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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-14 Daily Xml
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PENFOLD, MRS E.M.

Mrs PENFOLD (Flinders) (15:16): As the 2009 school year draws to a close, and young people everywhere are contemplating their future after school, I am contemplating my career in politics drawing to a close. After some words of advice, I will tell my story from tin hut to marble halls.

To all students young and old, first, believe in yourself, set short-term and long-term goals, believe you can make a difference and embrace lifelong learning. When I was a school leaver, never would I have ever imagined that one day I would be a member of state parliament elected to represent the wonderful people living on Eyre Peninsula.

The first six years of my life were spent in Lock, initially living in a corrugated iron house, built in a day, I am told, by my father and uncle. It was located behind the garage my parents bought after dad returned from serving in Papua New Guinea during the war. Later, my father purchased a farm because he wanted to be a farmer, like his father. Sadly, his family farm near Port Broughton was sold when he was about nine, after his three brothers were killed in the First World War.

The Lock school went only to grade 7 in those days, so many children did not go beyond that grade. Even so, many have gone on to be very successful as farmers, fishers, businesspeople, professionals and academics—one even a judge. Despite money being very short, at the age of 12 I was able to attend Port Lincoln High School, boarding initially with my grandmother and later at the Bush Church Aid Hostel. I was desperately homesick, but I rarely went home as it was too far away and over dirt roads.

After school, I studied at Wattle Park Teachers College in Adelaide for two years and, in May 1966, as a bonded schoolteacher I was sent to Tumby Bay. It was there I met and married Geoff, who farmed there with his father at the time. In 1969, we went to Papua New Guinea to fast-track ourselves in different careers. Over the next 6½ years, we had two children, worked and studied. I volunteered in a Cheshire Home for the disabled, and we both taught English as a second language. We also travelled for three months through Europe, Scandinavia, Britain and Ireland.

When we returned to Australia, we put our studies into practice and, for the next 10 years, I was the manager of our accounting practice, dealing with a wide range of people and businesses, and became director of several family companies. I started work by necessity as Geoff was being treated in Adelaide for cancer, but we had two small children, a house and an accounting practice to pay off.

Volunteering has always been part of my life, and I encourage all young people to volunteer their time and expertise. At the end of the day, by this experience you will get far more back then you ever give. You will have the opportunity to meet new people, work for those less fortunate and have lots of fun along the way, while gaining invaluable skills and experience.

Back in Australia, I was a volunteer and secretary for the Pioneer Park in Port Lincoln, and I became President of the Port Lincoln Liberal Party branch, as I realised that politics affects everything in our life. One of our successes included the establishment of the Patient Assistance Travel Scheme. Our branch submitted a resolution asking for government assistance for travel expenses to get country people to specialists in Adelaide for treatment. The Liberal and Labor parties agreed and when the Tonkin Liberal government got in, the PAT scheme began, which is so appreciated by rural people to this day.

After 10 years in the accounting practice, I studied real estate sales through TAFE in Port Lincoln. I also started my own business in management, helping to develop one of the first micro computer stock and debtor control programs. I wrote a handbook for this system, used by Canon computer staff for training, which was the subject of an article written by Malcolm Newell in the business section of The Advertiser in the 1980s.

It was during a coffee break discussion when I was teaching a 'running a small business for women' course at TAFE when I discovered that country women needed better access to breast cancer scanning. From these discussions, I researched and eventually was put on to a doctor in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. From this contact, and the actions of many others, funds were raised for the first mobile breast cancer screening unit in South Australia, which later saved my life.

I joined the Lower Eyre Enterprise Committee, becoming chairman for a time. This committee was later superseded by the current Eyre Regional Development Board.

Every bit of knowledge I gained during those very busy years I have used during the 16 amazing years that I have been in parliament. It bemuses me to regularly be described as a former school teacher and public servant prior to being in politics, when those activities only accounted for about five years of more than 40 years in the paid workforce. Life, its experiences, our attitude to it and the choices that we make count for much more than the labels people put on us, as school leavers soon begin to discover.

I suspect that I have more experience than most people across a wide variety of fields, even if my grammar and pronunciation does not meet the approval of the current Attorney-General from time to time.

Time expired.

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