James Purser [INSERT WITTY CATCHPHRASE HERE]

I am confident he will take his seat in this chamber alongside my colleagues, on the re-election of our government. Stephen will be in the fortunate position of building on the foundations of our first term in government—seeing those investments come to fruition and meeting future challenges, working together with the member or Cunningham. Last, but not least, to the residents of Throsby, who have made all this possible: thank you for your continuing support. It has indeed been a great privilege to represent a wonderful community.

I am looking forward to moving on. I think we all know when the time is right. I am not quite sure what retirement actually means in practice—other than knowing I will have lots more time for friendships, both new and longstanding, and time with Denis and mum. I remain forever grateful for the opportunities, experiences and memories in almost 40 years of public life, and the many fine people with whom I have shared that journey.

A few weeks ago I sat on the stage at Sydney Town Hall with other stalwarts of the union and women’s movement lending our support to the ACTU test case for pay equity. It was an inspiring event. Just last week we all celebrated the introduction of Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme. Historic breakthroughs such as these occur when both parts of the labour movement work together on agreed outcomes. Labor in government has the capacity to deliver legislative changes unencumbered by the limitations of industrial campaigning. Providing access to superannuation for all was a grand Labor achievement. It began with the creation of industrial funds and then flowed through to all working people by the legislative reforms of the Hawke-Keating government.

In making this last speech in parliament I realise how fortunate I have been over the last four decades of public life to have had the opportunities both in the union movement and, since 2001, in parliament as the member for Throsby. All who have served in the federal parliament are indeed privileged to have earned the public trust of their constituents. In early 2002, I took my place in this House as the 981st elected member of the House of Representatives. But only 56 female MPs were elected before me, the majority of them from the eighties onwards, and what a difference they have made to this House.

But who could have imagined that the daughter of parents who came to Australia as refugees under the UNHCR program would one day be making a farewell speech in this chamber. But my story is not atypical. Our national identity today has been shaped by people who have come to Australia from many lands and in many circumstances. They have helped build our economic fortunes and our cultural diversity and made a great contribution, as we know, in so many walks of life. The politics of fear and prejudice undermine the very best of the values that we take pride in: our belief in a fair go and the generosity and compassion that Australians display in so many ways every day.

Australia has a reputation as a land of opportunity. The industrial and welfare safety nets are an important part of our postwar development. I would like to think that in hard times we continue to extend a hand to those in need and that we will continue to redress the multiple disadvantages of Indigenous Australians. We say as Australians we believe in the principle of equality of opportunity, but translating that into practice needs recognition that material circumstances and family background are important determinants in the outcomes that are achieved. A good education is a key factor in breaking down the barriers that limit an individual’s aspirations and achievements. It certainly was for me.

Demography should not define destiny—a strongly held view that I share with our Minister for Education. The public education system gave me the solid foundations for later achievements. That is why I remain a strong supporter and advocate for public education. It is in that system that the life chances of almost 70 per cent of our students will be defined. That is why I will continue to argue that the primary obligation of governments, at all levels, is to ensure a quality public education system. The effects of disadvantage on student achievement can and are constantly overcome. The inspiration of individual teachers that we all remember cannot be underestimated. But funding levels, resourcing, staffing and facilities do matter and our government has already made a substantial investment in the educational reform agenda with lots more to come.

The school funding review recently announced by the minister gives us all the opportunity to replace the flawed SES system with one that is based on genuine need. I am also very heartened by the goal we have set of 20 per cent of all university enrolments to be filled by low-SES students by 2020. I have spoken about this issue on several occasions in the House, concerned that the Throsby electorate is ranked at a low 133 out of the 150 electorates on the measure of participation rates in higher education. The Bradley review confirmed that we do not still today provide equal access to all. A student from a high socioeconomic background is still three times more likely to attend a university than one from a low-SES background. I will be watching with great anticipation and with great interest the outcomes of these reforms.

My time as the member for Throsby has been challenging and rewarding. It is a great community to represent in the parliament. Working with people on the ground, listening and dealing with their concerns, being their advocate in this place, helping to find local solutions and defining the policy and resource responses required from government is a challenging job that contends us all. I have enjoyed campaigning locally around issues like doctor shortages, dental health needs, unemployment, job creation, apprenticeships and skills training.

Youth unemployment in our region has been unacceptably high and in some suburbs intergenerational. Like all of you, we do want to make a difference and I focused particularly on that issue. In the Illawarra area our low school retention rate meant that lots of young kids from disadvantaged backgrounds and Indigenous children were falling through the cracks with bleak future prospects. With a grant from the former government for an apprenticeship coordinator and an expansion in pre-apprenticeship courses, our local apprenticeship committee, which I chaired, assisted over 400 young people in gaining an apprenticeship.

Our local solution to a local problem has now been mainstreamed by the government’s Apprentice Kickstart program. Raising incentives for businesses to take on young people has resulted in great outcomes locally and nationally. In the first three months of this year around 550 local young people were taken on and given a great start in their working life. Our local campaign was co-sponsored by the local paper, the Illawarra Mercury, and I thank them and Ian Nichols, working from the Illawarra Business Chamber, for their endeavours.

As a member of parliament I believe one of my key responsibilities is to convey the views of the electorate both in our caucus and in debate on legislation. Often I am representing the views and voice of people who have no clout at all in the political process. At other times I am representing the interests of major companies like BlueScope Steel, understanding their importance for our regional economy and the employment prospects for our young people and local families.

As well as being their voice in parliament I really welcome the opportunities to contribute to public policy work through the work of parliamentary committees. I have been a member of several committees whose reports have made a difference. The report Every picture tells a story led to a shake-up of the child support system and a revamp of family law. I enjoyed working on that committee, chaired by the indefatigable member for Riverina, and for several years serving as deputy chair on the environment committee to my friend, the member for Moore, Dr Mal Washer.

Our roles are now reversed but we continue a tradition on that committee, providing bipartisan reports which are substantial in scope and in content. Our recent report on the impact of climate change on the coastal zone followed on from the Sustainable cities report and the one on a sustainability charter. It is through opportunities like this that a lot of good work is done with people on the opposition benches and unlikely friendships can develop across the political divide.

I would like to place on record my thanks to all the staff who work in this building and to the secretariat staff who service the work of our committees. We need to recognise and strengthen the work of parliamentary committees and to that end I trust that our recent report from the Procedure Committee, tabled by the chair this week, and its recommendations will generate interest for future reform.

In this last term I have served as part of the federal Labor team in government. It certainly makes a difference to being in opposition, particularly so if you are representing as I do, a relatively safe Labor seat. The people that I represent understand the difference. By our actions we have shown that a federal Labor cares about the local community regardless of where it sits on the political pendulum. They see every day the benefits of over $400 million of investment in our community with the upgrading of school infrastructure and important community projects throughout all the suburbs of Throsby: the upgrade of local roads, new GP superclinics, investing in cancer care, elective surgery and new beds, the re-opening of the Medicare office at Warrawong, and the list goes on. I never fail to promote these positive achievements locally to remind people what has been achieved in our first term of office at a time of great economic and financial challenge.

It is more than the bricks and the mortar; it is the local jobs that were sustained and new employment opportunities created. You can see the multiplier effect in operation on every building site that you visit throughout my electorate. Instead of unemployment rates almost double the national average in the Howard era, we are now closing the gap in the Illawarra and laying solid foundations for future prosperity.

Investment in social capital, which is not so visible, has been equally important. Early intervention programs like the HIPPY program, Indigenous disadvantage, homelessness, disability and respite care, and social housing, have all benefited from government investments. It has been humbling to see the work of our church and welfare agencies, community groups and organisations like Barnardos, Southern Youth and Family Services, the Aboriginal Corporation and Warrigal Employment. If anyone is deserving to have their work properly recompensed it is the workers, predominantly women, in the community sector.

The Illawarra has a proud working class history built on the traditions of coal mining and steel making. In looking to the future one of our major challenges is to ensure a more diversified economic base. In that regard our region is indebted to the key role played by the University of Wollongong under the guidance of Vice-Chancellor Gerard Sutton. The member for Cunningham and I have had a solid and productive relationship with both our university and the TAFE institute so ably led by Di Murray. Recent government investments, secured in competitive funding rounds, at our university will have profound, long-term benefits for the Illawarra.

The new SMART infrastructure facility that we have funded will have value way beyond Wollongong, so too the new processing and devices facility at the Institute for Innovative Materials, where our scientists will be able to manufacture their inventions in fields like medical bionics, solar cells and superconductors. And just in the last few weeks a $25 million investment in an exciting new project, Retrofitting for Resilient and Sustainable Buildings, will provide for a new six-star Green Star facility with research and teaching laboratories at the university and, very importantly, testing laboratories at the local Yallah TAFE. BlueScope Steel will provide the materials and the technical expertise. Indeed, a great collaborative venture.

We hope that the whole nation will benefit as we in the Illawarra develop new technologies to make buildings more energy efficient, helping in our transition to a more carbon constrained future. But to complete our vision there is a missing link—and I am glad the minister for infrastructure is with us this afternoon—the Maldon-Dombarton freight rail link. The local campaign to have this major piece of infrastructure completed has been ably led by my colleague the member for Cunningham, Sharon Bird. It will complement the state government investment in the port at Port Kembla. If the economics stack up at the end of the feasibility study, it will be a bonanza for the Illawarra and a great reward for Sharon’s persistence and vision.

On top of this the southern end of my electorate of Throsby is one of the first test sites for the rollout of broadband. This will position our region well to capitalise on the innovation and opportunities that will come with our national broadband project.

In concluding I want to acknowledge the many people who shared my journey over the past 40 years. So, to you all, a big collective thank you. Whatever I have achieved and done has always been with collective support and encouragement. To the union movement, and Bill Kelty in particular: thanks for the opportunities and the memories—who could ever forget the maritime dispute! And thanks to all of you who helped pave the way for my transition to this parliament.

I have always been, and will continue to be, a strong believer in the importance and benefits of a constructive engagement between the industrial and political wings of the labour movement. We saw the mutual benefits of the Your Rights at Work campaign—a brilliant campaign—and, of course, one of our proudest achievements, the dismantling of Work Choices. Communities across the nation will never forget the much despised Work Choices regime, which stripped away conditions like overtime and penalty rates and forced individuals onto insidious individual contracts of employment. Women will be the major beneficiaries of our new Fair Work system. That system has enshrined for them an annual minimum wage review; the right to request flexible working arrangements; a new, comparable wage fixing principle; new protections on the grounds of pregnancy and caring responsibilities; an effective award safety net; and a bargaining stream for the low paid—truly historic achievements. Just last week we had Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme—an historical achievement, which only Labor in government could deliver.

I have had great support from the local unions affiliated to the South Coast Labour Council. Special thanks to Arthur Rorris, Andy Gillespie and Garry Keane, for their wise counsel and friendship over the years—and so, too, to Colin and Melissa Markham. Thanks to the community groups, local organisations and council representatives with whom I have worked and alongside whom I have campaigned for the benefit of our community, and to the local media on whom we rely to communicate the Labor message. Without loyal branch members and supporters and my campaign director Vicki King, no election campaign could have been successfully prosecuted.

And without our staff no MPs can do effective jobs for their communities; we all rely on them so much. Thank you, Idalina, Sarah, Michel and Danielle and current relief staff Annie, Wendy and Brian, for all your efforts over all these years.

To my colleague Sharon Bird, the member for Cunningham: it has been great working with you and sharing the highs, and the occasional lows, of political life. I know, in moving on, that the needs and aspirations of the Illawarra will be in safe and capable Labor hands.

I wish Stephen Jones, my successor as the Labor candidate for Throsby, all the best in the election.

I move:

That order of the day No. 4, government business, be postponed until a later hour this day.

Question agreed to.

The provision of health services has been a key issue for the electorate of Throsby. In opposition, together with community groups, we campaigned on the issue of GP shortages, the need for greater investment in dental health, the closure of the Medicare office that operated in Warrawong and improvements for our local hospitals. All our pleas fell on deaf ears until the election of a federal Labor government. In our first term we have seen some truly remarkable changes and substantial investment in health provision.

The Medicare office closed by the Howard government has now reopened in Warrawong, in an expanded Centrelink office. Our local hospitals have received additional funds to help reduce elective surgery waiting lists. The Prime Minister visited Wollongong Hospital, announcing an extra $12 million for expanded cancer services. Just last week the Minister for Health and Ageing announced funding for an extra 21 beds at the hospital and a $5 million  new training and accommodation facility for medical and nursing students.

Last week, I, along with the health minister, turned the sod at the site of our GP superclinic. It will be called Shell Cove Family Health. It will be the hub of preventative and chronic health services and attention. The facility will provide training opportunities for our medical students at the university, as well as for graduates.

Federal Labor has indeed a huge health and hospitals reform agenda. However, I am disappointed that the agenda has not yet acted on the recommendations of the reform commission with regard to dental health. We know that over half a million Australians are still languishing on public dental health waiting lists. Regrettably, 133,000 of them are in my state of New South Wales and 7,000-plus are in the Illawarra region alone. Oral health is one of the greatest inequities in our health system and it can only be redressed in the long term by moving to a universal dental insurance scheme. I am hopeful that, in the lead-up to the election, the government will revisit this critical issue. I believe that people not covered by private insurance would be supportive of a modest increase in the Medicare levy to cover basic dental health provision.

Congratulations to all the members of the Illawarra Dental Health Action Group with whom I have worked over the years and, in particular, its chair, Alice Scott. Keep up your campaigning; there is still some way to go to ensure that, ultimately, all Australians will have access to a quality health system with teeth!

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women. What are the government’s housing programs delivering in south-west Sydney? Are there any risks to the delivery of these and other government programs?

to move:

That this House:

(1)

congratulates the Government on delivering major initiatives to help working women, including the introduction of Paid Parental Leave, the successful implementation of the Fair Work Act 2009 and increasing the access to and affordability of child care; and

(2)

condemns the:

(a)

Coalition for its lack of real support in these areas; and

(b)

Opposition for its failure to support these initiatives that benefit working women and their families.

I was appalled to see recent TV images of an attack on the Sydney offices of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. I know the secretary of the union personally and many who work in their building at Lidcombe, and I appreciate at a personal level the seriousness of the crime committed. Interestingly, specific threats were made before this unprecedented firebombing of a union’s premises. The attack occurred around 10.30 pm on a weeknight, when a stolen car packed with drums of petrol was rammed through the front door of the offices. The foyer area of the building was soaked in petrol before being set alight. That evening I saw footage of emergency workers putting themselves at great risk, unaware of the petrol drums in the car. It was indeed a miracle that no-one was killed. Two community groups had left the building less than an hour before and among the participants were children. On any day, as I know, there would have been dozens of people at risk in that building.

These kinds of attacks are totally unacceptable in our democratic society. Unions are but one of the many groups in our community who stand up for the rights of people and against those who have the power to inflict injustice on them. The perpetrators of this well-organised and well-planned attack need to be brought to justice swiftly. We need organisations like unions, churches and migrant advocacy groups to be able to do their work free from the threats of violence and criminal behaviour. All people must respect the rule of law and appreciate the inherent values of our democratic system. I wholeheartedly support the call of Unions NSW for a special police task force to investigate the bombing—hopefully one that has the resources to catch the criminals. I am pleased to read that this request for the police task force was backed by the Master Builders Association, the employer body, and by members of the Maori, Jewish, Arab, migrant and Christian communities that regularly use the building for community events.

The condemnation of this unprecedented and vicious attack transcends politics. It is an attack on the very fabric of our society. This is a frightening situation. The mere allegations of wrongdoing get an immediate response from the ABCC when those allegations are directed at unions and their officials. But when violence is perpetrated by opponents of unions we hear not a murmur of disquiet from the ABCC. That is clearly unacceptable. In addition to the police investigation of criminal matters, I believe it is incumbent upon the people who work at the ABCC to conduct a thorough investigation at the earliest possible opportunity. It is totally unacceptable in our society for any employer to intimidate, harass or threaten union officials or their staff for carrying out their responsibilities on behalf of working people.

In tonight’s grievance debate, I want to take issue with the opposition’s decade of lost opportunities to institute reforms and changes to address longstanding issues of concern to women in the workforce. Among those concerns are the important issues of economic security for women both at work and in retirement, balancing work and family life, making child care more affordable and accessible, closing the pay gap between the genders and introducing a national paid parental scheme.

I recall that over the years I have been in this House I have made a number of contributions on these important issues. In fact, very early in my first term as the member for Throsby, again in a grievance debate, I made the following comments:

I take this opportunity to grieve about this government’s inaction on the work and family agenda. We hear a lot of rhetoric from this government—

remember the talk about its being a barbecue stopper—

but we see no substantial action where people desperately need it, on major issues like the introduction of paid maternity—

and parental—

leave and meeting the growing demand for child-care places … and outside school hours care programs. We have heard a lot of talk but have seen no delivery of the services required to help the majority of Australian families balance their work and family commitments.

I went on to argue that the situation for many families was in fact becoming critical and that, by comparison to many OECD countries, we were doing very poorly in terms of women’s participation in the paid workforce after giving birth to children. I recall that at the time—and I mentioned it in that grievance debate—the now Leader of the Opposition, then in his ministerial capacity, said on the public record that paid maternity leave would be introduced ‘over this government’s dead body’. I spoke on a range of these issues in the forlorn hope that the Howard government would finally listen, but by way of a response we instead got a full assault on the status of women at work. This was achieved primarily by the promotion of individual contracts of employment through the Work Choices legislation, which had as its aim the deregulation of the labour market.

The government was warned at the time that the provisions of Work Choices would have the most negative consequences on those most marginal in the labour market, namely women, in all employment categories. I argued this on many occasions, and in one debate I said:

… women are often employed on a part time and casual basis, they are often located in industries with little bargaining power and they are often not members of the trade union movement … more and more of these vulnerable workers will be forced onto individual contracts in order to get paid employment, or indeed to retain their jobs

As a group, women will lose out on pay and conditions in a deregulated market place. Despite all the spin that we heard from the government, the statistics and the data revealed by the ABS clearly showed that these deleterious impacts were being felt by women across the board. The data showed from very early days that women on AWAs were doing far worse in comparison with women in collective agreements and even on award conditions.

This decade of lost opportunities is finally being redressed by the election of a Rudd Labor government, and I am very delighted as a member of that government that we have seen major advances in the government’s first term. The first major advance was of course the abolition of the insidious Work Choices legislation and its replacement by the Fair Work Act. There are a number of provisions in that act which go a long way towards addressing some of those issues of concern that I raised very early in a grievance debate in this House. Let me just mention a few of them. Our legislation provides for a safety net of 10 national employment standards which will provide all employees, including great numbers of women, in the federal system with enforceable minimum protection standards. There is to be an annual minimum wage review by a specialist panel, again of great value to women, who form the majority—almost 60 per cent—of the nearly 1.5 million workers reliant on the minimum wage.

Our act provides for a special bargaining stream for low-paid workers, and that is particularly important for women because historically we know that enterprise bargaining has been problematic in many of the industries where women continue to have high representation. Very importantly, the equal remuneration provisions in the Fair Work Act will now provide for cases to be heard on the basis of a claim for equal pay, or equal pay based on the principle of equal value. This provision now in the federal act translates very much the provisions that have been contained in the New South Wales legislation for some years now and which have been used quite successfully to advance the pay of many women at work.

Interestingly, when I reflect back on some of the debates of past years, the issue of pay equity was another matter on which I made a number of comments in different contributions. I remember arguing with the then industrial relations minister, now the opposition’s shadow Treasurer. I accused him of misleading parliament, because one day he did come in and claim:

… the pay gap between men and women has narrowed. So we are getting to a better position in relation to the pay gap.

The facts presented a totally different picture. In November 1996, female ordinary time earnings as a percentage of male earnings stood at 84.2 per cent. A decade later under the Howard government, this ratio had fallen to 83.7 per cent. The gender gap was in fact widening at the same time as the opposition shadow Treasurer was coming into the House and misleading parliament about their so-called great achievements in narrowing that gap. So much for the minister’s spin and the lack of action over a decade by the former government. I am very heartened that a test case will shortly begin to test these new comparable work provisions. That test case will apply to pay rates for community sector workers—a long overdue initiative. We all know as politicians the worth of workers in the community sector. We know the great contribution they make. But we also should know that this sector and the workers in it—predominantly women—have had their wages historically undervalued, and they continue to be underpaid in relation to the contribution they make. I am pleased that that test case is being pursued by the union covering those workers. I was quite concerned to read just yesterday that the most recent data from the ABS shows that gender wage gap is now the worst it has been for a long time. It is totally unacceptable to read that on average a woman today is earning only 82 cents for every dollar that a man earns at ordinary time rates. The gender pay gap is now at its widest since August 1994. That reflects very adversely on this parliament and the lack of commitment by the former government to this very important issue.

I want to again place on record the importance of getting an early response from our government to the report Making it Fair. It was a report of a House of Representatives standing committee, chaired by my colleague the member for Hasluck, that inquired into pay equity issues. I had the opportunity to speak on the significant matters it canvassed when it was tabled back in November 2009. It is a very comprehensive report, with 63 strategic, yet very practical, recommendations. It points to the obvious need to look beyond the possibilities that may come with the test case that I have just referred to. In other words, let us broaden our horizons and look at what else can be done outside the auspices of the industrial relations system to advance the pay equity arguments. I repeat my desire for an early government response to what I consider a very groundbreaking and seminal report.

In conclusion on this issue, let me just restate that the former government cared nothing about the fact that Australia was only one of two OECD nations that had no national paid parental scheme. The current opposition leader said that paid parental or maternity leave would be ‘introduced over the government’s dead body’. It seems that he has had now had a change of heart, but I ask the question: can we believe in his commitments and his change of heart on such a fundamental issue? Our government will go down in history as providing Australia’s first paid parental scheme from 1 January 2011. It will provide for 18 weeks of government funded parental leave at the national minimum wage—(Time expired