Members

Member for Bragg

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Bragg, I remind the house that this is the member's first speech and that the member should be accorded normal courtesies and respect afforded to new members on this most important and happy occasion. The member for Bragg.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (16:31): Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is a great honour to be elected to serve my local community in the Parliament of South Australia. It is a privilege to represent the people of Bragg, an area that is my home, an area that I love. What is there not to love for the 37,000 people who call Bragg—spanning from the eastern suburbs to the Adelaide Hills—home?

It has some of the best schools in the state, including exceptional primary schools like Rose Park, Linden Park, and Burnside primary. It has some of the best parks in the state: Hazelwood Park, Tusmore Park and Cleland National Park to name but a few. It has some of the best shopping in the state, anchored by Burnside Village and strip shopping along Kensington, Greenhill, Glen Osmond and Portrush roads. It has some of the best clubs in the state like Rotary, Lions and Probus, and hugely successful local sporting and community clubs. It has the best pub in the state, The Feathers, and the best winery in the world, Penfolds Magill Estate.

This area has also always been served by some of the best members of parliament in the state. The electorate was first established in 1970 and has been represented exclusively by premiers and deputy premiers. I appreciate the very big shoes I have to fill in becoming just the fourth member for Bragg. This electorate rightly expects a hardworking local member who gets results, and I will strive every day to not let them down.

I want to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge my predecessor as the member for Bragg, the Hon. Vickie Chapman. Vickie gave an exceptional two decades of service to our local community, our parliament and our state—even if she did, in her own words, 'ruffle some feathers' along the way! She is someone I have known for most of that period since I first joined the Liberal Party some 16 years ago.

The party has always been an important part of my life and, in many ways Vickie Chapman, along with several other senior leaders in the party, has defined that experience. It has been a privilege to watch, support and learn from her leadership. She served the people of Bragg with distinction and leaves an enormous legacy as our state's first female Deputy Premier and first female Attorney-General. Vickie, thank you for your service, and I wish you every success as you return to your equally exceptional career in the law.

In her valedictory speech, the former member for Bragg referred to a list that she would leave on her desk for the next member, which apparently outlined the priorities of the people of Bragg. Unfortunately, the former member also took that desk with her on her way out. But, like all residents of Bragg, she had the opportunity to share with me what matters most to her for our local area, including the need for a new primary school, a new shed for the Burnside CFS and improved infrastructure for Cleland National Park. These are all things that I will immediately fight for in this place.

To that list of local priorities, I would add improving freight routes so we can get trucks off our local roads—we had yet another terrifying reminder of the consequences of failing to act on this just last month—protecting our unique history and heritage in the eastern suburbs, ensuring our local clubs have the infrastructure they need and continuing to promote a culture of acceptance and inclusivity in our ever-changing local community, including among new migrants from China, India and so many other parts of the world that add to our rich cultural diversity.

Many members use this speech as an opportunity to tell their story. Each of us arrives at this place via a different journey from different places with different lived experiences and influenced and impacted by different people and events. The truth is my story is not particularly interesting. There is no tale of extreme tragedy, no symbolic moment and no personal epiphany, and I do not intend to manufacture one today because what I do have is a perfectly common story. Sure, it is one that involves a degree of privilege, but not the silver spoon often used to portray a privately educated eastern suburbs boy. In fact, it has been more of a rusty cutlery set. It is a story about hard work, sacrifice and making the most of opportunities offered by this great state.

My maternal great-grandparents' connection to South Australia began in the 1950s, when they migrated from Holland via New South Wales, along with my young grandmother. They set up their first home in Leabrook, now in the heart of Bragg. Sadly, our amateur family historians are indeed rather amateur and the best explanation I have had for the move is that they were searching for a better life and, if this is the case, they found it. Entrepreneurial and enterprising, they ran a deli on Gawler Place for the better part of two decades. My grandmother grew up in this deli, which I am told was the lifeblood of her community, before herself engaging in tough work as a cleaner (an industry where she eventually ran her own business) while raising my mother and aunty.

My father, on the other hand, is a first-generation arrival to Australia. He came as a child with his family after my grandfather was offered promotion in his work as a sales manager, with the only catch being that the job was some 16,000 kilometres from his home in England. He stopped in at Australia House on the Strand, a building I subsequently worked in some 50 years later, to pick up some black and white brochures about this foreign country before taking a risk and making the move with his family.

Fast-forward a little and here in Adelaide my sister, Charlotte, and I were raised in a pretty conventional working-class family. My father worked as a salesman at Le Cornu Furniture and my mother as an administration assistant at Business SA. Again, it was the personification of hard and humble work, the means by which my parents could provide for their family.

In 2016, dad was made redundant when Le Cornu closed. Unskilled 60-year-old workers are generally not attractive prospects in a competitive job market, but dad's first instinct was not to wallow and it certainly was not to look to the government for help. He, like his own father and many before him, took a risk: he started his own small business selling commercial furniture and, along with my mother, continues that enterprise today. I am so proud of them. They have strength, they have kindness and they have determination.

One thing they did not have was the benefit of education. While neither of them finished secondary school, both were determined for me and my sister to benefit from the wealth of opportunity that education unlocks. This was not always easy, and I know just how hard they worked and how much they sacrificed to send us to school. They forwent the luxuries of life and at times their own financial security; however, they do describe it as the best investment they ever made.

As the grateful beneficiary of that investment, I believe that education is not only good in and of itself but is also perhaps the greatest tool for social mobility. I was the first person in my family to ever attend university, where I studied law and economics. This led me to work as a commercial lawyer here in Adelaide, in diplomacy at the Australian High Commission in London and now the greatest honour of serving in our state's parliament.

I tell this story for two reasons. First, it describes a constituency in South Australia that I, and indeed all members, represent. While the term 'middle class' is slightly misplaced in the Australian context, there is a large constituency of ordinary South Australians working hard in their own way to make a better life for themselves and their family, contribute to their community and create more opportunities for the next generation. These people will be at the forefront of my decision-making in this place. They will not be forgotten by me.

Secondly, it is a story that illustrates Liberal principles that will guide me during my time in parliament. Our party is rooted firmly in principles—constant principles that have been enunciated for over a century. In 1912, Alfred Deakin outlined his Liberal Party's vision for Australia. He said:

It means the full calling forth of all the powers, abilities, qualities and characters of the people of Australia…each of its citizens, living his or her own life, and doing the best for himself and herself...

Just over 40 years later, Robert Menzies set out our beliefs in similar but more expansive terms in his We Believe statement. These beliefs are my beliefs. I believe in the individual. I believe in institutions and the rule of law. I believe in free and competitive enterprise. I believe in social justice and in religious and racial tolerance. Another 40 years down the track, John Howard again set out these unchanged principles. He said:

We believe, above all, in the supremacy and the sovereignty of the individual. We believe that the family unit is the bedrock of our society. We believe in the work ethic. We believe in rewarding hard work and achievement.

Another 20-odd years down the track, these Liberal values continue to guide us today. Some, however, noticed that I emblazoned my election posters with the descriptor 'new generation Liberal' and queried what this meant in light of generations of timeless Liberal values. First and foremost, it means that I am a Liberal.

Liberalism is the force that made our country and our state what it is today. I have a deeply held belief in the values that underpin our party, of which I have been a member my entire adult life. Secondly, it means that our party needs to evolve to remain relevant. This is not a new concept. Indeed, another of Menzies' commandments in 1954 was that 'we believe that liberalism means flexibility and progress'. Howard said in 1996 that Australian liberalism has always been evolving and developing and always will be.

We are constantly relating liberalism's enduring values to the circumstances of our time, and our own time presents a constituency that I referred to earlier: everyday, hardworking South Australians who will galvanise around new issues. We must be alive to this. We must listen to our local communities. We must seek to empathise with them and we must represent their concerns and their views.

Whether it be the views of those South Australians my age and younger, like the 22-year-old constituent I met at the Glenunga ALDI supermarket who was most concerned with finding a decent job, resigned to the fact that she would never be able to afford to buy her own home and, above all, wanted to see action on protecting our environment. A new generation Liberal shares these concerns. Or the 70 year old I doorknocked in Beaumont who was worried that an ambulance might not show up for him in a time of need, concerned about transitioning into aged care and anxious as to whether he would be able to afford to keep his heater on this winter. A new generation Liberal shares these concerns.

Clearly, the challenges our state faces today are many and varied. In my view, and speaking as an economics graduate, the biggest of them is economic malaise. The previous government fostered an economy led by initiatives such as Lot Fourteen—an innovation precinct of which I am sure the likes of Sir William and Sir Lawrence Bragg would be proud—that was open and outward-looking, retained our best and brightest and attracted new investment. Our economy was growing at a faster rate than at any time in the previous 30 years. I thank and acknowledge my friend the member for Dunstan for the work that you did to transform our state's economic outlook during your time as Premier.

We cannot afford to stop. Currently, our state has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Business confidence is in freefall. Union thugs are seizing control of construction sites, and we are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. We should address these challenges, not by pandering to populism or by headline hunting but instead by reference to liberal principles.

First, South Australia must be an open and outward looking economy. There is a danger that regions around the world will continue a retreat into self-isolation sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 175 years after the repeal of the Corn Laws in Britain, it is critical that we keep making the case for open economies and free trade in goods and services, because doing so leads to job creation and to income growth.

During my time working at the Australian High Commission in London, the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement was signed. Indeed, it was signed right here in Adelaide. I am very proud to have worked with a team, led by my friend and mentor George Brandis, that secured what was not only Britain's first post-Brexit new trade deal but the most ambitious that Australia has ever signed beyond our partnership with New Zealand.

South Australia should seek to capitalise on this deal and those that will follow. Already South Australian companies like Nova Systems and Pickstar are well established in UK markets while UK companies such as Mott MacDonald and Laing O'Rourke are investing in our state. Opportunities abound, and we must continue our global outlook to sell to the world and attract capital and talent from beyond our borders.

Secondly, we must have policies that allow the private sector to thrive. Government should, so far as possible, stay out of the way of enterprising people. When my father started his small business, he did not expect help from government, but nor should he expect obstruction. Any regulatory changes we make in this place should consider the cost of compliance for business and individuals in South Australia. We should consider the cost of tax reform in the same way. Our narrow tax base, more often than not, relies on unstable, inefficient or inequitable taxes, including payroll tax (a tax on jobs), stamp duty (a tax on the efficient transfer of property), and land tax (where our rate is still significantly higher than some other states).

If we get these policies right, and create an open economy where the private sector can thrive, we will be left with an environment that will produce the jobs of the future, including highly skilled jobs in industries such as defence and space. We should work to ensure we have the skills base to meet growing demand in these industries.

Another potential growth industry is clean energy. Protecting our environment is clearly an important priority for those of my generation. I am very proud to have been part of the Australian delegation to the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year, just as I am proud of the previous government's work in this area, led by the now Leader of the Opposition.

This is an issue that should also be viewed through the lens of economics and indeed energy security. We need to focus on affordable and reliable energy for South Australian families and businesses. This is not mutually exclusive with also making the most of the economic opportunities that the energy transition presents. Just as the world has always looked to Australia to supply it with coal and gas, it will start to look to Australia to supply it with clean energy, whether that be renewables, hydrogen, or even next generation nuclear technology. Why should South Australia not position itself to be at the forefront of these emerging and growing industries?

Just as hard and humble work was the means by which my parents could provide for their family, a strong South Australian economy is not an end in itself. It is the means by which we provide the exceptional services and infrastructure expected by the people of our state—our schools, our hospitals, our roads, and our recreational spaces.

In our quest for a strong economy, we should also not lose sight of government's role to care for and provide a safety net for those who need it. Our policymaking should always be injected with a dose of compassion. Both my former boss Christopher Pyne, in his valedictory speech, and the Premier, in his maiden speech in the other place, referred to the same Franklin Roosevelt quote:

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

I accept this important test. Our economic strength should be a means to a social dividend and greater opportunities.

No-one arrives here without the support of many others. First and foremost, I again thank the people of Bragg for placing their trust in me to be their next representative. And I will never forget that is exactly what I am—their representative. I will strive every day to represent their views and their interests here and deliver results for our community.

Political campaigns only happen with the help of volunteers who believe in you and what you are fighting for. This is true of all campaigns, especially ones like we just ran at the by-election, where we wanted to listen to thousands of people in a very short time frame. I am incredibly grateful for the literally hundreds of volunteers who helped in our short-run race: people like our Liberal Party Bragg SEC President Annabel Wilkins, Vice President Jen Melick, and the presidents of our two local branches Harvey Jones and Ingo Block, and people like the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow cabinet. I was so appreciative that we had nearly the entire fresh, new Liberal team out supporting this campaign and contributing to its success.

Also, there are people like the friends, family and Liberal Party members who jumped on board and gave a little or a lot. There are far too many to mention, but I do want to acknowledge the group of 20 and 30-somethings who ran this campaign from the very beginning: people like Jack Newton, Esther Tonkin, Luka Rinaldi, Alisha Dhillon, Sam Hooper, Charlotte Batty, Sam de Cure and, from further afield, Tom Schinckel, Zachary August, Reuben Bolaffi, Eddie Higginson and Jack Cranwell. There are many more, and you all know who you are. Together, this group of young people achieved something truly special, and I know that each of you have very bright futures in this party and beyond.

While the campaign may have been only 27 days, today has been a lot longer in the making. On a professional level, I want to thank the many leaders I have worked with in the law, in diplomacy and in politics who have taught me so much and given me so many opportunities. Personally, I want to again thank and acknowledge my family: my parents, Yvonne and Andrew, and my sister, Charlotte, as well as the McGuinness, Thomas and Gower families. I could not have done this without you.

Finally, as with everything in my life, the last word must go to my wife, Charlotte. The timing of all this was somewhat unexpected; notwithstanding this, you offered me unwavering and unconditional support, help and counsel, just as you have done for the last 14 years of our life together, and I am so appreciative. While I am sure you are going to be one of my most pesky constituents, I cannot wait to share this journey with you.

It is a journey on which I will be guided by the principles and values I have outlined today. It is a journey on which I will always remember the constituency I am here to serve. It is a journey where, working together, we can make a real difference. That is a privilege for which I again thank the people of Bragg. Thank you.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!