Thursday, 30 November 2023

2023

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:21): Like many members today who have already taken the opportunity to reflect upon their first year, I will do the same. And perhaps not like some of my colleagues, I probably expect the most of myself and certainly a lot of others as well, so in that vein I would probably give myself a one out of 10 for the last year, to be honest.

Michael Galea: You’re being too hard.

Nick McGOWAN: No, I do not think it is too hard. I do not think it is too hard, because what strikes me – and I have only got another 60 seconds – is that a year has gone already. We have three left to go; it is not very much. When you look to think about the lives you have impacted or what you have achieved, the sad reality is it is too little. At least that is for me.

There is lots to be done with respect to organ donation. I think we are on the road to that, but we are nowhere near achieving it. There is lots to be done in terms of the road toll, and I think we have gotten further away from that this year rather than closer to meeting that reality. That was brought home to all of us just recently with the police commissioner in South Australia losing his son in such a tragic way – and such a tragic way that will influence his life and his family’s life – and that should be a very clear message to all of us. Last but not least, we have not made any progress in respect to presumptive rights except for the three for women, which is sensational for our firefighters, but there are six that remain. I feel we missed an opportunity in this chamber this year to go forward with that. I hope that next year we can rectify that.

I hope that next year I can do much better than my one out of 10 for this year. And if I am saying the same thing next year, then that is a cause for serious reflection for me.