Inaugural Speech
Tuesday 9 November, 1999
Hon. G. W. JENNINGS (Melbourne) -- I am proud to be part of the incoming Bracks Labor government. The election of our government was a surprise to most commentators and many people in the Victorian community, and a shock to the majority of members of this house. The election result is something we all have to grow into and come to terms with.
During the first sitting of the house last week I delved into the standing orders and at one stage contemplated asking you, Mr President, to invoke standing order 44, which would have removed strangers from the chamber.
Such an order would have left few members in the house apart from yourself, Mr President, and the learned Clerks, because it appeared all honourable members were feeling strange on that day as we were starting to become accustomed to our new orientation following the enthusiastic shift from the left to the right of the chair or the understandably reluctant move from the right to the left.
The government has been elected with an extensive program. The program was outlined in the Governor's speech last Wednesday and it is the subject of my address-in-reply today. I will highlight some aspects of the government's program to indicate the breadth of commitments made to Victorians.
The government wants to restore public confidence in Parliament and government by introducing a new era of openness and accountability. Labor believes Victorians are citizens of the state rather than merely consumers.
As such they deserve the highest standards of accountability and the equitable provision of quality services. To work towards those ends Labor will restore the independence of the Office of the Auditor-General and enable it to conduct audits in its own right. Labor will enshrine the independence of the office within the Victorian constitution.
Labor will similarly restore the independence of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Labor intends to immediately introduce legislation designed to allow greater access to public documents by amending the Freedom of Information Act. Soon it will introduce legislation to reform the Legislative Council to have proportional representation. That will allow it to become an effective house of review.
Labor is committed to ensuring that all citizens are treated equally with honesty, dignity and respect. Last week the government spoke of its belief in the state growing together, not as a series of competing postcodes. Labor recognises the need to act immediately to rebuild Victoria's regional and rural communities and to forge new partnerships with local government. Labor wants to work in partnership with the private sector to create better transport links that will see for the first time provincial cities properly connected to Melbourne.
It will allocate funds to facilitate a fast-rail upgrade to Bendigo, aiming at an 80-minute link to Melbourne, to upgrade the Traralgon line, to continue the fast-rail into Ballarat to cut travel time to under 60 minutes and to reduce the rail travel time from Melbourne to Geelong to 45 minutes. Labor wants to ensure that Victorian provincial cities thrive, attracting new residents and new industries.
By similarly working in partnership with the private sector the government will contribute to a rapid transit link from Melbourne to the airport. Labor recognises that building the whole of the state will require the specific targeting of services into struggling suburbs and towns, which will create opportunities for all Victorian communities to realise their full potential. The government will provide funds for community infrastructure projects in areas of high unemployment. Labor's objective is to generate 2600 jobs every year for three years.
In partnership with the private sector the government will create jobs for 4700 new apprentices and trainees. During a four-year period it will subsidise 2500 disadvantaged and long-term unemployed young people into additional training places.
Labor has also developed a four-year comprehensive program to provide quality services and restore pride and public confidence in Victoria's school and hospital systems. Labor is opposed to the privatisation of Victoria's state schools and committed to a high standard of education for all Victorian children. It will reduce class sizes to a maximum of 21 children for all grade preps and years 1 and 2. Labor will provide extra support for small rural schools by introducing shared specialist teacher programs.
The government policy does not come at the expense of supporting the non-government sector.
Labor will commit additional funds for needy non-government schools. The Bracks government believes Victorians deserve decent health services based on need rather than capacity to pay. Its first effort in restoring confidence in the Victorian health system saw Labor immediately cancelling the privatisation process of the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre. The government will now immediately review public hospital casemix funding and reopen 290 hospital beds across Victoria.
I am particularly proud to be part of a government that as a priority will be taking immediate steps to address the unacceptable levels of death and injury in Victorian workplaces. The government has made commitments to the working people in this state that it will introduce legislation to restore the right of seriously injured workers to sue at common law.
The objective is to successfully support employers and workers to eliminate risks and accidents in the workplace but the government is prepared to put all employers on notice by introducing a new crime of industrial manslaughter in Victoria.
I view all working people across the state as an essential part of the constituency I represent in this place, as I do all the people of Melbourne Province, the electorate I represent on behalf of the Labor Party. Like all electorates in the Legislative Council Melbourne Province is a large electorate that comprises four state lower house seats. My electorate straddles three federal electorates and four amalgamated municipalities. The profile and boundaries that make up this house are often cumbersome and rarely describe a natural community of interest. This is one of the prime reasons that reform of the Legislative Council is warranted and I look forward to debating the relative merits of reform in this place in the next few months.
By raising such issues I do not intend to demean the people of Melbourne Province or the intrinsic value that it brings to Victoria. Indeed, Melbourne Province is a vibrant part of the Victorian fabric. I would like to quote one of my predecessors in this electorate, Evan Walker, who eloquently described his electorate 20 years ago in his inaugural speech to this house. He is reported at page 2137 of Vol. 344 of Hansard of 18 July 1979 as having said:
Melbourne Province is the heart of the state of Victoria; it encompasses the City of Melbourne and the complete ring of inner suburbs. It reflects the extremes of our society; great wealth and its associated commercial and cultural development, and abject poverty and its physical reflections.
This province houses the state's great institutions of justice, government and the public service; it is a Labor province and will always remain so. It incorporates two of the nation's largest and most prestigious tertiary education institutions; I refer to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the University of Melbourne ...
This province is the heart of the state's and the nation's commerce and industry and it houses the nation's great worker representative organisation, the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The province incorporates the state's great shipping and rail terminals, the headquarters of the state's large media outlets ... and its renowned cultural institutions -- the National Gallery, the State Public Library and museum, to say nothing of its theatre, opera, ballet and musical heritage.
We bask in the well-deserved reputation as one of the world's most beautiful 19th century cities. We enjoy individual public buildings of great elegance such as the one we are in, and city street-scapes of the Victorian era unrivalled anywhere ...
Melbourne Province also encompasses some of the community's worst examples of social dislocation, of human degradation and economic injustice. Amidst the symbols of wealth and privilege which surround us are areas of grinding poverty, of real housing shortage, of derelict school facilities, of high levels of pollution and frightening levels of unemployment.
Twenty years later Evan's precise prose has stood the test of time and place. In the intervening period Evan himself went on to make a significant contribution to this house and to government.
He made a lasting impression on the ongoing shape of the City of Melbourne, particularly in the opening for development of the precincts of Southbank and Docklands.
In 1999, while the electorate of Melbourne Province exists, I wish to give it some life and reason for living. I want to engage with the residents of Melbourne Province in exploring the potential to get a regional and community approach happening across the electorate. During the 1990s the forced amalgamation of local governments caused stress and anxiety within many communities. However, it also released the potential for councils to reach a critical mass and to achieve great things. The sophisticated community plans implemented by Labor councils within my electorate take account of the social, environmental and economic aspects of the communities. Those plans have helped to fill the social planning vacuum that has occurred during the past few years.
I will outline a few issues that may be advanced by using an urban regional planning approach across the province. I envisage a regional approach to employment that addresses existing pressures on manufacturing jobs and the looming threats of the goods and services tax to the hospital and retail sectors. The government must facilitate greater links between educational institutions and businesses to stimulate job skills for the future. At the same time there are reasons to be excited by the opportunities Docklands presents in construction, entertainment, design and technology.
It will be necessary to militate against the environmental and planning costs of City Link -- a somewhat over-engineered but yet-to-be-water-proofed project that links the north of Melbourne Province to the south. Traffic impact will be extreme across the province. Clearly the major environmental and social concerns of the residents of Melbourne Province will need to be monitored.
Labor has already flagged and will be happy to explore public transport solutions, including the facilitation of a rapid transit link to the airport.
As part of a comprehensive plan to address the tragic problem of drug abuse in our society, Labor will trial medically supervised injecting facilities in consultation with councils and communities. I hope to work closely with communities in my electorate to establish at least one of the facilities in the province. The work will be supplemented by the facilitation and ongoing overview of the expert committee announced by the government yesterday.
All of my working life of 20 years has been in Melbourne Province. During that time I have developed a solid, progressive framework that enables me to consider and consult on most political issues.
Following a background of five years in youth and social work with the Aboriginal Health Service in Fitzroy, I worked in the Victorian health department before commencing my connection with the trade union movement. In the mid-1980s I worked for the Australian Railways Union on projects including Metplan, the last integrated growth plan for Melbourne's public transport network. At that time I became an active member of the Labor Party's social justice policy coordination and budget coordination committees.
During Labor's last term I worked as an adviser to Kay Setches, John Cain and Joan Kirner. My responsibilities were mainly in the areas of social policy and the environment. At that time many of Labor's achievements in those fields were second to none across the country. However, many lessons were to be learnt from the experience. I have dedicated the last decade of my life to moving the Labor Party forward and seeing it reclaim its political will and sense of purpose.
To do that Labor had to confront its lack of confidence and the lack of courage of its convictions that bedevilled it for much of the 1990s.
I agree with the sentiments of the German politician Karl Heinze Hansen, who in 1978 said in the German Parliament:
A people not prepared to face its own history cannot manage its own future.
Labor entered the 1996 Victorian election campaign with an inability to carve out a coherent reform agenda, without clearly defining what it had learnt from its last term in office from 1988-1992. However, by the 1999 election many of the critical lessons had been learnt.
Now Labor has the wherewithal to say that it governed well for the best part of a decade, yet is honest enough to recognise that between 1988 and 1992 the people of Victoria lost confidence in us and we lost confidence in ourselves.
Every month for over seven years during the Cain period Victoria recorded the lowest unemployment rate, but at the end of its term the government found itself floundering in the worldwide recession. That was compounded by the additional effects of Victoria's manufacturing base being exposed to the global economy. Labor -- which treated the environment, kids, the aged, and people with disabilities and psychiatric illnesses better than they were treated anywhere else in the country -- was pilloried because it spent more than the national average, yet it delivered much more to its citizens.
During that time when state revenues were falling through the floor it struggled in vain to maintain unsustainable promises to keep state taxes and charges down. It was overcommitted and carried levels of public sector debt that were viewed internationally as no longer acceptable. Today the government knows that proper financial management is fundamental to giving Victorians the good government they expect and deserve.
It is committed to tough financial principles and a framework of fiscal responsibility that is centred on the restoration of the powers of the office of the Auditor-General. I am confident that during this term the government will demonstrate it can govern in a financially stable and secure fashion while still nurturing a caring and enriching life for all Victorians.
During, and certainly after, the election campaign both ends of the Victorian parliamentary political spectrum have insisted that things will be done differently in the future. The English playwright and screenwriter, Harold Pinter, once wrote that the past is a different country and they do things differently there. That will be the story of Victorian politics as Victoria moves into the next century. Harold Pinter has always written in a sparse manner with value placed on every syllable and nuance. That is a heavy burden for a writer to bear over time, and honourable members may be aware that for many years until recently he suffered from writer's block.
What a tragedy to be so laden by your method as to be unable to demonstrate your skill and insights for the world to see and hear.
In some ways Pinter's experience has been Labor's experience. In 1999 we in the Victorian Labor Party remembered how to use our craft. We developed a brief for our campaign that concentrated on defining leadership as properly addressing the issues that matter to ordinary people in their daily lives. Some might think that that was simple to deliver, yet it was probably the same sort of brief as that given to Alexander Downer a few years ago entitled 'The things that matter'. Politics is sometimes reduced to the capacity to crystallise the bleeding obvious, but the art is in doing it prospectively rather than retrospectively.
Today many people are trying to rewrite the sorry tale of the failed republican referendum at the weekend. Perhaps I am one of them.
However, I thought it was pretty clear that the referendum would fail; its fate was sealed by the end of the Constitutional Convention, which had determined the scope of the question to be put to the Australian people.
Labor's success in the Victorian election was a victory for solidarity and clarity of purpose. Its campaign team, the parliamentary leadership and all members of the party and its affiliates deserve congratulations. I want to single out a few people: John Lenders, Andrew McKenzie, Bill Shannon and Matt Viney, and their respective teams. Thanks to those people who stood up and said that we had to get our house in order. Thanks to those people who led to the instigation and the implementation of the Dreyfus review, including Mark Dreyfus, QC, himself. Thanks to all those ALP members and supporters who go to meetings, letterbox and hand out in the good and bad times. Being a member of the Labor Party is not a fashion accessory, and sometimes over the past few years we have not looked that flash.
I congratulate Glenyys Romanes, Bronwyn Pike, Judy Maddigan, Richard Wynne and Carlo Carli and their teams of helpers who assisted in getting them elected and who helped get me elected. I thank Carlo, Lynne Kosky and Alex Andrianopoulos for their support in getting me here. I am particularly pleased that Alex has been elected Speaker in the other place.
Mr President, I want to put on record that I take pride and comfort from close personal and working relationships with decent unionists from many different unions throughout Victoria. In particular I would like to thank the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union;
the Australian Services Union, private sector branch; the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union; the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; the Electrical Trades Union; the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union; the Textile, Clothing, and Footwear Union of Australia; the United Firefighters Union of Australia; and the plumbing division of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union of Australia, for their ongoing support.
I sincerely thank my friend Peter Bourke, the Secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, for the support and encouragement I have received from him over many years.
I would like to pay tribute to three outgoing members of this house: Barry Pullen, Caroline Hogg and Pat Power. They represented the Australian Labor Party with distinction.
Barry Pullen's strengths as a member of Parliament were his overriding commitment to social justice and an ability to consider key policy issues and process. His major contributions to Parliament and to his period in the Labor government were the development of longer term strategic policy directions in housing, the environment and transport. He also made a significant contribution to the establishment of the timber industry strategy in the mid-1980s.
Caroline Hogg demonstrated extraordinary patience and goodwill to all who came into contact with her. She was a member of great depth, understanding and compassion. I can only hope to emulate her ability to successfully negotiate outcomes and progress issues in Parliament.
Pat Power, who played a vital role in my introduction to the trade union movement, was one of the most passionate members of the house in his broad commitment to the Labor movement.
It is a disappointment to many of us in the Labor movement that he is not part of the incoming Labor government. Pat, along with Jenny Beacham and Philip Moran, helped me take the leap from being an ALP member to being an ALP activist.
In making a speech that is in part to describe who you are and how you got here, how can you possibly do justice to your mum and dad and the brothers you grew up with and will love forever, even though time and distance may take your lives in different directions over the years?
All I want to mention today is the love and respect I have for my mother, Patricia Jennings, a woman whose heart is pure and true despite her body having been worn and bent for many years. She has always wanted everything for me and had great aspirations for my future, but she never imposed any expectations on me.
Her strength and commitment to fairness was complete and is deeply ingrained in me.
I would like to thank Tricia for co-parenting, sharing and nurturing our son, Huw, who has been and continues to be the greatest source of inspiration and encouragement to me. If it were left just to me, I would prefer to be with him all day, every day. However, I appreciate that over time being monopolised by his father may become somewhat boring or restrictive for him -- even though that would surely take quite some time to eventuate! So, while he goes to school I will work to ensure that Huw can explore and grow and feel secure in the life that we carve out for him as part of the Victorian community. That is an opportunity that I want to help create for all kids: to grow, explore, be healthy, and find their joys and inspiration through living in the state of Victoria.
As Labor now focuses on what will mark it as a reforming Victorian government, I flag that I want to be part of highlighting a number of key elements of its program. To create lasting job opportunities Victoria must actively pursue industries of the future that are driven by efficient design, emerging clean technologies and sustainable resource use. The government's emphasis in education must be on early intervention and support to eliminate disadvantage, providing maximum opportunities for children in all neighbourhoods, and on lifelong learning to maintain a skilled work force and a civilised community.
Labor's adherence to tight financial management will not come at the expense of social infrastructure. It will restore integrity to Victoria's planning regime. The Victorian community has the right to expect that its government will protect heritage, amenity and social function while facilitating quality development in the state.
Labor appreciates the urgent need to implement new guidelines that clearly define the scope and limits of ministerial intervention in planning matters and enable local government to operate within a more secure and predictable environment.
I look forward to being part of a government that is fully prepared to be accountable to the people of Victoria, and accountable to Parliament. I welcome the scrutiny of all opposition members and recognise my obligations to the house. I make a commitment to treat all members with consideration and courtesy. But that will not come at the expense of the passion I have for the issues I will pursue on behalf of the Labor Party and the labour movement.
In conclusion, I make the following clear and unequivocal statement. I will not ask anything of honourable members that I will not voluntarily give myself. I will treat all honourable members with due regard to the legitimate aspirations of the constituency they bring to Parliament. I will demand that, when dealing with me, all honourable members recognise the legitimate aspirations of my constituency.
