As I enter my second term, I presume it is expected that I have mastered the art of a lot of things, but I would like to reflect on my previous term. There are two particularly rewarding experiences that I had. The most significant one for me was the private member's motion on breast prostheses that I moved in my first year here. It highlighted the difficulties that lots of women had once they were diagnosed with breast cancer and the difficulty in acquiring adequate prostheses after a mastectomy.
That private member's motion, of course, led to my party, the Labor Party, adopting a policy for a nationally funded program for the provision of breast prostheses for women who have had mastectomies. I would like to say again that such a program would address what is still an unacceptable situation which exists with state hospital budgets that do not provide adequate and sufficient breast prostheses for women with breast cancer. That problem continues to exist and will continue to exist until such time as this government or a future government acts to establish a national, dedicated, fully funded program specifically for the provision of breast prostheses.
My other significant experience was the work that I did as the Australian delegate to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. This work and experience gave me an incredible insight into the work of parliamentarians from around the world. I can only say that the experiences and the knowledge I gained were invaluable on a personal level and certainly on a professional level.
During the 2004 election and in the months since, we have heard much talk about family values and the importance of family life. As a woman who is both a member of parliament and a mother, I want to say that I am encouraged when I hear this discussion because that means that perhaps the political culture and traditions of this place may start to better accommodate family life. I have found that change has occurred and is occurring. It is happening slowly, but I can say that, if we as parliamentarians seek in the course of our jobs to improve the lives of Australian families, I think we need to lead by example.
It is very important to our overall democratic process that, as individuals and members of parliament, we are seen to be practising the values that we want to promote to the broader community. So I look forward to the debates around family life and values, and in particular I look forward to the examination of government policies on the basis of how they impact not just on families but on community relations as a whole, because, although the traditional family is the bedrock of our society, we have to accept the fact that there exist many different family structures, all worthy of our acknowledgement, all worthy of legitimacy and certainly all worthy of our support.
No one political party has a monopoly on family values, and I certainly will not be tolerating any situation where self-appointed representatives or advocates of `family' are allowed to operate from a narrow basis and seek to impose or mandate their views on the general community. This would be a danger to our democratic society and to the cohesion of our diverse and multicultural society.
I would like to thank the people who have made my re-election possible. Firstly, I want to thank my own family, whose understanding of my working hours and long stays in Canberra is always appreciated by me, although sometimes resented by them. I am sure that we all agree that being a member of parliament and travelling to Canberra is indeed very difficult on family life and, in particular, on young children. Obviously, as MPs we make a lot of sacrifices. I do not think the general public appreciate just how many sacrifices we do make, but I could not do this job without the support of my husband and, I guess, to a certain extent his sacrifices. In addition to his role as an academic he has taken on many new roles and I think that he has come through with flying colours. So as a former teacher I give him a big gold star. He has done extremely well and I could not do this job without his support and encouragement.
I would also like to thank my electorate staff who are very important to me and to all of us—Joanne, Ismail, Brendan, Ros, Helen, Gulay and Bronwyn. I know there are a lot of them but believe me we are operating within the frameworks here. I would also like to thank those who have moved on—Elliot and Jason. I thank them all for their tireless efforts during the time that they served in our office and during the election campaign. Of course, I want to thank all of the people who make up the Calwell FEA and the Calwell campaign committee. It is not possible to stand here without the support of these people. I am extremely pleased and honoured to have them working with me and I want to continue to work with them in the interests of the people of Calwell.
Calwell is a very diverse electorate. It is a culturally diverse and multifaith electorate with mixed demographics. I know many individuals and groups well because many formed part of my old electorate but there are lots of new groups that I look forward to getting to know and to forming relationships with. Following the last federal redistribution some 61 per cent of voters in the new seat of Calwell voted in the new seat for the first time. So the challenge for me is that I have a significantly changed electorate and, as a result, the electorate that I spoke about in my inaugural speech in 2001 has now become very different.
In the south there still remain the familiar, and I must say the much loved, urban communities of Broadmeadows, Tullamarine and Westmeadows. Many of the families in these suburbs earn their living working in either the transport industries at Tullamarine or in the manufacturing facilities of companies like Ford, Nestle or Yakka. In the east of my electorate are the communities of Greenvale, Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park. These communities have many young families and they have been typified as that mortgage belt of my electorate. The families in these communities struggle with high levels of household debt. This is a worrying phenomenon as Australia has the highest rate of personal and domestic debt in the world. With their large mortgages those people are very vulnerable to interest rate rises. I guess to a certain extent this vulnerability led to the success of the government's interest rate scare campaign during the last federal election. These families will, however, continue to endure the anxieties and pressures that inevitably come with high mortgages. And, with the Prime Minister's refusal during question time yesterday to guarantee that interest rates will not rise, I suspect that many of these families will continue to live in a state of anxiety and difficulty as they try to negotiate family budgets.
Craigieburn is a new addition to my electorate. I have spent a lot of time in Craigieburn getting to know the people and the community. In particular, I would like to note the great work of Rita McMillin of Selwyn House. She works tirelessly to run this fantastic local community centre. Craigieburn is an old community which is now surrounded by a fast growing outer urban sprawl. With more growth predicted—I think we are expecting 15,000 new people to move into Craigieburn within the next 10 years—the challenge for all of us will be to ensure that the infrastructure keeps up with community growth. In particular in Craigieburn I would like to thank the local church organisations such as the Brotherhood of St Lawrence and the Anglican Church, who form the backbone of community services, and I look forward to continue working with the church groups in assisting them with the wonderful work that they do with the community. In addition, the recently formed Craigieburn Progress Association is another great organisation and another step in community building. I want to thank Spencer and Brenda Davis for their initiative and the amount of work and commitment they have put in to establishing the Craigieburn Progress Association.
Finally, in the west of my electorate lies the communities of Bulla and Sunbury. Bulla is a very small community of only 380 people, but Sunbury is a substantial new addition to the federal seat of Calwell. Sunbury has grown from being a small regional town centre to having a population of about 35,000 and growing. Sunbury is a beautiful community, a beautiful town, and its inhabitants insist that it is well known as the birthplace for the `Ashes'. It is also becoming very well known for its wineries and the production of some of the very best Australian wines. The more established wineries of Goona Warra and Craiglee and an abundance of smaller boutique wineries make this area an attractive place for those who wish to invest in one of Australia's fastest-growing and most successful export industries. In fact, yesterday I had a meeting with a delegation from the European Union and they made the point that one in every second bottle of wine they open at the EU—I presume at dinners and so forth—is an Australian wine. So the success of our wine is phenomenal and we should be proud of that. I am certainly proud to have Sunbury in my electorate contributing to this phenomenal success.
I have met a lot of wonderful people in Sunbury. There are many great people who live and work there and who are active in the community. I acknowledge the fantastic work in particular of Ray Scrace and the Sunbury Men's Drop-In Centre who operate a woodworking shop for older male residents at the local community health centre. This facility gives many of the older residents a daily sense of purpose. The drop-in centre helps them tackle the ever-increasing problem of loneliness and depression which many older men face, whether it is because they have lost partners or are coping with chronic or debilitating illnesses. This is a great problem in the community of Sunbury. Mental health is a serious issue, not just for the broader Australian community but for my electorate and for Sunbury. I am very pleased about the government's election promise committing $110 million to mental health awareness—I certainly look forward to that, as I know we all do. This issue requires attention at the highest level. Mental health afflicts the young and the old, men and women alike. It is an issue I took a keen interest in in the previous parliament and I will continue to take an interest in it in this parliament. While I am addressing this issue I would like to congratulate the Schizophrenia Friendship Group, which today launched a kit for our electorate offices and our staff. It is a wonderful kit that gives our staff an opportunity to understand constituents who may present with mental health symptoms.
While on the subject of Sunbury, I take the opportunity to thank Ted Jarrett from the Goonawarra Golf Club. Ted is an icon of the Sunbury community who works hard to support his club. His efforts are tireless. He is a man who, though at retirement age, is still dreaming big dreams for his community and, in particular, for the development and prosperity of his beloved golf club. I am honoured to accept the club's offer to be their patron. Even though I know almost nothing about golf, I look forward to the challenges that being patron will present to me.
As we enter this new term of parliament my electorate faces many of the challenges that are typical for communities in outer metropolitan areas across the nation. I will work hard, in partnership with my community and my constituents, to ensure that their concerns are brought to the attention of the parliament. The government now has the opportunity to address many of the key concerns and issues facing our nation, but its greatest challenge will be to do this by governing in the interests of all Australians. We in the opposition intend to keep a close watch on events in this place and we will do whatever is necessary on behalf of our electorates and in the national interest to ensure that the government is in fact governing for the interests of all Australians. I represent some 85,000 people, a majority of whom did not vote for the government. Nevertheless, their lives will be affected by policies that this government implements in the next three years, and I am certain that that effect will not always be beneficial or positive.
In my inaugural speech I spoke about my commitment to our multicultural community and to reconciliation with our Indigenous communities. Unfortunately, both issues have suffered serious setbacks in recent years. I would like to make the point that we have a responsibility to promote harmony and racial tolerance in a substantial way. In the life of this parliament I aim to lend my voice and support to the advancement of Indigenous issues. My electorate has large ethnic communities and a significant Indigenous population, with Calwell being on the land whose traditional owners are the Wurundjeri people of the Coolum nation. I am proud to say that the many and varied cultural groups in Calwell work well to demonstrate how strong community partnerships can advance their cause. In the case of the Indigenous community there is excellent work being done by Koori activists working with Dianella Community Health, Best Start and the Koori Education Centre in order to tackle education, health and social issues.
Earlier I mentioned family values and the concern I and others have about narrow interpretations of what constitutes a family or family values. I believe family values cannot be defined on the basis of religious principles alone; rather, family values are also impacted upon and defined by cultural and historical traditions and practices. I spoke of the contribution that multiculturalism has made to this country. Beyond language, food and culture lies a great tradition of family values that many Australians, and indeed governments and policymakers, can learn from. I think it is important that we learn from the family traditions of multicultural, multifaith Australia. I think we should learn from the values of the extended family and how collective living, and the responsibility of caring for each other beyond the nuclear family, can be of benefit to a society that it is all too focused on the individual.
At a time when relationships break down so quickly and catastrophically, and with the youth suicide rate climbing to a level that is unacceptable, I think that political parties such as Family First, and even the government, have a lot to learn from the family values of other faiths and cultures—because family values, as defined by many people, are not the monopoly of particular Christian denominations. These lessons could be taken from the homes—multicultural and multifaith—of Australian families, and especially from the family values of our newer communities and our emerging Muslim community. Many lessons could be learnt from the honest and hard-working multifaith families living in Meadow Heights and Dallas in my electorate and elsewhere across the country. If we want to look at how the family can bring some sense to this chaotic and insecure world we live in, let us look a little further into our own neighbours' backyards. Let us learn from them and listen to what they have to say.
In closing I would like again to thank the people of Calwell for giving me the opportunity to serve them in this parliament for a second term. I want to thank my colleagues, my friends and my own family for their assistance and the support that they have given me. I am very proud to represent the people of Calwell and I hope that I will be able to serve them well in the next three years. I take this opportunity also to welcome the new members to this parliament. I was a new member in the last term; I know that you face many challenges. It is a great learning curve but it is a great honour to serve people in this parliament—so welcome. For my part, I look forward to the challenges ahead for me and my electorate.
