WEST CHERMSIDE BRANCH ADDRESS

_{20 November, 2006}

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ADDRESS TO WEST CHERMSIDE BRANCH
OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
ON 20TH NOVEMBER 2006

Well thank you very much Mr Chairman and congratulations to you on the addition to your family of a new Liberal Party member for the future.  It's certainly one way to stack the West Chermside Branch in fifteen years time but congratulations again on your commitment to the Party in looking towards increasing membership.  My best wishes to your wife.  No doubt you are attracted to Peter Costello's baby bonus of $5000 in deciding to increase membership of the Branch and I know from your youthful good looks that your wife probably was one of those impacted upon by the recent decision to only pay the $4000 it is, by instalments rather than in a lump sum.

And while I'm on the congratulations can I also congratulate your local member on the fabulous job she does in representing this area.  I feel a bit silly talking about this because you would know better than I just what a great job Teresa Gambaro does but perhaps you don't see it from a broader perspective as I do.  I know she does great work here in the electorate but I see what a great job she does for the electorate in Canberra and indeed for the nation generally in her role in the Ministry.

Whilst Teresa has said that the redistribution will not greatly effect her boundaries just taking her down by a couple of decimal points of a percent, this electorate has never been a particularly safe one – it will always be marginal and dependent upon the work and ability of the incumbent member.  With Teresa in charge I am confident that we'll continue to do well in Petrie.  Teresa is, along with Gary Hardgrave one of the great campaigners in Queensland and I'm confident that Teresa's campaign skills, the work she does constantly in the electorate and the fact that she has been campaigning since the day after the last election, will mean that if anyone can hold this seat it will be Teresa.  We could say to Teresa 'Thank goodness you're here'.

And that of course brings me on to the subject of my talk to you tonight.

I guess most of you have seen the TV show 'Thank goodness you're here' but for those of you who haven't it is a comedy program where a principal actor is thrown into a room of secondary actors who act out a particular crisis.  The crisis is not known to the principal actor when he is thrown into the room with these secondary actors but the principal actor has to solve the crisis with good humour, good intuition, good initiatives and a lot of clever work.

So today I want to take you to your own 'thank goodness you're here' program and I want to throw four prominent people into a crisis situation.

Now the first program is one that's not quite a crisis, it is a situation of concern.

You've been in government for ten years.  You've seen a $95 billion deficit owing by your country paid off.

You've seen unemployment drop from double digit figures to around about 5%.

You've seen interest rates tumble from 17% to 12% and now to 7 or 8%.

You've been used to, in former years, budgets which were always in deficit – they were the expected norm – but you've done something different, you've brought in every budget in the last ten years in surplus.

You've seen Australia doing very well at home – all of us, even the poorest of us, are much better off than we were ten years ago and by and large Australians are relaxed and comfortable – and we are recognised and respected overseas.

Your voters have had it so good for so long that they are starting to forget how bad it was under Labor.  Voters are saying that with the economy as good as it is surely not even Labor could mess this up.

But the opinion polls are showing Labor is competitive and apart from the last opinion poll the run of opinion polls has shown that on a two party preferred basis Labor may well have won an election.

There are problems – well not quite problems – but issues of great concern to the general public.  Issues like water, like Iraq, like industrial relations and there are other concerns around like a number of your team are retiring at this election and the Labor Party has for once looked around and without even pretending to go a democratic preselection process have selected some candidates which superficially have some appeal.

Consider this scenario a number of secondary players are gathered in a room.  They're Liberal strategists, senior politicians and pollsters.

Our Prime Minister, John Howard is pushed through the door to be greeted with the words "thank goodness you're here Prime Minister – how are we going to win a fifth term".

With John Howard you're not going to get any slick one liners – no gimmicks.  Now for reasons that you would well understand, I don't particularly like the Prime Minister anymore but I have to say he is a great leader, a very, very able understanding and caring politician and one who has done and will continue to do a fantastic job for Australia.

In talking to this room John Howard would emphasise strong leadership without gimmicks without flourishes.

He would, as he has done in the last years, methodically address any of the issues of concern and do it in a way that was understood by individual Australians.

He would talk about being responsible with the budget spending and he would certainly be keeping an eye on infrastructure spending in key states like Queensland.  He would understand how poorly the State Government has dealt with matters like water and road infrastructure and it would be my guess that in discussing with his secondary players the parameters of the next election, infrastructure would be high on the list.

John Howard would continue to focus on issues which really concern Australians.  Issues like home ownership, issues like family, like security, like broad scale but sensible immigration.  There would be no smart lines; there would be no glib responses, just hard work and responsible leadership.

He would be the man to lead us to the next victory.  He would be the person to whom we would say "thank goodness you're here".

I take you to the next scenario.

A group of journalists and a couple of politicians have gathered in the room and are grumbling about the Liberal Party having a successful leader for so long, one that they weren't able to phase.

Wanting to create turmoil over a leadership issue they would say to Peter Costello as he was thrust into their room

"We need a new leader of the Liberal Party – thank goodness you're here"

To which Peter Costello would respond immediately "We already have the best leader around, one for whom I have the greatest respect, for his ability and leadership and one to whom I have been a loyal deputy for the last ten years."

Although we did have discussions about a transition – that was ten years ago.

I recognise John Howard's ability as a leader and I am and will continue to remain loyal to him.

I know my time will come.

My job now is to focus on the economy, the global bank balances, interest rates, the height of the commodities boom and when it might falter.

As Deputy Leader I am more and more interested in other non-financial issues, issues like global warming and sensible immigration and integration and mutual respect for all Australians.

So Peter Costello would say, to all of you journalists and others, I'm here for the long haul and for which the Liberal Party would say to Peter Costello "thank goodness you're here".

I now take you to the third scenario where the secondary players, although in this instance perhaps the principal players - are the union leaders, the Labor heavyweights, the backroom boys sitting around in a smoke filled room.

As Kim Beazley enters they say "thank goodness you're here Kim – we can't win an election with you and we want to talk to you about stepping aside".

Kim's response would be as expected as it is unable to be understood

"That's preposterous – that's a boondoogle of prolix proportions" or other words that no Australian would have any idea what he's talking about.

Kim would go on to say

"I'm slim"

"I'm experienced in leading oppositions - heavens knows I've been doing it for ages"

"I've got the runs on the board in running campaigns – none of which have been too successful but I've been there."

"And I was Finance Minister when interest rates were 22% so don't talk to me about interest rates I know all about that."

"And what's more I've good a great memory for names and events."

"I even know about that great USA television show that Mr Rove does George Bush every day."

"Australia doesn't realise how lucky it is to have me leading the Labor Party."

To which the cabal of union bosses sitting in the smoke filled room would say nothing but their groans would tell the story.

And to which we as Liberals would say "thank goodness you're there Kim".

And the final room is a room full of Queenslanders.

The room contains health workers, patients, country people, policemen, developers, corrupt Ministers, coalminers, expressway engineers.

And in walks Peter Perfect.

This group of Queenslanders say "thank goodness you're here Peter, with all of these problems how can we possibly retain our power, our influence, our cushy job and dodgy loans with all of this becoming public."

Premier Pete gives them all the Lunar Park smile for which he has become renowned and says

"This is how I'll do it, we'll give them this smile, we'll tell the silly bastards that I'm horrified to hear of all these problems, I'll promise them I'll fix it, I'll agree with them how disgraceful it all is, I'll give them my best frowning look of concern and I'll fool them again this time like I've done so many other times."

And the room full of crooks and failures will say "thank goodness you're here Peter."

But I say – perhaps the rest of us in Queensland will say "thank goodness you're there Peter" because I think that the chickens will soon come home to roost.

The scandal of the lack of infrastructure and water that is obviously someone else's problem not Peter Beattie's, the scandal of the health system which is the doctors problem not the Governments, the very questionable action in refusing to have Patel come back to face justice simply because an election was in place, the loans to Ministers, the deals with former Ministers, the appointments to boards, more and more Labor politicians in jail around the country, more and more senior public servants who have obtained their jobs riding over the normal order to get well paying employment to which they are clearly not competent.

Now with all of these problems and difficulties, this backroom full of apparatchiks will turn to Beattie and say "thank goodness you're here. How can we possibly retain the power we so desperately crave?"

Because they're not really interested in Government it's just power for power's sake with the Labor Party in Queensland.

Peter Perfect will simply look at them, give them one of his Luna Park grins and say to them "don't you worry about that. This benign grandfatherly smile will win them all over again, we fooled them for the last three elections and don't you worry I'll be able to fool them again with this Luna Park grin.  To which the gathered audience will again say "thank heavens you're here Peter Perfect".

But I happen to think that perhaps all Queenslanders and particularly Liberal Party members might also say "thank heavens you're here Peter".

There are so many issues and conflicts unravelling, so many police and CMC investigations, so many corrupt deals coming to the fore, the hospital system continues to creak and groan under bureaucracy and spin doctors that there must be only so much that our fellow Queenslanders can tolerate before realising the truth – and that is that they've been conned by Peter Perfect for the last couple of elections.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen that almost completes the 'thank goodness you're here' program and as your facilitator for this program I want to say thank you for coming along.  But finally before I do can I simply say to all of you 'thank goodness you're here'.

As a politician and Teresa I know says this time and time again, without you we would not be anywhere.

It is people like yourselves the branch members of the Liberal Party who do the hard work, who raise the money, who man the booths and ensure the re-election of Teresa and indeed the Senate Team which I have the honour of leading again at the next election.

Teresa, with the boundary changes, has a slightly different electorate, which on the figures is still relatively safe – but you shouldn't believe those figures – the next election will be a tough one and without your support of Teresa and of the campaign, without your hard work, we're not going to retain the numbers in Queensland that we need to ensure that John Howard continues governing Australia in the way that we all want and the way we have come to expect.

We need your support.  I thank you for being here tonight and I know at the conclusion of next polling day when Teresa is returned along with a third Liberal Senator, again we will turn back to you all and say 'thank goodness you're here.'

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