Thursday, 20 September 2018

 Mrs FYFFE (Evelyn) (12:00): It is very difficult to think what to talk about after 19 years in this house. Walking into the chamber this morning I said to the member for Williamstown, who is also retiring, ‘What do we talk about?’ and ‘How much does it matter?’. He really put the pressure on me when he said, ‘It’s the only speech they read when you die’. With all that pressure I have now got copious notes. When we first came in here we were allowed to read our whole speech. On this occasion I have copious notes. I have them because I am worried I might get emotional, but the member for Gembrook, who is very young and a little bit ageist, will say, ‘It’s probably because she thinks she is going to forget what she is going to talk about’.

Mr Battin interjected.

Mrs FYFFE: You will too.

Well, what a journey it has been. When I came here in 1967 as a ten-pound Pom my first home was a metal hut called a Nissen hut at a migrant hostel at Nunawading. I came from a tiny village, actually a hamlet. My dad on occasion was a coalminer who hated the Tories, and he frequently told me, ‘You’re getting above your station, my girl’. It was a very typical old-fashioned working-class area.

I met David in 1975, and we established a vineyard, winery and restaurant. We became very involved in the community, a community we have really loved in the Upper Yarra. In 1994 I was appointed a commissioner for the amalgamation of the four councils in the area in which we lived, the Yarra Ranges. The two-plus years that I was a commissioner was good training for coming in here. There was lots of heckling, posters defaced, rubbish dumped on the council steps and animosity from many. In 1999 I was approached to stand for preselection for the Liberal Party after Jim Plowman announced he was going to retire. I was elected with a good majority for the same area in which I was a commissioner, so they probably did not dislike me as much as I thought they did sometimes.

The last 19 years have had highs and lows. Like a book, some chapters have been sad, some happy, some exciting and some downright boring. A number of times I have wanted to put the book down or even throw it away. There is the part you know, and if you do not keep turning the pages, you will never know what the next chapter will bring. Today this chapter ends, and it is time to reflect and flick back through the pages.

If asked how I would describe myself as a politician I guess I would say I am a grassroots politician. I have enjoyed being the member for Evelyn — my community, my home. I had 5 minutes of fame as Speaker, a position I valued and respected. It is after all the third-highest political position in the state. It was very satisfying to calm down a fractious, bitter Parliament, to make it calmer, to make it smoother and to work better. Or perhaps members were so exhausted by then that it was not due to my skills or abilities at all that the house became a little calmer.

Going back to my preselection in 1999, I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as I think we all are in the beginning, and I campaigned hard. I doorknocked most of the electorate, attended street corner meetings, put brochures into letterboxes. I went to Powelltown, which is a lovely little timber town in the Upper Yarra. I doorknocked and met a few people I knew. I went to this house, knocked on the door and a little child came to the door. I said, ‘Hello, is Mummy home?’. ‘No, Mummy’s not home’. ‘Is Daddy home?’. ‘Yes’. ‘Can I talk to Daddy?’. She said, ‘He’s round the back’. I went striding around the back, all bright, with my brochure in my hand. It was the neatest backyard. There were rows and rows of black pots with very healthy looking plants. I said, ‘Good morning, sir, I’m Christine Fyffe, what wonderful tomato plants you’ve got’. The gentleman told me to go in very strong language, called his dog, and I think I was so surprised that I actually jumped the fence. There was a little old gate and I jumped over it; I do not think they were tomato plants at all.

I doorknocked the part of Mooroolbark in the Evelyn electorate quite extensively. We were going down one street — I had three other helpers working with me — and I knocked on a door. I had not quite finished knocking when the door was thrown wide open and this man, wearing a beaming smile, opened the door. That was the only thing he was wearing. It was Saturday afternoon and he thought I was his girlfriend who he was expecting at any time. I tried to keep my eyes focused on his face as I said, ‘I’m terribly sorry, sir, I’m Christine Fyffe’, blah, blah, ‘I’ll go’, and I left.

An honourable member interjected.

Ms FYFFE: I cannot remember if he was tall or fat or anything. All I remember was this exposure of flesh. As members of Parliament we certainly do experience many things.

It is fascinating that when I came in here I thought I was going to be part of the Kennett team — led by a man whom I deeply admire and who truly believes in service before self. He transformed Victoria from being a rust bucket into an economic powerhouse, and he is still serving this state. The first term in Parliament I worked at forming relationships: working out how Parliament works, on committees and also in the electorate. I lost my seat in the 2002 election by 220 votes. I curled up in the foetal position and sucked my thumb for a couple of days, and then I thought, ‘Blow this, I’m getting out. I’m going to win this one back’. I must have driven Heather McTaggart mad because I went to everything that was happening, wrote letters to the editor and made comments all over the place, and I won the seat back in 2006. I came back wiser and more sure of the type of local member I wanted to be.

Like all members I got involved in committees. I was on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, an all-party committee, and we had very divergent views on many things. One of the references we had was to look at the 2006–07 bushfires that destroyed over 1 million acres of public land. By the end of our meetings, by the end of that committee’s research, we were unanimous in our recommendations of what should happen with the management of public land in preparing for bushfires. Those recommendations were accepted by the government and were included in the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission report into Black Saturday.

The last committee inquiry I have been on has been looking at career support and advice to young people. It was a self-reference by the committee, because we were all concerned about the fact that young people are going to university, with many dropping out. They do not know what direction to take, and are being encouraged to go into training that does not suit the jobs that are there at the end. The recommendations, again, were unanimous, and I hope that any future government will look at them seriously and take them on board.

I also chaired a committee of experts on how sufferers of eating disorders and their families could better access services and how services can be improved. I have been for a long time deeply concerned about the increasing prevalence of eating disorders. They have the highest morbidity rates of any mental illness. It was a very distinguished committee of highly qualified experts, who came down with recommendations that were excepted by the then Minister for Health, Mary Wooldridge, and, thankfully, the Minister for Mental Health, Martin Foley, has kept those and is following them through. It was an excellent committee. I was daunted by the fact that I had very learned professors and very high-quality people.

At the first meeting that we had they were talking about FBT, and in my world FBT is fringe benefits tax. I did have to interrupt in the end and stop them. They were talking about family-based therapy, which shows that we come in here with expertise from certain areas, with knowledge that we bring in, and then we have to work in areas that we have no knowledge about. We really have to learn to stop and ask questions to make sure we understand what is going on. With the eating disorders, it seems to be getting more prevalent, with as many boys as girls now being involved and the age is getting younger. So the work must continue.

Being in this place is important but the electorate has been far more fulfilling for me: guiding people through red tape; advocating for schools, roads, better health care, including for mental health issues, through the Department of Health and Human Services. There is a myriad of other personal issues that come up as a member of Parliament: meeting and assisting businesses, visiting schools — how I adore going to the schools, particularly the primary schools when the preps sit in the front row and they look at you so big-eyed. It is so important that you give the right impression to those children. I have been involved in my RSLs with their Anzac Day, Remembrance Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. They are all very special to me. The citizenship ceremonies have meant a lot. It is a very emotional time when people take the oath to become an Australian, and what I have enjoyed over the last few years is the diversity of backgrounds that we are now getting in the Yarra Ranges. It has been a very narrow Anglo-Saxon, Dutch, Italian-type of area, but now we are getting people from many more different nationalities coming in.

Reflecting back through the pages of the book of my time in here, I have been deeply saddened by the increasing lack of respect now being shown in this place. The personalising of attacks on individual members is increasing and is to be deplored, and I have been bitterly disappointed by the rorting of allowances by the previous Speaker and the Deputy Speaker. This deliberate fraud, with the red shirts saga, is going to leave a stain and actually will reflect on all members forever in this house. There will always be questions.

As I come to the end of this, and ironically it is from the same seat — this was my first seat when I first came in in 1999, and I do not know if David Hodgett planned that when he gave me this seat —

Mr Katos: Probably not.

Mrs FYFFE: Probably not. He would not have known, would he?

Mr Hodgett: Absolutely.

Mrs FYFFE: Oh absolutely, yes. I really have a lot of people to thank: all the staff who look after us here from catering, cleaning, security, the backroom administration, Hansard — and I have much appreciated your assistance when you have made my speeches into something readable. You have really made silk purses out of sows’ ears to get them through. I have mispronounced words, I have mangled words. The member is not here, but he is continually correcting my pronunciation of certain words, but Hansard always knew what it was that I meant.

I especially want to thank the former Clerk, Ray Purdey, and the Acting Clerk, Bridget Noonan. Their help and guidance when I was thrust into the role of Speaker was immeasurable. Also I thank Peter Lochert, Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, who advised and guided me through all the issues a Speaker has to deal with outside of this house. There is so much the Speaker has to do that people are not aware of. I want to congratulate Peter and his staff on the building of the new offices. I have enjoyed my short time over there. It is great to have a window. It is great not to have to go over the dome and fear breaking your leg. It is great not having to come down those horrible stairs when the lifts are not working. I have really enjoyed it.

I want to thank the Liberal Party for preselecting me, the Liberal Party whose values I treasure and have been part of my life for so long now; my electorate chairs over the years, June Delbridge, Dot Hill, Bryan McCarthy and Aaron Violi; all the wonderful branch members who turned out in all weathers to hand out for me; Maria McCarthy, who slaved over hot stoves as we held fundraising dinners; and so many, many more in my community.

I would like to thank Matthew Guy for his support and friendship. You are going to make a great Premier, Matthew, and I look forward to watching you from outside. I will of course give you lots of unasked for advice, but you would expect that from me. You would not expect less. To all my colleagues, I will miss you — well, almost all of you. Yes, some of the young ones you have got to keep in check, and some of those on the opposite side that I have had a good relationship with.

I would like to thank my older brother, Clive Barningham, who has come out for every election except in 2002, and he said that is why I lost. He worked tirelessly on my signs, repairing them when my opponents damaged them, handing out how-to-vote cards. In fact in the 2006 election somebody said to him, ‘Why should I vote for her?’. He said, ‘She’s my sister. Why wouldn’t you?’, and they said, ‘All right, I’ll go in and vote’. I would like to thank friends, like Andrea McCall, who has always been there for me, and my family who have gone on the booths. Even my little grandchildren when they were small went on the booths at every election.

Last but not least I thank David, who has always been there — now, this is when I get emotional — putting up with meetings, and dinners that I know he did not want to be at. He would much rather have been at the football or drinking wine with his friends. He has grounded me. He has supported me at all times, and he is now probably panicking at the thought that he is going to have me at home all the time.

I would like to leave you all with a thought. As you get caught up in the hurly-burly of this place and all the intrigue and so on that goes on, never forget that what you do in here, each piece of legislation that comes in, affects some, if not all, Victorians. It has an impact on their lives. Be careful of unintended consequences. Respect the positions that you are fortunate enough to have, and, to those of you who come back, try and respect each other more in this house. It really has not been a nice place to be in on so many days. It started half-way through the last Parliament. It has now been six years, and it is time for it to stop and for people to be more polite and more caring to each other. Thank you, Speaker; it has been a great journey.

Honourable members applauded.