Monday, 10 May 1993

In 1993 there was angst over many social issues within the community. I entered politics as a small business owner soon after the ‘recession we had to have’ when mortgage interest rates peaked at 17% and business finance was offered at 21%. It was a time for a change and I wanted to make a difference to many of the issues impacting the community.

The speech covers many issues of the time, including childcare, identity politics and the importance of technology, which sadly seem still relevant now.

Towards the end I asked – Why? Why not reject the frightening, divisive policies the government? Why not look to the future and embrace its opportunities? Why not stop the social inequalities developing within our community and seek a fairer tax system? Why not have a better education system, one that is preparing our children for the 21st century? Why not create employment rather than continue with policies that reduce it? Why not protect our family structure?

We still ask those questions and the question is why? Why aren’t we acting on real issues and not the populist causes?

Here is my address to the Parliament.

The official Hansard copy follows.

Mr EVANS (5.45 p.m.) —I speak this evening representing the electors of Cowan who, for the first time since the seat was created in 1984, have a Liberal representative. 

  I speak for all the residents of Cowan — the more than 7,000 unemployed, the residents who join the 3,600 students unable to find a place at our universities, and the 11,144 on the waiting lists at our hospitals. I speak for Jack Tanner, a self-funded retiree, who over the last two years has had a real reduction in living standards. I speak for Tess MacLean, a proud mother of four whose husband, Ian, has served this country well in the services and continues to serve the community yet finds it difficult to find a job. A country he served with honour now offers little future in return. Yet Tess’s greatest concern is in fact the future and how it will affect her children. She worries over their future education and career possibilities.

  I speak for John Horribin, an industrious small business operator who is constantly bombarded with government requirements yet was confident that an improvement in Australia’s economy was around the corner as his country’s Prime Minister (Mr Keating) kept promising him. John now believes his country’s leaders base a lot of their pronouncements about the future on subterfuge and invention.

  I speak for Van Phat Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee who has made Australia his home, yet is concerned about the current direction of its politics. Van Phat has said, `I have seen these community problems before in my own country: the constant wearing down of family values, the overburdening of small traders and the increasing lack of responsibility of government spending. I am concerned for the future of my new country’.  I also speak for my children, Anthony and Kaitlyn, very young Australians who are relying on their father and every other elected representative in this place to accept their responsibility to provide an Australia that will be fit for them to live and prosper in in 50 years time.

  I speak for that silent majority of the Cowan electorate—the forgotten Australians—who have lost, or are losing, their self-regard, their vision, their hope and their enjoyment of all things Australian. Certainly in Cowan, as 13 March would indicate, they have had enough. They are tired of the belligerent nature of the collective social reforms of this Government which does not provide social justice, but rather insists upon social inequality; where the disadvantaged in our community are encouraged to weaken the providers of our country’s wealth.

  For instance, is it just or equitable that a single income family paying its share of tax whilst raising children has less disposable income than someone on social security benefits? The injustice is not in providing social security for those Australians who need help. The injustice is in our country, with all its natural wealth, not providing a structure which allows all Australians to provide for themselves if they have the will or the capacity to do so. But, more importantly, the injustice is in the way this Government’s social policies are bludgeoning those Australians prepared to have a go and create their own and this country’s wealth.

  The example I quoted is the same for all those families who earn $400 a week or less. This figure represents approximately 1,800 families in Cowan. No wonder family care givers in Cowan are forced into work to help retain a just standard of living when they would rather be developing a family social structure that could enhance their own values and just perhaps reduce the ever-increasing juvenile crime rate in Cowan. No wonder this pressure has caused 465 personal bankruptcies in Western Australia since January this year.

  Mr Deputy Speaker, is this just or equitable? Any fair-minded Australian would think not. This country’s leaders would have us believe that destruction of the family unit by encouraging government provided childcare is the answer. They believe forcing parents into work is healthy for this country’s future. Do they not realise that our future is not with enterprise agreements, increasing indirect taxes upon small business or even introducing a scurrilous death duty tax, as I am sure they will? Our future lies with our nation’s children. Yet our leaders believe in a hire purchase social structure, a buy now, pay later mentality towards government expenditure that is ripping apart this country’s heritage and social stability.

  What is going on? Why are not the plans, theories and decisions being made by this Government working? Why is there an injustice developing within our community, and why is this Government seemingly ignorant of the future? The vision this Government espouses will ultimately be an apocalypse for the light on the hill their true believers of 50 years ago believed in. This Government’s prophecy is based on old world thinking, where revolution was the way in which progress was achieved—revolution where the socialist core described as the `haves’ class are against the so-called `have-nots’; the workers against the bosses; the community against the doctors; everyone against the police; women against men; indigenous people against new settlers; and, sadly, the us against them cry is ever increasing.

  Under this Government Australians are pitted against Australians, where the lobbyist is king or queen, and if persons take advantage of their democratic right to speak out they are ridiculed for being sexist, racist, uncaring or just plain un-Australian. Yet the comrades on the other side of the House have not yet realised the days of revolution are over and it is time for a new approach to social equity and equality.

  The world, as we know it, is rapidly changing. Who would have thought six years ago that before 1993 we would have seen the breaking down of the Berlin Wall, the destruction of communism and apartheid and the re-emergence of the long forgotten eastern European countries. The world’s lifestyle is changing, through the rapid development of technology. The protection and insular national boundaries are breaking down through technology driven information. They say, for instance, that by the year 2000, some 80 months away, there will be 60 times more information available to us. As much technology would have been released to us as there has been in the last 90 years.

  We are heading towards a global village where new industries, not even yet considered, will replace those that have served us so well. The world is in a period of transition—a transition from the industrial age to the information or technology age, a period of rapid change. This transition is changing culture, social structure and the way we do things. A new set of community values is emerging. As an example, the last period of such a transition was 200 years ago, with the Industrial Revolution when the world changed from the agricultural age to the industrial age—a period in the world’s history that saw the rise and fall of many economies—with those countries prepared to look to the future and embrace the industrial age being the ones that prospered; and those countries that wanted to reflect on past glories and hang onto the past ways of doing things missing out on the opportunities that industrialisation provided.

  So too do we see the same examples during this period of transition to the information age. Those countries not prepared to move with the future are being left behind in development and progress and will, in my view, lose the advantage they may have previously held in the world as those that did 200 years ago. Yet those countries that are prepared to seize the opportunity of change will adapt and then adopt the ways of the information age; they will grow and then they will prosper.

  Mr Deputy Speaker, what does this mean? Can Australia succeed in this new information and technological age with its current industrial age thinking and attitudes of this Government? I think not. Whilst our education system remains based upon industrial age thinking, we will continue to train our youth for industries, professions and employment which are rapidly becoming outdated. Whilst we pursue the outdated social justice agenda of the industrialised union movement, we will continue to drag current industry to a Third World ethos and withhold investment in new world thinking industries.

  This Government’s mismanagement of the orbital engine project is a perfect example of Australian futurist companies being forced offshore by this Government. Whilst the labour movement continues to believe the industrial age thinking that the bosses are out to screw the workers, our country’s industrial reform remains at risk.

  Mr Deputy Speaker, the revolution is over. It is now time for esprit de corps, a time for all our institutions to work together to increase the value of our country; to develop our community for its communal self-help and problem solving; to increase the worth of our future by improving our education system to allow for new world curriculum; to develop a synergism amongst all Australians; to work to a better future; to reject government control, in particular this Government’s control and take the opportunity of determining our destinies; to provide a future for us and our nation.

  When the world is rich with opportunity, we have a government more concerned with revisiting the past, more interested in changing our heritage than in establishing our future. Not for us should be the divisive, belligerent nature of our Prime Minister (Mr Keating) more interested in ego and his place in history than the future of our great nation. Not for us, Mr Deputy Speaker, should we allow our country to fall victim of subservience to the growing world economies as our most frightening Prime Minister would have us do. Nor should we allow our family-based community to break down and become unjust through the inequalities of the social reforms and tax system of this Prime Minister. This ongoing one-man’s revolution against Australia’s future must stop. And, Mr Deputy Speaker, it will.

  The disappointment at not fulfilling the hope of many Australians last March sits uncomfortably with me, as I am sure it does with my colleagues. To have let the future of our great nation be placed in jeopardy by not securing the leadership of this Parliament is a tragedy for the people of Australia.

  Yet it is not the end but rather just the beginning of an emerging energy which will be gained through our defeat. More determination to help Australia find its proper place in a 21st century is building, a place where all Australians can gain increased pride in working together to make this nation the envy rather than the ridicule of the world. The future is not with the policies of revolution and an ongoing community injustice, for we, and ultimately the children of our nation, will have to pay the price. The future is with vision and the will that we, the coalition, will provide, not the policies of ego and filibuster.

  This energy of which I speak is already growing in Cowan. Community based employment programs are about to be established, programs that encourage community self-help and problem solving and move us towards a 21st century social structure, programs from a community tired of waiting for action from this Government, action they have come to realise will never come; forgotten promises for the forgotten people. The energy of the future is growing, not only in Cowan but also here amongst my colleagues who represent Australians who have had enough of a government not fulfilling our country’s full potential.

  Do not be confused by the self-interested who would have us believe the passion for the future has left us, for it has not. Do not think for one moment our energy will diminish over the next three years to rid this country of a leader who is self-obsessed, for it will not. The full potential of our country will only be realised with the dawning of a new age: the age of community responsibility, of social equality, of 21st century education, of industry unafraid to adapt to the new world and the new power, the power of the Australian individual. The dawning of this new community power can only and will only be facilitated by our side of politics, for the other side has neither the will nor the leadership to do so. Learn that we on this side of the House have the energy; and we will never relent in our struggle to ensure our country does not fall victim of this, our darkest parliament, for we have a Prime Minister intent on dividing our community and denying our proper future.

  I ask my fellow Australians: why not reject the frightening, divisive policies of our Prime Minister? Why not look to the future and embrace its opportunities? Why not stop the social inequalities developing within our community and seek a fairer tax system? Why not have a better education system, one that is preparing our children for the 21st century? Why not create employment rather than continue with policies that reduce it? Why not protect our family structure? Why not say no to the ongoing industrial revolution of our unions and reject their ideas of social justice and the destruction of small business? Why not ask for—nay, demand—leadership? The people of Cowan have, and I will not let them down. 

In conclusion, I would like to quote the words of the infamous, and most misguided and misdirected Fabian, George Bernard Shaw, who once wrote:

Some people see things and ask why. Others dream things that never were and say why not.

Why not think of our future? Why not? It is time that we did.

  Opposition members—Hear, hear!