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- 8 May 2007
Inaugural Speech of the Member for Balmain
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Ms VERITY FIRTH (Balmain—Minister for Women, Minister for Science and Medical Research, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer), and Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water (Environment)) [8.07 p.m.] (Inaugural Speech): I am honoured today to come into this Chamber as the elected representative for the people of Balmain. When Europeans arrived in 1788 the area that is now Balmain, Birchgrove and Rozelle was inhabited by the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, who fished in its rich waters. Today we are still on the land of the Gadigal people, and I acknowledge that and pay tribute to their elders, past and present. On behalf of the residents of Balmain I say sorry to the people whose land we stole, and sorry to the generation of Aboriginal people who were removed from their families, the stolen generation.
The electorate of Balmain includes some of the oldest suburbs in Sydney. After 1788 this sandstone peninsula was home not only to the local indigenous people but to European settlers, who were timber cutters, whalers and seafarers. It was not long before this area's proximity to the water saw it become an important part of Sydney's developing maritime industry. And the workers in this industry lived in the cottages and row terraces that continue to line the streets of our suburbs. I am proud to say that Balmain has a working class history. It has a union history. It has a Labor history. I know that there is some contention as to the date and place of the birth of the Australian Labor Party, but the Labor tradition that I claim gives that honour to Balmain, where the first local Labor electoral league was established on 4 April 1891. It was the local urban unions that took this initiative, tired of not having a formal voice amongst the property interests that dominated Parliament.
Just two months later, in June, 45 Labor electoral leagues were established in New South Wales, and in that same month 35 official Labor candidates were elected to the New South Wales Parliament. This early period of political activity saw union men congregate in Balmain on the corner of Beattie and Darling streets every Sunday night to engage in vigorous political debate. The political consciousness of Balmain was in full swing then and, I can attest, has remained in full swing for more than 100 years. But it is not only the men who were active in the seat of Balmain; women also played a prominent role in local politics. The seat of Balmain elected the first Labor woman ever to the New South Wales Parliament in 1939. She spent her early life working as a domestic servant, going on to work as a shop assistant and joining the Shop Assistants Union of New South Wales. Her name was Mary Lily Quirk and she represented Balmain from 1939 to 1950. On the day she was sworn in the galleries were filled with women who had come to support her.
Mary Quirk was especially concerned with the interests of women and industrial workers—interests which half a century later are still being championed by Labor members of this House. During Mary Quirk's time, people who had middle-class ambitions did not mention where they lived if they came from the inner city. Several decades later, however, a decline in inner-city industry, spectacular harbour views and close proximity to the city meant a renewed appeal for Sydney's middle class. In 1968 the Sydney Morning Herald wrote:
An army of young people is marching into Glebe, buying up and renovating the houses, and hoping they have not made a mistake.
The gentrification had begun. The 1960s and 1970s saw the formation of local resident action groups—another signal that the new middle class had arrived in the inner city. These action groups were adept at using the media and mobilising their forces for common goals. The spirit of collectivism, rooted in a unionist past, had found a new outlet and conservation policies were some of the first pursued by these groups. Collectivism was at the forefront of the fight to save Glebe, Annandale and Leichhardt from being carved up by expressways. Following several confrontations in 1972, and the imposition of a green ban, the fight was won when the newly connected Whitlam Government purchased the Glebe estate. This was both a social outcome providing affordable housing for people in the inner city and a social outcome saving the heritage of those buildings. The campaign was led by Tom Uren. Of course, I am proud to have Tom Uren as a constituent and a local Labor Party branch member.
Today the seat of Balmain is bustling, bohemian and bursting with kids. I have lived in the inner west since I was 11 years old; I loved growing up there, and I have loved watching it change. I love the fact that you can walk to the shops and encounter so many people from different backgrounds. I love that it is a place where difference is not just accepted but encouraged. I love that the fight to protect so many of our heritage buildings has been so successful, and I will continue that fight. I see my role as a fierce protector of all that is great about this electorate and my home. I consider myself incredibly lucky to represent such a diverse collection of historic suburbs: Annandale, Balmain, Balmain East, Glebe, Forest Lodge, Haberfield, Leichhardt, Lilyfield, Camperdown, Birchgrove, Dobroyd Point and Rozelle.
Our local area is at the heart of the State's baby boom. We had a 25 per cent increase in the number of children born last year in the Leichhardt municipality. This baby boom brings with it its own infrastructure issues. We desperately need more child care places, and we need to plan for an influx of children into our local schools. The changing demographics of the inner city also mean that we need to plan for green space. Very few of us in the inner city have backyards of our own. That is why public green space that exists must always be defended, and it is why we must always be on the lookout for new green space opportunities.
We are absolutely blessed in Balmain to live so close to arguably the most beautiful part of Sydney: Sydney Harbour. I believe passionately that this asset belongs to everyone, not just the few who are lucky to live on the water. When I was growing up in Glebe the foreshore at Blackwattle Bay consisted of warehouses and timber yards. It is now a beautiful harbourside walk. Access to our precious harbour foreshore is very important to Sydneysiders, and I am particularly supportive of the State Government's vision of a Woolloomooloo-to-Glebe foreshore walk.
My brother and I grew up in a very opinionated family. My parents, Stewart and Bev, joined the Labor Party in the wave of protest that surrounded the sacking of the Whitlam Government in 1975. Indeed, my very first demonstration was as a two-year-old toddler in a pram outside Parliament House in Canberra when Gough Whitlam delivered his famous speech, declaring:
Well may we say God Save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor-General.
I believe Charles was about two months old at the time. In the eighties my parents were very involved in the peace and anti-nuclear movements. I never considered that activism in these movements was in any way contradictory to activism in the great Australian Labor Party. In fact, the two were inextricably linked. It has been Labor, at both the State and Federal levels, that has been at the forefront of change in this country. It is Labor governments that deliver on the aims of our nation's great social movements.
It was Labor activists, together with the women's movement, that filled the ranks of the public campaign for equal pay for work of equal value. It was a Labor Government that introduced this country's first anti-discrimination legislation. It was Labor that pulled the last of our troops out of Vietnam and led the fight against conscription. It was Labor that opposed the 2003 United States led invasion of Iraq, an invasion that is now characterised by all but the most avid Bush supporters as a monumental mistake. It was Labor that delivered real law reform for the gay and lesbian community. It was Labor, together with the movement for indigenous rights in our country, that enshrined native title rights for indigenous people. And it will be Labor, and only Labor, that will seize the political momentum and tackle the challenges of climate change in this country.
Unlike many of the challenges we have had to overcome in the course of human history, climate change is truly global in reach, with consequences that threaten the very elements that sustain life on our planet—access to clean water, the production of food and the diversity of the natural environment. These are the stakes that we are playing for. This is the inheritance we will leave to future generations if our response is one of inaction. The science is in. We know that climate change is happening and we know the long-term threat it poses to the planet. According to the landmark Stern report, the economic benefits of strong early action easily outweigh the costs. Stern shows that adapting to the consequences of climate change would be equivalent to as much as 20 per cent of global economic output—more than the combined cost of the Great War, the Second World War and the Great Depression.
In contrast, the cost of effective action now would be just 1 per cent or, to put it another way, for every $1 we invest now we stand to save at least $5 in the future without having to cap the aspirations of rich or poor countries. And we know that most of the victims of our collective failure to act and to invest now will be the people in the poorest countries. For Labor, tackling climate change has a social justice dimension. In fact, social justice and economic security for working families are the key priorities of any Labor government. And they are the priorities of the broader labour movement and the union movement, of which I am proud to call myself a member. I am also proud to have been appointed the Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water, and I look forward to working with Minister Koperberg on this important issue.
Before running for Parliament I was a solicitor with a Sydney law firm that specialised in employment law. It gave me a real insight into some of the major issues facing women in today's workplace, an experience that will be invaluable in my role as Minister for Women. Issues such as health and safety at work, pay equity between men and women, the need for job security and certainty about hours of work, and the importance of family-friendly conditions are all crucial issues for working women in New South Wales. It is clear that the difficulties facing working women have become so much greater since the introduction of the Federal Government's devastating welfare to work and WorkChoices legislation. The latest average weekly earnings figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in February show that the pay gap between men's and women's wages is beginning again to increase since the introduction of WorkChoices. Women's average weekly full-time earnings are approximately 85 per cent of men's equivalent earnings. The average weekly earnings for all women in the New South Wales work force, including part-time and casual workers, is approximately 69 per cent.
In a modern democracy in which as many women as men finish school and attend university this continuing economic inequality for women is simply unacceptable. Across the board women's increasing engagement in the work force has, according to the Economist, contributed to global growth exceeding that attained by China in the past decade or so. Yet this is occurring on unequal terms for many of the women involved. As the Minister for Women, I will do what I can to address that disparity. [Extension of time agreed to.]
To do this, more must be done to assist women and their families to better balance paid work with family responsibilities. New South Wales Labor has a proud record of supporting women's quest for equal pay. New South Wales became the first Australian industrial jurisdiction to legislate for equal pay with the introduction of the Female Rates (Amendment) Act by the Cahill Labor Government in 1958. Modern Labor has stayed true to this tradition. I would also like to pay tribute to the Labor feminists who have been an inspiration and support to me personally—particularly Jeannette McHugh, Ann Symonds, Sue Tracey, Christine Kibble and, of course, my aunt Meredith Burgmann, who taught me always to be brave and to stand up for my beliefs.
I am pleased to have been given ministerial responsibility for science and medical research and for cancer. Science runs in my family: My grandfather, Victor Burgmann, had a long scientific career and was the Chairman of the CSIRO in the late 1970s. Having said that, I am pretty sure that scientific talent is a recessive gene because it definitely skipped my generation. At the heart of our humanity is our constant need to search for truth. There is something very human about our never-ending desire to push the boundaries of science and medical research. I believe we, as a society, need to provide the capacity for our scientists to think, to explore and to discover solutions that will help humankind, whether it be through breakthroughs in medical science or perhaps technological advances that will help in the fight against climate change. One of the great achievements of the Labor Government has been the establishment of the Cancer Institute of New South Wales. I have visited the institute and was overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of its work in the promotion of world-class cancer research. I look forward to being its advocate within government.
The heart that sustains the Australian Labor Party is the rank and file branch members, many of whom are in the public gallery tonight. I thank you. I am honoured to have been preselected through a rank and file ballot, and I would like to pay tribute to the 600 or so local branch members in the seat of Balmain. The campaign in Balmain was hard fought for the Labor Party and we would never have got there without the hours of work contributed by local party members, working because they believe in the Australian Labor Party. A special thanks must go to the people who formed the core of my campaign team, Tamsin Lloyd and Hannah Diddams, two incredibly talented young women with great futures ahead of them, and to my chief of staff and good friend John Graham. I would also like to thank the union movement, especially the AMWU, for their support. To all the branch campaign co-ordinators, to members who letterboxed, doorknocked, answered telephones, put up posters, staffed street stalls and handed out on election day—you all know who you are—I thank you very much.
I want to thank Alice Murphy, Mayor of Leichhardt, and Leichhardt Labor councillors Damian Cobley-Finch, Bob Webb and Chris Windsor. I would also like to thank my City of Sydney council colleagues Michael Lee and Tony Pooley. Thanks of course must be extended to Sandra Nori, previous member for Port Jackson, for her 19 years of service to our local community. I have many State parliamentary colleagues who have been very supportive, but I want to single out in particular Carmel Tebbutt, Penny Sharpe and Linda Burney for their encouragement and support over many years of friendship. I would like to thank my hardworking and committed ministerial staff. We have only just started working together but I am blown away already by everyone's enthusiasm and commitment. Special thanks also to Christina Harlamb for her incredibly hard work in the electorate office.
At a personal level I would like to thank Anthony Albanese for his steadfast support and advice over the years. Thank you also to Luke Foley, John Faulkner and Lis Kirkby and to my excellent local Federal member and friend, Tanya Plibersek, whose opinion I always seek and who I do not believe has ever been wrong. To Ken Fowlie, my boss at Slater and Gordon, thank you for being such a good friend to me. I learnt a lot working with you. To Michael Coutts-Trotter, Jenny McAllister, Tim Ayres, Rae Cooper and Rose Tracey, thank you for your personal support. Last but not least, much love and thanks to my wonderful, supportive family. To my mother, Beverley, and stepfather, Andrew, to my father, Stewart, and stepmother, Kate, thank you for loving me and giving me the confidence to do a job like this.
To my brother, Charles, and sister-in-law, Amanda, I know that you will always keep me on the straight and narrow and I will never be able to get away with anything. I am very lucky in that I could not have better in-laws. Thank you to Eileen Chesher, Karen Chesher and Mick Saxby, Deb, Joe, Alex, Tom and Ellie Vass, John Chesher, Shauna Wilkinson and Isabel Chesher. Last but not least, thank you to my kind, patient and clever husband, Matthew, and to my beautiful daughter, April. Just looking at you always makes me happy. I hope that together all of us can make a better world for April to grow up in.
The SPEAKER: I congratulate the three new members who gave their inaugural speeches this evening.
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