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Jenny Aitchison
Inaugural speech for the 56th Parliament of NSW
Tuesday, 12 May 2015, 12.30pm
TRANSCRIPT: Madam Speaker, parliamentary colleagues, special friends and family, I thank you for your generous welcome. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are gathered, the Gadigal people, and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where I live, the Wonarua people, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.
Maitland is one of the fastest growing cities in NSW and our Aboriginal community is growing at an even faster rate. Recently I purchased an art work for my office by local Aboriginal artist John Robinson who grew up in the north coast and now lives in Woodberry. The painting combines Aboriginal and European styles. In one work it encapsulates the story of Maitland – the old meeting the new, welcoming each to the other, valuing both our diversity of experience and our unique traditions and culture. It is a beautiful expression of the understanding that can be found when we share and embrace our individual cultures and experiences.
Madam Speaker I feel deeply honoured to take my place in this, the oldest parliament in Australia, to represent everyone in my community. I am pleased to be able to say that I am in fact the second female Member for Maitland, my predecessor Robyn Parker being the first. I am pleased because when I became foundation President of the Women’s Network Hunter NSW in 2005, there were no women members in this place representing the Hunter. (For the record, this changed in 2007 with the election of Sonia Hornery in Wallsend and Jodi Mckay in Newcastle.)
The non-party political network I helped establish has been instrumental in increasing women’s participation in decision making, at all levels of our community. I pay tribute to the co-founders of our network Vicki Woods and Bronwyn Ridgway and other executive members such as the Deputy Mayor of Maitland, Loretta Baker, Jann Gardner, Jennie Wilkinson, Nada Vujat, Sheila Turnbull, Gail Johnson, Glenda Briggs and Race Barstow. I pay tribute to the members of Emily’s List which I joined when it was founded 18 years ago, and organisations such as the Labor Women's Forum, Maitland BPW and Women in Business Connect. These diverse organisations have helped many talented women within our community by providing forums where women can discuss issues of importance to them and develop their skills in representing our community.
It is 90 years since Millicent Preston-Stanley, the first woman in this place, made her Inaugural speech, and there is still much to do. I am lucky to have been assisted by those who came before me and those who now join me. I look forward to progressing women’s issues right across this Parliament for the benefit of all women and particularly those women who will come after us. I thank all of the women and men in the Labor Caucus for their support, but particularly the Hon. Courtney Houssos, the Hon Sophie Cotsis and Jodi McKay who encouraged me to run for the seat of Maitland for many years.
Sophie, known by the Maitland Mercury as the “the Sydney Member for Maitland” in the last parliament was a constant support and visitor to our community in the difficult and challenging days after 2011. To the Country Labor and Hunter Women Candidates, particularly Kate Washington, Yasmin Catley, Jodie Harrison, Melissa Cleary, Sonia Hornery, Cassandra Coleman and Ursula Stevens I thank you for your support along the way. It has been great to share the journey with you.
Perhaps the most important woman in my life has been my mother Anne O'Connor who taught me to read at the age of 3 and sparked my life-long love affair with words and communication. My mother had been working as a library officer in the Commonwealth Public Service in Canberra and was one of the first women to receive paid maternity leave when she had me. As the parents of three girls, my mother and my father never subscribed to stereotypes about women so I never felt I was limited to one kind of role in life. My father Jim taught me how to restore furniture as a teenager and I remember many hours discussing philosophy and the world in general in our shed as we stripped back old pieces of furniture.
I was about 8 years old when I decided I would follow in my mother’s footsteps and commence working at my local library. I spent many hours volunteering to shelve and repair books. My father told me only in recent years that I was “let go” when the Chief Librarian found my letter to Santa in the Library post box and decided I was perhaps a little too young for the world of work. I catalogued all the books in my own book cases at home in rebellion.
My activism started in earnest in 1985 during the first International Year of Youth when I was selected to represent my school on an interschool newspaper. I got my first casual job at the age of 15. I remember fondly the owner Mr Erdman. He was an excellent role model for me years later when I ran my own business, for his kindness and generosity to both his staff and his clients.
At 21 I joined the Labor party, one hundred years after it was established. Later that year I joined the Commonwealth public service in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, where I read the sad yet ultimately hopeful stories of the many hundreds of thousands of people who had unsuccessfully applied to come to Australia as refugees or migrants. I read with a sense of deep shame a question from an overseas school student to the Minister asking if it was really true that Australia had once had a policy that we would only let people with white skin into Australia.
I moved to the Social Justice Coordination Section where I drafted the department’s Agenda for Women and coordinated consultations around Australia, hearing first hand the stories of many refugee and migrant women. In 1997 I joined the staff of Steve Dargavel, the Federal Labor Member for Fraser as his Chief of Staff. With Steve I helped coordinate a meeting in Canberra of church and community leaders to affirm their commitment to multiculturalism.
I was moved by meeting Sir Ronald Wilson author of the Stolen Generation Report. I am glad we have apologised as a nation to our indigenous people and later to those who were abused in institutions. I reject racism, discrimination and abuse in all their forms.
In 1997 I met my husband Robert and later moved to Walcha, a small town in the New England Tablelands. The town had 1800 people and ¾ million sheep. It is a wonderful community. In Walcha I joined and started to manage the family business Northern Highland Travel.
In the year 2000 we moved to Maitland with our six week old son. I take this opportunity to thank Elaine and Bruce Aitchison, my parents-in-law. They taught me so much about business, about regional and rural Australia and have treated me like their daughter. They have been wonderful friends, mentors and supporters through some of the best and some of the hardest times in business and in life.
In the 17 years the business has grown incredibly. From the spare room of my house, we have grown to employing around 25 staff across three distinct businesses: with 7 coaches, a café and conference centre and a travel agency.
In all Madam Speaker I have spent over 24 years working the private sector, and 17 of those have been running my own business. I have participated in a large number of local, state and federal government and industry advisory boards. I have won a number of personal and business awards including Lower Hunter Business Woman of the Year and National Young Achiever in the Bus Industry and been a finalist in the Telstra Business Awards. My company is in the Tourism NSW Hall of Fame and we were national finalists three times in the Australian Tourism Awards. I thank my business and industry associates for their support and friendship across the years, including Darryl Mellish, Frank D’Apuzzo and Matt Threlkeld at Bus NSW, Michael Apps at the Bus Industry Confederation, Craig McGregor from the Maitland Business Chamber, Kerry Hallett and Rod Doherty from the Lower Hunter BEC, BNI Harvest, Bob Kerr and my fellow CEOs at The Executive Connection, Elizabeth Gaines, Nicole Nanninga and Lisa Gair from helloworld, and the staff of the ATEC, Tourism Australia, Destination NSW and Destination Hunter.
In my business I was lucky enough to travel to many parts of the world. I have been privileged to enjoy the culture, geography, flora and fauna, art and history of cities as diverse as Vienna, Kota Kinabalu, Paris, Barrow in the Arctic Circle, Luxor, Madrid, Soweto and Angkor Wat. These places and the people in them changed my life and my perspective. Perhaps one of the most powerful lessons I have learnt during this time was about the impact of social media: the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 was born out of the new freedoms available due to social media.
As we saw so recently in the storms in my community, people are more likely to trust their own networks for information. Government must attend to this significant change and ensure that we are still able to communicate with the growing number of people who do not use traditional media. Like any media, we must be careful to ensure that the true voices of our community are the ones that are heard. I have contributed to the economic development of small and remote communities such as Walgett, Broken Hill, White Cliffs, Ouyen, Deniliquin and Lightning Ridge. I have seen first hand how hard people in these communities work to give their families the same opportunities that even people in cities take for granted. This led me to want to run for Country Labor to assist communities in regional NSW, drawing on my experiences both here and overseas. Madam Speaker, I would like to tell you more about the beautiful city of Maitland I represent, but forgive me if I start to sound a little like a tourist guide, it is understandable given my background.
Maitland was once the principal centre of the Hunter Valley and much of our early colonial heritage remains largely preserved. Much of our long history has been recorded in the Maitland Mercury, established in 1843 and one of Australia’s longest surviving newspapers. Historically Maitland was made up of three townships: In the early days, West Maitland was known as the People’s town and over time became our commercial centre. It was popular because of the rich alluvial river flats which as we know from the last few weeks were subject to flooding, but provided a source of water, land for cropping and grazing and transport. East Maitland was the “Government town” the centre of administration–where many of our most historic public buildings remain: Caroline Chisholm established a home for female immigrants here, and it is home to the Lands and Water Building, the Old George & Dragon Inn, the East Maitland District Courthouse opposite the infamous Maitland Gaol, and the beautiful Anglican church of St Peter’s. Morpeth was a private town, started by Lieutenant Edward John Close in 1821. Queens Wharf accommodated the steamships of the Hunter River.
Many iconic Australian family businesses such as Arnotts, Brambles, and Soul Pattinson started off in Morpeth here. Morpeth today is a major tourism drawcard, with Trevor Richards and Lisa Simmons Webb having been major advocates for tourism there for many years. Maitland still has many rural communities – from Lochinvar to Duckenfield, Berry Park, Millers Forest, Phoenix Park and even parts of Woodberry.
Tocal Agricultural school is located in here and we have our own wineries. My own home has a resident mob of kangaroos, possums and native birds. From a population of around 53,000 when I moved to Maitland, the current population is now closer to 75,000.
Approximately 5 people move to Maitland every day to start a new life. Our population growth has added a suburban flavour to the outskirts of the city. Maitland is a town of diversity – a natural stepping point into a larger community for many people from Australian country towns and rural villages in far off lands, and a tree change for those from metropolitan cities all over the world. We bring many different experiences and expectations to life here. The 2322 post code in which I live is covered by three Federal electorates, three state electorates and two local government areas, which in itself creates difficulties at times in coordinating economic development but does ensure a wide range of interest in our community from politicians across the spectrum. Indeed the headquarters of the Hunter Regional Organisation of Councils operates from offices in Thornton.
Madam Speaker as you can see Maitland started as, and has retained its role as the heart of the Hunter. The people of Maitland are resilient. We have just suffered one of the most devastating natural disasters in living memory. We lost a member of our community and 3 more in the nearby town of Dungog. Many were without power for over a week. Houses have been damaged by water, sewerage and trees, and in Hunter Close Lochinvar were swept off their foundations. The whole community of Gillieston Heights was turned into an island for six days and have only just last week regained full road access. Businesses have suffered greatly too. Throughout this disaster, the people of our community have worked together to help each other and those in towns affected around us. From one community so many heroes emerged: People like Sonia Gannon and Patricia Ling from Gillieston who led the volunteers to distribute food and water from the Community Centre operated by Mark and Amanda Venz; Doctor Shahid Sarky and Dr Saira Chandio and Mick Sager who set up a voluntary medical clinic; the many who operated the Ferry service at Testers Hollow, Brad and Michelle Adams who kept the Facebook page updated and Sandy Paul who ensured her community got to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Anzacs in a moving ceremony, there are literally too many to name here.
We must remember that the SES started from the devastating Maitland Floods in 1955 where 11 people lost their lives. I thank the local State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service volunteers and all the government and charity agencies. They put their community’s needs ahead of those of themselves and their families. I think specifically of the Thornton Rural Fire Brigade who came home after a 3am response call to find their own cars submerged. Still they answered the call.
There were new challenges in this latest disaster, a community that was less familiar with storms and flood events and a lack of power and telecommunications. I will be working with our community to ensure we learn the lessons of this event. Particularly our roads: There have been too many floods at Testers Hollow for us to ignore it any longer.
I pay tribute to the community groups I have worked with and will continue to work with in the future, particularly: Maitland Senior Citizens, Hunter Valley National Seniors, Maitland Sunrise Rotary, U3A, View Club, Volunteers for Palliative Care, the Maitland Tenambit BMX Club, Save our Rail, Marcellin Park & Maitland Rugby Club, Maitland Women’s Cancer Support Group, Berry Park Residents Action Group and the Tocal Road & Bolwarra Residents Action Group. I thank the former members for Maitland and Councillors who have helped me along the way, particularly John Price and Tony Keating who are here today. I thank our current councillors, Deputy Mayor Loretta Baker, Henry Meskauskas, Ben Whiting and Robert Aitchison and our Federal Members the Honourable Joel Fitzgibbon MP and Sharon Claydon MP, as well as Labor State Members Tim Crakanthorp and Clayton Barr .
I thank Labor leader, Luke Foley, for being a regular visitor to Maitland, and before him John Robertson. Thank you to all the shadow ministers who have visited Maitland so many times, particularly the Hon Walt Secord. I would like to thank our ALP branch members. Particularly Mike Voorbij and Ian Hunt for their constant presence at the Maitland Markets, come rain, hail or shine and our Secretary Vicki McLaughlin. I especially thank Kevin Martin who was the first person to encourage me to run for Maitland and to Max Ray, Ruth Stanley and Kim Pagan who were always ready with a hug or a kind word when I was feeling a bit discouraged. Even our newer members, such as Kay Wonderley, Graeme Dark, Brent Nolan and John Leao have all contributed greatly. For dedication I must make special mention Julieanne Bright who volunteered and even came from Abu Dhabi to be here today!
My campaign team has truly run a marathon. I thank Jay Suvaal who was instrumental in getting the campaign up and running, Gena Parker who has been there every day, and as my daughter Jessica said just recently, “everyone needs a Gena in their life”, Ned Barsi, Giacomo Arnott for always being ready to take photos,, Jordan Fallon who trusted that I was worth it, Andrew Hewitt who always believed we could win back Maitland. I must make special mention of Josephine Hillard who was there at the beginning and coordinated everything over the last five months, she has been a great support. I would like to thank Jamie Clements and Kaila Murnain for their support as well as the Young Labor team. Ian McNamara and Darren Rodrigo have also been strong supporters of Maitland, and we still remember their magnificent efforts in 2007 which spurred us on this time.
I thank Mary Yaager and Mark Lennon. The Maitland Community Union Alliance has been a strong advocate for our community and I thank the hundreds of people who went door knocking – particularly Matt Graves, Graham Kelly, Matt Byrne, John McFarland, Rob Long, Josh Howarth, Gaye MacAuley, Albert Fazon, the ETU, The NSWNMA, the HSU, the NSW Teachers Federation, the CFMEU and the AMWU. I thank my friends who have been with me through this difficult path to the middle age particularly Luce Andrews, David Woodcock, Paula Campbell, Eva Cawthorne and David Haydon.
Most importantly, I thank the many people in Maitland who have put their trust in me, some of them voting for Labor for the first time at this election. I will honour that trust in all that I do.
Finally I wish to thank my family: my parents Anne and Jim, my sisters Trish and Annie and their families, and of course Robert, Joshua and Jessica. You have shown me an incredible love and support that humbles me to my core. You have always believed in me and generously helped me in so many ways. I thank you for accepting the excuse “After the election” for so many months, but most of all for being active participants in this journey. There are no words that could adequately express my thanks and love for you all.
Robert, through the good times and the hard times you have always been there, with your optimism, persistence and resilience, you have supported me no matter what. I am grateful for every day I have you in my life. In their own right our children have made me immensely proud as a parent. Joshua you are already an inspiring young man, with an understanding beyond your years, demonstrated most recently on the Kokoda trail with your father and Grandfather, which honoured the sacrifices of your paternal and maternal great grandfathers Jack Aitchison and Hugh McCall.
Jessica you are an impressive young woman, clever, kind and incredibly compassionate, who on your own initiative gracefully and confidently helped many of my constituents during the recent floods. You have both shown a wisdom and courage in your own ways that is far beyond your years, and have accepted the costs of your father’s and my ambitions to make a difference in our community. I am sorry for the times I haven’t been there for you. I promise I will make every moment I am here count, because there are too many precious moments to put aside unless I am achieving good things for our community.
Going forward there are many challenges that we will have to deal with. Labor has a proud tradition of delivering for Maitland. Just in our last term in office, over $300 million was delivered including the third river crossing and a contribution to the Hunter Expressway which were both crucial in the recent floods. We built social housing, moved government departments to create jobs in Maitland, Redeveloped the Maitland Hospital emergency department and increased beds creating another 300 jobs, invested in schools and TAFE and SES and NSW and Rural Fire brigades. The Liberals promised $80 million at the 2011 election, and have delivered less than half that amount. Projects like the Railway Roundabout are stalled, promises to retain the rail line, put 24 /7 staffing at Beresfield police station and retain East Maitland Court house and the Existing Maitland Hospital have been broken. Unemployment has doubled, essential services such as community counselling, TAFE and fire services have been cut and all we have to show for the new Lower Hunter Hospital is a $6 million dollar sign at Metford.
At the March 28 election the Baird Liberal government made more empty promises but this time the community was not fooled. Our community rejects the Baird Government’s privatization agenda and has demanded public schools, public hospitals and the retention of our rail line into Newcastle and Sydney. We need this infrastructure to cope with our growing population.
Madam Speaker I am committed to getting Maitland working again and to ensuring that we get the essential services we need to ensure that all of our community is able to fully participate in work, and education, with high quality health and transport.
I am proud of Labor’s vision and our values of social justice and integrity. I will be working towards implementing our vision and our values in this parliament as well as keeping the Baird Liberal Government to account.
I look forward to working with you and the other members of this place to achieve great things for my community and our state.
EARLIER:
Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison has been sworn into State Parliament.
Ms Aitchison was one of 20 new Labor MPs elected in March.
They were sworn into their roles at Parliament House on Tuesday.
Ms Aitchison will give her inaugural speech to the lower house at 12.30pm on May 12.
She said she was excited to represent the families and businesses of Maitland.
“I am honoured to have been elected as the member for Maitland and I will always put the needs for our community first,” she said.
Ms Aitchison said she was dismayed that there was no mention of the Lower Hunter hospital during Governor David Hurley’s speech that outlined the Baird government’s plan for the next four years.
“We have now been waiting more than four years for this hospital,” she said.
“I will continue to fight for the new hospital and hold the government to account.”
She recently opened her new electoral office in Church Street, Maitland.