Matt Smith
Leichhardt · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“But what did those opposite do during this time? They talked it down, called for rationing and scared people. There was a marked decrease in tourism leading into Easter because words matter. But so do actions, and, on this side of the House, we do actions. Today is a great day for actions. Paid parental leave—26 weeks.”
“The world changed. Things that we didn't think could happen happened. A war on the other side of the planet impacted supply lines. Facebook changed the way we gathered information, changed the way we got our fuel, changed the way we got our fertiliser.”
“The minimum wage is increasing by 4.75 per cent. That is a noticeable difference. People will feel that that in their hip pockets, and that money will flow on. People will have the confidence to go take the kids to a movie and make sure that the birthday party goes the way that it should. It is a fantastic thing.”
“It was, as Senator Bragg said, a vacated space for 20 years. If you go back three years before the space was vacated, you get $25 scripts, something that we have proudly bought back in so people once again are not making a decision between health and food.”
“That is a holiday in beautiful Far North Queensland with a trip to the reef and out to the Daintree and to the crocodile farm! That is what we're delivering: cost-of-living relief and great holidays in the Far North! I'm proud of what we've done here in our 12 months.”
“I rise to support the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026. We'll do the legislative stuff first. This bill modernises the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014 to ensure it remains fit for purpose.”
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“This includes Labor's already-legislated income tax cuts for 14 million Australians, increased bulk-billing for GPs, changes to make PBS medicines more affordable and our cheaper-childcare reforms. There's record funding for renewable energy, Indigenous rangers, Australian manufacturing, education and health, and, from October, first home buyers will be able to get into the market with a five per cent deposit, cutting the time it takes to save up for their first home by up to 10 years. Importantly for those of us who live along the Queensland coast, Labor has also stepped up and delivered billions in funding for reef and conservation protection, providing support for our greatest natural asset, the Great Barrier Reef, and ensuring the security of the 64,000 jobs that it creates.”
“The federal election was held on 3 May 2025, and up north we hit the ground running. We were actually working the cape when the seat was declared in June. As the Prime Minister says, 'Now is the time to deliver.' In just four months, the Albanese Labor government has been busy working, delivering for Australia and, I'm proud to say, delivering for Leichhardt. Over 17,000 people in my electorate are set to benefit from the 20 per cent cut to HECS debt that passed parliament during the first sitting week. This will be a great help and support to many people. When you add it to the other support we're delivering to Australians, it is gathering steam exponentially.”
“My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. What action is the Albanese Labor government taking to protect penalty rates and overtime rates for workers? Why is this an urgent priority for the government?”
“From go to whoa, this Labor government has supported the full Gonski, from early childhood education right the way through to university and vocational training. There is not one part of your life as a student and becoming educated that has not been improved by this Labor government. I know that there will be many people in my electorate today who are pleased by the passing of this bill. They are relieved by the passing of this bill. Future students will now understand that HECS and HELP debts are not going to be a barrier to them going to university or TAFE or furthering their education. I am very proud to commend this bill to the House.”
“It is reasonable that the banks omit HELP debt from a serviceability assessment when a borrower's expected to pay off their HELP within 12 months, and ASIC has updated all of its regulatory compliance to acknowledge that HELP debts are different from other forms of debt because the amount required is to be repaid dependent on a person's level of income. This is a valuable change. It makes sense, it makes the system fairer and it helps our young people have a future. As Minister Clare has said multiple times, young people don't always see something for them on the ballot paper, but this time they did because we listened. This is what Labor parties have done and will continue to do—listen to the people and provide support for the people who want to improve themselves through education and improve their lives for their families.”
“The Labor government has also established the independent Australian Tertiary Education Commission to drive reform of Australia's tertiary education sector. The changes to which universities are funded will start from 2026 and will help more people from the outer suburbs and the regions get a chance to go to university and provide them with support they need to get their degrees. As I've said, we've made it easier for students to get into the housing market. My friend the Treasurer delivered on this. It has made a world of difference. Young people can see the light. They feel the pressure released from their shoulders.”
“From 1 July 2025, the Labor government has established a Commonwealth prac payment to provide up to about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students payments while they are completing their compulsory practical training at TAFE and university. Fee-free TAFE has become law, and over 680,000 enrolments have occurred across the country with 170,000 of those courses already completed. When I visit TAFEs in Far North Queensland, I hear from the potential nurses how grateful they are for that. A lot of them are starting education mature in life. They've got children; they've got mortgages; they've got rents. This is really helping them along and is putting more nurses in our hospitals.”
“Under this bill, you'll only pay a percentage of your wage above the minimum repayment threshold. For example, if you earn $70,000, you'll pay $1,750 a year. Under our changes, you'll only pay $450. That's roughly $1,300 back into your pocket. That's $1,300 that you can spend on going out to dinner and that makes you less afraid of the electricity bill or when the car inevitably breaks down as it does in those first few years out of university. Last year the government wiped $3 billion of HELP debt from the fixed system so the indexation of HELP debts can never increase faster than wages.”
“The legislation makes clear that this cut will be backdated to June 2025, before this year's indexation has been accrued, and this policy will help uni students, vocational education students and some apprentices. The bill will also make important structural changes to the way this system works. It raises the minimum amount you earn before you have to start making repayments from $54,435 to $67,000. To the students I see in the gallery: it's going to make your futures easier. You'll earn more before you have to start paying back. It also replaces the current system with a new marginal repayment system. The current system is based on your entire income. Once you earn above the minimum repayment threshold of $54,435, you pay a percentage of your entire wage as your repayment.”
“He's got his girlfriend, Jas, and they want to start their lives They want to get that house. They want to get that dog. They were just stuck. He was spinning his wheels as he watched his debt go up and up and up. This changes this for Ash. The APRA changes, which allow him to get a home loan without HECS and HELP being taken into account, changed it for him. I'm happy to report to the House that he now has his house and his dog, Ziggy, and he and Jas are able to start their lives together in a beautiful suburb of Cairns. This is a success story; this is what is made possible by the Australian Labor government. It's not just for Ash. All up this bill will cut student debt by more than $16 billion. That's a lot fewer sleepless nights for those young people.”
“We are removing that albatross. We are giving them room to breathe. When you are not feeling financial strain, everything in your life gets that little bit easier. I was fortunate. I never got a HECS debt, but a lot of people I know did. A lot of people in this House probably have a HECS debt or know somebody with a HECS debt—their children, perhaps. My good friend Ash Constable came to Cairns from Ballarat, tried out with the Taipans, became a teacher, did his university up there and stayed. You teach them there, they stay there. I remember talking to him way back when, before the campaign, before there was any thought, and he said: 'I can't do it, mate. I want to buy a house, but every time I check my HECS debt, it's going up further than I'm paying off. I can't get a loan. I can't get in front of anybody.' He's working.”
“Cairns is home to two world class universities, JCU and CQU, and this change will enable young people to get the education they want and stay close to home and also give us the services and skills in the regions that we need to prosper. This is nation building, this is region building and this is a fantastic initiative that is going to make a world of difference to my electorate of Leichhardt. This bill is also the delivery of a promise. I'm proud to be part of a government that delivers on its promises. The Prime Minister said this would be the first bill to be introduced to the House, and indeed it was. This is my first speech on a bill, and I'm proud that it is this one. The average student debt is over $27,000—weighing people down, an albatross around their neck. These people are teachers, nurses and allied health workers.”
“I rise to speak on the provisions of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. I support this bill. The people I know support this bill. From the huge amount of doorknocking I did in my community, I can say clearly that the people who put me here support this bill. The only people I've heard not supporting it are those opposite. I'm pleased to say the bill is going through. If I'm to go out on a limb I will say this is a great day for the over three million Australians who are going to see their HECS debt reduced by 20 per cent. It is a great day for the 17,000 people in my own electorate who are going to see their bill reduced by 20 per cent. The regions know that when you train people at home they stay at home.”
“The love and care that they show for this natural wonder of the world is absolutely second to none. The reef, I'm sure we can agree, is universally loved. People the world over acknowledge its beauty. When people think of Australia, they think of three things: the reef, the bridge and Uluru. People often ask what the best thing they can do to protect the reef is. The answer is simple: come and visit it. Not only will you be ensuring that there are more eyes on the reef but we'll be collecting more data, and you'll also be supporting over 64,000 jobs directly associated with reef tourism. That, my friend, is a bucket-list experience and keeping someone in a job. That's a pretty good day. Be it in Cairns or Port Douglas, the reef fleet is ready to take you out on the trip of a lifetime.”
“Living in Leichhardt, I am fortunate enough to have two World Heritage areas on my doorstop: the mighty, mighty Daintree and, of course, our Great Barrier Reef. I speak today about the reef tourism industry of Far North Queensland. The tourism industry in the Far North actively works to not just promote but actively protect our natural environments that people travel across the world to enjoy. We are quite simply a bucket-list experience. But more than just ensuring a great day out on or below the water, our reef operators act as the eyes of our marine scientists, providing valuable data to assist in developing resilience to climate change. They work actively to thin crown-of-thorns starfish when the numbers get too great, and they work in assisting with coral planting for regeneration.”
“Let's not forget Labor's investment of $8.5 billion in strengthening Medicare and $1 billion for mental health, including more headspace centres and more trained mental health professionals. Locally, that has translated already into an operational Medicare urgent care clinic in the south of Cairns—soon one will be open in the northern suburbs as well—and a headspace Plus so that young man can get the help that they need before they head too far down that very, very dark road. I congratulate the member for the bill. I thank everyone who is speaking on it here today.”
“The Albanese Labor government is serious about building a stronger, fairer and healthier Australia for everyone, and men's mental health is a big part of that. Since coming to government, we have been delivering real support to men and boys by strengthening Medicare and investing $32 million in targeted men's health initiatives. This has included $11.3 million for Movember. Not everyone likes the moustaches, but Movember is a good cause. It trains 60,000 primary health workers and encourages men to visit the doctor. As well, there is $20.7 million for grassroots mental health support, including expanded funding for men's sheds, Ahead of the Game, Healthy Male and the Danny Frawley Centre.”
“They won't do proactive testing for things like prostate cancer. One of my friends is currently going through cancer treatment. He found out because he saw his GP. They got it early. I get to keep my friend now. If he'd have taken that old school route, they'd have caught it when the symptoms arrived, and it would have been too late. There is no more space for stigma, keeping men away from the health care they need, especially as getting health care when you need it can be tough in regional and remote places at the best of times. We need men to step up, like the member for Hunter has, and break down the stigma men have about opening up about their health. Men need to have that conversation with other men they respect.”
“Many don't know, but, in culture, if a body is not interred immediately, it calls out. So you can end up with suicide groups within a single community. These are devastating and can lead to months and months of sorry business. In 2022, suicide overtook land transport accidents as the leading cause of child death. This shows that the age-old approach of, 'She'll be right, mate,' is not working for many boys and men across the country. It's not just suicide though; men's health is falling behind on all measures. I can guarantee that, if you stop to think about it, you know one bloke who thinks they can just tough it out. You might be the bloke who thinks you can just tough it out. They won't see a doctor about the pain. They won't go to get stitched up. They don't talk about being lonely.”
“More and more boys and men are feeling socially isolated than ever before. We're seeing this play out with real-world impacts as more men and boys give into sadness and the anger that comes with their social isolation. This is making men's health figures worse, not better. Here are some quick stats from Suicide Prevention Australia, an organisation which the member pointed out. In 2023, men accounted for 70 per cent of deaths by suicide. This is a statistic as scary as it is shocking. It is not just men's lives that are ruined by that but also the lives of everybody they touched. This is even more stark when you consider that, for some groups of men and boys, the statistics are even worse. In 2023, suicide was the second-leading cause of death of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men.”
“I stand to speak on the motion moved by my friend the member for Hunter. And I thank the member for Indi; we need to have female voices in this space as well. Can I say how important it is that the Albanese Labor government has appointed a special envoy for men's health, bringing these issues to the forefront so that we're no longer afraid to speak about them. Too often, men's health is swept under the rug. Blokes are told to man up and stay tough. 'You don't need to talk about that. You don't need to talk about your health.' Self-medication is a problem. Guys drown their sorrows or seek answers at the bottom of a bottle of bourbon. I've had friends who've taken this route. I know where it goes. I had a look at it myself. It's scary. It's isolating. And it needs to change.”
“I thank my parents, my sister, my aunts, my cousins Steve and Belinda, my daughters and my partner, Renee, for all their support in all aspects of my life and in helping me get here today. I hope I can honour the love that they have shown me and that they are proud as I do my bit for improving the lives of the people of Leichhardt and Australians everywhere. Let me say it again. Australia's Far North is a place of unmatched beauty and potential, but potential without work is unrealised. Potential without work is wasted. I stand ready to work on behalf of the people who put me here. Let's do this. Thank you.”
“This seat was won not on the back of my magnificent oration but on the back of the thousands of hours of work done by an army of volunteers in a truly unforgiving wet season, some of whom had been hoping for Labor to take Leichhardt for 15 years. Since the election, my transition has been made smoother not because of my awesome knowledge of parliamentary procedure but because former member Warren Entsch, despite coming from the opposite side of the aisle, has helped me navigate this large and diverse electorate. This is a collaborative approach. I am drawn to teams and, with my staff, our volunteers, my fellow caucus members, my family and my community, led by the Prime Minister, this is what I am a part of. It is what drew me to the union movement, it's what drew me to the Labor Party and it's what put me here in Parliament House.”
“And I got my shot at organising because Kate Flanders and Alex Scott from the Together Union saw something in a sport and rec officer and took a flyer on some of their schemes. None of this happens alone. The 'I' is always a 'we'. I stand before you today not because of my own brilliance but because of people like the Prime Minister, Senator Murray Watt, Carolyn MacDonald, Kate Flanders, Heather Hayes, Tony Fulton, Alex Scott, Dee Spink and especially Senator Nita Green—she was there on day one and has travelled all the way from the Senate to hear me speak today! They all encouraged me. They helped me decide to put my hand up and supported me through the campaign.”
“We wanted for nothing. I became good at basketball because my parents, Mike and Wendy, drove me everywhere, investing time and money in the dreams of a gangly youth. Other enthusiastic parents of friends tried their best to coach us and travelled to Melbourne and rebounded shots so that we could all enjoy our favourite sport. I got my first NBL look because a man I had never met saw me at a development camp and called in some favours. I got up to Cairns because my friend Vince Crivelli coached me and helped me through some tough times to get me back into the league and made some calls to NBL teams, asking them, pleading, to give me a shot. I had my first-ever office job at age 30 because former senator Jan McLucas took the time to house-train me.”
“The PM visited many times over the campaign. On one occasion we ended up playing pickleball. I drop-shotted him, just to test the legs a little bit. He got onto it a little bit faster than I would have liked, so I started hitting it to the kid after that. I'm not losing on TV. Thank you, Prime Minister, for starting me on this journey. Thank you for your support and your confidence, even when mine would sometimes waver. In the intervening 12 months as a candidate and now as a member I have been asked lots of questions about myself. To answer them, I have used the first person a lot—'I did this, I did that, I played in the NBL, I, I, I.' But, when I take step back and look at my whole life, the 'I' doesn't exist. I grew up in a stable home with food, good medical care and love. I built off the back of my parents and my grandparents.”
“Over the past 50 years there would be very few kids in Sale that have not had some interaction with my folks. They have helped write the future of thousands and thousands of people. My sister is a geologist who works the mineral sands in Mildura, where she lives with her husband and their two boys. I have two daughters, Sienna and Scarlett, whom I am immensely proud of. They are better than me, they will get to make choices and build their own futures and I can't wait to see it. It was 12 months ago last week that the Prime Minister came to announce me as the candidate in Leichhardt. We walked the Cairns Show together and, watching him in those interactions, I was struck by the enthusiasm, the kindness and the generosity with which he chatted to show-goers, took selfies and just enjoyed the moment.”
“The conversation was quick: 'I hear you're a union man now, son—good honest work, unions.' That was it. It occurred to me that this was the first job I'd ever had that he could relate to. I reckon he would probably enjoy this moment. I was lucky to have all four grandparents into my adulthood. They saw me achieve many of my childhood dreams and were an integral part of my life growing up. My aunt Michelle, who unfortunately couldn't be here today, made a career with the Victorian police and let me live with her early in my basketball career. My aunt Carolyn was a gallery director and mayor of Wellington shire in Gippsland. She lived across the road when I was a child, which was kind of like a communal space for us kids, rather than two separate houses. Both my parents, Mike and Wendy, teach.”
“My grandfather Bill was a food scientist at CSIRO who built Australia's first gas chromatograph and invented Twistie flavouring. You're all very welcome. My grandmother Pat was a dispatcher for a taxi company. She took me to the zoo and to the theatre in Melbourne. My other grandfather, John, oversaw the building of the telephone lines in East Gippsland and was mayor of Sale while I was growing up. My grandmother Mary was a teacher. They lived around the corner, and she looked after me as a child. She read me Kipling. They loved me and my sister very much. John taught me pool. It was amazing how close the games were, until the day I beat him—never close again. Bill once called me from his nursing home when he'd heard I got a job with the Together union.”
“Craig ended up challenging me: 'What do you do? You've been given a lot by this community. How do you give back?' I'd been in Cairns 20 years; I owe it a lot. I was picked up off the scrap heap by the Taipans. I have a family, a partner, a couple of Chihuahuas, a community and a home. As I considered all of this it dawned on me that this would be the best way to pay down that debt, so I stand here to represent Leichhardt not out of ambition but out of obligation and out of love. My lens, like everyone's, is tinted by the experience of the people who came before me: a deserter from the Second Fleet, a soldier in the second wave of Gallipoli, an illegal Chinese immigrant during the gold rush and some who were already here when the rest of them arrived. My own immediate family exposed me to people who make a difference.”
“Renee gave us a gift that we can all enjoy together. I love her; she makes me better. Life is a team sport. Eventually I answered a job in the Cairns Post and I became a union organiser. It's all very normal; it's very Australian, and that's the point. I've made some interesting career choices, but when Senator Green discovered me and asked me to consider putting my hand up, she found me in an office, not on the basketball court. I said no. I was happy organising, working for Together and helping public sector workers. I'd travel up the cape for work, where I'd run free basketball clinics and the occasional shoe drive. But a few weeks later I did an event with Craig Foster, the former Socceroo captain and great. We chatted about our careers, how fortunate our lives had been and some of the work we've done with community.”
“I played angry; my best work on court was in an absolute rage, and having a stroke made me really mad. I aggressively attacked rehab and found my way back. I stand before you with no lasting impacts, except this little finger's a bit weird, which only impacts my guitar-playing—which is fine, because after all, how many times do you need to hear Wonderwall ? You have no idea how long I debated whether I was going to sing that line. At the end of 2018 I found my partner Renee, or she found me. She is a world-class triathlete and coach, having represented New Zealand numerous times, and recently she became Australian. I love her very much, I'm very proud of her and I love having her in my corner. Through Renee I found a new hobby in scuba diving. Together we take advantage of the World Heritage areas on our doorstep. My children dive too.”
“I found the strength I needed to get out of depression in asking others for help, not drowning in my own ego and weird perceptions of masculinity. Professional sport asks you to be an invulnerable, unbeatable hero. The people will love you for it, and you will love you for it. When it's all over and the crowds go away, it can be hard for Superman to only be Clark Kent. I said goodbye to elite basketball on my own terms in 2018. We'd had a beautiful run of 20 years together, and as my body aged and my skills diminished I learned that it's nicer being vulnerable, being available, being kind and being a real person—being Clark. After that I had a brief but stroke impacted dalliance with Australian rules football. I do not recommend strokes—zero out of 10. But years of sport had put me in good stead.”
“I worked for the former member for Leichhardt, Jim Turnour, who at the time held the seat, and former senator Jan McLucas, before making my way into the sport and rec industry. Without the structure and identity that basketball gave me I quickly spiralled into depression. I will not pretend that it was fine. I lost five years of my life wildly oscillating between a fight-or-flight response and numb blankness. I looked at every possible option to make it stop. In the end, salvation came from three things: professional help, a renewed focus on my physical fitness and a return to the sport. With the encouragement of my friend Jamie Pearlman, a former Taipans player, I found my way back into the Queensland Basketball League, and then I rediscovered me.”
“The people of Cairns, facing the largest economic downturn they had ever seen, raised the money to buy the licence and keep the Taipans. Every family that comes to games, every business that benefits from the Taipans bringing 4000 people into the CBD, every school clinic, every autograph and every win belong to the 10 young men in that room and the community that decided to back them. It was my proudest moment as an athlete, the day we decided the town and the team were bigger and more important than ourselves, and the town met us. That is what Far North Queensland is: backs against the wall, we come out swinging and we protect what is ours. The season had ended, and I never played NBL again. Post basketball, like many athletes, I was a bit lost.”
“I had just turned 29, my daughter Sienna was not yet walking and many of us were experiencing the early stages of fatherhood. To ask the players to take that he was too much, but we did it. In a unanimous decision we decided to press forward even though we knew in our hearts knew there was precisely zero chance of the Taipans getting sold. It was the height of the GFC, and Cairns was on its knees. No buyer came forth, and we played on with reduced access to training facilities and things like food. Then one of the most audacious plans in Australian sport was hatched by people like Denis Donaghy, Mike Scott and Mark Beecroft: the Taipans would be floated publicly as an incorporated organisation, and the town would buy the team. People who were really struggling dug deep—$50 here, a couple of grand there.”
“The owner, John O'Brien, generously sponsored most events and sporting teams in Cairns. John came into training one morning and told us what'd happened. It was a hard conversation. It took courage from a man who had lost everything to front us, and it spoke volumes about who he was as a person. We went from preparing to play Sydney to not knowing if we would see out the week. The liquidators were called in, and we were ultimately offered a choice: take a redundancy of sorts, get paid and the Taipans would disappear forever; or play on, take a 75 per cent pay cut and maybe Taipans survive. We the players were also told we had to fire two of our teammates to continue, Dave and Larry. Thankfully, Dave and Larry quit before we were forced to vote. I caught up with Larry a couple of years ago in LA; I have not seen Dave since.”
“As men, we have to call out this behaviour, protect those we love and help other men to break the cycle and deal with the mental health issues that exacerbate violence. We owe this to our children and to ourselves. I have been an athlete, a sport and rec officer and a union organiser, and now I'm here. 'Why' is a good question. When Senator Green walked into my office last year I'd been in Cairns nearly 20 years. I arrived there at 25 on my last chance in the NBL. I found a good home and good coaches and led the league in field goal percentage in 2007. I won a national championship with the Marlins in the QBL with the first Indigenous NBA player, Nathan Jawai, and the rest of my friends. My NBL career came to an end in 2008-09 when the Taipans went broke. The GFC had hit everyone hard, and the Taipans were not immune.”
“I attend many rallies calling for an end to domestic and family violence and gendered violence—events like Reclaim the Night. Too often I'm one of the only male voices in the room. Men of Australia, I challenge you to step up on this issue. Recent statistics say 32 per cent of men have confessed to using coercive control on women; 10 per cent copped to using physical violence. To put that into perspective, on a cricket team, statistically one team mate beats his partner. Far too often, violence begets violence, and intergenerational trauma is a real thing. For children witnessing domestic and family violence, the prism through which they see the world is darkened. Sons are taught to be perpetrators, and our daughters are taught to accept it.”
“On the island of Masig, the bodies of the ancestors and more recently departed family members, including babies, are washed out to sea when the cemetery gets inundated. I have spoken to members of the threatened communities, who have told me quite clearly that they will not leave their babies, and when the sea comes for them they'll sit, wait and accept their fate. For saltwater people, the sea being a threat is an existential crisis of its own, and this is the stark reality. The first lot of climate refugees will not come from the South Pacific but from our own country. The Far North represents 10 per cent of all domestic violence call outs in Queensland, and we have had enough tragedy. I was deeply affected by a murder-suicide that rocked our region.”
“Of course, the area does have its challenges. Our tourism industry is still trying to work its way back from COVID, and the reputational infrastructural damages from natural disasters have not helped. But I say this very clearly: come north; you will have the time of your life. We are open for your business. Connectivity remains an issue. I was heartened when it was announced during the campaign that we'd be working to get all of Leichhardt to have mobile coverage. This will improve business, health and educational opportunities right throughout the electorate. It will make people safer. A large chunk of the electorate is cut off by road every wet season and relies on sea freight, driving up costs for small business and creating other challenges. Climate change is hurting the Torres Strait.”
“Each cohort of migrants has brought something new to the area. The Italians played a massive part in our sugar industry. The Chinese ran the market gardens. And now the African- and Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees are calling Cairns home, and bringing with them vibrancy and hope for their lives in Australia. The Far North, especially Leichhardt, sits on the edge of greatness, and we are uniquely positioned. We could be a global powerhouse for renewable energy. We have the wind, we have the rain, we have the space and we have the sun. Our critical minerals are in abundance. If I sound optimistic it's because I am. A future made in Australia could just as easily be a future made in the Far North. Our region has so much untapped potential. We are the gateway to the South Pacific. With our proximity Asia, all roads lead north.”
“I met a bloke in Weipa who told me he'd drifted up north on a fishing trip in the mid-eighties, wet a line off the bridge, caught a barra and thought, 'Yep; I live here now'! He got a job at Rio and is proud that his daughter is now working the mines with him and at the lifestyle he has provided for his family across generations. Beneath the Cape lies the Cairns and Port Douglas area, the tourism heart of Australia. Our tourism industry is second to none and works hard to protect and promote our natural assets, the most important being the Great Barrier Reef, which supplies 64,000 jobs. When international tourists think of Australia they think of our reef. And Cairns is a thriving modern city, welcoming people from all over the world to holiday and to live. This is reflected in the celebrations held by our communities.”
“Well, this year marks the 50-year anniversary of those people giving the finger to governments and mining companies and going right back. That is resilience. The Torres Strait also punches hard above its weight. It is of course the birthplace of Uncle Koiki Mabo, a man of Mer Island, who, with his fellow plaintiffs, overturned terra nullius. And that is strength. I am proud to call Maria Tapim, daughter of plaintiff Dave Passi, my friend. The Cape is the great frontier. There you'll find mining, agriculture, fishing, tourism, small business and services. It is a place where people go to find themselves, or lose themselves. You head up to the Cape to live your last either six months or 30 years. There is no in-between.”
“Leichhardt is home to two ancient and distinct cultures: the cultures of Zenadh Kes, meaning the people of the land, sea and sky of the Torres Strait; and, of course, of the Dreaming, the songlines of the many different Aboriginal peoples of the Cape York and the Far North. When you travel to community or to one of the islands in the Torres Strait, the culture breathes. You can feel it. In the Aurukun, children speak to me first in Wik. Everyone else there they know speaks Wik, so they figure I should also speak Wik, and that is beauty. The Midnight Oil song 'Beds are Burning', allegedly the 18th-best Australian song of all time—it should have been higher, but I didn't vote for it; that's on me—references the forced removal of the people of Mapoon from their traditional homes.”
“How does one person distil everything they are and their ambitions for the electorate and the country into 20 minutes while wearing a tie—a tie he had to buy four weeks ago because he only owned one! That last sentence is not a part of the collective MP experience, and I apologise. Leichhardt, which I have the honour of representing, stretches from the southern suburbs of Cairns; hugs the coast taking in Kuranda, Mossman and Port Douglas; takes a hard left; and runs up the cape all the way to the Torres Strait. Leichhardt is a place of unfathomable beauty and diversity. It is the most Australian place in Australia.”
“I stand and acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we stand on today. I pay respects to elders past, present and emerging. I celebrate the world's oldest living culture—65,000 years of songlines and connection to land, sea and country. They tell a story of beauty, resilience and strength. There have been 1,276 federal members of parliament since Federation. Some have soared and will be remembered as great leaders. Some have broken down barriers and created change. All have entered this place to make Australia better. Their first speech was their way to introduce themselves, their ideas, their values and their ambitions. The tradition has endured, and, 1,270 or so speakers later, it is my turn. This is not as easy as it sounds.”
“My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on its commitment to help Australian workers, and what has been the response to our commitment to helping Australian workers earn more and keep more of what they earn?”