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Steve Hutchins,
Senator for New South Wales
First Speech - 12/11/1998Madam President, I am honoured to represent my party and my state
in the Australian Senate. At the outset, I would like to acknowledge the presence
in the gallery of some very special people to me. Today we have the federal committee
of management of the Transport Workers Union here. All the branch secretaries
from throughout the country are here. We have a number of officers of the New
South Wales branch here in particular, Tony Sheldon. I have here a number of members
of the Transport Workers Union who have retired, who no longer drive trucks, as
well as those who still drive trucks and carry this country Billy Smith, President
Paul Ritsch, Georgie Clarke, and Filthy and Sootie and a few other nicknames.
And I have got a good personal friend here today in John Sheldon. I have got some
friends from the House of Representatives in Nicola Roxon and Christian Zahra,
and two lifelong friends I hoped could make it, Leo McLeay and Michael Lee.
Then there of course is my family. Four of my five children are here today
Julia, Michael, Georgia and Madeleine. I am a very proud father and love all of
them very much. My eldest daughter, Lauren, who was due to be here today, unfortunately
had to have her appendix removed urgently earlier this morning she had just finished
her HSC yesterday. My sister Linda, my brother-in-law Doona and my nephew Josh
are also here, and I know they love and support me. There are a number of people
who I am very close to who cannot be here today Reba Meagher, John Della Bosca,
and my father, Peter. Unfortunately, my mother is dead. I also come here with
a lot of goodwill and support from all of the NSW Labor movement and many good
friends in the road transport industry.
I am here today because of the
vacancy created by the resignation of Belinda Neal. Belinda Neal entered the Senate
through the resignation of Kerry Sibraa in early 1994. Belinda progressed quickly
from the back to the front bench. Belinda became the shadow minister for local
government and child care after the 1996 election. She decided in 1998 to take
the very brave political decision to resign a safe Senate spot and to contest
the marginal seat of Robertson on behalf of her party. It was the sort of gutsy
decision we have come to expect of Belinda Neal. Unfortunately, she did not get
there this time. Since her defeat, she has had to put up with a degree of personal
vilification that I have not witnessed for some time. By the way, I spoke to her
before this speech and she said to me that she wished she had had that $700,000
spent on her campaign. If she did, she might have been giving her maiden speech
next door. Of all of this I will say a bit more later. Just let me say that I
think and do believe she will
be back with a vengeance.
I am a resident
of St Marys in Sydney's greater west, and have been almost all my adult life.
Not far from where I live, by the banks of South Creek on the Cumberland Plain
in western Sydney stands a seldom noticed obelisk. It was erected by the citizens
of St Marys in 1938 to commemorate the start of the first successful crossing
of the Blue Mountains by colonists in 1813. The obelisk bears a small plaque,
a tribute to Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. It states:
Here on the South
Creek was Gregory Blaxland's farm. From it, on May 11 1813 he set out with William
Lawson and W C Wentworth attended by four servants with packhorses and five dogs
on the first expedition that crossed the Blue Mountains.
Blaxland, Lawson
and Wentworth are forever remembered for their role in the crossing. Landmarks
and towns on the route the expedi tion established bear their name in remembrance.
Every primary school child knows their name and their story. These were the men
who successfully crossed the Blue Mountains when all others before them had failed.
These were the men that broke with tradition and crossed the mountains by following
the ridge line rather than going up the valleys, as was the orthodoxy.
But the school children, let alone anybody else, are not taught about the others
on the expedition those nameless servants whose contribution was surely no less
important than that of the three leaders. There were four other explorers three
of them convicts, and one a free man. Of these four, the free man, James Burns,
is the only one whose identity is known. The three convicts remain nameless. To
this day, the remaining three are completely anonymous, their contributions ignored
as if their role in the expedition was immaterial. Who is to know if it was their
help, their work or their suggestions that led to the ultimate success of the
expedition? I can only surmise that in 1938 the convict stigma was still very
strong. Maybe it could not be acknowledged at that point that nearly half of that
historic first expedition were convicts.
As we know, history is not recorded
for the inarticulate, the illiterate or the servant. There are many men and women
in Australia's early history who have contributed to the colonisation and development
of Australia, yet they have gone unnoticed. Their names are not recorded and are
forgotten. These four servants of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth symbolise the
countless Australians who have contributed to our nation's history. Most have
not received a few sparse words on a plaque on an obelisk, nor do I think they
would have wanted to. These are the modern-day truck drivers, teachers, shop assistants,
clerks, labourers, metal workers, doctors, et cetera, without whom our society
would grind to a halt. These are all people who contribute to our society, yet
who are largely nameless and overlooked. There will not be any plaques or obelisks
for these ordinary people, but what they give to our community through their work
is significant indeed.
It is important that the different and varied
contributions that each of us makes are known and appreciated, even if it is only
to us. We must make it clear that there is value in the roles people play, the
things people do. The significance of self-worth, of being recognised for what
we are, cannot be underestimated. But the rapid changes that face today's society
can be overwhelming. It is not hard to lose this self-worth, this recognition
of the value of what we can give. Ordinary people start to feel powerless and
without hope. The economy and society of yesteryear are very different to that
of today and, for many, adjusting to these changes is not easy. Anger and frustration
abound. People have lost faith in their institutions and in their governments
to respond.
Globalisation has meant a very different economy to the economy
of 40-odd years ago, when I was born. The orthodoxies of the past are no more.
There is no secure job, let alone a lifelong one with one company or a government
department. Companies and governments are focusing on cost cutting and retrenching.
Even those that remain still feel very insecure.
Our government is no
longer the sole arbiter of the Australian dollar or of interest rates. Our country
is so dependent upon what happens in the international financial markets. We are
not isolated from events around us and we feel we have little control over those
outsidem forces. The politics of international trade and agreements force tariffs
down and more job losses.
People feel overwhelmed: they feel they are
losing control and are finding it difficult to cope. The pace of change is quickening,
leaving many people behind, and for these people there is a feeling of desperation
and despondency. Just as individuals are losing control of their destiny, so too
has the capacity of governments to steer the nation been diminished. The enormous
changes that have occurred through the internationalisation of the Australian
economy have left governments with less control over the levers of economic management.
The challenge for governments is to redefine their role. In a global marketplace
where international capital reigns supreme, governments no longer control the
national economy, as was previously the case, but now must be content with tinkering
with the edges, working at the margins. In confronting this challenge, we may
go down the path of the present government, retreating into the neoclassical economics
of the past an approach where governments minimise their role and abrogate their
social responsibilities or, alternatively, we can seek to reconstruct an Australian
society built upon the foundations of fairness and equity, achieved through selective
but effective state intervention.
Experience has shown that economic
markets have a capacity to deliver efficient and productive outcomes. The problem
with markets is that they invariably deliver efficiency at the expense of equity.
To allow the former to triumph over the latter is to abandon the pursuit of a
fairer honourable society in the hope of purely economic objectives. Governments
must recognise that these aspirations are not mutually exclusive. A just and cohesive
society is dependent upon a healthy economy.
While our economy is at
the heart of our society, to heartlessly pursue our economic objectives in isolation
is to ignore the needs of our community and to undermine the social fabric of
our nation. Where some seek to diminish the role of government, I say the need
for good government has never been stronger. In a society grappling with the uncertainties
of today's world, governments must provide reassurance and direction in the face
of an increasing cynicism and disillusionment throughout our community.
When it comes to government, most people are happiest when they are left to go
about their business free from government intrusion. The most important thing
for people to know is that when they need it their government will be there for
them. Governments need to know when to intervene and when not to intervene. Unfortunately,
in recent times, government has failed to intervene when ordinary people, ordinary
Australians, have needed them most.
Nowhere is this failure on the part
of government illustrated more clearly than with the appalling circumstances that
the unemployed are experiencing. The transformation of the Australian economy
has resulted in considerable structural unemployment, particularly amongst middle-aged
males. Men in their late 40s or early 50s, who have worked hard for the last 20
to 30 years and paid their taxes all their working lives but have now been made
redundant, are finding that the system has failed them.
Unemployed workers
are being told that they will have no chance of finding a job if they are past
a certain age; past their use-by date. What can they do? What are their options?
There are not many. Do they wait until they use up their savings and then go on
the dole until they reach the pension age in 20 to 25 years?
We need
a government that will address the social devastation created by the phenomenon
of mature age unemployment. Have there been retraining programs? Have there been
strategies to encourage short-sighted companies to employ the older, more experienced
workers? Instead of this, funding and assistance to unemployment programs have
been slashed. The mature age unemployed find themselves confronted with ill conceived
and poorly executed programs.
Providing assistance to the unemployed
to help them help themselves is a prime example of an area where government intervention
is clearly needed. In the case of mature age unemployed, these are often people
who have asked for very little from their governments. Is it too much for them
to expect assistance in their time of need?
There are many other areas
where governments need to intervene on behalf of the interests of ordinary Australians.
In the area of industrial relations, it should be the objective of governments
to protect the rights of working men and women to collectively bargain and negotiate
their wages and conditions.
The Workplace Relations Act typifies the
government's preference for the pursuit of individual interests over collective
good. This is epitomised by the new terminology. Whereas once the language was
about industrial relations and workplace relations, the vocabu lary of the current
federal government's legislation has moved from the collective to the individual.
It is not about conciliation and arbitration anymore: it is about certified agreements
and Australian workplace agreements rather than industry awards.
In an
already insecure workplace, employees are being forced to negotiate their employment
conditions through individual contracts. Given the obvious disparity in bargaining
power, it is not surprising that these agreements are being offered to employees
on a `take it or leave it basis'. With the emasculation of the Australian Industrial
Relations Commission, it is simply unjust to keep the balance of power tilted
too much in the employer's favour. Too much either way leads to inequitable and
unjust outcomes for both employees and employers.
It is not the role
of government to divide and tear apart that sense of community that is part of
the Australian way. There is something wrong when governments and employers conspire
to break the law, sack workers, and cut wages and conditions. Increasing insecurity
in the workplace adds to that sense of frustration and hopelessness that people
are feeling. No wonder ordinary people look those who offer simple solutions.
That is why we have all failed.
We have failed to soften the impact of
the enormous economic and social changes upon ordinary Australians which have
taken place over the last two decades. More importantly, we have failed to recognise
how tough people are doing it. We articulate one policy position after the other,
always purporting to have found the panacea. We simply present change to people
as an inevitability, which it may well be, but we continue to fail to show people
that we understand that their lives have been overtaken by uncertainty.
Amidst all this change, people feel as though governments are out of touch and
are not listening. We need to understand that this change has hurt them and we
must show them that we are listening and committed to using government to alleviate
their suffering. It is our duty to lift that veil of despondency from our people,
to give them hope and confidence in us and to provide that beacon which says to
them that we have not abandoned them, that we have some vision and that we want
them reassured.
Just as the convicts who crossed the Blue Mountains were
anonymous and forgotten, ordinary men and women feel as though they too are being
asked to carry a heavy load without any recognition or appreciation of their worth,
contribution or value. In 1945, famous British historian Dame Veronica Wedgwood
wrote in a paper entitled Aspects Of Politics:
For the truth is that
men do not desire to be the Common Man any more than they are the Common Man.
They need
greatness in others and the occasion to discover the greatness in
themselves.
It is up to us to provide our people with that inspiration
and the opportunity to discover this greatness. That is our mandate. 
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