SPEECH TO AFTERNOON TEA TO MEET WYATT ROY

_{18 April, 2010}

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Thanks Shane, FDC Chairman, Beth Harris, Campaign Committee Chairman, your candidate Wyatt Roy, Ladies and Gentlemen

I am delighted to be with you all today in support of Wyatt.

I won my first election as a 15 year old, when I became Class Captain and a couple of years later School Captain.  At the ripe old age of 33 I was first publicly elected as a Councillor on the local Shire Council and have spent the next 31 years of my life in elected positions at local or federal level.

I am now the longest serving Liberal Senator in the Federal Parliament and apart from Simon Creen I have spent more time on the front bench of any political party than any other politician.  In that capacity as someone who’s been around the political scene for a long time, I am absolutely delighted and was very keen to be with you today in support of a person who I believe will be the next member for Longman and who, with a contemporary in the state seat of Kawana, will play a major role in the governments of this state and this country in the years ahead.

It’s not age that determines suitability for a parliamentary career.  It’s energy, enthusiasm, common sense, ability and understanding and a desire to serve your fellow men and women that determines your success.

And I believe that in Wyatt Roy you have the sort of person who has that maturity, understanding and knowledge to play a real role in helping this area and in contributing to Australia’s future.

If we’re to win government at the next election, then we have to win Longman.  And if we are to win Longman there are, in my view, four bases that we have to cover.

The first is national leadership and the leadership team. 

The second is good policies.

Third we have to highlight the failings of our opponents – and believe you me that won’t be a difficult job and;
Fourth we have to have a good local candidate supported by a great campaign team.

In Longman for this campaign I believe we have covered all four bases.

Tony Abbott has been a mighty leader.  He is competent, he’s engaging and he has that larrikin instinct which Australians like.  He’s clearly very able and his Rhodes Scholarship attests to his intellect.

He is supported by a great team with Julie Bishop as the Deputy Leader and people like Joe Hockey and Warren Truss providing a very credible senior leadership team.

And in Queensland we have excellent leaders like Ian Macfarlane, Steve Ciobo, Brett Mason and the rest of the team which all provide a credibility to the LNP as we face the next Federal Election.

In relation to policies I can assure you that these are all but completed and ready for release and they will be published at the appropriate time in the run up to the election.  A hell of a lot of work has occurred to get those policies right.  I can’t go into any detail obviously enough but all of our policies will follow the basic philosophy of the Liberal and National Parties in relation to the individual, free enterprise, good economic management, less and smaller government, lower taxes and a commitment to help those disadvantaged in our community.

In my own area I am working on policies for Northern Australia.  45% of the land mass of Australia is in the north and we produce over 40% of Australia’s export earnings but we do this with less than 5% of the population.  50% of all rain that occurs in Australia occurs in the north and there is a mosaic of suitable soils that will allow us to provide food security not only for ourselves but also for other hungry mouths in the world.

All of our policies will be fully detailed and costed when they are released to you but already you are aware of our broad policy in relation to local control of hospitals.  You have seen our practical alternative to Rudd’s job destroying Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme proposal.  Our policy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and whether or not you agree they are a cause for climate change, reduced emissions is a good policy in any event.  You would have heard our broad commitment to bring illegal boat arrivals back into line and you would be aware of our policy on paid parental leave.  Our commitment to give our indigenous people a real chance is well known as is our policy to over rule Anna Bligh’s soul destroying Wild Rivers Legislation which prevents aborigines from productive use of their own land.

And so that second base is covered.

The third element is the need to highlight the failings of our opponents and as I said before that won’t be hard to do.
Would you believe that when we left office we had $40 billion in the bank?  Now in a quite remarkable feat after only 2 years Mr Rudd has managed to turn that $40 billion credit into a $218 billion deficit on its way to over $350 billion in the red.

Mr Rudd now wants to manage our hospitals but when you consider that this is a guy who, as Wayne Goss’s principle adviser centralised hospitals in Queensland and took from them the local control that we believe is so necessary. 

And if this guy can’t even handle a free giveaway insulation program how would you ever trust him with the management of your hospitals from far away Canberra.

This is the guy that was in charge of a program to insulate rooves and he couldn’t get that right without killing people, burning down their houses and costing you more to pull out the insulation than it almost cost to put it in. 

 How could you possibly trust this guy with your hospitals?  This was the same Prime Minister who wanted to introduce a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.  For people up my way in Central and North Queensland that would have cost tens of thousands of jobs, destroyed industries and communities with not one iota of benefit to the world environment.  It would simply have exported Australian jobs overseas and perhaps increased CO2 emissions as industries moved offshore to countries which don’t have Australia’s stringent controls.

And the list of Mr Rudd’s failings goes on.  The so-called Building Education Revolution turned out to be a program to give schools certain buildings even if they didn’t want them – even if they were desperately in need of something else and the only ones who in the end result will actually benefit will be a few unscrupulous builders who have been charging double for the construction work than was their actual cost.

Mr Rudd is the man who threw out the welcome mat to illegal immigrants jumping the queue and setting the ground work for racial disharmony into the future.

So I’m sure that won’t be a difficult job to do as part of our campaign.

And the fourth element of our strategy has to be to have a good local candidate and an effective local campaign team.

And there can I congratulate you all in selecting Wyatt Roy as your candidate.  I’ve had a little bit to do with Wyatt at the State Convention on the Sunshine Coast six months ago and I quickly saw his ability, his understanding, his energy and enthusiasm and his compassion.

I think Wyatt has done more for the Party and this area than many of his constituents will ever do in a lifetime.
As someone who has been around a long time and seen a lot of candidates and campaigns, I can tell you that you have chosen an excellent representative.  And those who denigrate Wyatt’s age are really just mouthpieces for the ALP.  Clearly they are worried about the energy of our guy and the contrast he provides to the incompetent incumbent.

Can I tell you that in Australia’s federal parliamentary history since 1901 there have been 41 Members and Senators elected to the parliament when they were in age below 30.  Edwin Corboy and Andrew Jones were 22 when they entered federal parliament.  Bill O’Chee you will all remember as a Senator in the federal parliament was 24 years old when he was first elected.  Bill is still very much involved in the LNP and helping out in Brisbane as we speak.
Malcolm Fraser, Chris Pyne and Paul Keating all entered parliament when they were 25.  Queenslanders Michael Lavarch and Don Cameron, who you know still plays a leading role in the LNP in Queensland, were 26 when they entered parliament. Harold Holt, Andrew Peacock and Steve Ciobo were elected when they were 27 – and Steve Ciobo will be delighted to be mentioned in that company.

Two stalwarts of the old Country Party, Doug Anthony and Earl Paige were 28 and 29 respectively when they entered parliament.

Most of these parliamentarians who entered parliament at an early age ended up with very distinguished political careers and in fact four of them became Prime Ministers.  I think you’ll find that the candidate you’ve preselected will similarly have a long and distinguished career in the Federal Parliament.

Ladies and Gentlemen I thought I’d do some Googling about Wyatt Roy to see if I could learn any more about him. 
Now as it turned out I didn’t find Wyatt Roy on Google but what I did find out was that Wyatt Earp the lawman and gunslinger was first elected Sheriff of Lamar County at the age of 21.

And whilst I didn’t find Wyatt Roy I did find Rob Roy who many of you will remember as a folk hero and Robin Hood of the early eighteenth century.  At the age of 18 Rob Roy was leading his clan into battle against the English king William of Orange.  It was I think the Battle of Glenkinnie.  He was a fine swordsman and soldier and at the age of 18 had taken on a leadership role for his clan and his countrymen.

Wyatt, I just wonder why it’s taken you so long to get started!

But notwithstanding such a late start, I am confident Wyatt will do very well at the next election.

And I particularly wanted to be with you today, as someone who’s been around for sometime, to show my support for what I think is a great candidate and one who will have a long future in the governance of Australia in the years ahead.

But as good as I think Wyatt Roy is, it is essential to have a good campaign team and I’m thrilled that Wyatt will have the guidance of someone as experienced and dedicated as Beth Harris and Lisa and the rest of the team – the people I call the old Mal Brough team.

Thank you all very much for coming along today and for showing your support for Wyatt and his team.  It is essential that you talk up Wyatt’s candidacy at every opportunity with all your friends and rellies and all of the different groups that you may be involved in.  In fact for those of you involved in the car club or the card club or the local potters group or whatever, please talk about Wyatt and more importantly please get Wyatt along to meet your fellow club members.

I believe the more people who see and hear Wyatt and understand what a mature, common sense, able and intelligent guy that he is, the more people will warm to him and support him at the polls.

I am confident that together you can all achieve real success in Longman and help us change the Government of Australia.  Good luck to you all and again thanks very much for having me along with you today.

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