Hansard debates

Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:03): I am honoured to speak to this house and to do so in the presence of family, colleagues and friends. Firstly, I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor Dr Matt Bach, whose work for the community of North-Eastern Metro and his contribution in this house were evident to all. I know he earned great respect in this place, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to continue the work he did.

I am proudly a country boy. I was born in Seymour. I grew up in Leongatha and Warragul. The idealistic child of idealistic parents Donald and Lesley, I am the fifth of six children. My parents taught me ideals by their actions, but my father in particular had a full intellectual framework for those ideals, and I marvelled at his grasp of the world, not just in the physical plane but in the metaphysical and sometimes truly surreal. For me, he was my Encyclopedia Britannica, my CS Lewis and my Lewis Carroll in one. What I saw in him was a kind of romantic longing to comprehend truth beyond the superficial, to infer the structures below the surface that hold up tall buildings and to spot the anomalous lie hidden within the cloak of virtue. It led him to express awe in nature, in language, duty, honour, in gentleness, in faith and in love. He was a Renaissance man with pride, embedded in a school principal’s office, and he certainly was my greatest influence.

It is fair to say that in my journey from country boy to standing here today before you I have come the long way about. I came to Melbourne at 17, I worked at St Vincent’s Hospital as an orderly and I moonlighted in rock bands. In my 20s I worked in financial services with two of the leading asset management companies of the time, which provided me with valuable corporate training. I developed a skill in project management. It was a skill that took me to the UK, where I delivered large-scale projects across Luxembourg, Brussels, Madrid and New York, and I became increasingly involved in executive management.

But I felt something was missing. I undertook a master of business administration at Imperial College London, and enthralled by the idea of entrepreneurship, I broke away from corporate life. I founded a business of my own, a startup working out of a decommissioned RAF shed in an airfield in Oxford. Like any founder, my duties were simultaneously CEO and chief toilet cleaner. I invented a new form of motion-tracking technology involving sensors, neural networks and an early form of AI. I raised capital, I built a factory in India and I spent 15 years in India developing products, learning the hard skills of manufacturing, of supply chain, of import and export and traversing layers upon layers of government regulation, and managing a very diverse team across three continents. It was while working in India that I saw firsthand how economic development could help lift an entire community and provide opportunity, especially to women. I saw how airport and regional infrastructure could integrate even the most impoverished areas and allow the private sector to unlock the economic and creative and social potential.

Experience shapes our thinking, and these experiences layered on my upbringing have certainly shaped mine. I have concluded there is no freedom without economic freedom. Creators must be free to create, individuals must be free to choose. If the state over-regulates in either of those, it inevitably invites oppression, poverty and division. As a safeguard, a citizen’s identity must never be purely digital, and services must never be made conditional on private beliefs. The choices of the citizen must be the primary driver of what is and is not made, consumed and valued.

I am a proud Liberal. I was attracted to the Liberal Party because I believe in the power of the individual and ensuring people receive reward for effort. I believe in the importance of volunteer work and the importance of family as a cornerstone of a successful society. I believe the private sector in a well-governed society is always better at delivering solutions than the state, but people will often ask, ‘What does that mean in practice when you have to make a decision? What do I stand up for? How do I make a judgement?’ It comes down to this – ultimately in any decision, in any judgement, I would ask three questions: ‘Is it moral?’, ‘Is it ambitious?’ and ‘Is it patriotic?’ By happy accident those three words – ‘moral’, ‘ambitious’ and ‘patriotic’ – spell out the word ‘map’. What is a map? Well, it is a way to get from here to where you need to be, and if you intend to provide any leadership in a community, it is best that you have one.

So allow me to share with you a little of my map. Firstly, the M of my map is ‘moral’. I believe we should seek to be a moral country – a moral state – a state that is a force for good in the world. A moral country knows when to be compassionate, to reach out to those who need a hand up, those facing challenges and to stand side by side in terms of natural disaster or personal tragedy to ensure all Victorians share equal rights to resources, infrastructure and quality of life. A moral country also has the courage to say no, to stand up to bullies, to defend rights, to reject intolerance and to resist populist trends when they do more harm than good or institutionalise difference and division. A moral state strives for equality of opportunity and respects the value of individual freedoms – freedom of speech, of association and of religion, equality before the law and an independent and objective public service. These are moral values. Our cornerstone institutions – Parliament, police, judiciary, public service – are themselves wholly and only sustained by our commitment to those values. However, I believe we live in times where these principles and therefore our institutions are under assault.

I could point to many concerns, but the one I would like to address today is the phenomenon of a creeping democratic deficit. What do I mean by democratic deficit? Well, over the past 30 years it has become the recourse of governments at all levels to create independent statutory bodies, advisory boards, commissions, authorities, each created to operate at arm’s length from government with only high-level threads of accountability to a minister, far less to Parliament and many steps removed from the authority of the voter. Initially, such bodies were created to ensure essential works and responsibilities were carried out objectively and without political influence or even corruption. But things have changed. We have empowered them to pursue their own priorities, make their own appointments, set by-laws and make rulings, take and dispense what advice they choose, deploy a form of shadow police force in the shape of authorised officers, levy taxes and spend and accumulate taxpayer debt with only the most tenuous reporting and accountability. The presumption that we removed political interference by removing politicians ignores the reality that that vulnerability applies equally if not more to unelected bodies. The essential difference is that the average citizen has no capacity to vote them out and no rights to visibility or transparency. That is what I mean by democratic deficit.

Not only have we diluted that accountability, in the process we have also permitted our elected representatives to abdicate their responsibility to materially direct the actions of government and the functions of its organs. To say ‘I followed advice’ is the same as saying ‘I made a decision’, but the moral quality of those two statements is very different. Of course there is a place for independence where independence is the core function of the role – for example, IBAC and the Ombudsman – but elsewhere in Victoria the democratic deficit has reached a critical point, and it is time we reflect whether we choose to live as a democracy led by the elected representatives, as flawed as they are, or under a powerful bureaucratic technocracy that will make our choices for us. This is a moral choice. The morality of a state is not written in the halls of academia. It is not handed down by think tanks. It is not bought and paid for by a union industrial complex or dictated by identity politics. It should not be abdicated to the advice of experts. The morality of the state lies in the lives and freedoms of the people, in the bonds of family, in the vision of the society our children will inherit and the common bonds as Melburnians and proud Victorians. I want Victoria to be a moral state, and I believe Victorians do too.

In my map A is for ‘ambitious’. I believe we should be an ambitious state. The importance of ambition is that it gives us hope, and hope gives us purpose. We are a state that values aspiration. History has shown over and over again that when this state has purpose, a mission, it is unstoppable. An ambitious state observes what others have done and emulates the best the world has to offer. Other countries are landing on the moon, building car industries, developing microchip supply chains, so ambition goes further than simply keeping the lights on and having a health system worthy of a First World nation. Performing basic functions of government is not an achievement, rather a starting point from which we launch. An ambitious state aims to be the best in education and teach our children how to think, not what to think, because when information is a commodity, it is the ability to intellectually marshal knowledge that is valuable. Intellectual freedom leads to creativity that leads to innovation that leads to the creation of wealth.

We who inherited a society of home ownership – the infrastructure of back gardens, nature strips and plentiful sports facilities – should pass on this or better. The solution of locking future families up in tower blocks is not a solution at all. It is a compromise at best; it is a betrayal in reality. An ambitious state does not tinker with the future of the next generation and talk about home ownership as a series of policy settings or tell them that they should be satisfied to rent for the rest of their lives. To any young person listening, I believe that my generation has let yours down. We have failed in a basic duty to pass on home ownership to you, and it is our obligation to fix it. We do not need the Big Build. We need the great catch-up for those communities ignored, left behind and priced out of the Australian dream, especially those in my North-Eastern Metro, our outer suburbs and the regions, and we can.

We can also catch up on AI, automation, biotech and 3D printing. These are transformative economic disruptors that will change the face of the global economy. We will either participate in that wave and benefit from it, or we will be hit by it. An ambitious state knows that our productive capital must be orientated here and not locked up in nonproductive assets such as tunnels, and this includes energy and climate.

There are currently over 440 nuclear power stations in 33 countries, another 60 under construction and another 110 planned across the world, each of these countries capable of solving the logistics of location, waste and life span. COP28 says nuclear is now a key component of net zero. The UK, France and a plethora of other states have come to the realisation that nuclear power is not a pipedream but an imperative. Young people want our power grid decarbonised, and frankly they are sick of asking for it. If nuclear power is the way to achieve it and avoid the limitations of renewables, they are very happy to have it in the mix. If we are to provide this generation with genuine hope, then we must take up the hope of nuclear power in Victoria. It is time. I am convinced that sometime in the next five to six years one state in Australia will put up its hand and say, ‘We are pursuing nuclear,’ and the state that does that will attract all the expertise, all the investment, all the infrastructure and all the future revenues. I want that state to be Victoria. The nuclear moratoriums must go. Not only do they prevent us from joining the rest of the world in addressing climate change but their outdated Cold War era blanket prohibitions prevent Victoria from participating in literally hundreds of new industries and STEM research activities. An ambitious Victoria can achieve anything because the hope and purpose of the Victorian people is the most potent force in the nation. Victoria must be ambitious.

The P of my map is ‘patriotic’. Now, I do not mean the American, flag-waving, tickertape parade style; I mean something deeper and more considered. My simple premise is that a society that feels good about itself, that believes it is a force for good in the world, is far more capable of addressing its shortcomings than a country that does not. I think this is a fundamental truth. Guilt is not and never has been a constructive motive for positive action, yet all too often that is our default. It is embedded in every approach that starts with the premise ‘we must break down and destroy this because we are bad’ versus ‘we can do better because we are good’.

I recognise that patriotism is not now and never has been fashionable, especially when used by politicians. But to me, and perhaps it is because I am a country boy, patriotism and the love of country are rooted in the physical nature of our land. We are seeds planted deep into our soil, seeds originating from every background, yet as we grow, the fruit of this land, of this soil, is Australian. This is not a modern idea. The earliest pioneers and settlers recognised this. Within a generation of European arrival, the notion of being Australian as something distinct, uniquely part of and born from our landscape, was apparent in language, in art and in culture. We knew we were different, and we were different because this ancient land has an effect on all who come. Indigenous Australians have always known this, and their unique connection to and love of country is the kind that I respect and that we can all learn from. I believe we should celebrate that, because in denying society patriotism by watering it down, framing history in oppressor-versus-oppressed terms and seeing ourselves as, firstly, races, classes, colours and genders instead of Australians first, we are denying ourselves a spiritual relationship with our ancient land.

Our Shrine of Remembrance is a building designed for profound spiritual resonance. The shape, the purposeful use of light and shadow, the very footings speak in spiritual language of the love for the fallen, who fell for a country they loved. The designers Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop were two young war veterans, barely 30 years old, yet they had the ability to articulate something that speaks uniquely to the people of this land. They brought forth something timeless. Would we be even capable of such a spiritual vocabulary today? Our generation cuts down statues.

Patriotism is not an act of waving away our mistakes or failures. The tapestry of any nation is woven weft in tragedy and warp in triumph, but to suggest that only a truly blameless country can be loved is utopian and ahistorical. Patriotism is a contract that obligates us to pass on to our children a society that is better than the one we inherited. Be proud of Victoria. Celebrate and encourage the best of Victoria if for no other reason than that a patriotic country will have the strength to be moral and the courage to be ambitious. This is why patriotism completes my map. Let us be a state that is moral, ambitious and patriotic.

Before I lead onto some important thankyous and acknowledgements, I would like to share something that many business owners in our state would be all too familiar with. One thing you learn in business is that if you make a mistake, it costs you money – I mean it costs you your own personal money – so as a discipline you very quickly learn not to make that mistake again. Too often Victorians see that in government there is no consequence for mistakes and therefore no incentive to learn from them and no true appreciation of the effect of decisions because those making them will never have to bear the consequences themselves. This does not work in business, it does not work in the real world and it should not work in government. I will fight for that accountability because, yes, I believe in higher values, but I also believe in stone-cold realities in business, in government and in our state. You cannot tax your way to prosperity. You cannot borrow your way out of debt. Victoria must become a business state again.

I need to give credit and thanks to very many special people who have supported me through three campaigns and preselections. Politics is a team game, and I have always been fortunate to have amazing teammates around me. First, my really sincere thankyou to all the members in North-Eastern Metro Region for placing your faith in me to represent you and our great party in this place and without whom I would not be here today.

Right back at my very first small steps in politics there were those who helped me and guided me as a novice candidate: Robert Clark, Jacky Douglas, Emma and Theo Samuel, Kevan and Nola Hill and Julie Felchner.

To the Mulholland clan, all of whom I will be forever in debt to; to the Ivanhoe, Jagajaga, McEwen and Yan Yean ECs, this is as much your day as mine.

There are also some very important people who have provided great mentoring to me: Greg Mirabella, Simon Heggen, Darren and Suzanne Grevis-James, Amanda Millar, Laurie Cummin, Kim Kotas, Pam Guy, Richard Stockman, Malcolm McLean, Bikram Singh, Bob Cornish, Dom Bonanno, Renee Neubauer, Ken and Marilyn Bryce and Peter and Kerrie McWilliam.

Also, again, colleagues who have mentored me: Wendy Lovell, Cindy McLeish, Senator Jane Hume, Senator James Paterson, the incomparable Jason Wood, the insanely talented Ben Zerbe, Jack Cook and Lee Ellison, Thomas Burgess, Henry Davis and Louis Bland – and we will always back the BIFT.

Thank you so much to Fran Henderson and to my good friend Jason McClintock and family, Simmone Cottom, Goldy Brar, Ty Moore, Rosanna Baini and Bernadette Khoury, Paige Yap and all those who stood in 2022. Thank you to Dean and Allison Troth, to Frank Greenstein and to Ian Quick.

And thank you to my colleagues – to my first state leader Matt Guy, to John Pesutto and Georgie Crozier, who will lead this party to government in 2026. Thank you to my regional colleagues Nick McGowan, Nicole Werner and David Hodgett, for all their help, and to the entire Liberal–National parliamentary team, who are continuing with their heroic struggle of getting me up to speed.

I want to make special mention of our multicultural communities and the many community groups I have had the pleasure of working with – all valuable, all amazing. Thank you to Bhavna and Kali Mata Mandir, to the BAPS Mill Park and all the BAPS temples across Melbourne, to the Shri Durga temple in Rockbank and the Gurudwara in Blackburn. And great respect to the Doreen RSL, who are still waiting for a home, and to the wildlife rescue community all across Victoria, whom I had the privilege of learning so much from over the last three years.

Sadly for me my mum passed away just three weeks before I was preselected but is no doubt watching on with Dad and probably thinks this is a bit too much fuss. To Dad, thank you for many things but especially for teaching me everything I know about fatherhood. And to my siblings David, Debbie, Greg, Robert and Alison: I cherish our childhoods, but I think perhaps I cherish our adult relationships even more. In recent years I think we have all come to appreciate how short life is and that in the end family is home. The most important thing to point out to you now is that by law I now automatically win all dinner table political arguments – but look at the lengths I had to go to.

And lastly, to my own family, to my children Molly and Donald: you are the greatest gifts any man can receive, and we are a tight little nation with a language all our own. The strengths that you have shown since you came to Australia and the maturity and wisdom you possess are incredible. You teach me something every day. Our love for each other gives me strength and purpose, and any good I might hope to do here is underwritten in part by you two. And to my wife Mandy, my soulmate, strength, supporter, teammate, co-conspirator and defender against the black arts, the one who has allowed me to take every risk, kept our feet firmly on the ground and certainly kept their feet firmly outside the political bubble, long ago we promised each other that we would have a spectacular marriage, and today joins a long list of spectacular moments that we have shared across the last 24 years – thank you.

So, President, I conclude by paying my respects to you and to your office in particular and to all my new colleagues of all parties and beliefs. I respect you and indeed as human beings I love you, but I hope you lose every election going forward. While we may or may not have the opportunity to agree on everything, I promise you that I will always seek the moral, the ambitious and the patriotic in what we collectively produce, and that the interests of our state, our citizens and our families will always come first. I am grateful for my journey, hand in hand with those who shared it and grateful to those who have carried me when I stumbled.

I look around at those who have come to hear this speech – I aim to honour your hopes. And to the communities of North-East Metro, in Mill Park, Bundoora, Ivanhoe, Eltham, Bulleen, Warrandyte, Ringwood, Croydon, Bayswater, Box Hill and Glen Waverley, I will serve you with hard work and sincerity. It is the best place in Victoria to live, to work and raise a family, and I am so fortunate to be a member and leader of this community.

So for me this speech in this moment arrived, and now it passes. It is not the end – it is not even the beginning of the end – but it is, for me, just the end of the beginning.

Members applauded.