jeni, Cath, Josh, Kobe and Rod; and to our pre-poll warriors, like Deb, who stood there every single day. Every single day she had to put up with the member for La Trobe and the member for Hume coming down there, while all the time they were hiding the power prices and sitting there saying, 'Power prices will be cheaper under an LNP government', something they've never apologised for. They've never apologised for deliberately hiding this—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Try to speak for one minute without doing a sledge. Just try it!

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, it's hard, because you give us so much to sledge about. Let's face it: incompetence, rorts, corruption—that's all it is.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! We had a discussion only minutes ago—you might not have been present, Member for Page—about the interjections across the chamber.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm done, Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That would be much appreciated. I give the call back to the member for McEwen.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly with the member for Page. He is done. He is cooked, as we say in this day and age. I thank our pre-poll warriors: Deb, Wendy, Sasha and Dylan. We had 150 supporters come out on election day, including branch members, unionists and community members. In fact, we even had two members of the Liberal Party. That's how much it meant to people, to get rid of that mess that was the former government.

I thank our central support through the state ALP and national ALP: Chris Ford, Nicola Castleman and Jet Fogarty. I thank Young Labor, including a man we call the Stig—he was there; that's young James McDonald—and his dedicated team. They would get up in the morning and letterbox drop, and do everything that needed to be done. Thanks to my friends in the trade union movement, the TWU Vic Tas Branch and the CFMEU. To Muhammad and the AEC team in McEwen: thank you for everything you did. At times it was testing, but they worked hard and delivered a fantastic, clean, open result and kept communication going so well. I also want to thank—this might brighten up the member for Page—the leaders of both major parties for coming to my electorate during the campaign. I say this, particularly, because no matter which leader came I have no doubt it delivered votes to the Labor Party.

We are now in the middle of working to build a better future, something Australians can now be proud of—a government that works for them, not for themselves. I am humbled and grateful to the people of McEwen for putting me here again. I'll guarantee the same as I have done at every election: every promise we make, we deliver on. We've done that. Compare that to the record of those opposite. Every promise they've made, they've broken. Now it's up to us to continue cleaning up the mess that we've been left with from the former government.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you know, the address-in-reply is a follow-on from the Governor-General's address when parliament resumes after an election. People start by acknowledging the election campaign, their own team and thanking people as part of that process. I know we've moved a few months on from that.

Before I talk about what I normally would say in my address-in-reply, I want to talk about the event that happened in my community six weeks before the election was called. My community, especially the Lismore region and lower Richmond area, the villages of Coraki, Woodburn, Broadwood and Wardell, was hit by a devastating flood, which was bigger than anything we'd ever seen.

We as a river-flat community know floods. We know how to deal with floods. We've seen lots of floods. To give you some reality on the peaks and what we're used to, the two previously recorded floods in Lismore were 12½ metres. The water overtops the levee at about 10½ metres, so you know the water's going to come into the CBD and flood certain areas there. Everyone has their flood plan, whereby they will lift stuff above 12½ metres to be out of the flood area. Most of the houses in north and south Lismore as well, because of historical floods, are built above the 12½ metre level, so they know that while water will go under their houses et cetera they'll be okay.

When they went to bed that night it was very wet, and everyone was very nervous. The BOM was saying that the flood would peak at 11½ metres. So you had people going to bed saying, 'Okay, it's wet; it's going to flood, and we'll wake up tomorrow and have a clean-up to do.' But they were confident that they were safe. That was at about 11 at night. It was dark. That's stating the obvious. At about one or two o'clock in the morning the BOM revised its peak to 13½ metres and then to 14½ metres. That meant that, during the hours of the night that it was pouring with rain, water started to go into people's houses—and people didn't know it would do that. There were around 2,000 houses, so that's thousands of people whose lives were in danger.

Water came into the houses, filling them. People had to clamber onto rooftops and into roof cavities to save their lives. The emergency services weren't expecting this either. The SES had moved people up from Newcastle and other areas to look after the event. There were things that had been done, but there were things that had not been done for this event—no-one knew this was going to happen and no-one had prepared for it. I was up at three or four o'clock in the morning, when I saw the river height adjustment. I saw young people, mainly 18- to 35-year-old men, almost instinctively get into any water vessel they could find, whether it be kayaks, jetskis, boats or tinnies. They just went out and started saving their neighbours' lives—literally saving their lives, with great danger. This wasn't water that was rising slowly; this was a torrential river that was at a great rate of knots, so it was very dangerous for them. Four people died that day, and it was a miracle that only four people died through this event.

I myself was getting calls or texts from people saying: 'Kevin, I live at 10 Such-and-such Street. I'm on my roof. I need help.' So I was just sending all these text messages, with their addresses, through to the SES and to the other emergency responders and the first response teams, as were a lot of other people getting those messages. So that was—stating the obvious—a very traumatic night. The water then continued downriver, and the stories for Coraki, Woodburn, Broadwater and Wardell were similar. Again, the tinnie army, as they were dubbed, went out and literally saved our families' and our friends' lives that night and that day, and they will never be able to be thanked enough.

We then had the situation where a lot of people were piling almost ad hoc into evacuation centres. There were a couple that opened up in Lismore straightaway—one at the university—and then centres opened in the towns downriver. Again, this was still a crisis situation. We were blocked off—even the major towns of Lismore and Casino were. I mention Casino. They too had hundreds of houses that went underwater, and it's almost not acknowledged, because there were so many other things that happened in the region.

So all these major towns were locked off by floodwater for many, many days, so food was becoming an issue. I had a phone call from a friend of mine who was in the Coraki evacuation centre on about Tuesday—no food. There were 200 or 300 people at this evacuation centre, and they had no food. She said, 'Kevin, I think a riot's going to break out.' So we were all just doing everything we could, with phone calls and getting the private networks that we had around, to make sure that the community survived and had the basics to get through this, as quickly as we could.

I do want to acknowledge the Prime Minister at the time, as well as the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Deputy Prime Minister and the emergency management ministers. At five o'clock on the Monday morning, when I realised what was going on, I contacted the head of the SES and the head of the 41st Battalion in Lismore, and I said, 'Tell me what the situation is and tell me what you need.' I immediately set up some chat groups and just said, 'We need aerial support from the ADF by lunchtime or people are going to be drowned in their homes,' and that happened by that lunchtime. Then, of course, the ADF arrived as soon as they could on the Thursday, once the floodwaters subsided.

This was, again, a devastation that we'd never seen. What happened then, once the water did subside, was that people were going back into their houses or their shops. This wasn't just a normal flood where people would wash stuff out. The water was 2½ metres higher than had ever been seen before in our region. It had taken out insulation. It had taken out roofs. It had just destroyed places, including people's homes. Many, many people had only the clothes on their backs. Thousands of people were like that. For days and weeks, I was at the evacuation centres every day, and for quite a while there were literally hundreds of people sleeping in a hall. You might have a family of four there and literally a drug addict there and another family, all just sleeping with each other in a big sports facility such as a basketball court. That created its own challenges. Again, because we were isolated, the community on its own did this. As I said, the ADF couldn't get through till the Thursday. We were cut off from petrol—even the petrol tankers—and the grocery stores were running out of food as well. So it was an amazing effort by the community.

Then, obviously, after the water subsided the ADF arrived and the recovery began. I forget how much rubbish there was, but it was hundreds of tonnes. It took six or seven weeks for the rubbish to be collected from the street. So what was happening was that people were literally just throwing their contents off their balconies or verandahs; the ones who had built on stilts were just throwing it out of windows. It took six to eight weeks to collect just from the roadside. People then had nothing in their house. They had nothing except for the clothes on their back, and they were minimal. They went to their houses and literally threw everything out. There were thousands of people with nothing in their houses. Then the recovery began.

It's going to be a slow recovery. After the event I spoke to a lot of people who have been associated with events like this and they said, 'Kevin, this will take time.' I can see that. We're now eight months on. I think this is going to be a five-year recovery. Thousands of people are still living in caravans or camping in their houses because it is taking many months for the insurance claim process or to get building supplies and/or builders to repair this. To date very few people are back in their houses at the same standard they were eight months ago.

Over 1,000 CBD businesses have been damaged. If you walk the streets of Lismore, Woodburn, Wardell, Broadwater and Coraki, you see that, out of every 10 businesses, only two or three have recovered to an extent to be open. Many still aren't open. This is a big journey we're taking together. We'll get there. We are a very resilient community. It's going to be a multi-year journey.

We are also waiting for CSIRO to do a flood mitigation study for the whole of the catchment. It has never been done before. That is a $10 million study. They will come back with engineering solutions for flood mitigation. We will have to implement whatever recommendations they make because every government—whether local, state or federal—has to make sure that their people are safe and feel safe in their houses or businesses. That's where the community was at at that time.

Mr Deputy Speaker, being an MP yourself, you know that in those times as an MP and public leader you are exceptionally busy. There are lots of demands. There were more than usual as we were trying to design grant schemes. Some grant schemes just rolled off the shelf, which was fine, but others had to be designed, given the nature of the event.

Five or six weeks after this event, while we were still under such stress and trauma, the election was on. I'll just talk about my staff. One staff member's husband lost his business and another staff member's mother's house got flooded. Everyone was either directly or vicariously traumatised by this, including my staff. Five or six weeks after this the election was called. We were under immense pressure. Our office was flooded as well. We were in temporary accommodation. I literally said to one of my staff members, 'You go and look after the election because we're too busy.' We just had to maintain doing the job we had to do, given the state our community was in.

At a time like that we really couldn't focus a lot on the election. We had one staff member devoted to that while we were doing our job for our community, who were undergoing a very stressful situation. I'm very grateful that, in the election, my community re-elected me with an increased margin. It was a very humbling experience, given the conditions and what was going on for our community.

Obviously the Lismore local government area, the lower Richmond local government area and Casino need to go forward. For the duration of this parliament, the next three years, my focus as the MP—and I've worked with the new government; I acknowledge the new government have announced a number of programs since they were elected—is on the recovery. It's about getting people back into their homes. It's about getting people back into their businesses. We will do that. During the election we said that we'd take one day at a time and we will get back into our homes and businesses.

I am very positive. I think our journey is going to be a long one, as I said. I'm very positive that with the recovery, the rebuild and the flood mitigation we will do when CSIRO reports its findings that our community will be safer than it was before. We are a beautiful area and we are a wonderful community. We will get back to that.

Besides the recovery, there are some projects I'm really excited about. There are lots of grants out there—farming grants, small business grants and grants to help people get back in their homes. We announced a house-raising, land-swap and buyback program. Again I acknowledge that the new government went halves with the state government in that program that was announced just a month or so ago. I acknowledge the Prime Minister was there that day to announce that.

That's a major focus, but in a different light, some of the electorate isn't as badly affected by this, so there are a lot of positive things happening. Within Lismore itself we're doing a major upgrade of Oakes and Crozier oval. There are going to be some really exciting developments that are done, besides the recovery. One I'm very excited about is a rail trail. We live in a beautiful region, the north coast of New South Wales. There are going to be some great developments made like that, and eventually that will hopefully go from Casino all the way through my electorate, down the hill into Byron Bay and then up the hill on the other side all the way to Murwillumbah. I honestly believe that will be a global drawcard, the rail trail, and there has been some money has been announced for that. The build for that has starting at both ends, so I'm very excited about that.

In the region of Kyogle, a wonderful part of the world as well, we've done a massive bridge renewal program, a program that was announced by the new government back in 2013. It has been a great program. We've done a lot of work with Kyogle on that, and I look forward to working with them on that. In Casino we're doing some wonderful upgrades of the swimming pool and also the showground. We've upgraded the saleyards. It now has the second highest turnover of cattle in the state. That's a wonderful asset, and we'll be doing more work in regions like that.

Going further south to Grafton—wonderful. If you've never been to the Clarence Valley, go there. It includes Grafton, being the capital of the Clarence Valley. You go downriver to places like Maclean, and then on the coast you've got places like Yamba and Iluka and some very exciting things happening there. There's the riverside precinct upgrade and a lot of other things we've announced over the years that will be built there as well.

Further south we go onto the northern beaches of Coffs Harbour. I actually have sought leave on Saturday morning. Sorry, team; I'm hoping I won't be there on Saturday morning. I acknowledge the member for Cowper behind me too, who had input into this. We're opening a $24 million sporting facility there that we announced a year or so ago, so there are great things happening down on the northern beaches as well.

The other thing is, as we moved into opposition, I acknowledged the Australian public's decision. They say the Australian public never gets it wrong, so we obviously now as opposition reflect on that. We reflect on the things that we did. We reflect on the good things and the good government that we were, but we also reflect on how we need to improve or why we didn't win overall. So we will do that, and we will hold the new government to account. As an Australian citizen—forget the fact that you're an MP—you always want the government of the day to do well, because if that government of the day is doing well, our economy and our country are doing well. But we as an opposition should politely, sometimes maybe not as politely as we should, hold this new government to account, and we will.

I will note that one of the things that I'm very proud of, having been a member of the previous government, is the unemployment rate we handed over to the new government. We handed over an economy that I think was the envy of a lot of the world. We'd been through a lot of challenges through COVID and other things, but when we handed over the reins to the new government, the economy was exceptionally strong. The unemployment rate was at a low that hadn't been seen since the early 1970s. We, through COVID fatalities and through any other measurement that you want to look at, had done quite well. That was obviously with the assistance of the Public Service, and I acknowledge them and the assistance we had from the health authorities and our nurses and primary care workers, who did amazing work.

Now we live in a world that has some strategic geopolitical challenges. I do acknowledge the new government. As shadow trade and tourism minister I think that some of the things they've been doing there have been very positive, and I acknowledge them—also on some of the foreign affairs issues.

But I will say that I think the new government has in some ways broken faith with the public. I think one of the major ways they broke faith with the public is the IR laws. I have run my own small business and talk to many small businesses, and with all due respect to the new government, you never, ever said you were going to do what you did. You never went to the public and said you were going to bring in the multisector and multilevel bargaining that you have. In fact, you could say that one certain minister misled when he was asked that question. He's now trying to deny that. We will hold you to account. It's our job to hold you to account. We want the unemployment rate to stay low. We want our small businesses to be prosperous. We want our children to have a better future than us and better prospects than us. I think with these IR laws you are putting some of that at risk. I think you're sending us back to the 1970s with these IR laws. You're changing back some of the changes that Hawke and Keating made. On that level, we will hold you to account.

I am also personally very disappointed about the cashless welfare card abolition. I grew up near and have spent time in one of the communities that had that card. We talk about closing the gap. I firmly believe that the abolition of that card is placing women and children at great risk. I personally believe that alcohol fuelled violence is going to increase in those communities. I think the ideological obsession the now government has about personal liberties might sound all well and good in an elite, high-level, academic-type discussion, but that means nothing to the women and children who are now in personal danger.

That being said, I congratulate the new government. I do, in my own way, wish them well for the benefit of the Australian people. I'll say to my electorate: our journey is long, but we'll do it together.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is my sixth term in this place, and it's an honour and privilege to represent the people and communities that comprise the electorate of Blair. I have to say that the previous government was unlike any other government I've experienced, and the previous term was unlike any other. We had lockdowns, wearing masks, attending parliament virtually, working from home, travel restrictions and border passes—you name it. It was unlike anything I have previously experienced. Sadly, droughts, bushfires and floods are what we have previously experienced and, sadly, that experience was in my electorate. Troops were returning from Afghanistan. We have had people struggling to find or afford a home in which to live.

For me, the highlight, apart from increasing my margin in a marginal seat, was seeing Labor returned to government after nine years in opposition. The 2022 election was a significant event in Labor's history. I want to thank the people of Blair for putting their faith in me to continue to represent them in our federal parliament. Blair is one of the fastest growing regions in the country, and we need to invest in the jobs and infrastructure of the future. It's a future that's coming very quickly in terms of the needs of our area.

The election of the Labor government will deliver more than $82 million in local commitments to the western corridor. It's called the western corridor because it is west of Brisbane. This includes a number of initiatives for the booming greater Springfield area that will deliver Blair, together with the electorate of my neighbour the member for Oxley and the Speaker, $12.6 million for the Springfield BioPark to advance medical manufacturing. That will support up to 1,100 jobs in the Ipswich and Springfield region.

There is $3.5 million for a new Indian cultural centre. We don't have one in South-East Queensland. There is an Indian cultural centre in most capital cities in the country, but there's not one in Queensland. There will be one located in Springfield. I want to thank Jim Varghese, the Indian community and so many people who made that possible. There's $3.4 million for the Ipswich-to-Springfield rail line business case. This has been asked for by the Ipswich City Council. It has been committed to in the budget. This will be important.

Over the weekend—and I must congratulate the Melbourne Demons—the Brisbane Lions AFLW team tragically lost. But it was a great day anyway because we opened the new stadium, the Brighton Homes Arena, in Springfield. But we saw the challenges of roads being unfinished and pedestrian management issues. We saw the fact that we really need that rail link to be extended from Springfield out through Redbank Plains, to Ripley, to Yamanto and then back to Ipswich—an alternative spur. That would be critical.

In that area, Springfield Central State School will be provided $100,000 to upgrade their facilities. The playground area for the prep students is very old, and it's a very small area. That money will be provided, and it's being provided in this budget.

These commitments build on a range of transport and community infrastructure projects that we have committed to across Ipswich, Somerset and the Karana Downs area. They include $20 million to update the North Ipswich stadium—we call it the North Ipswich Reserve in Ipswich—which will potentially allow us to host NRL and A-League matches in the future. The A-League, in my view, wrongly decided not to grant the licence to the Western Pride some years ago. We got to the penultimate round but fell short and, sadly, the Brisbane Jets' bid for the NRL licence was rejected in favour of the Dolphins' bid.

One of the criticisms of the bid that was made was the fact that we didn't have a proper stadium. I think this $20 million will go a long way towards kickstarting that. The Ipswich City Council has previously said they will put in $10 million and I've called publicly for the council to put that $10 million towards it. I call on the Queensland Labor government to kick in some money as well, particularly with the Olympics coming up in the next decade. It would be a big boon for Ipswich to have an AFL stadium in the east and, in Springfield Central, a proper stadium that would be akin to Dolphin oval or, indeed, Parramatta stadium. That would be a big boon for football in Ipswich—and not just football, which we called soccer in my childhood; rugby league and rugby union could also be played at that particular stadium.

We've also committed $4 million to the Ipswich Showgrounds. This is absolutely critical, because the showgrounds are the main evacuation site for people in Ipswich and surrounds, and we saw the inadequacy of the ablutions block there. There weren't enough showers. There weren't enough toilets. Hundreds of people can stay at that particular site in any given flood situation. Tragically and very sadly, during my period of time in parliament and in my lifetime, we've had four major floods in Ipswich, which have impacted adversely not just the property of the people of Ipswich but their lives and their mental health. We've also had loss of life in our region. Of that $4 million, $1.5 million will be used for that purpose. It comes under the money that we're providing in the Disaster Ready Fund, and I thank the minister, Senator Watt, for that particular commitment.

There's $10 million for the planning stage of the final section of the Ipswich Motorway. That's the section from the Centenary interchange through to the Oxley roundabout. The Queensland government wants money for that, and we're providing additional funds in this budget for that. That's the final stage. One hundred vehicles a day go through that section of the Ipswich Motorway. It's the final, missing leg that needs to be done. The Queensland government wants to do it, and we're putting money in the budget for the planning stage of that. It's really important.

There's $2 million for a committee sports hub. The biggest high school in my electorate is Ipswich State High School. I want to congratulate Ipswich State High, as I have done before, for being undefeated. Their senior boys team won three cups this year. They actually won the NRL cup as well, beating a Sydney based team. That's not easy. I can tell you that it's always great when a Queensland team beats a New South Wales team at any sport—particularly in rugby league. It's great that they were undefeated. I congratulate nine of their team for getting NRL contracts as a result of the work that they did. Congratulations, Ipswich State High.

We're putting $2 million towards a committee sports hub there. That'll provide additional basketball courts. Basketball is a booming sport in Ipswich. It has seen growth of 50 per cent in the last 18 months. That funding will be important for Ipswich State High. The Queensland government will bring forward decisions in relation to that sports hub and that sports hall. There are other sports that will benefit from that. Volleyball, futsal and other sports will also be able to use it. These are sports that are often neglected in terms of their attention and their funding.

A couple of other schools in the local area will get funding. Just across the road from Ipswich State High is Brassall State School, which will get $60,000 for a new prep-safe playground. Honestly, at the moment, their playground looks like it was built when I was a child; it's so old. There's also $15,000 for upgrading an audiovisual system for Karalee State School.

One of the most important things in terms of flood recovery and resilience in my area is the money we're providing under the urban rivers program. That's $3 million that will help in terms of flood resilience and improving water quality and environmental values. We don't even have rain gauges or water gauges in some of our creeks. Unfortunately, there's repair required in those areas. That is a very, very important commitment that we're making.

I've been campaigning for the $5 million for the veterans hub for years. The previous government's candidate, back in 2016, made a commitment for a veterans hub and failed to carry it out. I wrote to then minister Dan Tehan about it after the election. They said, 'You're not going to get it.' In 2019, we committed to seven veterans hubs. The coalition committed to six and deliberately missed out Ipswich. We're going to deliver one. Even during the last election, they couldn't commit themselves to a veterans hub in Ipswich. So we're doing that.

The new Medicare urgent care clinic to take pressure off Ipswich Hospital is really important as well. And I'm looking forward to the new Head to Health mental health centre, which will be based in Ipswich. There'll be a spur up in Kingaroy. But that's really, really important. There's $2.5 million for the Kambu Health service for our local Indigenous community. Many years ago, I got $1 million for the Children and Family Centre to be located there. They cater for about 12,500 patients, but they need more rooms. Kambu Health service really does almighty work. They're going to relocate the Children and Family Centre out to Amaroo, which is near Silkstone State School. They've got a prep area and a kindy area not far from Silkstone State School. That will make a difference. There's $1 million for the upgrade of the facilities at the fast-growing Ripley Valley Football Club and $500,000 for Ipswich hockey, including irrigation and lighting, and $20,000 for a new toy library in the Redbank Plains community centre.

In this term of parliament, I'm going to work as hard as I can to make sure we progress the business case for the Cunningham Highway and the Amberley Road interchange upgrade. I know the member for Riverina was involved, when he was the minister for infrastructure, in the $170 million. There was bipartisan support for that, by the way. The business case is now being done with the federal and state government. There's been a bipartisan approach to that particular upgrade. It's needed from a federal government point of view. I think the state government made a terrible mistake in taking it off its priority list. They've now put it back on, which is a good initiative. They finally saw the need for it. The RAAF base at Amberley is located there, and 5,500 people work at the RAAF base at Amberley. We've got to get the infrastructure right in that area. I'll be working as hard as I can to make sure that happens. It helps my electorate. It also helps the member for Wright, who's sitting over there. It helps his constituents because they go through that interchange all the time.

There's also the Mount Crosby Road interchange. There's a business case being developed by the Queensland government with federal and state government money. That, of course, has been bipartisan as well, with funding from the previous government, and we have committed to continue that process. So there are those two important interchanges—one on the south side of Ipswich at Amberley and one on the north side at Mount Crosby. This is very important for my constituents, and I want to see real solutions in this term of parliament.

I want to thank a lot of people, too. I want to thank the people of Blair, as I've said, for the work they have done. I'm very pleased that this government has taken up the commitments I made as the shadow minister for veterans affairs and for supporting so many initiatives that I announced during the federal campaign. I pay tribute to the tenacity and bravery of advocates for taking action on veterans health and veterans suicide, like Julie-Ann Finney, Karen Bird and Nikki Jamieson. The bravery and commitment they've shown to our veterans and their families is exemplary.

There are a number of people I want to thank. I want to thank the traditional owners of my area, the Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul people, and pay my respects for the work that they do and thank them for their tens of thousands of caring for country in my area. First Nations people comprise five per cent of the population in Ipswich, higher than the Queensland average of 4.6 per cent and the Australian average of 3.2 per cent. I'm proud to be part of a government that's committed to due recognition of treaty and truth and voice for our First Nations people.

I want to thank the branches and the unions who supported me, and the local residents and community activists who supported me on the ground. I want to thank Julie-Ann Campbell, the former state secretary of the party in Queensland and Zac Beers, our assistant secretary, and I want to thank the new state secretary, Kate Flanders, for her ongoing support.

The federal Queensland results don't reflect the great support and direction that we took at the state level, but that's politics for you. I want to thank a number of Queensland party organisers—Mitchell, Isaac, Izzy and Luke—for their work on the ground and behind the scenes.

I want to thank the unions as well. I particularly thank my union. I've been a member of the Services Union for a very, very long time. Thank you to Jen Thomas and Neil Henderson for their ongoing support and to all those members who came out to stand out on booths in the pouring rain in Springfield Central, like Justine, Rebecca, John and Jack. I thank the plumbers union, who've provided incredible assistance over a number of years to me. Thanks, Tom, Rian, Michael, Justin, Luke and all of the plumbers who did letterboxing, put up signs and worked in prepoll and on election day. Thanks to the TWU and especially Justin out at Tarampa and Lachy, who came up from the Gold Coast with his partner to work all day in a polling booth. Thanks to the Shoppies, the AWU and the meatworkers union in Queensland. The only union I've been a member of apart from the Services Union is the meatworkers union, and I think I might still have my 1979 meatworkers union ticket in the back of a drawer somewhere. There are hundreds of branch members across Blair, and I want to thank them all. They were the backbone of the campaign.

I thank the local branches from Somerset to the Springfield area. I want to thank my campaign director, Madonna Oliver, for her relentless work ethic, her wise guidance and her strong leadership. Blair has over 50 booths, and Madonna told me in the lead-up to the election, 'We'll have the best booth roster ever.' COVID tore through the electorate, and there was also a pretty nasty impact from flu across our people on election day. Thanks to the volunteers—so many of them. I want to thank Madonna's husband, Glen, a retired Army warrant officer who provided great insights into veterans issues and practical support.

I want to thank Chris Forrester, my former office manager and my mate. He's been a friend of mine for many, many years, and I appreciate the work and the guidance. We adopted what I've described as the Forrester strategy to get re-elected.

Thanks to Nick Hughes and Janice Cumming, the treasurer and the secretary of the Blair federal electoral council, who ensured the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted. Thanks to Ian Fraser, who became the high-vis master, ensuring that teams of people were standing on street corners, engaging traffic and passers-by, from August 2021. He was ably supported by a group of people who call themselves the 'cartel' and who promoted the member for Oxley and me: Neil Bennett, Vince Atley and Martin Grandelis, with the incredible support of Neil's wife, Judy.

Thanks to Peter Duffy, Pye Augustine, Rob Cox, Paul Whewell and so many others. I want to acknowledge Nayda Hernandez, who provided tremendous assistance in engaging the diverse cultures across Blair and Oxley, as well as providing additional volunteers from among her family and friends. A big thank you to Cate Oliver and Nicole Chapple, who are known as the prepoll whisperers. Together with Rhonda Nolan, they built on the great work of Peter Duffy in getting the booth rosters together. Thanks to Michael Watkins, who worked with Ian Cavanagh, Michael Pattemore, Tyler Brennan and many others to get signs up across the electorate. Michael Watkins transformed a ute into a mobile billboard and became a regular troubleshooter in the campaign

Thanks to the Ipswich Trades Hall crew, including Ipswich Councillor Jacob Madsen and Cameron Jeppesen. They transformed the spiritual home of the Labor Party and the labour movement in Ipswich into a staging place, and of course there was an amazing election night party there. I want to thank the branch members across the area. I particularly want to thank the state members Charis Mullen, Lance McCallum, Jen Howard and Jim Madden for the work they did.

Thanks to the volunteer base. I want to thank people in Toogoolawah like Beryce Nelson, who used to be a member of the other side of politics. She helped me out a bit. The Toogoolawah booth was staffed entirely by community members—people like Charlie and Jade Lewis, along with people like Carolyn Barker. Thanks to Arthur Needham in Karana Downs, Geoff Beattie in Glamorgan Vale, David and Jackie Martin in Ipswich, and all the regular and first-time volunteers.

Big thanks to Clair Parsons, who kept the electorate office going, served on the campaign team and liaised with party officers on so many issues. During COVID, Clair ensured my office made tens of thousands of calls to constituents while keeping the administrative things running effectively. Staff member Chris Condon provided exceptional advice and assistance in veterans affairs issues, and I'm pleased he's staying on in the office and providing policy, communications and constituent support. Janice Cumming is the face of the office to constituents and very much loved in the electorate. I think if she ran she'd probably get 99 per cent of the vote. Thanks to my casual staff over the last few years, including Grace Forrester, Shonna Lye—congratulations, Shonna, on the job you got with Mark Dreyfus, the Attorney-General—Laura Ketter, Terry Kent and Ed Uzelin.

Big thanks to all in my family for their support. My wife, Carolyn, has been a great support and has endured a relationship with me since 1983. Despite her own health battles, she has provided ongoing family support. We are now empty nesters. I am glad that I have raised two daughters, Alex and Jacqui, who are Christians, feminists and Labor Party members. My wife and I have begun a new adventure being first-time grandparents following the birth of our grandson, Joshua, to my daughter Jackie and her husband, Andrew.

To my brothers Regan and Darrin and my friends and confidantes together with Darrin's wife, Claire, and their son, Will, who provided great support in Kilcoy and Mount Kilcoy. LNP members know my family very well and always treat them well on election day. The LNP and Labor people up in those country areas always get on very well—even though they are a bit mistaken on the other side!

Big thanks to my mum, Joy Butler, and her husband, Rob, for their ongoing support and home cooking. My mum is like the godmother of the Labor Party in Ipswich. I'm sure the Speaker will testify to the truth of that. Her cooking is amazing, she is fantastic and we love her dearly.

In closing, I want to thank my colleagues, particularly those shadow ministers who visited my electorate and my colleagues with whom I spend so much time in Canberra. More than my colleagues, they are my friends who share similar values and desire for a better future for our constituents and for the nation, who believe in social justice, equality of opportunity and a fair go for all. That is what I believed in all my life.

I remain energetic, enthusiastic and excited about representing the people of Blair for another three years. I look forward to the coming term and getting much needed projects I've referred to going and continuing to work hard to fight for a better future for our community, because we certainly need it.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And a good assistant minister!

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

It is such a privilege to be here in this House this evening, representing the electorate of Brand, as it has been, of course, since I was elected in July 2016. Although the federal election this year was almost six months ago, there are an enormous number of people I need to thank for their help during the campaign and for the help and support they continue to give me as a member in this place.

The election earlier this year was the third federal election for which I have stood, and I was enormously pleased and proud to have the overwhelming support of the people of the city of Kwinana and the city of Rockingham. I will continue to represent them, as I have since 2 July 2016, and I thank the whole community for the trust they have placed in me, to be their representative in Canberra.

To my husband, Jamie, who's actually here today—he's the lone person in the gallery! Congratulations! It's a rare thing that people sit around at this time of night watching us. But thanks, Jamie, for your constant love and support—emotional support and very practical support: the kind of support that involves building 500 yard-signs in an evening after a hard day of campaigning during the election. Thanks for always being there for me, for now nearly 23 years, and for wrangling our little friends, Tim, David, Bennie, Ziggy and our old mate Blue.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are they your children?

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

No, I don't have children; I have dogs. Blue was an 18-year-old poodle-cross that campaigned with us through two campaigns. He was a great campaign dog. Sadly, we said goodbye to him forever last month—good old Blue.

Though the pandemic produced many challenges, team Brand rose to the challenge of helping to elect an Albanese Labor government. I say to all those branch members who selflessly gave up their time, to our local community organisations and to the various volunteers who turned up and made tireless efforts on the pre-poll booths: I appreciate all that you did for me and for the Labor Party once again. And I want to acknowledge some of the difficulties on the pre-poll—not from our main competitors, the Liberal Party, but from other, minor parties that were terribly badly behaved on the pre-polls. I do thank the members of my party, the Labor Party, but also our friends in the Liberal Party, who were all very decent and ran a fine campaign—obviously, mine was better!—and were very collegial. But some of the other actors in the campaign were just terrible. So thanks to all those who withstood some of those behaviours.

To the wonderful team in my electorate office who joined volunteers at the 6 am train-station handouts, the after-work mobile offices and the early morning market stalls: I want to thank you. I could not have run in this campaign without you and the amazing effort you all put in. We had a wonderful result in Brand—a significant increase in support. I want to thank the wonderful team.

I thank, for their support, the WA state members; the Premier, Mark McGowan; the Deputy Premier, Roger Cook; the Minister for Police, Paul Papalia; and the Minister for the Environment, Reece Whitby, whose seats all make up the seat of Brand.

I'm going to mention our new campaign dogs, Ziggy and Bennie, and all the other office dogs that made our lives a bit more fun during tense times: Layla, Muddy and Wombat. Sadly, Muddy has now left us forever, too.

But into our team we did welcome a new human member: little Benjamin, the newborn son of my chief of staff, Laurence, and his wife, who is also the WA Labor President. So we welcome Benjamin to team Brand. Obviously his membership details will be ready to go and imprinted on him as soon as is possible! I think he's not yet at the age for membership, but we can wait.

At the election, Western Australians demonstrated very clearly their support for an Albanese Labor government. In addition to holding Brand, Fremantle, Burt and Cowan with increased majorities, Labor won four more seats in the House and one additional Labor senator—and it was nearly five extra seats in the House. I've been enjoying working with my new WA colleagues, who bring unique backgrounds and experiences to our very strong team. The Western Australian people made it very clear: they wanted a federal government that would listen to them and work cooperatively with their state government.

The WA voters had had enough of the tiresome attacks from Clive Palmer, from former senior cabinet ministers and from the former Prime Minister of the former Liberal-National government. Calling Western Australians 'cave people' and comparing the state that is responsible for the underlying strength of the Australian economy to the 'hermit kingdom of North Korea' was deeply insulting and entirely unacceptable.

When governments change, people lose jobs. It is the toughest part of this contest of elections. I acknowledge those dedicated electorate officers across the seats of Curtin, Hasluck, Pearce, Tangney and Swan, who served their communities during the terms of the former members. I would like to acknowledge the public service of those former members, Celia Hammond, Christian Porter, Ken Wyatt, Ben Morton and Steve Irons. Each of these MPs served their electorates in the state of Western Australia in various capacities, as cabinet ministers, chairs, members of parliamentary committees, members of their party and local members of the House of Representatives. They each deserve appreciation for their work and public service over many years.

I would like to congratulate the new Labor member for Pearce, Tracey Roberts. The member has always been a strong advocate for her community, sitting on the Wanneroo City Council since 2003 and as mayor of the city for 10 years. As president of the WA Local Government Association, she helped elected officials better understand their communities. I know Tracey will serve her constituents well, and I look forward to seeing her continue her advocacy in this place.

I congratulate the new member for Tangney, Sam Lim. The member for Tangney has done it all and seen it all. He grew up in Malaysia in poverty and strained circumstances. With the love and support of his family, he worked hard to become a police constable in the Royal Malaysia Police before leaving to become a dolphin trainer. He then moved to WA, joined the WA Police Academy and went on to win police officer of the year for his work in diverse communities during the height of COVID. He has secured a better future for his family in moving to Australia, and it demonstrates how much we have to learn from our magnificent and generous migrant community.

I want to pay tribute to the new member for Swan, Zaneta Mascarenhas, an engineer, mum of two young kids and now an MP. The member is from Kambalda and her father was a nickel miner—the nickel that ends up in the Nickel West refinery in Kwinana, in my electorate. Like many others from our state, she wears her steel capped boots with pride and has spent much of her professional life working in the resources sector. She spent the last 12 years working with industry to develop practices to lower emissions and, in doing so, saw firsthand the need for leadership and genuine climate change policies at a federal level. I know she will bring a great understanding of her constituency to this place.

I congratulate the new member for Hasluck, Tania Lawrence. She has lived in Mundaring for 10 years, in the heart of her electorate. Her years of experience in policy, governance and negotiation in the public and private sectors will make her a very effective member of parliament. She understands her constituents' challenges, and we are already seeing her valuable contribution in this area and many others.

I want to welcome Labor's third senator from WA, Fatima Payman. Senator Payman's story is an amazing one. Her father is from Afghanistan and, as a refugee, spent time in immigration detention before eventually moving the rest of his family, including Fatima, to Australia. When they first arrived, he worked around the clock as a kitchen hand, a security guard and a taxidriver. He instilled in her the values of hard work and perseverance, and she now represents hardworking people like her dad and other hardworking Australians who are doing all they can to make ends meet.

I welcome the first Labor member to be elected to the South Australia seat of Boothby for 73 years, Louise Miller-Frost. Louise has devoted her entire working life to making a difference in people's lives. As the member for Boothby, she is working to ensure that her constituents never experience the financial hardships that her grandparents suffered. I will resume my comments at a later hour.

Debate adjourned.