Thursday, 20 September 2018

 Mr NARDELLA (Melton) (15:31): I will start my last speech to this house like I started my inaugural speech on 28 October 1992. Honourable Speaker, honourable members and comrades. Being a parliamentarian is unique and there are only a few people that understand the pressures. There are other parliamentarians, your partner, your wife and your family. I most sincerely thank Lyn for being there for me from the beginning and for still being there for me now as my friend. Lynny, Lorelle, Shaun, Teagan, Jayden, Kyal and Craig were with me from the beginning and are still there for me now, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My friends have also been with me through this journey. Janice Munt has been with me on this journey, especially through the hard times, and I sincerely thank her as well. My long-term friend Ian Jones and Gail Tierney have been critical to me as well. Ian and the vehicle builders union (VBU) have helped me from the days of being an ALP organiser to the 1991 preselection and through my time here. We joined the Labor Party out in Melton in 1982 only months apart and worked together to build the party. Ian gave me the last bottle of FGP — frigging good port — that was bottled in my garage and I thank him for this. Thank you to Paul De Felici and the rest of the VBU team.

One of the mortal sins of my inaugural speech on 28 October 1992 was that I omitted my good friend and colleague Peter Mitchell. Peter helped me in the early years and was the reason I transferred from Melbourne North Province to the seat of Melton — so thank you very much, Peter.

My other long-term friend and colleague is Nib, whom I have known since 1985 and has been my electorate officer since 1998. I wish him and his wife Lucy all the best in their retirement. Another long-term friend and colleague is Anna Greco, who is my electoral officer and has also worked her heart out for the residents of Melton. She will be happy not to be battling the envelope insertion machine for the welcome letters and birthday cards. I wish her all the best for the future.

I want to acknowledge my other electoral officers that honourable members know are so important to undertaking their work: Mia Vitue, who also worked for the late Pat Power; the late Frans Timmerman, who is sadly missed; Karen Sherlock; Lorelle Scarlett; Jessie Belcher — and congratulations to Jessie, who was also my parliamentary intern, and her partner, Dan, on the arrival of their baby, Joanna; Tim Vainoras; Gabriella Aitken; my good friend Chris Papas; Alana Greco, who has been with me on and off for 17 years; Sarah De Santis; Melissa De Santis; Anna Galea; Jo Fox; and Teagan Scarlett.

We would not be able to do our job in the Parliament without the people here. Let me start with Bridget and her team in the chamber — thank you — and before her, Ray Purdey, and I wish him all the best for his retirement. Thanks also to Matthew Tricarico from the other house, and I wish all the best to him and his family; Parliamentary Services and the IT team, especially Chris Prasad; and Karen and her team in Strangers. From the library there is Carolyn Macvean; Jon Breukel, who has done an amazing job with parliamentary interns and also got the Dalai Lama here in the Parliament; Bella and the rest of the library team.

There is the outside team of Joe, Dimic, Fausie and Milad Moussa, Mohammad, Linda and Kamel. There is the Hansard team, who make us read as if we are literate and coherent and eloquent, led by James Scott, with a big shout-out to Maria and Heather, who have been in the place for as long as I have been here. I thank Greg Mills; the late Russell Bowman, who I remember coming into the end-of-the-year staff MP party with a wheelbarrow full of grog; Chris, Michael and Philip from the Council; Jeremy Walsh and Pablo; David Robertson, who is an absolute dynamo here in the Parliament and the rest of the staff here at Parliament.

I also want to thank Sean Coley, Keir Delaney and Natalie-Mai Holmes from the outer suburbs committee, who produced good groundbreaking reports and set the course for government policy to this day.

To the Labor Party members that have helped me over the years, I want to acknowledge their work and dedication to the party, both in Melbourne North Province and in all the iterations of the Melton seat. I especially want to recognise the late Arthur Clegg and his wife Pat and their family; all the Bacchus Marsh branch members; and the late Leo Johnson, AM, who was my campaign chair —

An honourable member interjected.

Mr NARDELLA: Tiger, that’s right — and all the other Melton branch members. I also want to thank Russell at the Windsor Hotel.

I want to thank the residents and families in the seat of Melton. At all times my staff and I have worked tirelessly to improve their lives and wellbeing and futures. This was the requirement and principle that Lynny imposed on me for moving from Melbourne North Province to Melton. The district around Melton and Bacchus Marsh township has been transformed by Labor governments, and only Labor governments, since 1999. Much of this has been undertaken by partnerships with federal Labor governments and their parliamentarians like Catherine King, Neil O’Keefe, Julia Gillard and Brendan O’Connor, with initiatives like the Melton business incubator, the Anthony’s Cutting realignment, the rail upgrade from Deer Park West to Spencer Street and to Geelong, the Deer Park bypass, the Western Ring Road, Leakes Road and Hopkins Road overpasses and interchanges, and the BER — Building the Education Revolution — in schools.

These partnerships have also been with the Melton council, with Neville Smith and Kel Tori as CEOs, and all the councillors and mayors, currently led by Bob Turner and Chris Papas, Justin Mammarella, Sophie Ramsey and the officers. There is also the Moorabool council partnership, with Rob Croxford and Robert Dobrzynski before him as the CEOs and the current mayor Paul Tatchell, where we have upgraded Maddingley Park and Darley footy club, just as examples.

In the time that I have had the honour of representing the Melton electorate Labor governments have invested over $1.5 billion in all aspects of community affairs and infrastructure. Just as a comparison, Melton only received $1.5 million for a set of traffic lights on Ferris Road from the Liberal government between 2010 and 2014. They did not even pay for it; it came out of the GAIC — the growth areas infrastructure contribution.

The legacy that you leave as a parliamentarian is how you change people’s lives and, as Webber defined it, giving people life chances. As Robert Putnam has written, building social capital with people and communities, which has been a priority for me because, with my staff, we have transformed the community but more importantly, individuals have been helped either at a personal level or via programs and infrastructure that have been built. I am very proud to see the changes to the electorate and congratulate all the people who have helped me to implement these changes.

I have worked with some amazing people in my time here. I was mentored by the Honourable David White and, until his retirement, the Honourable Bill Landeryou. The leaders of the parties were amazing, starting with the Honourable Joan Kirner, the Honourable Jim Kennan, the amazing Honourable John Brumby, the exceptional Honourable Steve Bracks and the extraordinary Honourable Daniel Andrews.

When I came into the Parliament the juggernaut that was the Kennett government was elected on 3 October 1992. The day before my inaugural speech on 28 October that year 300 transit police demonstrated on the front steps of Parliament House. They were then all sacked, including my friend John Ballestrino. In November of that year we had hundreds of thousands marching to Parliament House against the Kennett government and their changes to WorkCare and industrial relations. With the community we fought against the destruction of Victorian civil society and the secrecy, the support and encouragement of elites; the cuts to education and the closing of 326 state schools; the closure of the country rail lines and hospitals; the sacking of the 9000 nurses and 9000 teachers; and the nobbling of the independent watchdogs the Auditor-General and the FOI commissioner, just to name two.

We fought against Kennett and The Nationals who, with the millennial drought in full force, referred to country Victoria as the toenails of Victoria. They treated country Victorians as second-class citizens, imposed compulsory competitive tendering and then, to top it all off, amalgamated their councils. They paid the price because John Brumby took the fight up to Kennett. He had 26 members in the opposition and worked tirelessly and uncompromisingly, and with one of the sharpest minds and his leadership he set us up for the 1999 election win. I personally thank John for his hard work and friendship.

In my inaugural speech I talked about representing ordinary people, protecting people, opposing cuts to services and education, opposing the industrial relations changes and social engineering, opposing getting rid of common-law claims for injured workers, which we have reinstituted, opposing privatisation and opposing cuts to training for young people and to women’s services. These issues are still relevant today. We have to protect vulnerable and working people in Victoria.

I always enjoyed grievance speeches, especially when having a go at the Liberals and their dysfunction. Just as an example, in my Star Wars speech — I know that it is very disorderly — I talked about how Ted Baillieu was being undermined in some blogs and other stuff from Exhibition Street. That dysfunction within the Liberal Party was rife at the time and those issues are still relevant today.

For Labor members with left-of-centre politics, being a parliamentarian is the best and most rewarding job in the world, especially when in government. You leave a legacy physically through implementing social justice policies, building social capital and being able to successfully help someone and/or their family. For Labor members, the caucus and your colleagues are the best part of the job, even with the challenge they present. I thank colleagues for their support. I am going to miss some of the new members in the house, like the honourable member for Essendon. When the honourable member for Essendon came into this house he talked about Captain Risky, so I will just put Captain Risky in there so honourable members know what he was talking about. I am going to miss his quotations from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations.

One of the things that I have seen in the house is the development of the new Labor Party MPs who have come into this house over time. I know and I see that they have a bright future. They are the people who are the future leaders in the next parliaments and the next governments. You all deserve the best in the election. Elections are always difficult and hard. I apologise to my parliamentary colleagues on my right about this, but I know that although elections are difficult and hard, we can do it. I know the Labor Party can gain majority government, and the leaders of the future — you know who you are — you can do it. You can propel the next Labor government into the future, carry forward the programs and build on those programs and initiatives to build a better Victoria, to make sure that Victoria is the best place to live, work and raise a family, because we are certainly getting things done.

I want to thank all honourable members on all sides of the house for their work and commitment to Victoria. I thank you, Honourable Speaker, and the house for giving me this opportunity.

Honourable members applauded.

 The SPEAKER (15:47): I acknowledge in the gallery the presence of a former member for Mordialloc, Janice Munt, and a former member for Burwood, Bob Stensholt.