Maiden Speech

First speech to the Australian Parliament, 15 May 1990

I would like to add my congratulations to the Speaker on his re-election. When I first entered this chamber I felt an overwhelming sense of pride - a sense of pride in having the privilege of representing the huge and diverse electorate of McEwen. I thank my family and all the loyal supporters who have made this possible. No one person could accomplish this task on his or her own. I acknowledge that a very important person of this task force, my husband, is present today.

I also felt a sense of awe as through my mind flashed the images of those great Australian figures who have spoken in this House before me from both sides of the chamber and the fantastic debates which have crucially altered so much of Australia's history. Their aura lingers still. It is a matter of pride for all of us who are privileged to sit here that we follow in their footsteps. Unfortunately, we are no longer held in the same public esteem by large sections of the population but it is not beyond us to regain the status of earlier times.

We are still a young nation not burdened by the history of the old world. We do not have the entrenched hates, the blind prejudices which have passed beyond reason to become permanent grounds for conflict and strife. In fact, this magnificent building is really symbolic of us as a nation, erupting as it does from the earth towards the future. However, it is very easy in this magnificent building, insulated from the outside world and surrounded by the mechanics and trappings of power, to forget that all of us here are the servants of the Australian people, not their masters. It is also easy to forget, when we are bombarded by economic indicators, balance of trade deficits and statistics about average weekly earnings, that politics is about humanity-about the people of this country, their needs and their aspirations.

Statistics do not tell the whole story. If you are in one of the thousands of families or small businesses struggling to survive in these harsh economic times, statistics provide cold comfort. Rising unemployment may be, to quote the Treasurer (Mr Keating), a `beautiful set of numbers' but for the people who have lost their jobs or are about to, it is nothing but disaster. Society, like justice, functions best when in balance. Today our society is way out of balance. Everyone out there in society knows that this nation is currently in deep trouble. No matter which way one looks or at what sector-the economy, the environment, health, aged care, small business, local government or roads-it is obvious that the balance is not in equilibrium and is in danger of being destroyed. I come to this place as part of a team dedicated to finding ways of restoring that balance. How we go about finding those ways is the difference between us and the Government.

Forty-seven years ago in this same debate, a great lady, Dame Enid Lyons, rose to her feet for her maiden speech. Indeed, it was the first speech by a woman in the history of the House. The distinction of being the first woman in this place belongs only to her. But as the first woman to represent a rural Victorian electorate and the first Liberal Victorian female to be elected to this House, I am taking another step along the path paved by Dame Enid and her successors. Dame Enid, with the experience of the Great Depression behind her, told the House: I know so well that fear, want and idleness, can kill the spirit of any people. But I know too that security can be bought at too great a cost-the cost of spiritual freedom.

That spiritual freedom, that individualism which is at the heart of liberalism, is what has led me into my Party and eventually to this place. Today I see in my electorate shadows of the same fears, want and enforced idleness which Dame Enid identified. As I travel around the electorate I am aware that the spirit of people is slowly being killed. Their willingness, hard work and dedication to building a future are being crushed by punitive taxation, eroding high inflation and high interest rates.

I have the honour to represent one of the most beautiful electorates in Australia-the electorate of McEwen, named after that quintessential countryman, Sir John McEwen. It spreads from the northern developing edge of Melbourne across the Great Dividing Range to the productive plains and highlands of central Victoria where the merino and beef industries have contributed to the national economy since settlement; from the former goldfields of Castlemaine through the valleys and grasslands of the Goulburn river system to the snowfields of Mount Buller and the high country of the mountain cattlemen.

Uniquely among electorates McEwen possesses no one major centre; it is a collection of small centres, each with its own character and each with its own qualities. It consists of suburbs, small towns, resorts, farms, industries and vineyards sitting astride the main road and rail route between Sydney and Melbourne, first travelled by Hume and Hovell as they opened up the interior of this country.

Fittingly, the independent nature of Australia is embodied in this electorate so aptly named after Sir John McEwen, for he was an individual of great determination and resolution. John McEwen was a great Australian nationalist who fought tooth and nail to establish manufacturing industries in this country realising that our strong rural industries would not be sufficient to carry us into the future. Long before others, he recognised the significance of post-World War II changes and fought to retain Australian ownership of our major industries. When John McEwen made his maiden speech on 15 November 1934 he spoke of the plight of unemployment and looked to new industries which might provide relief. In a time of rising unemployment, I can only quote what he said on that date: We should try to discover the basic facts upon which our national economy is founded, and search there for the root causes of this very serious problem of unemployment. Those who examine the economic structure of our nation discover the basic economic fact that we are a debtor nation. I refer in this context not to our internal debt but to our heavy overseas commitments.

Those comments are as relevant in this chamber today as they were then. John McEwen recognised the real need for new industries and today the electorate of McEwen, as indeed our nation, also needs new industries. It also needs to retain those it already has. If we are to survive the 1990s and begin the next century in good shape, we must restore competitiveness in our industries and work force by improving productivity and deregulating our wages system.  The Spanish philosopher, Santayana, wrote that `those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them'. How vicious do the lessons have to be before we learn them? How many small communities do we have to destroy before we start to count the real costs?

I can say, quite unashamedly, that I love the area that I have the privilege to represent here. I will fight tooth and nail to preserve its unique characteristics and economic viability. I will also continue to fight for the preservation of places like Mount Stirling and Mount Piper, to restore the soils and the forests, but to ensure that a balance is preserved and ensure that the rights of those who have worked on the land for generations are maintained. I have already moved to establish an environmental register in the electorate to provide information on land care groups, recycling, waste disposal, consumer advice and heritage listings.

Somehow the vision we all once had of Australia is changing. Decent, hardworking Australians are finding themselves sliding into poverty. Many of them on the fringe of metropolitan Melbourne took the responsibility for housing themselves and their families there only to find that they are disadvantaged because of an appalling lack of facilities, in particular, transport, health and child-care. I have noted the Government's program relating to these issues outlined by the Governor-General last week and I give notice to the Government that I will be pressing it on these issues.

Out in the bush things are even worse. Last Friday night ABC television demonstrated how a new poor peasant class is being created in rural Australia. People who have worked the land for many years have been hit by the twin afflictions of poor productive years and high interest rates and have been forced into poverty. But a peculiar phenomenon has emerged. Financial institutions are aware that if these people simply walked off their properties the value of the remaining assets would deteriorate rapidly, so instead the landholders are being paid a pittance to stay on not to retain ownership so that the financial institutions will lose less while the farmer loses all. The only parallel to this subsistence level existence lies in those countries where landlords hold peasants in medieval serf-like conditions. Yet this is occurring in modern rural Australia, not India or ancient China.

The people of the bush know that the Government has neglected them and so, too, do the members of the Australian defence forces. The Government's spending priorities have been on equipment rather than on the personnel who use that equipment. Recruitment and retention of personnel have never been more difficult to maintain. A corporal at Puckapunyal with a dependent wife and children needs social security to top up his wage in order to survive. Who can blame him for leaving and returning to civilian life when he can earn overtime and his wife has the possibility of finding employment?

Every one of us here must be aware that the verdict of history will not be kind if we permit this degradation of our population simply because political dogma got in the way. If Australia is again to find its balance, the talents and tenacity of these people must be harnessed and their contribution made worth while both for themselves and for the nation. Perhaps I can be only one small part of the recovery process but I aspire to bring to my job the redoubtable determination and resolution of the man after whom my electorate is named.

One of the many attractions the electorate of McEwen holds for me is that it is made up almost totally of small business people, either those who own them or those who work in them. Some of these businesses are in the small towns supplying the necessary goods and services to the local population while others are thriving rural concerns, such as the trout farm at Taggerty, the Rod Shop at Castlemaine, employing over 60 local people and exporting to America, Teson Trim Industries in Euroa, whose quality control standards are so high that it has competed successfully for tenders on the international market, or the grass seed export industries around Yarck and Mansfield, to name but a few. Numerous wineries, restaurants and tourist resorts all contribute not just to the local economy but to the national economy.

According to the Beddall report, the 750,000 small businesses account for half of all private sector employment and a third of all employment in Australia. They also generate around 30 per cent of the gross domestic product. In rural Australia they constitute almost all the private sector employment, especially as large concerns move business operations back to their main city bases and operate electronically and to remote places. Even State authorities are maintaining a policy of consolidation into larger rural centres, thus reducing the viability of some small towns.

The alternative to government help which bush people have long given up hope for is self-reliance. Already I have organised a seminar for several hundred McEwen locals to promote the development of tourism in the electorate and to provide practical, cooperative ways of putting plans into effect. Within this place I will be the voice of these people. I have a vision of a country where hard work, enterprise, dedication and the willingness to sacrifice comforts for the sake of having a go are welcomed, supported and rewarded. Right now a large part of the public feels that there is no point in working hard, investing or taking risks. It seems to them that the Government deliberately penalises enterprise and hard work. At a time when this country needs increased local production, innovation and the grit to work through these difficult times people need encouragement, not barriers.

During the period of early settlement of our country women provided the stable base for the developing society. The author, Lucy Frost, who published a collection of letters from this early period of our history, stated:

. . . the women of that time needed strong nerves, the bush was no place for a highly strung woman-no place for a nervous lady.

Neither are these times nor this House a place for a nervous lady. I certainly will not be. I hope that my contribution here will once again assist in providing a stable base on which we can rebuild our future. I thank the House for its indulgence.