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Legislative Assembly
 
Broadmeadows electorate

29 November 2017
Grievances
FRANK McGUIRE  (ALP)

 


Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (14:47:30) — We have all prospered from the values of the Enlightenment. Now, more than any time since the 1930s, such values are under siege. Comment is free but facts are sacred. Now they are alternative. Searching for the obtainable truth was hailed for increasing knowledge. In the 'post-truth' era it is rejected. Fake news used to be dismissed as propaganda. Now it reverberates internationally through echo chambers in mainstream and social media. Evidence eventually trumps dogma, but what do we lose in the meantime?

Nobel laureate Peter Doherty provided this insight:

… real advances in human wellbeing are based in discovery and innovation, not in the dogmatic pronouncements of dubious 'leaders' or in widely shared but uninformed views. If you want to engage with a world where authority, belief, fear, prejudice and 'natural' remedies ruled, take a look at life as it was in the 13th century! Then think again how the culture of reason, rigorous inquiry and innovation that defines 'Western' values since the time of the Enlightenment has so transformed human existence. Ultimately —

Mr Watt — On a point of order, Speaker, the member for Broadmeadows has been in this house long enough to know that he should not be reading a speech. If he wants to hand the speech over and have it tabled, he should ask that it be tabled. It appears to me as though he has been reading from the time he has been standing, and I would ask you to ask him whether or not he is actually reading his speech, because if he is, he should just hand it over.

Honourable members interjecting.

The SPEAKER — Order! I understand the point of order. Can I ask the member if he is referring to notes?

Mr McGUIRE — On the point of order, Speaker, I was directly quoting the Nobel laureate Peter Doherty — not the member for Burwood.

Honourable members interjecting.

The SPEAKER — Order! The member has clarified that he is quoting from a document. The member to continue.

Mr McGUIRE — To finish:

Ultimately, the abandonment of reason and intellectual integrity is not in the best interests of any of us.

Well, Peter Doherty has summed it up neatly, hasn't he? We have consensus on terrorism, jobs and growth. They are the most critical issues that we confront. Such issues are too important for politics but are mired in the way the political system has been gamed, where parties simply want to argue within a narrow grid of issues instead of the broader public interest, where they want to drive fear and anxiety as a political weapon and where they use the chain reaction of race, rights and taxes to divide communities. We know which party in this Parliament does this: race, rights and taxes.

The Council of Australian Governments ignores the place-based threat of terror in postcodes of disadvantage at our peril. The need is critical and urgent for a coordinated strategy between the three tiers of government, business and civil society to address such concerns where they are needed most. This is why I renew my call for the Australian government to be a partner in the Creating Opportunity: Postcodes of Hope strategy.

Mr R. Smith — This is an outstanding contribution by the member who claims to represent Broadmeadows but I do not believe that we have a quorum. More people should be here to listen to these pearls of wisdom.

Honourable members interjecting.

Quorum formed.

Mr McGUIRE — This is why I have renewed my call for the Australian government to be a partner in the Creating Opportunity: Postcodes of Hope strategy, which features a coordinated plan, including a city deal for Melbourne's north and a Smart Cities and Suburbs initiative —

Mr Watt — On a point of order, Speaker, the member for Yan Yean made commentary through interjections that I found offensive, and I would ask her to withdraw those comments.

The SPEAKER — I did not hear the remarks, but I ask the member for Yan Yean to withdraw any offensive remarks.

Ms Green — I actually have not said a thing, but if the member was offended, I withdraw from saying nothing.

Honourable members interjecting.

The SPEAKER — Order! I ask the member to withdraw unconditionally.

Ms Green — I withdraw.

The SPEAKER — The member has withdrawn.

Mr McGUIRE — I renew my call for the Australian government to be a partner in the Creating Opportunity: Postcodes of Hope strategy, which features a coordinated plan, including a city deal for Melbourne's north and a smart suburbs initiative for its designated capital, Broadmeadows, which is struggling under deindustrialisation.

Evidence is compelling that a coordinated strategy can no longer be ignored. The Andrews Labor government has established a new ministry of suburban development and appointed me chair of a Broadmeadows Revitalisation Board, which coordinates two tiers of government, business and civil society to address such concerns. It is in the national interest and for the public benefit that the Turnbull government address such questions of inequality, forces that fuelled Brexit and the Trump ascendency.

If hardworking Australians do not believe they are getting a fair go, the backlash will be against globalisation, trade and innovation. It will be inevitable. Making change a friend not an enemy is critical right now. My plea to the Australian government is for the politics of responsibility, not simply ultimate ends.

Broadmeadows is an iconic flashpoint for defining national concerns: globalisation, the demise of manufacturing, population growth and multiculturalism, new jobs and a fair go. It has evolved into a United Nations in one neighbourhood, where families from more than 160 different countries now call Australia home. Broadmeadows provides the opportunity to deliver a proof of concept that we can provide a template for other disadvantaged communities. This is the critical point we need to come together on and deliver. It is where the Australian government's commitment to jobs and growth must be proved.

Mr Wynne — Jobs and growth.

Mr McGUIRE — That silenced the opposition. Jobs and growth must be proved where they are needed most. That is the point. I am sure we would all agree that the best form of welfare is gainful employment, so we can address that issue.

Mr Wynne — The dignity of work.

Mr McGUIRE — The dignity of work, as the Minister for Planning says, is critical.

One in 20 Australians is predicted to live in Melbourne's north within two decades, where the increase of half a million people means the population, already more than four times the size of Victoria's second-largest city, Geelong, will match the current size of Adelaide. This is the exponential growth that I know the Minister for Planning, who is at the table, knows about and understands.

Boasting Australia's largest concentration of advanced manufacturing, Melbourne's north also features the highest proportion of undeveloped industrial land in Melbourne, about 60 per cent, defining it as the most sustainable and affordable region to cope with population growth. Proximity to the heart of the world's most livable city, affordable land, blue-chip infrastructure and booming population provide the opportunity capital craves to help create a 21st-century vision.

My campaign for a city deal for Melbourne's north is making significant advances, winning overwhelming support of community leaders at the recent northern metropolitan region assembly attended by the Premier and five cabinet ministers. The plan won 72 per cent of the vote in the top category from about 160 community leaders, including mayors and chief executive officers from municipalities representing one of Australia's fastest growing regions. My call to action was to deliver a Smart Cities and Suburbs deal for Melbourne's north, to aggregate assets and to create opportunities for new industries, jobs, lifelong learning, affordable housing and transport, to create the 20-minute city sought by the three tiers of government, business and civil society. The need to implement such a strategy is vital and urgent.

To address the opposition, do you know why it is vital, and urgent as well? Because in the one-term coalition government we got the reverse Robin Hood. We had a Minister for Planning, who is now the Leader of the Opposition, who boasted in the media that he represented from the upper house the good families and people of Broadmeadows. Do you know what he did? He did the reverse Robin Hood: he took the money out. Has any local member done anything like that? About $80 million out, and what did he do with it? He redistributed it to Frankston. So there it is.

A city deal is a vehicle for long-term transformational change. It requires all levels of government, the private sector and the community to commit to the vision for Melbourne's north by agreeing on a set of priority projects for delivery in the medium to long term. The local councils have come together and they want to work to make sure that we can enable investment, economic growth and flow-on benefits to the residents. So we have the backing now of the local councils as well. A strong and productive northern metropolitan region will actually be able to benefit the economic and cultural development not just of Victoria but also of Australia. This is really how it works. We have the critical social infrastructure. We have got Melbourne Airport; there are about 14 000 jobs there. We have got the —

Mr Wynne — Huge employment hub.

Mr McGUIRE — Yes. We have got the relocated wholesale fruit and vegetable markets. We have got the blue-chip infrastructure — two train lines in and a spur into the Ford site. We have got the expanded Tullamarine Freeway under the Andrews Labor government. We have got the ring-road. We have got Sydney Road. We have got the curfew-free airport at the back door. They do not have to go to Greater Western Sydney and provide $5 billion and say, 'Well, we'll build it'. No. We have it. Let us leverage it; let us make it work. The seven councils that are now coming together are Banyule City Council, Darebin City Council, Hume City Council, the Shire of Mitchell, Moreland City Council, Nillumbik Shire Council and the City of Whittlesea. This is the time for the Australian government to actually become a partner. I do want to acknowledge the Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation, Angus Taylor. He has given a positive response in writing, and I met him one-on-one to discuss it. He sees that there is merit in this, but we need to keep pursuing it.

The other critical reason is that we have now come to a time where the culture war strategy to divide and conquer has merged with the knowledge wars, leading to anxiety, confusion and fear. This has also led to a loss of trust in many institutions, especially politics, where everyday people believe it is ruthlessly gamed against them. Whipping up anxiety and fear is the laziest politics. It solves nothing. Grievance cannot govern. How do we sort the life-sustaining wheat? This is what we need to do: we need to actually have a proposition to get the Australian government to see that they have to govern for all the country. They actually have to be needs based, not just endlessly gaming for self-interest. You cannot just turn around and give $70 billion to Adelaide for the demise of their auto industry and then deny Melbourne's north access to an unspent $1.324 billion, which I dug out of Senate estimates committee hearings. They will not reinvest.

You cannot keep doing that, and here is a critical reason why: discontented voters are increasingly questioning the value of Australia's democracy, with more than a third of Australians saying the nation's political system needs major changes or even replacing. A substantial minority of voters are even supportive of Australia turning into an effective dictatorship, claiming it would be good to have a strong leader who did not have to bother with Parliament. These findings are contained in recent survey results from the Scanlon Foundation and Monash University's mapping social cohesion program, which has tracked the views of thousands of Australians annually for a decade. The survey's focus is on gauging sentiment on immigration, discrimination and cultural diversity, but it also quizzes people and political trust. The latest survey shows 28 per cent do not trust Canberra to do the right thing by the public, a massive drop from the peak of 48 per cent in 2009.

We are at a critical time. We have to make up our minds coming into a year of an election in the state of Victoria that is likely to be followed by a federal election. If the sensible centre cannot hold and the major parties cannot do deals, the coalition bleeds to the right, and that is One Nation. If the Labor Party bleeds to the left, that is the Greens. I do not think they have the answers. I think we have a unity ticket on that proposition. If we do not act in the public interest, we risk squandering what has been built up and what we have enjoyed the benefits of for generations — an enlightened approach to actually making decisions that are based on evidence and that can actually deliver in the public interest so people actually understand it, not continually gaming the system endlessly by appeasement of factions. This is what we have. Do not squander the enlightenment and the inheritance of future generations.