Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Address to Parliament
Governor’s speech
Address to Parliament
Governor’s speech
Address-in-reply
Debate resumed.
Pauline RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (14:42): Thank you, Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak about how important the Cranbourne community is and the amazing work that the Andrews Labor government has committed to and fulfilled not just over the past four years but actually, if we look back, over eight years.
I was very pleased to be able to have conversations with many people in our community who were delighted to hear about our plans to build a community hospital in Cranbourne. At every door and during every conversation and every telephone conversation I tended to start by chatting to people about the community hospital and what a difference it would make, and so it was something that became a cornerstone of the conversations. I would start by saying, ‘Have you heard we’re building a new community hospital? It’s right between the library and the road to Narre Warren South,’ and people would know straightaway that that hospital was going to be built, because that was a commitment that we had made. As with so many things we have committed to, not only have we fulfilled them but many of them we actually did ahead of time.
The Minister for Government Services, who is at the table, would be aware that we committed to duplicating the train line all the way from Dandenong to Cranbourne. Not only did we duplicate 8 kilometres of track, but we did it 12 months ahead of schedule. What was important when I was talking to people about us fulfilling our commitments was the change they made in people’s lives. Obviously, there is a great deal of change that comes with having jobs and having employment for the thousands of people who are employed on these really important infrastructure projects, but I will never forget a conversation I had with a mum, a woman who was needing to get her children to school on time. To do that, to get her children to school on time, she needed the trains to run reliably. She had had two warnings at work and was on her third warning. Having the train line duplicated means not only that the trains run more often and that there is a turn-up-and-go service but, more importantly in many ways for many people in the community, that the train line is reliable.
As part of that reliability and having the Cranbourne line duplicated, we are also removing level crossings. We removed the level crossing at Evans Road. It is a very well-known level crossing that we had to remove, and the reason it was so well known was because the whole road had been closed off. It had been closed off for so many years that people were unable to get from one side to the other, and that made an enormous difference to people having to get their children to school from one side of the train line to the other. So I was able to point to projects like the Merinda Park station upgrade and say, ‘We said we would do it; we fulfilled that commitment, and in the case of some of the commitments, we didn’t just fulfil them, but we did them a year ahead of schedule.’
We have a community where we can point to the extraordinary work that is being done on our early parenting centre in Clyde North, on our police station – we have got the land for the police station in Clyde North – and of course a fire station. All of this is located in these growth corridors where people arrive often from other suburbs, sometimes from other states – people who are altruistic and optimistic and expect the best from their children and from the community. That altruism, optimism and aspiration were cornerstones of the conversations in Cranbourne. So I was delighted leading into the election to be able to remind people not just of the work that we had undertaken but the plans we had and the obvious changes that they had seen in our community. Some of those conversations also were deeply involved in children and the future of the children in the community. I was delighted to be able to remind people that we would have, and we did in fact have, a new primary school built and opened in the Quarters estate. The Quarters estate, like so many other parts of Cranbourne, is an area with lots of young families, and the excitement about having a new primary school in their own community was something that led people’s eyes to sparkle.
As I moved around Cranbourne West, I tended to go back to have conversations with people I had already spoken to, and that included a woman I have mentioned before, Maria, who I had met initially as a cleaner. She works on the other side of the city and was having to commute an extraordinarily long way, and Maria was able to get access to the sick pay guarantee. I could go and see Maria and remind Maria that the sick pay guarantee was something that she had access to and make sure that she knew that my office was there to support her, not just in accessing the sick pay guarantee and giving her information but in fact, because she does not have the internet, being able to provide that service that only an electorate office can provide. It was very important to me to be able to look people in the eye and know that we had given the best service we possibly could. And that gives me an opportunity to segue to a note of appreciation to the people who served the community in my electorate office.
Jamie Trotter is well known through the Labor Party and through the labour movement but particularly well known in the south-east. He is somebody who I spoke about in my inaugural speech, somebody who was raised by a formidable woman and a person that the Labor Party is very proud of. Jamie was a hairdresser before becoming an electorate officer – he is a hairdresser by trade – and has that philosophy that people experience with their hairdresser, somebody who treats people without judgement, is discreet and gives everyone their full attention. Jamie would never ask anyone how they voted. He would always serve the community. As a result, people might have come in to have a view about something, but Jamie would always find a new opportunity and a new way to serve the community. Time and again people, as they approached me as I was going about my work as a member of Parliament or as they came in through the electorate office, mentioned and identified that Jamie had given them service as it related to topping up their Myki card or as it related to making sure that they had access to the power saving bonus, so I do want to take the opportunity to recognise that work.
Also Ali Edwards and Margie Raman are great women who make sure that – whether it is the senior citizens, whether it is our culturally diverse community, whether it is our young families and the early childhood centres – everyone is there and available and able to get what they need to live full lives. So it is an opportunity for me thank that team in the electorate office, who work so hard and who often bring their own family members in and get involved in not just volunteering around election time but volunteering in other ways as well in service to the community.
Alessandra Soliven, who I was so pleased to have gotten to know when I met Alessandra as the valedictorian at Alkira Secondary College, who came and worked with me in the electorate office, took on every task imaginable and did not just take on the tasks but really took them on with great passion and care. Alessandra has gone on to other things. It was an inevitability, somebody of that capability, and I am very grateful to Alessandra for the work she did and also Darcy Cleeland. Both took on the tasks of serving the community in whatever way and of course are able to do that partly through their capacity to manage things that young people actually manage, so making sure that our social media is up to date with information that is relevant. I would also like to thank and acknowledge Connor Taylor, who took on the role as a volunteer, another young person who has been working very hard in the electorate office, initially as a volunteer for a long time, who went to school locally and has now taken on more duties. How proud I am of the role that they have taken on.
All of those people, all of those skills and the capacity to serve the community meant that as I faced the opportunity to put myself forward as a member of Parliament again I was able to feel a sense that the duties required by people in the electorate office were fulfilled, and that was really important to me and really important to the people I work alongside. That is an opportunity for me to thank and acknowledge the other people who put their hand up to stand as candidates in Cranbourne. I have been very impressed by many people who have acknowledged not just the current members of Parliament but previous members of Parliament – people who have put themselves forward in Cranbourne. I was pleased that, despite some behaviour not being what we would have wanted, the candidates themselves did attempt to do what was required by putting themselves forward, and that was a great credit to the democracy of our community.
I would like to thank those many people who supported the work on the campaign, including of course the many, many volunteers and the mighty Electrical Trades Union. Graeme Watson – or, as he is known in the vernacular, Watto – stood shoulder to shoulder with me hour after hour, day after day, in the rain and in the heat, making sure that everyone had exactly what they needed and that we had the support, so I do want to acknowledge and thank Watto. After the announcement about the SEC and the decision to put the SEC back into public hands, Watto did end up having the opportunity to speak to so many more people with great passion about why it was important to have the SEC, something that worked for the people of Victoria, rather than for a handful of very wealthy people.
As I said just before question time, as I started my contribution, the work with the group of people in the south-east was also something I was incredibly honoured to have the opportunity to participate in. We are a formidable and close group in the south-east, so it is an opportunity for me. I previously acknowledged the wonderful people in this place who have worked with me, especially as we supported each other through the election campaign, but also Mr Galea and Mr Tarlamis in the other place were with me shoulder to shoulder through this whole process.
But I would like to particularly acknowledge and thank the people of Cranbourne. I often speak about diversity being our strength. The South Sudanese-Australian Academic Society were able to work so hard on behalf of young people, so I was able to let them know that they would be successful, if we were re-elected, in having access to funding to be able to support the work that they have done. There is our extraordinary Afghan community – people supported us in so many ways – and there are the Indian diaspora and the Sri Lankan diaspora. All of the community stood side by side with me and were with me through the rain, through the storms, actually telling the story of why a Labor government is also really important.
It has been an honour to have this time, and I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to be able to serve the community again. I look forward to all of that work, and I thank the house for the indulgence.
That the debate be adjourned.
Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until later this day.