Hansard debates

  Mr SOMYUREK (Eumemmerring) - I move:
  That  the Council  agree to the following address to the Governor in  reply to
  the Governor's opening speech:
  May it please the Governor:
  We,  the Legislative Council  of Victoria, in  Parliament  assembled, wish  to
  express our loyalty  to our Most Gracious Sovereign, and to thank the Governor
  for the speech you have been pleased to address to Parliament.
I thank the house for the opportunity to deliver my first speech.

Firstly, Honourable President,  I congratulate you on your election to  the high
office of President and for being  the first female President of the Legislative
Council.  I also congratulate  all  ministers appointed in  this house, and  the
Leader of the House.
It is  indeed an  honour  to  be  in  this  chamber representing  the people  of
Eumemmerring  Province.  The  people of Eumemmerring Province have entrusted  me
with a great responsibility  to represent  them in  this house. I thank them for
the trust they have placed in me and give my commitment to represent them to the
best of my abilities.
Eumemmerring  Province is made  up  of the  four  Legislative Assembly seats  of
Dandenong, Narre Warren North, Narre Warren South and Gembrook.

I  take  this  opportunity  to  express  my  appreciation for the hard work  and
dedication displayed  by  the  Assembly candidates  -  or  members  now  -  John
Pandazopoulos,  Luke Donnellan, Dale Wilson  and Tammy Lobato. An ALP victory in
Eumemmerring Province would not have been possible without their diligent work.
I would also like to take this  opportunity to thank Neil Lucas, a former member
for Eumemmerring  Province,  and Mick Moreland  for a good clean  campaign. They
conducted  themselves  with honour  and  dignity  and  did  not  succumb to  the
temptation  to  play  the  anti-Muslim  card, which I am  sure  would  have  had
resonance in the electorate. On behalf  of the people of Eumemmerring Province I
thank Neil Lucas  for the service he provided  during his tenure, and I  wish he
and Mick Moreland all the best for the future.
Eumemmerring Province  is  a  large and  diverse  outer metropolitan  and  rural
electorate.

It  covers  some  2199  square  kilometres  and  comprises  disparate  cultures,
industries  and  features. The  main  centres of the  province  include Berwick,
Cockatoo,  Dandenong,  Emerald, Gembrook,  Narre  Warren,  Warburton  and  Yarra
Junction. The main industries are agriculture, grazing, dairying, fruit growing,
quarrying and sawmilling.
Like  other new  members, I  enter this  place  firmly believing  that I  have a
significant contribution to make. I firmly  believe that with a lot of hard work
I can  make a  difference. Also, like other new members my life experiences  and
background have  shaped my political philosophies and vision, and  my background
and life experiences are as working class as you can get.
My  parents  and I migrated  to  Australia  in 1969 when  I  was  18 months old.
Throughout their  working  lives in Australia  my parents worked  tirelessly  in
unskilled labour-intensive industries for little financial reward.

But they still carry the  scars  of  that  strenuous  and backbreaking work they
performed. They were by no means unique in this respect. They very much typified
the low-skilled  multicultural work force. They were what some  economists would
classify as comprising the secondary labour market - that is, they had to accept
low wages,  poor working conditions, insecurity  of employment and little  or no
prospects of career advancement.
I vividly remember  spending  many  hours  waiting for my parents to finish work
from within the confines of  factories. I remember the smell of hot plastic, the
thundering  noise of machines and the depressing state of perspiring workers who
were  obviously  experiencing  alienation  due to the monotonous and  exhausting
tasks they  were forced  to endure. As we drove home to  our housing  commission
flat every night I remember my parents would always tell me to  take note of the
conditions  and to  never end  up like  them  - that  is, entrapped  and without
choice.

They were not complaining, mind you,  for they knew they were much better off in
Australia than had they stayed in Turkey. They were simply making the point that
education would lead to more choice and a less arduous life.
However,   their  experience  still  remains  indelibly  etched  in  my   psych.
Consequently I  am  committed  to protecting  the  rights of  our  disadvantaged
workers, of which there are many in Eumemmerring Province. The Bracks government
is repairing the damage with respect to this issue.  In its first term of office
the Bracks government  has restored the right  for seriously injured  workers to
make common-law claims and during this term of office the Bracks government will
reintroduce legislation which will  provide standard minimum award conditions of
employment to the 350 000 working poor.

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Another important issue for the  disadvantaged  workers of Eumemmerring Province
is that they have borne the  brunt of the negative impacts of globalisation. The
City of Greater Dandenong has  one  of  the  highest  levels of tradespeople and
labourers - that is, over 30 per cent  of the work force - and one of the lowest
levels  of white-collar  workers in  Australia at around 14 per cent of the work
force. The retraining and employment of these workers will be a challenge but is
one the Bracks Labor government is willing to tackle through schemes such as the
community jobs  program, which is projected to create 3500 new positions and the
continuation of the community business employment program.
The  Australian  Labor Party, unlike  the  Liberal Party, does  not believe that
unemployment or surplus labour is functional for an economy just because it puts
downwards pressure on wages. We believe unemployment creates social problems and
therefore is dysfunctional for every and any society.

Another core issue is health. Since gaining office in 1999 the Bracks government
has set about rebuilding the state's health system after years of neglect by the
previous  government. The Bracks government  has  employed  an  additional  3300
nurses  to treat more patients with more care, and the results have been clearly
successful  with waiting lists and ambulance bypasses being  reduced. The Bracks
government will continue to rebuild the health system by employing a further 900
nurses and health workers each year, and by  opening a further 900 hospital beds
to treat the extra patients.
Even though the Liberal and National  parties  are  in  opposition  at the state
level  their  federal colleagues  continue  to  have an  adverse  impact  on the
Victorian health system.  The Howard government's ideological agenda has as  its
objective the destruction by stealth of the Medicare system. This has disastrous
consequences for disadvantaged communities throughout Victoria and Australia.

Bulk-billing  rates in and around  the district of Dandenong,  for example, have
gone down from 91 per  cent to 74 per  cent. This means that low-income  earners
cannot afford to access general practitioners. As  a consequence they  gravitate
towards public hospitals. The result of this is  that  demand  on major hospital
emergency departments  over the last three years  has gone up by  8 per cent per
annum. Whilst  the  federal government has  cost  shifting as its  objective the
Bracks  government  is attempting to  ameliorate  the problem  by  allocating $5
million over  four years for grants  to build partnerships between hospitals and
general practitioners so that lower category triage patients can receive quicker
care.
Eumemmerring Province is one of the fastest growing provinces in  Australia. The
south-eastern growth corridor is almost entirely located  within  the  province.
The City of Casey is the fastest growing municipality in Victoria and  the third
fastest growing municipality in Australia.

As a  consequence one  of the  most important  issues  in  the  province is  the
provision  of  infrastructure,  such  as  roads,  transport,  schools and health
services.
In its first term of office the Bracks government delivered on infrastructure in
the province on such projects as the commencement of the Berwick  Hospital,  the
commencement of the Hallam Bypass, budgeting for a $22.5 million upgrade to the 
Narre  Warren-Cranbourne  Road,  and  increased  numbers of teachers, nurses and
police in the region.
After  decades  of  underspending  on  infrastructure  in  Victoria  the  Bracks
government  has  doubled the capital works  and  infrastructure  budget  without
resorting to debt finance.

Through Partnerships Victoria the Bracks  government  will  continue to reinvest
budget surpluses in infrastructure in Eumemmerring Province and  throughout  the
state.
A  critical  issue which does  not receive sufficient  recognition  and which is
overrepresented in disadvantaged communities is the  problem  of gambling. Under
the previous Liberal government the number  of poker machines  rose dramatically
from 5300 to 30 000. The Kennett government did not bother imposing restrictions
on advertising, machine spin rates, bet limits, gaming machine venues or 24-hour
licences. The Bracks  government has introduced tighter  controls on the  gaming
machine  industry by establishing capped areas for the City of Greater Dandenong
and is on  the way to introducing such measures in Casey.  The result has been a
reduction in the overall number of machines in the municipality.

Currently there  is great cynicism in the electorate about the political process
and politicians in general. The perception  is that both major political parties
are identical. I  disagree with these  sentiments.  While the  Australian  Labor
Party and  the Liberal Party have as their core objective the increasing welfare
of the community,  the  two  parties  disagree  with the means of achieving that
objective. Therefore there is still a wide gulf  between  the  Liberal Party and
the ALP.
In contrast to the  Smithonian philosophies of the Liberal Party, which  rejects
even the concept of society, the ALP was founded on the issues of social justice
and   the  egalitarian  ethos.  The  ALP   rejects  the  survival-of-the-fittest
philosophy that is implicit in economic rationalism. The ALP believes it is the 

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responsibility  of  the state  to  protect the wellbeing  of  its citizens. Thus
governments must intervene in order to cushion against the excesses of unbridled
capitalism by ensuring that the losers  of economic competition are protected by
a safety net to preclude them from falling into destitution.
An  examination of  Liberal  governments in Australia  over  the last  10  years
clearly demonstrates the  difference  between the  ALP  and the  Liberal  Party.
Federally, since gaining office  in 1996 the  Liberal government has slowly  but
surely incrementally  begun destroying the welfare state, usurping the rights of
workers and attacking multiculturalism through  such measures as the destruction
of the  family migration scheme.  The  Howard government has  also  shown adroit
political skills in wedging social groups against one another.
Working for Anthony  Byrne, the federal member for Holt, I saw at first hand the
disastrous consequences of the Howard government's brutally regressive policies.

On the other hand the magnificent achievements of the Bracks Labor government in
turning  things around in  key  service areas,  such  as  health, education  and
community safety, illustrate what a gratifying profession politics can be.
I  am excited  at the  prospect of  being part of the second  Bracks government,
which  will  continue  its  mission  to  make Victoria  a  more  benevolent  and
progressive state, a state of which we can all be enormously proud.
In conclusion I  thank a number of people. Firstly, my wife, Songul, my parents,
Zahit and Gungor, and my  sister,  Nadide for their support throughout this long
journey.  I also thank my six-year-old son, Berk,  and my two-year-old daughter,
Sera-Pelin for their love. No doubt the Bracks Labor government will ensure that
they along with all Victorian children face the prospect of a bright future.

Secondly, I thank  the federal member for Holt, Anthony Byrne, who is one of the
true friends I have made from politics. Anthony's support and guidance have been
critical throughout the process and without him I would not  have  realised this
dream. I also thank Michael Donovan,  state secretary of the  Shop, Distributive
and Allied  Employees  Association (SDA) for  his  critical support  during  the
preselection process. My preselection was only a few months after the tragedy of
11 September 2000. Consequently a body of opinion within the party was reluctant
to preselect a candidate of Muslim origin. However, Michael, the SDA and Anthony
did not attenuate their  support for me. I  hope to repay the faith  and loyalty
that Anthony, Michael and the SDA have shown me.
Thirdly,  I  thank the honourable member for Clayton in another place,  Mr  Hong
Lim,  for his generous  support  and friendship. Hong's  assistance both in  the
preselection process and the campaign was instrumental in my  election into this
place.

I also thank  his  staff and my friends  Robin  Scott and Steve Gacen  for their
stoic efforts during the  campaign. I thank another  friend Luke Donnellan,  the
honourable  member  for  Narre Warren  North  in another  place,  whose sanguine
outlook on life has been and will continue to be a constant source of morale.  I
thank the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Bill Shorten,  and
the  former state secretary,  David  Feeney. I thank  the  honourable member for
Waverley Province  and Minister for Finance,  John Lenders, for his  support and
guidance.
I give special thanks to the honourable member for Gembrook in the  other place,
Tammy Lobato, for her hard work, dedication and friendship. Tammy is  a  genuine
community-oriented   person  who  is  all  about  delivering  outcomes  for  her
community. Tammy put her hand up for the seat when others would not, and she has
been appropriately rewarded.

Finally,  I would like to thank the following members of the  Turkish  community
for their  support  and belief in  me: Serdar Caglayancay;  Allaeddin  Demirdes;
Tunjay Yanik; Cengiz Kaya,  President of the  Australian Turkish Association; Mr
Nazmi Kaya; Tahsin Inan;  Sucettin Unal; Cr  Burhan  Yigit; Hakki Suleyman;  and
Fatih Yargi. I thank honourable members for listening to my inaugural speech.