Rowan Holzberger
Forde · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“… … … "Right at the beginning, it was thought that there was an intrusion in the relationship between the doctor and their patient," AMA president Tony Bartone said. … … … At the time Medicare was introduced in 1984, the AMA was heavily influenced by developments in the United Kingdom, particularly the National Health Service.”
“During my preparation for my contribution tonight I came across an article written in 2019, at the death of Bob Hawke, by ABC journalist Norman Hermant, and I'd like to read out a bit from it. The article was titled, 'Before Bob Hawke's Medicare, a visit to hospital forced many Australians into bankruptcy'.”
“My dad met my mum in Mount Isa, and I was born in Brisbane and grew up in Broken Hill, so I'm not sure where that quite places me. I've always actually believed regional Australia should have its own state. The cities could have one state, and regional Australia could have another state—anyway.”
“Mrs Buckingham's quote on thinking twice about going to see the doctor is something that all of us in our electorates have faced and heard about from people who told us that they would choose to put food on the table and feed their kids rather than see the doctor.”
“I think that will go some way to addressing some of those shortages; 17,000 doctors is a shot in the arm to the health system. Finally, the member for Riverina talked about the NDIS, kicking the proverbial out of us.”
“Even though they gave up, I think some time after the 1993 election, realising that they couldn't do what John Howard said and stab it in the stomach, they went around and tried to stab it in the back.”
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“My question is to the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. How is the Albanese Labor government tackling the housing crisis by building more homes, supporting renters and backing in first home buyers? Are there other approaches being put forward?”
“I say this to the opposition: genuinely get involved, change tack, back in these policies and take a hint from the last election. The invitation is there. Let's work together, like we did in postwar Australia. If you're actually interested in governing and not just grandstanding, let's put Australians first, because all Australians want is results, and that's exactly what we're delivering—for pensioners; for parents; for apprentices; for the outback, where I come from originally; for the outer suburbs, where I'm privileged to live now; for the inner city; and for everywhere in between. Spare us the lectures. Take a good hard look in your rearview mirror at your own record.”
“That's how manufacturing was built in Australia. Now we're investing in renewables, backing cheaper and cleaner power because it's good for the environment and it's good for business. Australians don't want yelling or finger pointing. They just want progress. They want a government that puts people first, and that's what we're doing. Whether it's free TAFE, the 20 per cent cut to HECS debts, cheaper child care, cheaper energy or backing in local manufacturing, we're not just governing for some; we are governing for all. Here's the bit that gets up the nose of Australians the most; it's the sheer negativity and the divisiveness. Every time we bring forward a policy, whether it's on health or whatever, those opposite just say no—no alternatives, no vision, just no. Well, guess what? You can't build a nation on no.”
“It was inspiring to hear the housing minister, this week, talk about housing being the Labor project of our generation—from five per cent deposits to Help to Buy, where the government is going to share the equity to dramatically slash the cost of entry into the market; to supporting National Cabinet's ambitious but necessary plan to build 1.2 million homes, 100,000 of which will be earmarked for first home buyers; and to undertaking the biggest public housing program in a generation to build more homes, making it easy to buy a home and making it better for renters. It's the same story with energy. Back then, post war, governments built the energy networks. They made sure that power was cheap and reliable not just for households but for businesses as well, to help manufacturing and local industries.”
“Playford understood something that the current opposition don't understand, which is that you build public housing not out of the goodness of your heart but to keep the cost of living down, to give workers a roof over their heads and to help business by keeping wages manageable. Housing is the backbone of productivity.”
“I spoke about housing the other night in here, about how, back in postwar Australia—really, the foundation of the economic miracle that was postwar Australia was Labor and Liberal state and federal governments working together to build housing, create jobs and lay the foundation for this country's postwar miracle. They weren't mucking about with culture wars and cheap shots; they were rolling up their sleeves. In fact, I like to surprise people a bit when I say that one of my economic role models is actually Thomas Playford, the longest-serving premier in Australia and a Liberal. It's a bit of a surprise to some people I know.”
“There's one in the northern Gold Coast in the suburb of Oxenford, and there's one in Logan at Browns Plains, which I hear is one of the busiest in the country, because it's our people that really need this sort of help the most. And there are more urgent care clinics on the way. Compare that to when the opposition were in government. They watched bulk-billing collapse. They starved Medicare. They abandoned Australians who were at most vulnerable. This government, though, stepped in. We tripled the bulk-billing rate for pensioners and for kids, and now we're extending it right across the board. That's governing for everyone. Health care is just one part of it. Let's talk about housing.”
“When I saw that I had an opportunity to address this MPI, I opened up the email and I couldn't believe my luck. I thought, 'You've got to be joking!' because, if the opposition reckoned that we're the ones not governing for all Australians, then they either haven't been watching what's going or have been watching their favourite television programs a bit too much again. But they certainly haven't been listening to people out in the regions, where I come from, and in the outer suburbs and suburbs, so maybe I could tell them what is going on. We've just opened our 90th Medicare urgent care clinic. That's 90 places where mums and dads and pensioners and battlers and everyone in between can walk in and see a doctor and walk out without paying a cent—bulk-billing, no drama.”
“Like the housing minister said, housing is the Labor project of our generation. But wouldn't it be even better for our grandkids if they could look at us and say that housing was the project of our generation, from all political parties—just like we look back on the postwar generation, who worked together across the parties to literally build Australia and who set us up for decades of economic prosperity. House adjourned at 20:00 The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Mascarenhas ) took the chair at 10:30.”
“Joh Bjelke-Petersen was famous for building public housing—for saying to mining companies that they could have their lease, but they'd need to develop towns like Moranbah and Dysart. So I implore the other side of the House: change tack. Let's work together. Support the HAFF—the Housing Australia Future Fund—which is undertaking the biggest public housing program of a generation. Support the expansion of the five per cent deposit program. Get behind National Cabinet's ambitious but necessary target to build 1.2 million homes, 100,000 of which will be for first home buyers. Get behind the Help to Buy program, in which the government will partner with buyers to share the equity and dramatically slash the cost of entering the market. Support measures which will help make life better for renters.”
“By the 1990s, over 40 per cent of every rental in South Australia was public housing. Now that number is half. Nationally, public housing was about 20 per cent of every rental at the start of the nineties. Now it's about 10 per cent. On the Gold Coast, public housing accounts for about five per cent of every rental. You wonder why we have a housing crisis! I don't want to play the blame game, because, like the Minister for Housing said, this problem has been over 40 years in the making—so it's both sides of politics. But it became the most extreme in the nine years of the former government, when just 373 social and affordable homes were built. The only way out of it is for all political parties to work together again, just like in postwar Australia. I'm sure the National Party wants to do it.”
“It was to provide cheap rent not just for vulnerable people but for workers. It's easy to think that cheap rent means more money in people's pockets to spend in local businesses, and, sure, that's important. But the economic benefit is much more profound than that. The real economic benefit is that cheap rent means wages don't need to be so high. That helps attract business. In fact, it's how the car industry, for example, became an industry. Public housing came to Australia. Public housing was built around car plants. One of the greatest proponents of public housing was the South Australian Liberal premier Thomas Playford during World War II and for 20 years after it. He put into the charter of the South Australia Housing Trust that it would aid in the economic development of the state.”
“That one conversation sparked an interest, and I went on to learn that the postwar economic miracle of Australia was achieved through two things: cheap housing and cheap energy. It was state and federal Labor and Liberal governments working together to build Australia. It's largely forgotten now. But, before World War II, in the heart of Australian cities, there were great slums. Look at those genteel inner-city terrace homes today and just remember that, before the war, three or four families would be jammed into each of them—and those families were the lucky ones. Governments knew that it just wasn't good enough for our veterans to come back from World War II and live in slums, and so that was one impetus to build affordable housing. The other impetus was the economy.”
“During the election I said that housing is my No. 1 priority. That's for two reasons. First, housing is one of those basic human needs. Once you have met it, it gives you the literal space to become the person that you were meant to be and to do the things for your community that only you can do. Without a roof over your head, nothing else is possible. The second reason is that there is no greater impact a government can have on the economy than providing affordable housing. It really twigged for me in a casual conversation that I had about 20 years ago, when somebody told me that public housing was to be built around a meatworks in Brisbane to provide affordable housing to workers.”
“When I was studying economics in a country high school in the 1990s we were told that's not supposed to happen, but it did happen, and for two reasons: because of the economic policies of the Albanese Labor government, led by the Treasurer, and, more importantly, because of the hard work of the Australian people. We know there is still a lot of work left to be done, but in this government we are focused 100 per cent on the cost of living and the economy. By doing it the Labor way—investing in our infrastructure and investing in our people—all Australians will enjoy the benefits.”
“The Albanese Labor government has achieved something positive that you just won't read about in the economic textbooks. I've always believed that you need to run the economy like you run a business. Having run businesses, I've learnt that there are two ways to run a business: you can invest in your plant and your people or you can strip out the profits and run the business into the ground. The Labor way is the better way, and that is to invest in your plant and your people. Now, the figures speak for themselves. A couple of weeks ago, in the same week, interest rates came down, unemployment came down and real wages went up.”
“We're making it so that all first home buyers can access it, with no income caps and no limits on places, and we're lifting the property price cap too so that people can actually find a place that suits their family and their future. This policy cuts through. It shaves years off the time it takes to save a deposit and saves people tens of thousands of dollars in mortgage insurance. Labor is acting to make housing more accessible and equitable.”
“We're going to turn it around, and we're going to do it by working with states, councils and industries to get homes on the ground faster. We're going to do it through schemes like the Help to Buy program, where the government will share the equity of the house with the individuals. We're going to do it through the biggest housing program in over three decades, the Housing Australia Future Fund, and we're going to do it by building 1.2 million homes, of which a hundred thousand will be earmarked for first home buyers. We're going to do it by freezing the construction code, cutting red tape and getting builders back on site faster, and we're going to do it with things like the five per cent deposit for first home buyers, which will start in October.”
“It was not out of the goodness of our hearts but because we knew that, if we could keep the cost of living down and keep the cost of rent down, we could take the pressure off wages, and that would help business and keep living standards high. In fact, one of the reasons that we attracted a car industry to Australia was public housing. Look at where the car manufacturing plants were. They used to have public housing built around them. In fact, it was part of the charters of the housing trusts around the country to facilitate in the economic development of the state. I've long believed that providing affordable housing is the biggest impact that a government can have on the economy, and now we're playing catch up.”
“Every Australian deserves the chance to own a home, and we know that it's been getting harder and harder for first home buyers. If you have a look at that age group between 25 and 35 years old, those figures show that, in the nineties, homeownership was somewhere around 60 per cent, and now it's heading down to 40 per cent. But let's not focus on how we got here—just know that, over the last 30 years, there has been a failure to invest in public housing by federal LNP governments. It was part of the postwar miracle of Australia that state and federal Labor and Liberal governments across the country invested in public housing.”
“I said that, when I got elected, housing would be my No. 1 priority. Housing is the issue that is brought up to me consistently when I'm doorknocking, making phone calls or speaking to people at community events. When we talk about the cost of living, what people pay for rent or the mortgage is at the heart of it, because you pay your rent or your mortgage first. The house is the last thing to go when you're struggling to pay your bills. That's why I think it's great to see that housing is at the front and centre of the Albanese Labor government's agenda, and it's fantastic to hear today that we're bringing forward our commitment to help first home buyers buy a house with just a five per cent deposit, starting this October and not next year as originally planned.”
“The FIFO worker who leaves his family to work on a mine for two weeks at a stretch and the childcare worker with small kids of her own who comes home and looks after an ageing parent are my heroes, so to are the folks who put their bodies on the line every day they get up and go to work—because, if you have to get up to go to work to pay the bills, whether you're a doctor, a childcare worker, a fitter, a machinist, a station hand or a small-business owner, if you have to be there or you don't get paid; you're working class. If you need to sell your labour to live but can't do that because of age or disability, you are working class. The working class are the people that we have been elected to represent, and, in my first speech, I make this commitment: I am here for us.”
“I said, 'Wow, it must be hard to be a pilot,' and he said, 'I bet it's not as hard as being a bus driver.' Another time, I said, 'Wow, it's amazing how radio presenters bring their shows to an end just in time,' and he said, 'Not as amazing as a teacher who brings their lesson to an end just in time.' Bus drivers and teachers—they're who my political heroes are.”
“Just to completely break the rule of thankyous in a first speech, I'd like to end with two more: one to my mum, and the other to my dad. My mum taught me the lesson of frugality. How she managed to run a household on very little stunned me as a teenager and inspires me today. My dad lived to 93 and passed away two months ago. Just after I was elected, a journo asked me who my political heroes are. I was stumped! I've never really made a hero out of any politician. Then I remembered something my dad said to me when I was a kid.”
“I believe in an education system that teaches life skills, learning things like living frugally and within your means because, for most people, doing that is more than half the economic battle. None of us worked that out for ourselves. We all had mentors; we all had someone who showed us the way. That's what our education system should be about. These are the practical things that we can do as a parliament. If we get the material conditions right and mentor people to follow their dream and find their purpose, we get the spirit right too, just like the men and women at Gilmour Space. As we shoot to the stars, we can also nurture the spirit of what it means to be human, just like our Indigenous brothers and sisters at my other favourite organisation Jinndi Mibunn.”
“Here, at the end of my speech, I return to the point I left off at the start: that, in the midst of material wealth, many suffer from spiritual impoverishment. That is why I believe in, on the one hand, technology and, on the other hand, democracy; building public housing, like we used to; subsidising electricity, like we used to; protecting our environment to keep our air and water clean; and a health and welfare system that looks after the sick and vulnerable. And then, like Maslow's hierarchy, once those elemental needs are met—clean air, clean water, healthy food, shelter and energy—people can self-actualise with an education system that mentors not just kids but adults as well to find our passions and follow our dreams. We can become who our creator intended.”
“In fact, truly successful businesspeople are more likely to live frugally, drive an old car, eat at home and holiday in Australia, but they have this amazing passion for an idea, an idea for something that helps other people. The money is a way of keeping score, but it's the act of creation and of following your passion and dream that is what entrepreneurialism is—because we are all different and we all have gifts that we have been given by our creator. As someone said, 'Gifts are things that we give to other people.' A life where we find and follow our passion is an indescribably fulfilling life, whether in business, politics, community service, raising a family, art or doing all of those things at the same time.”
“I was walking across Scarborough Street in Southport and I had this amazing sense of freedom. I had no clients. I was on YouthStart. I'd just sold the ute and the bike, and I had nothing except this incredible sense of freedom. I didn't need the security of a nine-to-five job. Somehow I knew that I was going to be able to survive on my wits alone. I went doorknocking on Scarborough Street and Ferry Road in Southport and got a hairdresser as my first client, and then a real estate agent, a telemarketer, an aquarium store, a second-hand store and a mechanic. Then I got a construction company in Beenleigh as a client and did more and more work for them until I ended up being their director and running the company. Along the way, I learnt that good businesspeople aren't attracted to the money.”
“But that can be used as a justification by people on the Right to turn a blind eye to suffering. The answer—and everyone here probably worked it out earlier; it was just me that took so long—is not collective responsibility and it is not individual responsibility; it is individual responsibility for the collective. The greatest satisfaction that we can get comes from the greatest contribution that we can give, which is to help other people. So, seized by that idea, I moved with my young family to Southport on the Gold Coast, determined to live and spread that message. I started a sales-coaching business. I wanted to learn how to sell, and because I knew the best way to learn is to teach—again, with the will to win—I went knocking on doors. There was one point I remember.”
“I was scrubbing out the deep fryer at the servo in Tenterfield at 2 am in the morning and I had an epiphany: someone has every right to make excuses and blame others, but what good does that do them? The moment you blame others is the moment you put the solution onto others and the moment you disempower yourself. That single night, above all others, scrubbing out the deep fryer, was where my political values were formed, where it all came together. The Left takes a collectivist approach. We think we can solve other people's problems, which is partly true. But sometimes we on the Left use that as an excuse not to empower the person with the problem to fix it themselves. The Right takes an individualist approach, that we all have the power in us to solve our own problems, and that is partly true.”
“I started off thinking the book was a joke, but by the time I finished it I was hooked. It wasn't the money; it was the idea that I had so much more power over my own emotions and my own destiny than I had known. There was one book I read—and I still remember it today—that talked about DEB and AAG, that you can either live in denial, make excuses and blame others, or you can take action, be accountable and be grateful for what you already have. And I thought: 'Well, that's fine for an able-bodied white guy like me, but what if I was born into real disadvantage? Wouldn't I have a right to make excuses and blame others?' I remember the night it hit me.”
“There's something about farm work. I learnt a different set of values. My time in Labor politics had taught me collectivist values: the government has a solution to many problems. My time on outback stations taught me about personal responsibility and reliance on oneself. But it also taught me that you look after your neighbour. In the drought of the early 2000s, if it hadn't been for the government stepping in, all of those sheep and cows would have died, and all of those farmers would have gone out of business. Then I turned 30, met a woman and we had a little baby. We moved to Tenterfield to be near her mum, and I got a job in a servo, flipping burgers and serving petrol. She gave me a book about a cashier at Woolies who got into self-improvement, got into sales and made millions.”
“Unfortunately, I couldn't fix the things I broke, and that job only lasted six months! What followed was two years of looking for work and doing odd jobs. In the nineties the national unemployment rate got up to 10 per cent. It's hard to imagine it now, but those who were there remember what it was like. It was tough. In Broken Hill, like many regional communities, the unemployment rate was above 20 per cent. Twenty per cent unemployment is depression-level unemployment. So when a job came up in an outback pub in Wanaaring, about 300 kilometres north-east of Broken Hill, I took it. From there I did some lamb marking on a sheep station, and the next thing I knew I had a bike and a ute, a pack of working dogs, and the will to win, and I became a station hand—the best job I ever had. It truly made me as a person.”
“I was born in Brisbane and I grew up in Broken Hill. While Barcaldine was the birth place of the labour movement—although New South Wales people will say it's Balmain—Broken Hill was for many years its spiritual home. As a kid I got an interest in politics, sparked by the union's struggle for justice that I grew up around, and at the age of 14 I joined the party and went to my first Young Labor conference in Sydney. After school I moved to Adelaide and got a job working for Peter Duncan in the Keating government, from its glorious beginning until its spectacular end in 1996. I went back to Broken Hill and determined to see a world outside of politics and wanted to do an apprenticeship as a fitter and machinist. I got a job as a labourer for a mining contractor, where I got my ticket in the metal workers union.”
“Those two can never know the incredibly positive impact that they had on me then in the late 1980s and that they still have on me today. Like any big brother, the PM looked after me when he could. When I got a job as a 19-year-old with a former member for Makin, Peter Duncan—who I also want to acknowledge for his brilliance as a person and a campaigner—Peter told me that it was on the recommendation of Anthony Albanese. To the PM and his team, people like Tim Gartrell and Alex Mookareeka: I know I will always be the kid to you, but I stand in this place today because of you all. While my core political belief is, on the one hand, technology and, on the other hand, democracy, it is rooted in my core political value, which I would like to explain in the context of my life. My dad met my mum in Mount Isa.”
“Advice given to us when preparing our first speech was that it wouldn't be a bad career move to put in a 'thank you' to the Prime Minister! Of course, I want to thank him for his performance during the campaign and his performance over the last term, where people came to see his vision and compassion. But I really want to thank him for being like a big brother. I met the PM when I was 14 and he was 24, when I went to my first, and his last, Young Labor conference. Even though I never really worked closely with him, he was like the big brother who'd grown up and gone off to work while I was still the kid at home. My political brothers who I did grow up with were the Young Labor president who succeeded the PM, Mal Larsen—who is a current adviser to the PM—and Damien O'Connor, a former adviser.”
“Shannon Fentiman, Queensland's shadow Treasurer—friend, former boss, campaign director and fellow observer of the ridiculous—is here, and Joshua Lucey, campaign manager and hero of the cause, is not. Thanks also to the mighty Sharon Robertson and the Waterford branch, Kate Drysdale and the Slacks Creek Politburo, Fran van Gilst and the Beenleigh branch and Keenan McEwen and the Coomera branch. To say I couldn't have done it without you is such a statement of the obvious, but what I really mean is it wouldn't have been half as much fun. A special mention goes to the patron of Queensland Young Labor, Brianna Bailey, whose advice beyond her years and sense of humour below her years has got me through two elections and one preselection. And there is one other person who has come along today.”
“Queensland Meat Workers secretary Matt Journeaux and two unionists who have had a much bigger impact on me than they might have imagined, Harry Early and Stuey Trail, are continuing inspirations to me today. Thank you to the Labor Party's state secretary, Ben Driscoll, who, for his sins, ran my 2022 campaign for Forde, and to former state secretaries Evan Moorhead, Katie Flanders and the new member for Moreton herself. The most important people are the ones who have showed up today. You are not only the ones who will give me the most grief if I leave you out but also some of the most important people to ever come into my life. To Emico, Ruby Rose and Riley, Lonnie and Ruth Nelson, Francis Bedford, Sharon Vallis, Elliot Lini and the Logan Afghan community, and Saeed Mujahid Hashimi and the Gold Coast Afghan community: thank you.”
“It's little known that the world's earliest trade union activists, like the Tolpuddle Martyrs, were sent to Australia along with the convicts who were sent to Australia for stealing bread. It was because of political prisoners like them that Australia was the first country to have a secret ballot, the first country to allow men to vote regardless of wealth and property and one of the first countries to allow women to vote. It is because of union activists that we have progressed as a country today—people like AMWU state secretary Rohan Webb and executive officer Ann-Marie Allan, who have not only spent a lifetime backing in workers but also spent what seems like a lifetime backing in me!”
“Sometimes people say to me, 'Sorry, I can't support the Labor Party because you're too close to the union movement.' And I think to myself: 'Well, we aren't just close to the union movement; we are the union movement. We are the political wing of the trade union movement.' The Labor Party exists because there are some things you just can't achieve on the shop floor—workers compensation, free health care and free school education. To achieve these things you need control of the parliament. And, anyway, without laws that protect striking workers from the thuggery of an authoritarian government, you can't even fight on the shop floor for improved wages and conditions. Paul Keating said that the history of the Labor Party is the history of Australia.”
“I was advised by my good friend Cameron Murphy to do the thankyous at the beginning of the speech and was cautioned against doing too many. Well, seeing as we're not at the start of the speech, I've already ignored the first part of that advice, so I may as well ignore the second part! The first group of people I want to thank are the people of Forde, who have given me an awesome responsibility and opportunity. Perhaps because I have a margin of 1.8 per cent, I keenly feel the temporary nature of the jobs we have been entrusted to do. I want to acknowledge former member for Forde Bert van Manen and thank him for the way he conducted himself during two campaigns. The second group of people I want to thank are the people who make up the labour movement.”
“Scientists today talk of a technological singularity, a point where advanced research in robotics, biology and energy production all come together to create a whole that is infinitely more powerful than the sum of its parts. I believe science is close to creating a world where all of us have a material abundance beyond our wildest imagination. My core belief is summed up in the line 'On one hand technology, on the other hand democracy.' Technology has the power to create material wealth; democracy has the power to share it. My time as a parliamentarian will focus on helping our inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs to create and our community leaders to share. But, even in the midst of material abundance today, people suffer spiritual impoverishment, and to that I want to return at the end of my speech.”
“Only in the past 100 years have we learnt that our universe is not contained in a single galaxy but stretches over billions of light-years. For the first time, it is our generation that has a clear picture of our past and a good glimpse of our future. When I meet with people who are struggling to pay for a home, struggling to afford medicine, struggling to pay for electricity, it reminds me that we are still living in the Dark Ages. One day people will look back on how we live, just as we look back on the Romans, and will think how clever we were to make do with what we had but that they wouldn't want to live in our time.”
“And then there is Gilmour Space. If there is any company that symbolises the future, it's those legends. They have taken all the elements of the earth and transformed them into a rocket ship that will take us to the stars—well, technically, low Earth orbit, which may not sound as poetic as the stars, but it's heading in that direction. In this place, we're lucky to focus on the next three years, let alone the next 100. It's been only in the past 100 years or so that we've been able to stand on top of the foundations of science and look out to our past and see our future. Only in the past 100 years have we learnt that Aboriginal culture is more than 65,000 years old and that humans are about 100,000 years old.”
“Sure, we have motorbikes and gyrocopters and GPS, but when you're working on a farm—as I understand you did, Deputy Speaker Claydon—you feel an infinity with an ancestor a hundred generations past. Living with the rhythm of nature is infinitely more satisfying than how we live in the industrial age. But Indigenous Australians have a link to an even more fundamental past. I still don't grasp what that means, although I yearn to know it. In Australia we are so fortunate to share our lives with the longest continuous culture on the planet. It is just a handful of generations since the colonisation of Australia began, and our Indigenous brothers and sisters have survived; they have kept alive a fundamental knowledge and way of life that one day, I believe, Indigenous Australians will share when the rest of us are open to receive.”
“People have lived in Forde for tens of thousands of years. It was one of the first areas in Queensland to be colonised, as English and Germans, like my family, made an industry out of timber, cattle and sugar cane. Today, we have one of the most multicultural communities in the world. Forde is ancient Australia, old Australia and modern Australia. Forde is a perfect snapshot of Australia. As a kid, when I began to think about the world, I was intrigued to know what it meant to be human—before agriculture, before the industrial revolution. I believe many people suffer from poor mental health today because we're disconnected from the way of life that we as humans evolved to live in. I spent many years working in farming, a lifestyle little changed over 10,000 years.”
“I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians on the land on which the parliament sits, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples; the traditional custodians of the land on which I grew up, the Wilyakali people; and the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Yugambeh and Jagera peoples—the freshwater people of Canberra, the desert people of Broken Hill and the saltwater people of Logan and the Gold Coast. My two favourite organisations in Forde are Jinndi Mibunn—an Aboriginal organisation who help with housing, community, language, everything—and Gilmour Space, a company about to launch the first Australia-made rocket ship. One has a vision of ancient Australia; the other has a vision of futuristic Australia. Together they represent Forde perfectly, just as Forde represents Australia perfectly.”