The Hon. Bill
Heffernan, Senator for New South Wales
First Speech - 10/12/1996Thank you, Madam President, for the opportunity to make my first
speech to this parliament on a day that, for me, combines family significance
with political history. It was on this day 60 years ago that my mother, who is
in the gallery there today, and my late father were married. Forty-seven years
ago on this day, the Menzies government was elected for what was to become a record
term in government. I feel sure Sir Robert is here in spirit today, not for my
speech but to follow the West Indies playing the Prime Minister's X1. Today,
I come to this place proud to represent my state of New South Wales as a Senator.
I am aware of the privilege and great responsibility and I am grateful to my family,
mentors and the Liberal Party for the opportunity. I am proud to be a product
of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party and honoured to have served
it as President for the last three years. The Division has taken many difficult
decisions in those years, decisions which have included performance ass
essment
and enhancement by audit and, where necessary, candidate replacement. These measures,
backed by a determined state executive, have delivered, on merit, to this the
38th federal parliament, a fresh team of young men and women to complement their
more experienced colleagues. A record 14 new Liberal members from New South
Wales entered this parliament following the March election. The Liberal Party,
without fuss or fanfare, and certainly without quotas or tokens, has led the way
to deliver more women to parliament. We are proud that our team, this parliament
and our nation is led by a member of the New South Wales Division, John Howard.
He is a man who has all the qualities of leadership that are best summed up in
John Buchan's `Great Captains' from Homilies and Recreations. I quote: We can
make a catalogue of the moral qualities of the greatest captains but we cannot
exhaust them. First there will be courage, not merely the physical kind, but the
rarer thing, the moral courage which we call for
titude--the power of enduring
when hope is gone. There must be the capacity for self-sacrifice, the willingness
to let worldly interests and even reputation and honour perish, if only the task
be accomplished. The man who is concerned with his own prestige will never move
mountains. There must be patience supreme patience under misunderstandings and
set-backs, and the muddles and interferences of others. There must be resilience
under defeat, a tough vitality and a manly optimism, which looks at the facts
in all their bleakness and yet dares to be confident. There must be the sense
of the eternal continuity of a great cause, so that failure and even death will
not seem the end, and a man sees himself as only a part in a predestined purpose.
It may not be for him to breach the fortress, but the breach will come. I add
another quality . . . The greatest captains have laid their spell not only on
the mind and spirit, but on the heart of their armies. John Howard's battlers
have long willed him to be Australia
's Prime Minister, and I am proud to
have been part of the army of Australians that created a new dawn on 2 March.
I am also mindful of the long and outstanding service to the people of New
South Wales given by my predecessor Michael Baume. Michael was the member for
Macarthur from 1975 to 1983 and a senator for New South Wales from 1985 to 1996.
Michael has always been a loyal servant of the state of New South Wales and the
Liberal Party. The pig industry will regret Michael Baume's departure from
his honorary position as biographer of the life and times of the slickest piggery
proprietor the industry has ever known. Michael gave a new meaning to `pig ties'
as the proprietor did to porkies. I wish Michael all the best in his position
as Consul-General in New York. I am a proud son of Junee--they say that half
of Junee is in the gallery today--a town of 4,000 people, situated midway between
Sydney and Melbourne on the main southern line. Junee, along with Werris Creek
in northern New South Wales, is
one of the great rail towns and rail junctions
of New South Wales. We have had to adapt to the changing technology and the paradox
of productivity and employment. Junee now has a greatly reduced dependence on
rail. It was during my time as shire president that the shire council, backed
by strong community support, convinced the Liberal state government to allow the
development in Junee of a drought proof employer--a long stay institution which
also enjoys a high occupancy rate. I refer to the first privately designed, constructed
and managed correctional centre in New South Wales, built by Theiss Contractors
and operated by Australian Correctional Management. The Junee community, like
most bush communities, considers blood to be thicker than water. We are proud
of a long list of high achievers who were born and raised in our shire. To name
just a few, we sent Laurie Daley to Canberra to add a touch of class to the Raiders,
Bernie Fraser to the Treasury and the Reserve Bank, and Ian Pike to be Chief Magi
strate in New South Wales. Junee is also fortunate to be 20 minutes from the
`place of many crows', the dynamic regional capital of the Murrumbidgee Valley,
Wagga Wagga, also known as the `garden city of the south'. Wagga Wagga is the
largest inland city in New South Wales and home to 57,000 people. Some of Wagga
Wagga's prominent institutions include the Charles Sturt University--with a campus
of 10,000 students including 500 international students; its flagship courses
include wine sciences and equine sciences--the RAAF base, which is the primary
ground-training base to all three services; and the Kapooka army base, which is
the headquarters of the 1st recruit training battalion. By 1999, Wagga Wagga district
will also have a naval communications base. Several of Wagga's current home-grown
sporting heroes include the captain of Australia's cricket team, Mark Taylor,
and his opening partner of 33 tests--sure to be back--Michael Slater. Included
as well are the captains of both AFL grand final teams:
Paul Kelly of the
Sydney Swans, and Wayne Carey of North Melbourne. Beat that! I come from a large
family. My mother is one of 14, my father is one of eight, I am one of seven.
My wife, Margaret, and I have four children. Our home is simple Irish with many
bedrooms and little carpet. Since leaving Joey's--that great institution--in 1959,
I have lived in a world where there are more stars at night, where sunset is a
work of art, where you freeze in winter and cook in summer. It is an environment
where we have learnt from the ancient skills of our indigenous people and from
the recent lessons of land care that man is merely the custodian of the land and
that planet survival demands a certain order of our water, land, plants and animals--an
order which when respected will provide for man. It is a world where words are
rarely wasted and hard work, individual endeavour, fortitude, favourable weather
and commonsense are basic requirements for success. I come to the Senate as
the 16th Liberal Senator for New Sou
th Wales since the foundation of the
Party in 1945. My initial observations in this place are that it needs more fresh
air, it has many bookshelves whose books seem to be valued by the metre, words
seem valued by time, many speeches are delivered to attentive walls, many conversations
are ended by bells, and life is an endless meeting--and I would not miss it for
quids. However, I am mindful that the cost to family life of political commitment
is both high and well documented. I would not be here without the help of my Sydney
foster family, Bill and Trish McPhee, the support of my family and my hardworking
wife, Margaret, and my children, Kate, Will, Ted and Harriet--all of whom have
had to make considerable sacrifices. They have always displayed much understanding
and given me great support through the inevitable highs and lows of family, farming
and politics. No-one really understands what they mean to their own parents
till they have their own children. I am saddened that the tide of life sweeps
that m
eaning away for many people. For me, there are no more important words
than the words I use to end every conversation I have with my children. No matter
how robust and energetic these conversations are--and they seem to get more vigorous
and assertive as the family gets older--the conversation always ends with a reciprocated,
`I love you.' We people from rural and remote Australia are a friendly mob. I
found during early morning walks in Sydney with friends that saying `G'day' to
other early morning walkers often invoked alarm. Madam President, you will be
pleased to know after a few days we always broke down the barrier, and we had
them all saying `Hello.' I am now working on the shy passers-by in this place.
My public life began in 1981 when the local baker, the late Ted Benbow, encouraged
me to run--successfully--for a local government position on the Junee Shire Council.
Then, in 1985, along with Alby Shultz--g'day, Alby; he is now the indefatigable
Liberal State member for Burrinjuck but was then the
dynamic field officer
for the New South Wales Division--Ted got me to join the Liberal Party. I would
not mind a bag of wheat for every time I have been asked, `Why are you interested
in politics?' and `Why aren't you a member of the National Party?' Suffice to
say, I have a strong view that the Liberal and National parties should recognise
the changing demographics in Australia, end the ridiculous pretence of differing
constituencies, set aside individual agendas and ego, and have the guts and determination
to give up the horse and sulky logic and become one strong, united party. A
decision to merge the Liberal and National Parties would strengthen the political
hand of rural Australia, do much to strengthen cooperation and interaction between
city and country and would be the most strategic political decision taken in recent
political history. I joined the Liberal Party because it is best placed to
represent all Australians. It is not dominated by sectional interests. It is owned
by no one individu
al or group. It is a Party in which all members, whatever
their station in life, can enjoy equal self-esteem. Unlike other parties which
have to put up barriers to retain their constituency, we are about breaking down
the barriers and uniting all Australians. Australia has one of the lowest participation
rates by the wider community in party politics. It would probably be fair to say
most Australians have a low regard for politics and politicians. Most believe
that individuals can make no difference. Many have given up. I believe we can
all make a contribution to a better Australia. My first awareness of the national
interest occurred when, as a young boy in the late 1940s, I attended an Anzac
ceremony with my Uncle Kevin. I still remember when the bugle sounded the last
post tears came to his eyes, and I cried because he cried. Later I discovered
they were tears from a Changi-Burma line prison survivor. I then learnt of the
significance of my uncle's tears, of the sacrifices and atrocities of war and
h
ow prejudices and ego often cause conflict. So was born my instinct for
the national interest--an instinct that is far stronger than any ego or personal
agenda, an instinct that has served me well, especially during my three years
as Liberal Party president in New South Wales. Many times I have observed the
capacity of all Australians to pull together during times of war and national
disaster. Is it too much to ask of the beneficiaries, of such capacity, to pull
together in times of peace for social justice and a fair go for every Australian?
The great challenge of uniting Australia in these times of shrinking government
resources includes the provision of services and infrastructure to those people
who are the backbone of our primary industries and who live in rural, regional
and remote areas to enable them to enjoy a lifestyle that does not deteriorate
into an underclass. Equal is the challenge in our towns and cities, where much
of suburbia is filled with a generation of unemployed parents and childr
en,
isolated by poverty, with low self-esteem and a lifestyle where drugs and suicide
are an everyday expectation and work is a faded Bob Hawke promise. These people
need real jobs, not retraining for non-existent jobs. No less is the challenge
imposed on this generation of Australians by the centuries of misunderstanding
and neglect of our indigenous people. We must provide for the return to our indigenous
people of their self-esteem: built up over thousands of years by their majestic
mastery of traditional living, land custodial skills and timeless culture; broken
down in 200 years by the inevitable exploratory nature of man, the intrusiveness
of his machines, the enticement of his money and the destructive onslaught of
his social habits. A paradigm shift is required and will only occur when provision
is made for our indigenous people to progress, even in remote areas, from communal
benefit to individual benefit; when access for all Australians to health, education
and employment is not distorted by l
ocation or station in life; and when,
regardless of race, creed and colour, we purge those leaders who believe all should
be equal except the equalisers and who see the often generous funds of government
as the opportunity for a feast on which to fatten their personal circumstances
while neglecting the famine. Unfortunately, when these predators of the public
purse turn on, Australians who would normally be concerned and supportive turn
off. I wish to pay tribute to our primary industries. Primary industry, which
is generally carried on in rural, regional and remote Australia and includes fishing,
farming, forestry and mining, continues to contribute 75 per cent of Australia's
net external earnings. Our regional cities, towns and villages that support our
fishermen, foresters, farmers and miners are a vital part of that contribution,
as are our rural women. Our rural women are often taken for granted. Many run
the farm, more often the farmer. Rural women display greater patience, more resilience
and are
generally better educated than are rural men. `Marry a teacher or
nurse and droughtproof the farm' is still a well-known bush convention. Rural
women often have to contend with droving, drafting and old harvest trucks, yet
find the time to do the books, do the washing and ironing, cook the meals, oversee
the homework, school excursions and weekend sport, water the garden and look like
a lady of leisure for church on Sunday. Our rural women deserve a medal for holding
together the spirit of family farming. Our farmers are an endangered species.
Despite the declining numbers of farmers, now down to 120,000, and an increasing
average age, now 53; despite the drift to the coast and the fact that more people
live in the western suburbs of Sydney than all of rural Australia; despite the
decline of farm employment from 27 per cent of total employment in the 1920s to
three per cent today; and despite the relentless decline in terms of trade for
agriculture, our farmers and the world's farmers have to feed an extra
90
million people every year. We live in a world where 1.3 billion people lack
regular access to fresh water, where 800 million people do not enjoy food security,
where 185 million children suffer malnutrition and where 1 billion people have
an income of no more than $1 a day. Population growth is wearing down Mother Earth
and swallowing up our farming land and agricultural water resources. Twenty-five
per cent of the world's agricultural land is degraded and 25 per cent of the world's
wild fisheries are overfished. If the world does not wake up, in 100 years there
will be no tropical rainforest. The loss of land from dryland agricultural
production to urban development requires, in resource transfer terms, 1,000 tonnes
of water to produce from irrigation 1 tonne of wheat. Many land scarce societies
who face such transfers face the paradox of the reproductive rights of the current
generation and the survival rights of the next generation. The great challenge
in feeding the world will be to produce en
ough food at a price that is affordable
to all without destroying the environment. Rural, regional and remote Australia
has taken up this challenge. We have adopted landcare and our farmers are bonded
to the land, often in a similar way to the custodial and spiritual ways of our
indigenous people. They have stuck through drought, fires and floods, through
good times and bad, they compete in world markets corrupted by the US and European
treasuries and in many years have accepted fresh air and freedom as their only
income. My tribute also extends to my bush companions, our indigenous people,
who live in rural and remote Australia. I share their love of the land and their
concern for the loss of their timeless culture. They, like myself, sleep many
nights under the stars, understand the value of a campfire and can read Mother
Nature, her seasons and warning signals. They, sadly, often live in a mire of
low self-esteem, shunned by the passage of time and technology. Professor Ian
Ring, who published resear
ch this year on the health of our indigenous people
in the cape, found no improvement in any major health indicator since 1976. On
every indicator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are disadvantaged compared
with non-indigenous Australians. Life expectancy is 15 to 20 years less for Aboriginal
people, while infant mortality is three times higher. An Aboriginal baby born
today has still, despite our best efforts, only a one in three chance of living
to the age of 65. For many years, try as many have, we have failed these people.
They, like our jackeroos, drovers, shearers, shearer's cooks and all rural dwellers,
are a precious part of Australia's culture. All these people need not feel isolated
and forgotten. They will have a champion for their cause in me. It has been
easy for many Australians to stir, by fax, phone and emotion, the melting pot
recently introduced to this parliament by an Independent member of the House of
Representatives. That universally poisonous melting pot of candour, critici
sm, blissful ignorance, fear, poignant truth and racial undertones is not peculiar
to Australia, but it has tempted many in the media to report that speech with
glasshouse headlines which invoke basic territorial jealousies, tribal instincts
and human inconsistencies--headlines which trigger the pollsters and cult figures
but which blatantly ignore the issues that unite Australians and overlook the
proven capacity of Australians to embrace our `fair go' ethic. The strength
in the fabric of Australian society has always been the woven cloth, never a single
thread. Our woven cloth has always included some threads of individual failure,
tragedy, injustice and intolerance. The same cloth held threads of success, fortitude,
self-sacrifice and compassion. We should not allow the thread of discontent spun
from one speech in this parliament to unravel the fabric of Australian society.
Social inequity and disadvantage cannot be simply identified and isolated on
a map. It is not determined by birth, bound by cree
d or colour, nor solved
by worldwide days of recognition. Madam President, visiting Australia's disadvantaged
by airconditioned car or bus or through the eye of the TV news is a comfortable
First World response but no solution. Providing a real world solution will require
Australians from all walks of life rolling up their sleeves and opening up their
hearts. I invite all concerned Australians to answer a call of feet, hands,
hearts and means to establish a care corp--volunteers whose sole task would be
to identify the priorities of disadvantage within Australia and act to alleviate
them. By giving up a week of their time or a few days pay, not once but year after
year, to marshall the resources of both government and the able in our community
to overcome the plight of the most disadvantaged and needy in our society. Our
Governor-General, Sir William Deane, has recognised the collective plight of our
disadvantaged as the most important problem facing our nation. If we can maintain
the volunteer ethic in
areas as diverse as firefighting, Meals on Wheels
and international aid, then surely we can provide volunteer supervision and target
community ownership of programs to rebuild self-esteem and refurbish essential
services to our disadvantage. Only a strong economy will fund from income the
compassionate side of government, `the true measure of good government'. Bold
initiatives will produce a strong economy, real jobs and real wealth. Australia
is ready for an era of bold initiatives, an era of national savings and real wealth
creation. Like the Snowy Mountain scheme of the 20th century, we need a plan for
the 21st century--a plan which will bring cohesion and long-term benefit to all.
Our plan should include a very fast train which adopts an inland route and
has passenger and freight capacity and time lines to link our capital cities.
The VFT will break down the barrier between city and country, curb the environmentally
destructive urban sprawl, open up development corridors for the next 100 years
and b
e the bridge to the 21st century. It will take Australia from a country
retiring to the coast, living on welfare and resting on its laurels to a new frontier
for development with job opportunities and excitement. We should also harness
some of the millions of megalitres of fresh water that flows annually into our
northern tropical seas. This water resource can be used to open up some of the
last tracts of virgin farming land available in the world. Such a plan would recognise
that in a world of shrinking land, mineral and water resources Australia has much
to offer. It would also allow many remote communities, both black and white, a
lifeline to higher self-esteem and a train ride to better health and education
facilities and employment opportunities. Our plan should also include research
and development to allow the construction of mass transit systems, a vital strategy
to meet Australia's commitment to reduction in greenhouse gases and addressing
the looming fossil fuel crisis. Why can't we also devel
op technology to recycle
the millions of megalitres of sewage polluting our seas and break the nexus of
a throwaway society and a mountain of garbage? For my own state of New South Wales,
the development of an inland international air freight terminal would be a catalyst
to restructure and vertically integrate the Murray-Darling farm enterprise and
provide a long-term solution to salinity and degradation by water and land management
practices. With the added value of workplace reform it would allow Murray-Darling
farmers to competitively enter Asian supermarkets as fresh food suppliers to three
billion people. Madam President, the paradox and urban consolidation and urban
sprawl, public and private transport, productivity employment, the myriad of environmental
issues, clean air, fresh water--we buy fresh water now; will we eventually have
to buy clean air?--are not some trendy `Greens' issues; they are our issues. They
are planet survival issues which will not be solved by lobby groups, radical political
agendas or single issue political parties. These issues will only be solved
by government achieving interaction and understanding between city and council,
between the various competing energies and agendas and between the producers and
the users. In recent years, Australian taxpayers have remained largely unaware
yet committed to subsidising from future tax revenue $120 billion worth of unfunded
state and federal public sector superannuation. We have tolerated a public purse
which has allowed rights to overpower responsibilities and build in billion dollar
rorts; an archaic tax system that taxes battlers and the thrifty, yet allows taxable
profits in key industries to be exported by foreign owned and vertically integrated
companies that use transfer pricing; and a 13-year fire sale of Australian equity
in key export industries. We have allowed our agricultural industries to have
their disease free status and marketing edge threatened by political agendas and
world trade predators. We have ignored the d
evelopment of our national infrastructure,
yet allowed Australian superannuation savings to develop foreign owned offshore
infrastructure. We have largely ignored the vast underdeveloped water, land and
mineral resources of Australia's far north. Is it any wonder we cannot fund hospitals,
schools or house the homeless? Who can fix all of this? We in this chamber can.
We can ensure our children and future generations inherit from us a social, economic
and environmental climate that is safe and secure, that Australia remains a great
place to raise a family, breathe fresh air and drink clean water. Madam President,
every time I hear the bugle sound the last post, I am reminded that I belong to
a generation that has never been to war, has taken much and given little. I am
reminded that the debt we all owe to earlier generations of Australians cannot
be repaid but merely serviced. My aspirations are bound by the honour boards
of past campaigns in both war and peace. My commitment is to reward the individual
, unburden the dependent and protect the vulnerable. My hope is that in walking
the tightrope between rights and responsibilities the balance will always be maintained
in Australia by the peaceful democratic processes of our parliament. My dream
is that on the day of my last speech in this chamber I will be able to say that
I have served in a parliament whose members have all put the nation's interests
ahead of their own; a parliament which has robustly discarded as un-Australian
the morays of the eighties and its legacy of greed, corruption and debt; a parliament
which has promoted a fair go for all as the spirit of Australia; a parliament
which has delivered the opportunity for all Australians to enjoy independence
of means and mind; and, finally, that my contribution in this place will be judged
by my fellow Australians as worthwhile. My only wish then will be that God allows
me to return with my family to the peace and tranquillity of the bush. Thank you
very much. 
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