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Mr GREG SMITH (Epping) [7.30 p.m.] (Inaugural Speech): It is a great honour to address this House in my inaugural speech as the member for Epping in the presence of distinguished colleagues, including my parliamentary secretary from another place, Mr John Ajaka, my wife Juli and my children, as well as many other relatives and friends. I have been happily married for 33 years to Julieanne and we have five beautiful adult children. The eldest, Benedict, is married to the lovely Julianna, and they are the parents of our grandchild, Theresa, aged two—the cutest kid I know—and are expecting another child in September.
Ben, a scientist and an MBA student, works at Macquarie University. Dominica, my daughter, who is present, is a nurse and child care worker. Nathaniel, as some of you may know, is a plumber and runs his own business. Jerome, formerly a licensed real estate agent, is studying to be a nurse; and Philomena, who is studying to be a history teacher, is in her third year at Macquarie University. They are a formidable team. Without their encouragement and support and that of my brothers John, who is present, Michael and Martin, who is also present, and their wives and families, I would not be here. Michael is in California, but he is here in spirit.
My path to this place has been an unusual one, although many aspects of my upbringing and formation are similar to that of numerous others. My parents, Ted and Noreen Smith, who both died two years apart in the late 1980s, were married in 1942 in Albury, and I am the second of their four sons. The example of service given by both my parents was very strong. At one stage we had three grandparents living with us for several years. Despite this inhibiting our fighting, swearing and skylarking, we benefited much from the wisdom and experience of our grandparents. As a result, I have always had great respect and affection for our senior citizens, and this feeling undoubtedly motivated me to sing with The Tokens—I will not be singing tonight—a band I helped to found that entertains mainly elderly people.
My experience with five generations of my own family and my extended family has reinforced a determination to support and defend the family unit as the cornerstone of community life. In their advancing years in particular, my parents spent much of their time doing voluntary work, mainly with Vinnies. My parents shared a deep Catholic faith, which I was fortunate to have passed on to me. This was supplemented by the strong education I received from the Sisters of St Joseph at Beverly Hills and North Goulburn, De La Salle Brothers at Coogee, and Marist Brothers at Randwick.
It was at De La Salle Coogee where I first became interested in politics, as a result of class discussions by Brother Leo Neville and free blotters distributed by local politicians. It was sort of like a race; whoever could get the most blotters would say, "I support that particular party." Two boys from the class above me rose to significant heights in politics—Laurie Brereton and Peter Collins. I am thankful to my friend Peter Collins, who at one stage was a work and law school colleague, for his support in providing me with a reference in my preselection.
I met Juli Joyce in about May 1972 when we were both living with our families in Lane Cove, and we were married in September 1973, when I was a graduate articled law clerk and she was a supervisor at MLC Life Insurance North Sydney. We went to live at Hurstville. I was elected an alderman on Hurstville council in September 1974, and our first child, Benedict, was born in June 1975. We moved back to Lane Cove in 1977, when Juli was expecting Dominica, who was born in August. We soon became embroiled in one of my many fights, a fight with a nearby sweets factory, Lifesavers, and formed a residents action group to campaign and stop it building an extension in which it planned to make chocolates. I wrote a letter to the company protesting about the noise and fumes made by it, and it responded by sending me a large box of lollies and chocolates. My colleagues thought we should keep them as evidence, but we had already eaten them—so as not to waste! I think Ben helped out a lot, although he was only two years old. The company later modified its plans and gave away land to the council for a buffer zone and moved its chocolate factory to Melbourne.
After we won this battle we moved to a house closer to Lane Cove shops where we lived for about 10 years, during which time our three other children, Nat, Jerome and Philomena, were born. We outgrew the house and moved into a large house in Lane Cove west. In April 1996 we moved to Epping and we have lived there ever since. Shortly after arriving at Epping we became parishioners at St Gerard Majella's parish at Carlingford, which was easier for us to get to than the church at Epping because of the lights and the bridge. At St Gerard's Father Finian Egan charmed us with his Irish wit and his pastoral devotion to his flock.
We became active in the parish and led a family group, with me singing as a cantor each Sunday—and I will not sing now!—and being elected to the parish council. Meanwhile, the boys became active in local sporting teams, Dom was active in the Hills Musical Society, and Philly played tennis. We joined various groups, including the Epping Civic Trust and the Epping RSL club, and we became involved in more resident action campaigns in our neighbourhood, this time against a developer that wanted to build on water-affected land at the back of us.
I am very grateful to all the Liberal Party branch members, Young Liberals and friends who helped me in the State campaign, in particular, my campaign manager and friend Noel McCoy, and my friend Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Kim, a Korean Vietnam veteran, who is here tonight. I am also very grateful to the many residents who allowed my signs to be erected in their front yards and on their fences. Some were long suffering, having to put up not only with my ugly puss greeting them each morning but also with the various beards, moustaches, and other appendages and witty comments that were added to the signs overnight by friendly passers-by.
I thank the electors of Epping for electing me as their local member and entrusting me with the privilege of representing them in this House. I particularly thank the Epping club and Epping and Eastwood RSL sub-branches for their warm hospitality, and the Shack, a youth drop-in centre. I also thank those others who generously supported my campaign financially or by prayers and encouragement. Thanks go to my friends Peter and Deborah Debnam who encouraged and supported my wife Juli and me. I also thank Barry and Rosemary O'Farrell. Barry has entrusted me with a shadow ministry concerning legal matters and he has given me much support. I also thank my adjoining Federal members: the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock.
As a result of insufficient infrastructure and continuing population increases, the once quiet Epping has become a noisy conduit and service centre for the commuters of north-west Sydney. Since we came to Epping there have been significant changes in our local environment. At that stage the traffic on Epping Road, Pennant Hills Road, Carlingford Road and Beecroft Road was a lot lighter and the M2 Expressway was still in its embryonic stage and certainly had not reached North Rocks, let alone Cheltenham. The forests in its path, like those alongside Epping Road at North Ryde, were thriving and green. Now the trees are gone and a six-lane expressway and enormous fortress-like soundproofing walls largely replace the forests. These roads are often gridlocked at peak hour and are more like parking lots than roads.
I now regularly use the Lane Cove tunnel and have experienced the convenience of it cutting the time it takes to drive into the city. However, this convenience comes at an unacceptable price. I fear that drivers, including many from the Epping electorate, will be exposed to health risks from fumes and inconvenience from road closures to funnel vehicles into the tunnel. My colleagues Anthony Roberts, the member for Lane Cove, and Gladys Berejiklian, the member for Willoughby, and I will not rest until the Lane Cove tunnel is properly filtered to safeguard tunnel users and neighbouring residents from dangerous fumes from the stacks. The money spent on delaying the road closures should be spent on the filters.
I am concerned at the chaos that will be caused by the road closures that, of course, have been held off by a $25 million payment until well after the election. The Weekly Times and local action groups have strongly supported us in our endeavours. The opening of the new railway station at Epping, with its lift and stairs, has been marred by the battle for the retention of the old footbridge, which, unlike the new one, has a ramp for the elderly, the handicapped, and young mothers with prams and strollers. I support this battle and have circulated a petition that is attracting much attention.
There are several other ongoing battles in the Epping electorate in relation to which residents feel that they have no choice but to fight. These include, first, the fight over the overdevelopment of the Channel 7 site in Mobbs Lane, Epping, which my distinguished predecessor, Andrew Tink, MP, led so well; second, the concerted opposition to the above ground portion of the north-west rail link, which would cause serious damage to the environment of Cheltenham and parts of Beecroft; and, third, the overwhelming dominance of Pennant Hills Road by large trucks, making it hostile for drivers of cars, residents, shops and businesses.
The proposed solutions are a tunnel under Pennant Hills Road, a proposal supported by several studies and the Federal and State governments, or a new road to link the M7 with the F3 at Kariong. Hopefully it will be sorted out by the Pearlman inquiry, but who knows because there is a conflict between the residents and both governments. Each week day the residential streets near our railway stations are like a car park, with thousands of commuters from other parts of the north west parked there. Shopkeepers on both sides of Epping station are suffering financially because there is no parking close by for their customers. The people of the electorate of Epping are concerned that we are becoming like the people in the song Big Yellow Taxi:
They took all the trees, and put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parkin' lot
We in Epping, Eastwood, Beecroft and Pennant Hills want to preserve our paradise by parking lots being built above and around the railway stations, to keep the non-local cars away from our homes, our driveways, our footpaths, and our shops and businesses. We want the Epping-Chatswood link extended to Parramatta, as promised, with ample parking provided at each station. This is surely reasonable and what an efficient State government would do. These are some of the challenges I willingly take up on behalf of the people of the Epping electorate.
I now want to speak about my career in criminal justice. For most of my legal career I have worked as a prosecutor, first for about 10 years with the commonwealth, then from late 1987 with the state as a Crown Prosecutor and Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor, and then from April 2002 as Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions. In September 2004 I was appointed Senior Counsel. In between I worked on investigations into serious organised crime, in senior positions at the Stewart Royal Commission into Drug Trafficking concerning the Mr Asia syndicate, as Senior Adviser (Legal) at the National Crime Authority, and then as General Counsel to the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into police corruption. [Extension of time agreed to.]
After such an interesting and rewarding career as a practitioner, I never anticipated that I would have the opportunity to run for Parliament. Then Andrew Tink stunned us all by announcing his plans to retire at the 2007 elections. Andrew was a good friend whom I had introduced to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, QC. Andrew was most popular in the electorate and a great shadow Minister. Although his political song may have ended, his melody lingers on. Once the opportunity arose, after much reflection and discussion with my wife and family I decided to seek preselection for Epping, where we had lived for 10 years. I realised full well that this would involve a personal wrench in leaving my friends and colleagues at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and from among the Crown Prosecutors. I had enjoyed my career in various commonwealth and State agencies immensely but felt that this was a rare opportunity to make a difference.
I anticipated that the road ahead might be like the rocky road to Dublin: "One, two, three, four, five." But I, like many others, thought that New South Wales should be doing a lot better, that my children and the children of this State generally should be able to look forward to having their own homes near their employment and having schooling at an affordable price, and to being able to live in a peaceful community where respect for others is the norm. It seemed to me that Epping—and many areas just like Epping—was not only being inundated with cars and trucks and fumes and noise, but had other major infrastructure and social problems to be urgently addressed. My main motivation for leaving my career as a prosecutor was a hope that I could help make changes that would benefit the people of this State and lift standards of behaviour. I still hold that hope.
It has long been my view—I believe, a view shared by many of my colleagues—that many of the changes to the criminal justice system in recent years have not worked well. Rather, they have complicated things, leading to greater risk of error and more appeals. These changes may have been made with the best of intentions but were failing the community. An area of particular concern to me was the sentencing of convicted criminals. The Greiner truth in sentencing legislation added certainty to the actual time a prisoner was to serve, and that was a great improvement over the previous system whereby, despite being sentenced to lengthy periods of imprisonment, most prisoners were released after serving less than half their total sentence. It must never be forgotten that the previous system of reducing sentences due to remissions and the granting of licences for release was corrupted by the corrupt Minister for Corrective Services Rex Jackson.
Critics have pointed out that truth in sentencing meant larger prison populations and required enormous extra expense in building more prisons. The public generally supports longer sentences. Indeed, there remains a widespread perception that many current sentences are inadequate. Many think that if you do the crime, then you should spend the time. Whatever one's views on the adequacy of sentencing practice, there is no doubt that the sentencing task has become more difficult. As the years have passed, the Sentencing Act 1991 has become the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, which contains many amendments and additions, some of which have added great complexity to the sentencing judge's task. There is a growing tension between the application of the principles of sentencing by judges and magistrates on the one hand, and the victims of crime and their families and the general public on the other.
In recent years there has been a greater recognition of the rights of victims of crime and their immediate families, and as a result greater pressures have been placed on prosecutors, like Margaret Cunneen, to not only honour the ethics of the legal profession by not going all out for a conviction or heavy sentence but also to maintain the confidence of the victims and/or their relatives. There is a natural tendency for victims to regard Crown Prosecutors as their legal representatives. Although Crown Prosecutors do their best to buffer the trauma of the trial or sentencing proceedings, they must maintain their objectivity. I have observed and experienced this pressure, sometimes intense, on a number of occasions, including during the two lengthy trials arising out of the murder of Constable David Carty. Despite the gruesome damage caused by violent crime, it is important that victims and their relatives achieve healing of the mental hurt and, if possible, the physical damage they have suffered.
Many victims and their families have been convinced that healing will be assisted by the perpetrator being heavily punished, and if the punishment appears inadequate the hurt is greater. I understand that. Prior to appearing for the Crown in appeals against the inadequacy of sentence, I spent much time preparing victims and their relatives, particularly the relatives of deceased victims of homicide, for various possible outcomes. A life sentence can never bring back a child or relative. While great work has been done by witness assistance officers from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and elsewhere, there is much work to be done in this area. In my view victim impact statements should be taken into account as an aggravating circumstance for sentencing; that is, additional time in jail should be imposed because of the impacts on victims and their families. This is allowed in Victoria under a Labor Government but is currently taboo in New South Wales. Many years of opportunity have been wasted and the law has never been changed in that respect.
I wish to briefly address two issues that were raised during my candidacy concerning my religion and my involvement in the pro-life movement. As earlier stated, I am a practising mainstream Catholic and make no bones about that. There are many Catholics of various degrees of commitment in all avenues of our society, including current Premiers, Opposition Leaders, Chief Justices and other judges, former Prime Ministers, Governors General, and leaders of commerce and industry and trade unions. Their Catholicity has not impaired their ability to do their jobs. Nor has mine. I have held a number of supervisory positions in government, some being responsible for hundreds of other professionals and support staff, with differing religious faiths or none, from various races, and having varying domestic arrangements and sexual preferences.
I have established cordial relationships with virtually everyone I have worked with, allowing occasionally for annoyance by some who have unsuccessfully sought promotion or been reprimanded. I have never discriminated against anyone. I support ecumenism, and have many friends from other Christian persuasions and of other faiths, and of no faith. I believe that my Catholic faith and upbringing have helped make me a fair and reasonable person, and helped me to cope with the various pressures of life, which we all face but perhaps I more so than some. I am unashamedly pro life and pro family, as are many other politicians. The contentious issues of abortion and euthanasia are rarely debated in this place. I do not expect this to change. I am a team player, and while I may exercise my right to a conscience vote on some issues I will never seek to impose my religious views on others. As to the law's traditional protection of the sanctity of human life, I firmly believe in the ethic articulated by High Court Justice Sir Gerard Brennan.
I am inspired by the life and death of St Thomas More, the Patron Saint of Lawyers and Politicians, whose statue is located in the Speaker's Garden. St Thomas More set out his philosophy in the oft repeated phrase, "I die the King's good and loyal servant—but God's first". Commenting on More's example to others, Lord Rawlinson of Ewell, the former British Attorney General, said at a Congress in Sydney in 1978:
Thomas More was the first man in modern times to show the way. He taught all men, but public men in particular, that be the cost never so dear, that be the consequences to position, ease, repute and even family never so great, a man must choose the spirit. Each man, to be a man, must be God's servant, first and always.
I hope I am able to live up to the sentiments expressed by Lord Rawlinson during my service to the people of Epping and this State as a member of this honourable House.