Alan Eggleston, Senator for Western
Australia
First Speech - 11/09/1996Thank
you, Madam President. In rising to give my maiden speech, may I first say that
I regard it as a great honour to have become a member of the Senate. I have very
great respect for the place of the Senate in the Australian constitution and its
role in our process of government. Australia is a vast and varied country with
great differences between the regions, some of which, while having great economic
potential, have low populations. Because of that, I believe that a system of government
recognising the need for regional representation is essential for the continued
development and good government of this country at both state and federal levels.
I was pleased that the High Court of Australia, in rejecting the recent Western
Australian ALP challenge to the electoral boundaries in Western Australia, held
that the concept of regional representation was implicitly recognised in the constitution
as a feature of the Australian system of government, which, needless to say, in
the federal sphere is provided by
the Senate. It is also a great honour
to have the opportunity of representing my own great state of Western Australia
in the federal parliament and, in my case, to represent here in Canberra the north
of Western Australia. The north of Western Australia makes a massive contribution
to the national economy. For example, the Pilbara mining industry alone contributes
10 per cent of Australia's merchandise exports. Yet, notwithstanding this, the
north of Western Australia has never had any effective representation here in
Canberra, much less been represented by a person who comes from the area. Having
lived in the Pilbara for the last 22 1/2 years, been Mayor of Port Hedland for
the last three years, been chairman of the Pilbara ward of the Country Shire Councils
Association, a member of the board of the Pilbara Development Commission and closely
involved in the formulation of WA Liberal Party policy for the north since the
early 1980s, I believe I am well qualified to give the people of the North-West
and
the issues which concern them a powerful voice here in Canberra, and
give the north effective input into the federal political process. I understand
that traditionally in a maiden speech one should say who one is, where one comes
from in the sense of what relevant life experience one brings to the Senate, and
what one's beliefs are. I am a fourth generation Australian. My great-grandmother,
Alice Murray, was born--as Senator Abetz will be pleased to know--in Van Diemen's
Land in 1839. My grandfather brought my part of the Eggleston family to the west
in the 1890s. I grew up in Busselton in the south-west of Western Australia and
I went to school and university in Perth. I was a medical student at UWA and
at that time I joined the Liberal Party and became what is now described as a
`student politician', being involved in the UWA Guild Council, NUAUS as it was
then known, and my national faculty bureau, the AMSA or Australian Medical Students
Association. I then spent four years in the UK and, after re
turning to Perth,
to fulfil a long-held curiosity, I went to the North-West--supposedly for six
months, but, as is the story of so many people in the north, that six months became
22 years. The life experiences I bring to the Senate are, most importantly,
having lived in the north of this country, having been a medical GP at a time
of great change in Australian medicine, having been involved in local government
at a fairly senior level and serving as a member of a state regional development
commission, the Pilbara Development Commission. I would like to say a little
about general practice medicine, which is undergoing something of a crisis of
identity at the moment. As a recent ANU survey showed, many GPs are disillusioned
and frustrated. As things have evolved over the last 25 years, the status and
scope of work performed by GPs have diminished. The income of GPs has fallen,
both in absolute and relative terms to that of their specialist colleagues, so
that today many GPs, especially in the metropolita
n areas, are genuinely
struggling to meet the cost of providing the equipment necessary to enable them
to give good service. Although reassuring noises are constantly made about general
practice medicine remaining the cornerstone of Australian medicine, the contemporary
role of the GP has never been satisfactorily defined. If general practice is
to be maintained in this country, it is important that the role of the GP within
the Australian medical system should be defined and adequately funded because
able and intelligent young men and women are not going to enter a discipline which
does not have a definite role in the scheme of things, as well as offering job
satisfaction, challenge and reasonable rewards. This is a matter which should
concern the Senate because the community makes a large investment in the training
of doctors. One of the great problems of Australian medicine is that of getting
medical practitioners to go to small country towns. The reasons for this are complex
and not only related to
working conditions but also to social factors such
as education and shopping facilities and the fact that doctors' wives tend to
be city girls who do not relate well to living in country towns for long periods.
For some time I have thought there was an analogy to be drawn between the health
and education services under which young teachers are sent out to country schools
for a few years after graduation. It occurs to me that one solution to the problem
of providing adequate medical services in small rural communities might be to
establish community health centres in areas of need where not one, but two or
three salaried doctors--to ensure reasonable duty rosters--would work as part
of a team of health professionals which might include a visiting physiotherapist,
occupational therapist and social worker. I strongly support the endeavours
of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, of which I am a fellow,
to improve GP medicine through various means, including more effective political
represent
ation in the forums of medicine. I congratulate the college on the
excellence of its innovative continuing medical education programs which are recognised
world wide. I spent eight years in local government, which I found to be an
interesting experience, encompassing a wide range of activities from running an
arts centre and privatising a busy airport, to dealing with tourism projects and
regional development issues, as well as administering a HACC program and an aged
persons' village. There is no doubt that the scope of local government is growing
and, while I do not agree with the vision that some participants in the field
have for the role of local government in the future in terms of local government
superseding state governments, I do believe that the role local government plays
in delivering services to the Australian community should have formal recognition
in the constitution, as well as more secure funding. The North-West is that
area of Western Australia roughly north of the 26th parallel enco
mpassing
the Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley regions and represents about 50 per cent of
the land area of Western Australia or half a million square miles. While the North-West
is a vast and ancient land, the modern north is, in many ways, a microcosm of
Australia's future. By this I mean that the population is young and multicultural,
there being a wide diversity of nationalities and ethnic groups, including some
with close ties to Asia, not only in the old towns of Broome and Carnarvon with
their Japanese and Chinese links but also in the new towns such as South Hedland
where 10 per cent of the population are Malay Muslims. Furthermore, the economy
of the north is export oriented and increasingly linked to the tiger economies
of Asia. As I said in my introduction, the North-West makes a truly massive
contribution to the national economy, and the great powerhouse of the north is
the Pilbara. The development of the Pilbara region into one of the world's greatest
mineral producing areas over the last 30 yea
rs has been a remarkable success
story. The Pilbara economy is based on iron ore, natural gas, petroleum and solar
salt production. The Pilbara now produces some $7 billion worth of minerals per
annum generating, as I have already said, 10 per cent of Australia's merchandising
exports. Over the years, concern has been expressed that Australia was no more
than a quarry for the steel mills of Asia. I am pleased to say that secondary
processing is now beginning to occur. Plants are being constructed to process
iron ore into hot briquettes which are the feedstock for electric arc furnaces,
which is the new way steel is made. It is now quite possible that the future will
see such steel mills being established in the Pilbara, which will see the fulfilment
of Sir Charles Court's great plan--he once told me off, in no uncertain terms,
for calling it a dream--to see steel production in the Pilbara become a reality.
Having returned today from the Pilbara conference which was held in Karratha
on Monday and Tuesday
, I can tell senators there are many other possibilities
for large scale industrial development in the Pilbara, such as the establishment
of a petrochemical industry, to mention but one. It is educational for the
Senate to know why it has taken 30 years for secondary downstream processing to
begin in the Pilbara. The reasons why secondary processing is only now becoming
possible are these. Firstly, it is because of the previously appalling industrial
relations record in the Pilbara, which only improved when the unions came to understand
in the early 1980s that the Japanese could go to Brazil as an alternative source
of supply for their iron ore and that there was no question of industrial problems
occurring in Brazil, for obvious reasons. Secondly, automation has reduced
the price of labour, which is a major disincentive to further development. The
Pilbara 21 study of a few years ago revealed that it cost about $65,000 per annum
to employ a skilled tradesperson in the Pilbara compared to about $30, 000
for the same person in Perth. While the cost of labour has not come down, automation
means fewer people are employed, with a dramatic fall in the total cost of labour
to industry. Thirdly, the deregulation of the energy market in Western Australia
has substantially reduced the price of energy, so that now the Pilbara offers
the lowest priced gas in the South-East Asian area. The Pilbara is now the nation's
leading producer of petroleum products, the value of which was $3.77 billion in
1995. To the north of the Pilbara is the Kimberley region. The principal drivers
of economic activity in the Kimberley are the mining, tourism, agriculture, pastoral,
pearling and fishing industries, with the total Kimberley economy earning the
nation about $890 million per annum. Irrigated agriculture at Kununurra on the
Ord River has grown rapidly in recent years, capitalising on out-of-season markets
in Australia's southern capital cities and developing international markets. Currently,
the annual production of agricult
ural crops in the Kimberley is valued at
about $42 million, coming chiefly from the Ord River irrigation area, which is
set for major expansion as another 65,000 hectares is due to be added to the irrigated
area in the near future, chiefly to grow sugar, the yields of which on the Ord
are much, much higher than those in Queensland. I am delighted with the success
of the Ord River scheme and salute people such as Bill Withers, Alma Petherick
and Howard Young who have been there from the beginning and have been through
all the trials and tribulations, because they are genuine, modern day pioneers
who worked hard and endured great setbacks before they enjoyed the success that
they do today. The third region in the north-west is the Gascoyne, which is
centred on Carnarvon and extends to the eastern goldfields. In the Gascoyne, apart
from the mining and pastoral industries, the seafood industry is important and
provides over 60 per cent of Western Australia's prawns and scallops, with major
export markets in
Asia. Tourism is the great growth industry of the north,
with the icons being the Ningaloo Reef at Exmouth, the Karijini National Park
in the Pilbara, and the spectacular beauty of the North Kimberley area. Broome,
of course, has become a major holiday resort. The northern tourist industry is
already generating about $200 million a year and the industry is only in its infancy.
Thus it can be seen that the economy of the north is not only truly massive,
but it is diverse and it has come a long way from what was once the stereotype
image of stockmen and cattle yards as typifying the north-west of Western Australia.
When I first went to the north in the 1970s, the Pilbara was regarded as being
marginally less remote than the far side of the moon. But that is not the case
anymore. Whereas once the population of the north was transient, many people now
remain in the north because they find the weather congenial, the lifestyle pleasant
and the economic prospects much better than in most other areas of Aust
ralia.
A generation of young people have grown up in the north who simply regard the
north as home. What I want to place on record in the Senate is that the North-West
is now simply another part of regional Australia, albeit a region which makes
a very substantial contribution to the national economy, and to remind the Senate
that the people of the north expect to be given due consideration when policies
affecting the north are under discussion. A good example of this not being
done was the fringe benefits tax, which was designed to tax benefits paid to corporate
executives in Sydney and Melbourne, but the fringe benefits tax has had a devastating
impact across the whole of northern Australia. This could have been avoided if
allowance had been made for differences in regional requirements, so that housing,
meals, airfares and airconditioning subsidies could have been classified as necessities
required to attract staff to remote areas, rather than luxuries to be taxed. The
impact of the fringe benefits
tax is still being felt in terms of loss of
population and restricted development in the north. There remains a need for further
rationalisation of this tax. Senators may be interested to learn that the Pilbara
Development Commission is currently doing a study designed to demonstrate how
much revenue the federal government has lost through the cancellation of development
projects in the north caused by the impact of the fringe benefits tax. When this
report is completed, I assure you I will be tabling it for the record in the Senate.
Since 1982, I have attended a number of northern Australia development conferences
in the north of Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. To those
who attended these conferences, it was very apparent that the issues across the
north were very similar. I look forward to working with my colleagues from Queensland
and the Northern Territory--and I include Senator Bob Collins--in jointly pursuing
the interests of the north while I am a member of the Senate. Turning
to my beliefs, senators will not be surprised to learn that I am a committed federalist.
I believe that states and state governments have a valid and ongoing role in looking
after the interests of regional Australia and that the federal system provides
the best formula for the good government of this country. In terms of political
philosophy, I am a classical liberal. I believe in the individual and the right
of the individual to conduct their affairs without undue interference from the
heavy hand of government. True to classic liberalism, I believe society should
provide for the needy and I believe that government should provide community infrastructure.
In my case, I believe there is a community service dimension to government--meaning,
among other things, that equitable community services should be provided for our
citizens, wherever they live, including with the objective of lessening the impact
of the tyranny of distance which has been so much a part of the Australian ethos.
As a classical liberal, I look to the future and do not unnecessarily
cling to the past. I accept the need for well ordered change, which in my case
includes supporting a purely Australian institution for the office of a national
head of state and the conversion of Australia to a republic. I am not anti-British
and I do not deny the value of our British heritage. I do not want to change our
parliamentary system, nor would I want Australia to leave the British Commonwealth.
I am very proud of being an Australian, proud of what Australia stands for
in terms of political ideology, if I might put it that way. That deep pride has
been engendered by the knowledge that Australia is a land to which people came--people
who for the most part were not from privileged backgrounds and had little in the
way of material possessions, but they are people who, through their diligence
and the opportunities Australia offered them, have enjoyed success. In contrast,
the monarchy is an institution representing a system which divided people
into social classes and is the very antithesis of the democratic and egalitarian
values for which Australia stands. One may ask whether the breaking of the symbolic
tie to the British monarchy is such a big step to take.
In the legal world,
a similar step has already been taken. In the mid-1970s, Australian appeals to
the Privy Council in London were abolished so the High Court of Australia became
the final arbiter in Australian legal matters. Many Australians see the breaking
of the symbolic tie to the British monarchy as very much akin to the abolition
of legal appeals to the Privy Council and, just as Australia has taken charge
of its affairs in the world of the law, they believe the time has come for Australia
to take ownership of the institution of our national head of state. Senators
will be interested to learn that three years ago at the 1993 Western Australian
state conference of the Liberal Party only 55.5 per cent of delegates voted in
a formal ballot for a motion confirming support for the mo
narchy. In other
words, 44.5 per cent of delegates were not prepared to vote for the retention
of the present system. That is worth noting because the Western Australian division
of the Liberal Party is regarded as being more conservative than most. Conservative
lawyers such as Sir Harry Gibbs have made much of the difficulty of drafting a
set of words for a republic constitution which would recreate the balances and
political stability enjoyed by Australia under the present arrangements. Without
doubt, the task will be complex, but I have long suspected more was being made
of this difficulty than needed to be. To me, it has never been credible for
monarchists to argue that, in a nation which has produced as many brilliantly
clear thinking lawyers as Australia, a constitution could not be written which
protected and preserved the rights of the Australian people, entrenched responsible
parliamentary government under a prime minister and cabinet and created an institution
for head of state not only having
clearly defined and limited powers but
also embodying formulae for the democratic means of resolution of crises should
the good government of the Commonwealth be in jeopardy. Dubious lawyers can
take comfort from the knowledge that the Irish have successfully written such
a constitution, as have Germany and India, among other nations. With the passing
of Paul Keating from the political stage, I hope the debate on the republic can
be conducted in a more objective and thoughtful manner. The republic was never
Keating's republic. According to Professor Geoffrey Bolton of Edith Cowan University
in Perth, there has been discussion about whether Australia should convert to
republican status since the 1850s, and Henry Lawson's mother, Louisa, for example,
was the editor of a pro-republican newsletter in Sydney towards the end of the
last century. Now in the 1990s, just as in the 1890s, I believe there is a renewed
sense of the need to define our national identity and to express that identity
in the institution
of the office of our national head of state. I look
forward to contributing to the debate on constitutional change which, apart from
the issues I have mentioned, I would like to see include a review of Commonwealth-state
financial relationships and the role of the High Court. It is my belief there
is also a need to give consideration to constitutional protection of the civil,
political and human rights of our citizens. Madam President, I conclude with
some thanks. Firstly, I express appreciation to my parents and family in general
and the many friends I have made along the way. I also wish to thank those long-term
players in the Liberal Party in the north who have supported me, including Greg
Kneale, Maxine Middap, David Chapman and Joy West. As Senator Ellison will no
doubt somewhat ruefully confirm, Greg Kneale, I and the powerful Kalgoorlie north
division have had some famous victories in the forums of the Liberal Party in
Western Australia. Last year was not an easy year for the Liberal Party in
Western Australia. The preselection for this Senate seat, or for the Senate
team, was a drawn out, hard fought process extending over 4 1/2 months. In winning
this Senate seat, I was supported by a broad coalition of the members of the state
council of the Western Australian Liberal Party, which no doubt in part reflects
the fact that I have been around the Western Australian Liberal Party for a long
time, but it can also be said to have been a statement that the Liberal Party
in Western Australia was taking a different, more inclusive, more cohesive and
less divisive pathway. In conclusion, may I repeat that I have great respect
for the Senate and consider it a great privilege to be a member of this house. 
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