Hansard debates

                      ADDRESS BY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

  Mr ANDREWS  (Leader of the Opposition) -- I am delighted, firstly, to join the
Premier in acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, to
pay my respects to their elders, past and present,  and to  thank in  particular
Bonnie Fagan for  her welcome  to country.  I also acknowledge Cr Mark Harris of
the City of  Ballarat and Professor David  Battersby, the vice-chancellor of the
University of Ballarat, and again join  with  the  Premier in thanking all those
concerned  for  their  input with  the  set-up  and the  logistics  involved  in
organising a regional sitting like this  and  also  for  the hospitality we have
enjoyed here.

I am grateful to the Premier for his  acknowledgement that this regional sitting
program commenced back  in  2001,  and I  think  it  is a great  example  of  an
innovation that can strengthen our democratic institutions and lead to a greater
understanding  in the community of exactly how the Parliament of Victoria works.
But it is also a great thing  for us as members of  Parliament. One of the great
privileges  of the office that I hold now, and other offices I was privileged to
hold  in the previous government, is that it allows me to travel to all parts of
the state and to see regional Victoria, both the regional cities and the smaller
country towns,  and get  a  true  sense  of all  the qualities  that make  those
communities so special.
So for all of us who came here today it is much more  of a gift from Ballarat to
us rather  than anything we might, if you  like, give to the city.  For us to be
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and  experience the vibrancy, the energy, the great passion and the  history  of
the city and this region is a  great  thing. Of course I am sure  the  galleries
will  be filled  with very  keen observers  today, and that is very important as
well. The regional  sitting program is a  wonderful program, and I  congratulate
the  Premier  for  continuing the efforts of previous governments. I am sure our
Legislative Council colleagues will have a similarly  fulfilling  experience  in
that other great regional centre, Bendigo.
I mentioned a  moment ago that one of  the great privileges of my  current role,
and my other roles  over time, has been to visit  all parts of our state  and to
move throughout regional  communities. Having grown  up in regional  Victoria  I
have  a  keen sense of the importance of the  regional parts of our state -- not
just big cities but also much smaller towns  -- and whilst I have never lived in
Ballarat, this is a special place for me and my family.

My  mother's family are all spud  farmers from  this area,  and their  hands are
stained with the cold  red dirt from Bungaree, Dean and Springbank, and whilst I
have not lived here this is a special community -- special to our state, special
to all of us personally and certainly special to me.
My  grandfather was a spud farmer and had to leave the farm because of difficult
times  to become  a train  driver, first  steam and  then the  sparks,  down  in
Melbourne. He  always referred to his family in Ballarat and families like those
we knew  on the land -- working  hard, toiling for generations to build a better
future for their kids -- as 'my people'. I think that enduring sense of identity
-- those special qualities that Ballarat holds so dear -- is still strong, proud
and vibrant today, all these years later.
The history of this city is the history of our state in many ways.

The Premier has detailed information about the  period  from the gold rush right
through  to  agriculture and manufacturing. This is a city  that  tells  a  much
broader  story  --  a story of  hope;  a story of  great  challenge;  a story of
enterprise;  a  story  of  investment, toil and struggle; and a story  of  great
achievement. That is something we should all take a moment to reflect upon as we
spend this day in such a great city.
The other opportunity we have today, as we  spend some time in regional Victoria
as a  Parliament, is  to  reflect  not  just on  Ballarat but  also on  regional
Victoria and the  special  needs of regional  Victoria.  In my  experience  this
community and  communities  right  across  regional  Victoria  have a reasonably
healthy scepticism about the work that governments do, but they have significant
expectations about the  role of government. They  have a fundamental belief that
what governments do matters  and that the choices that governments make are very
important. There is an opportunity for us to reflect upon that today.

We can look at all the strengths of this  community and at the opportunities and
choices  we  as  a  legislature  make   and  reflect  upon  how  we  might  find
opportunities within the challenges that Ballarat faces and opportunities within
the challenges that  regional Victoria faces  in what are  undoubtedly uncertain
times.
I  will  give an example of the power of  government  action and the fact that I
think regional  Victorians, whilst sceptical,  have a fundamental  faith  in the
fact that governments can influence the outcomes and opportunities, perhaps most
of  all in regional areas. Ballarat Health Services is not simply a  place where
people in this community receive the dedicated, specialist and acute health care
they need but it is also the biggest employer in this local area. It is that way
in  which  we  should  view  the  role  of  government, particularly  the  state
government, in terms of investments, choices and priorities.

We as a Parliament, including members  of the government, have enormous power in
terms  of delivering and  supporting,  in complex  and  innovative ways, growth,
strength and prosperity in regional communities like this one. Our decisions are
very important and perhaps they become more important the further away from  the
Melbourne CBD  we  get. It  is a  simple point,  but an  important one.  Today's
regional sitting is an opportunity for us to reflect upon all of those things.
I also say -- and the Premier touched  upon this -- that there is great  history
in this city. There is  history in terms of the  growing democracy in our state.
The  Premier  mentioned  miners  and  the  growth and  development  of  a proper
franchise in our state. He mentioned Sovereign Hill and  the  dedication to that
important and colourful period in our history. So  we owe  Ballarat a great debt
in many ways.

We should also  take some time today  to  reflect on the fact  that the Ballarat
community,  as the custodian of that chapter of  our history  and so  many other
important chapters, has a  great reverence  for the past, is the custodian of it
and celebrates our history very well. We should all be indebted to this city and
its people for that.
Similarly as a state we should be indebted to Ballarat and grateful for the role
it has played, as  the  Premier  indicated,  as  an economic powerhouse from the
1850s of the gold  rush to food, fibre,  manufacturing, agriculture more broadly
and service  economies. This is a  powerhouse  in every sense. It  is one of our
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regional cities with a strong history and a very bright future.
In regard  to the  point I  made earlier about the decisions governments make, I
say  governments can  influence and  make it  just a  little bit  easier  for  a
community like this to be stronger, to build  a better  and even more prosperous
future and perhaps even a more golden future than we had in times past, which we
have reflected upon.
If you will indulge me for  a moment, Speaker, we as a parliamentary Labor Party
are  very proud to have served this community and to  have made decisions in its
interests. In coming here today I drove past IBM, the State Revenue Office, what
was Rural Ambulance Victoria's  regional headquarters and the Emergency Services
Telecommunications Authority,  and in terms  of other services  and facilities I
have spent some time at the hospital and local schools.

Like the Premier I have made several trips to Ballarat in recent days, and it is
with  some pride  that we reflect upon the decisions and  choices that  we made.
They are powerful; they are important.
Whilst   self-praise  is  no   recommendation,  Speaker  --  I  have  a  healthy
appreciation of that --  we  are  proud to have made those investments. Together
with  the  enterprise, hard work,  skills,  innovation and in  many respects the
confidence  and the  courage  of  the business  community  and  the  workers  --
well-organised workers,  can I say -- in this city, working together in a strong
partnership, we were very pleased during our time in office to be able to make a
mark on this  city  and to leave it in, might  I  boldly suggest, a better place
than we found it. We are very pleased about that.
Equally I am sure those on the other side of the house will be very pleased with
some of their decisions and the work they have done.

That is what  regional  cities and growth are  all  about. It is not  about  one
government and one period in time; it has to have been a  consistent effort both
here in Ballarat and in so many other parts of regional Victoria.
If I can just conclude  by  saying Ballarat is a city that tells  a much broader
story. As I said at the outset, the history of Ballarat is  in many respects the
history of our state, and we will talk about gold later on. The regional sitting
programs are very important, not just because the communities get a better sense
of what the legislature does but also  because they  are a great opportunity for
us to spend  time  collectively in regional Victoria, to show our strong support
for regional Victoria as a Parliament and to celebrate all the great things that
are  happening  in regional  Victoria,  including its  vibrant multiculturalism,
strong arts culture, innovation,  investment,  strong service industry and those
industries that are  synonymous with our  economic story, such as  manufacturing
and, as the Premier indicated, food, fibre and agriculture.

All  of those  things we  celebrate  during  our  one day  together. That  is an
important contribution that we can collectively make.
I thank  all of  those  who have  welcomed us  to Ballarat.  I congratulate  the
Premier on putting in place a  regional  sitting program. It does the government
great credit, and  we  look forward to a day  of debate. This is a  day where we
will deal with some important issues. It is a  day where we as a Parliament will
clearly  show this community and all regional communities  that Victoria extends
well beyond its capital city, that we value our thriving regions and that we are
all here together to support them to grow, to be fairer, to be stronger and,  as
the Premier noted, to reach out to the world.