David Moncrieff
Hughes · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“We're extending paid parental leave to a full six months, giving families more time with their little ones and more support, because, unlike those opposite, we believe in supporting parents as they raise the next generation.”
“Yesterday was 1 July, a day that saw significant reform from the Albanese Labor government implemented. Starting this week, the Labor government is delivering more cost-of-living relief for workers in Hughes.”
“This legislation ensures that Defence and DVA are better equipped to intervene early and effectively when members, veterans and their families are at risk, saving lives before it's too late. The Albanese Labor government's record of investment for Defence and veteran communities is profound.”
“We have already made substantial progress in fixing the mess left to us by the previous government, under which a backlog of 42,000 claims were never even looked at. That wasn't an accidental oversight. It was a predictable outcome from a party that holds the gutting of Public Service jobs and wage suppression as a proud part of its DNA.”
“My community in Hughes is home to a significant veteran community, ranging across the Sutherland Shire around the Holsworthy Barracks and Moorebank, out to the Macarthur region in areas like Macquarie Fields and Glenfield. I'm sure that many know the gut-wrenching feeling of losing a loved one to suicide.”
“These include aspects such as the establishment of a brain injury program, transformation of research into outcomes, support for service members to transition into civilian life, a new agency focused on veteran wellbeing, improvement in the timeliness of information-sharing between Defence and DVA for claims processing, and much more.”
The complete record
Every one of 366 lines we hold for David Moncrieff, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 8.
“Health care and social assistance are the largest industries in the local government areas of Hughes by employment. People of all ages have been coming up to me with concerns about the cost of seeing a doctor, after nine years of a government that didn't support bulk-billing. On this side of the chamber, we built and defended Medicare, and I am proud that we're reinvesting in it to make bulk-billing the norm again. Hughes is home to bushland, waterways and national parks, including the royal and Heathcote national parks, the Georges River, the Hacking River and Woronora River. It is on the forefront of the environmental management conservation movement. Hughes contains the only putrescible landfill site in the Sydney Basin.”
“Each community has unique needs, and I am honoured to represent those needs here. Hughes is also home to a thriving small-business community, the lifeblood of our economy. Almost 60,000 local businesses base themselves in the Sutherland Shire, Liverpool or Campbelltown local government areas. I want to work with businesses to help them thrive and to deliver for our community. I want our workforce, especially our young people, to have access to the skills they need to succeed. I'm proud that this government not only believes in TAFE but invests in its future. I understand the value of education, having been raised by two teachers, and I want to see more education opportunities for people in this country that are properly funded.”
“I even received a 21st birthday card from someone to whom I'd given that answer which had been signed by the member for Grayndler and on which he had been kind enough to add the words 'party hard'. I'm not sure if the party he was referring to was the federal parliamentary Labor Party, but I've chosen to interpret it that way. So, while, yes, I am proud to have that man of integrity and conviction now leading our country, it does not give me much credit in the obscure political trivia community that my favourite politician has been Prime Minister for the last three years! My electorate contains a diverse range of communities across its nearly 400 square kilometres and three local government areas, stretching from Bundeena to Bardia, from Engadine to Ingleburn, from Menai to Moorebank, from Waterfall to Wattle Grove.”
“I'm so fortunate to have the support and counsel of Robert Tickner, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to build on the legacy he left in this community. I started to take an interest in federal politics—a sustained interest in federal politics, sorry; I was always interested!—after the 2010 election. The media focused on the instability presented by a minority government but they couldn't hide the fact that many incredible world-leading achievements were being accomplished by the government during that period. During that period I was particularly struck by the integrity of one cabinet minister, one who stuck by his values even when they were a danger to his career. I was so inspired by that integrity. From that period, whenever I was asked who my favourite politician was, 'Anthony Albanese' was my answer.”
“The seat of Hughes was held by successive Labor members Les Johnson and Robert Tickner from its creation in 1955 to 1996, except for a single term which preceded the creation of neighbouring Cook in 1969. Both former Labor members for Hughes served as ministers for Aboriginal affairs during landmark moments in the reconciliation movement. Les Johnson was minister when Gough Whitlam poured that handful of red dirt into the hands of Vincent Lingiari, and Robert Tickner was minister when the Mabo decision was handed down and fought to deliver a just native title act. Inspired by their values, I was proud to play an active role for the 'yes' campaign during the Voice referendum in 2023. I sat on the organising committee for Yes 23 for the Sutherland shire, kicked off our direct voter contact and led the doorknocking.”
“I'm so pleased that, in June, this land was declared a regional park. When the New South Wales coalition government devastated the TAFE system with a decade of underinvestment, I doorknocked. We turned what had once been three safe Liberal seats in Hughes into two marginal seats and one Labor seat. When this place legislated tax cuts, I begged Senator Sheldon's office for material with which to doorknock. Thanks to Senator Sheldon we were able to start spreading the word about them, with many of the people we spoke to hearing about them for the first time. While working for APRA, the prudential regulator, I became a CPSU delegate. I'm proud to have been a member of successive unions since I joined the workforce, and it was such an honour to have been able to represent my colleagues in this manner.”
“I know that committee work is important. I know that voting on legislation is important. But what I really want to do with this role is listen to my community about what issues affect them and do everything I can to help. When developers tried to move in on land on Bundanoon Road, on which the Woronora Heights community had seen koalas, we engaged with the community to let them know. When the state coalition government turned around and told us there was no evidence of any koalas on that land, we doorknocked because our engagement with the community had picked up something that the government hadn't. On street stalls, community members were coming up to us and telling stories about the koalas they'd seen and showing us videos of the koalas they'd seen. The community hadn't been consulted and information had been missed.”
“The mathematician in me wants to say that Hughes had been redistributed to be a marginal seat and winning was within the realm of possibility. The political analyst in me wants to say that the analysis presented to me indicated that it was not winnable. Ultimately, winning and losing were not what I was thinking about. What mattered to me was finding out what issues were affecting community members and doing my best to help them. As a candidate, it was a privilege to explain government policies and be able to act on concerns raised by voters. I treasured every moment of that opportunity. It is even more of a privilege to be able to act on concerns raised by my communities with me as their local member, and I will treasure every moment of that even more. This role is multifaceted and there are so many important elements to it.”
“But it was something that the government structure had overlooked. One of the strengths of democracy is that we can identify these gaps in our system through the eyes and ears of every citizen. I also like to think that this small victory and others like it put a small dent in the cynicism that has been afflicting democracies around the world, including our own. My community wanted their income tax cut but most were unaware that a vote had occurred in this place to secure one. My community wanted energy bill relief but they didn't know for what reason that deduction had appeared on their bill. Opportunities like that are why I doorknock. The most common question I've gotten over the last few months has been some variation of, 'Did you know you would win?' I find it to be a difficult question to answer.”
“It needed better signage. 'But they won't do anything about it,' she said, 'I've tried.' Nevertheless, I noted down her contact details and her concerns. I drafted a letter to the minister. We sent it off, and, a few weeks later, I drove past that intersection, and what did I see? There was brand-spanking new signage. A couple of days later we received correspondence from the minister saying that they'd assessed the intersection as requiring better signage and promptly installed it. I immediately rang that community member. She'd seen the signage and she was happy it had been put up. What she hadn't realised was that it was a direct result of her engaging with her local member. This was a tiny victory. In the scheme of things it was a sign on the road, but one that could have saved her life.”
“I would often pause at the doors I'd reached after I'd knocked and rung the sometimes up-to-three doorbells—yes, I always ring every doorbell at the door presented to me!—and, while waiting to see whether anyone would come to the door, I'd consider this conventional wisdom and whether this was a rational way to spend my time. But I had seen the power that engagement could have. I remember doing a street stall one Saturday morning during my time as a state staffer, and a community member came up to me and conveyed their cynicism: 'I have so many problems that I could raise with you, but you won't be able to do anything. I've worked in the system. I know how it works.' 'Just try me,' I eventually said, 'What's the harm?' She explained that there was an intersection on the Princes Highway that, in her professional opinion, was too unsafe.”
“I put my hand up because I thought we needed a doorknocker, a local who'd lived here, walked these streets and heard their stories. During the campaign, there were some days when I had an army of volunteers with me, to whom I will always be so grateful. Some days it was just me, going from house to house, street to street, pounding the hot tarred pavement with my walking shoes on my feet and a brimmed hat on my head, on scorching hot days of the summer that didn't seem to want to end. The conventional wisdom was that Hughes was not a winnable seat for Labor. Analysts and psephologists much smarter than me had looked at the seat, it's position on the Mackerras pendulum, and decided that it wasn't the time.”
“It is core to who I am, and it's core to why I'm here. As public representatives, I believe we should be students of the communities we represent, and there is no better way to learn about them than doorknocking. I have seen doorknocking transform candidates from name-on-the-ballot also-rans to suburb-by-suburb experts on their constituencies and the matters affecting them. Doorknocking teaches me about what my community cares about and guides me on how to communicate about matters that affect it. You earn the right to speak about policy because you listen first. I put my hand up to run for Hughes because I believed that our community was seeking meaningful engagement. I put my hand up because I believed that our population wanted representation from a local who understood who they were as a community.”
“It is not our role to wish that those people paid more attention to our amazing policies. It is our role to explain what we're doing with the responsibilities given to us and to seek input on how it can be done better. I firmly believe that good policy cannot be produced without consultation from the people that it affects. That is why engagement from politicians and candidates is so important. To me, the most direct form of engagement is doorknocking. I occasionally hear political candidates complain about having to doorknock or advise that you really only have to doorknock for the photo: 'Once you have one, you can stop. Who's going to know?' While I understand that every individual has their own way of engaging, I do not relate to this sentiment in the slightest. Doorknocking is not a chore for me.”
“This is not an accurate assessment of politics! In a democracy, good policies mean absolutely nothing if they aren't supported by the population, and they won't be supported if they're not communicated. I grew up obsessing over politics a little bit, and I'm sure a lot of people in this place and our social circles did too. But most Australians do not spend their days thinking about politics, and that is not a bad thing. We shouldn't expect everybody to focus on the matters that divide us all the time. People are getting on with their lives. They're paying their bills, spending time with their families and running their businesses. But as we do those things our lives are being affected by the decisions that are made here and at other levels of government across our country.”
“I want to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and I also want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waterways that make up the area of Hughes—the Dharawal people and the Cabrogal clan of the Darug Nation—and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. They've looked after this country since time immemorial, and not lost on me is the responsibility that I have to live up to that stewardship. I grew up as the child of two maths teachers. I studied maths at a postgraduate level, and, for a long time, I viewed politics through a mathematical lens. You draw up a Mackerras pendulum. You write good policy. That policy assists people. The people vote for it, and the swing moves down the rungs of the pendulum.”