Jamie Chaffey has delivered his maiden speech as the Member for Parkes. This is what he said.
I stand here today as the member for Parkes, ready to serve. I am here to serve the people of this vast electorate across regional New South Wales, whether they live in the silver city of Broken Hill, under the searching eye of the skies of Coonabarabran or in amongst the black opals of Lightning Ridge. I am here to serve them whether they are young families or people who have lived for decades in the remote part of New South Wales and worked the land all their life.
I learnt, while I was still very young, the great difference that service with courage, patience and loyalty can make to a life. My parents divorced when my two sisters and I were very young. After some time, my mother began a new relationship with my now stepfather. Taking on the responsibility of providing for an instant family is something most people would walk from. But he didn’t. It is hard to say here, in this very public place, but I need to do so to show just how important my stepfather was and is in our lives.
For reasons I’ll never truly understand, my mother was struggling with gambling addictions and poor mental health that would often escalate into events of extreme rage and physical violence. This was never towards us as children but always towards my stepfather. Watching this man deal patiently and lovingly with these most difficult of issues remains a deep source of inspiration to me. The scourge of mental illness, gambling addiction and domestic violence is something many of us face quietly. I have never and will never condone domestic violence, and I know that every situation is different.
As we changed and grew, there were good days and there were bad. My stepfather continued to work on the land to provide for his family and live the truest example of what it means to serve with courage in everyday life. He stepped up without question. He never gave up on us. As I speak today, my stepfather is my mother’s full-time carer. She has advanced dementia, and he continues to be by her side, as he has for more than 50 years. This is the type of service that has guided me as a husband, as a father and in leadership. It is a philosophy that aligns with my Christian faith that through grace of God, in advance, he has prepared me to serve.
In my late teens, I left home and moved to a nearby town to start my first real job. I began a management traineeship with a supermarket chain. To do this, I had to borrow money from one of my sisters to buy new clothes and get set up in the local caravan park. It was the best decision of my life. This led me to meet my wife, Judy, a young nurse. We began our life’s journey together. Several years on, as we started our family, I also joined my wife’s family business, manufacturing agricultural equipment for grain and cotton industries, as an apprentice boilermaker. My other true mentor was Jude’s dad, Harold, who I worked under during my apprenticeship. Jude’s parents, Harold and Joan, not only supported us, as family does, but they also had the faith in us to bring us into the family business. They celebrated the highest of highs with us, when times were good, and they also cried with us in those lowest of lows, when we struggled to find the money to pay pages on payday.
Over time, Judy and I became the second generation businessowners of that business. I have now stepped down from the family business after 28 years, and I’m very proud to say that our children have taken over the reins. It is now a very proud third-generation Australian-owned family business.
Working in small business and volunteering alongside the great people of some of my community service organisations, including the Gunnedah Rotary club and the Carroll Rural Fire Service, I became even more focused on helping my community and successfully ran for Gunnedah Shire Council in 2016, where I served for eight years as mayor.
My time as mayor taught me the greatest respect for all who serve as elected members in their communities. This role also gave me the opportunity to take on senior leadership roles, such as the chairman of the New South Wales Country Mayors Association and a place on the board of Local Government New South Wales. This has left me with a greater insight into how the three tiers of government can, and should, work together to achieve better results for all Australians. I would like to acknowledge those in my local-government family that have supported my journey to parliament, some of whom are in the gallery here today; thank you.
But these experiences have also made me aware of the minefield of challenges that come ahead, such as navigating different levels of government and the differing opinions and priorities in my quest to deliver for Parkes. I am committed to working very closely with all 20 councils and the Unincorporated Far West Area of the Parkes electorate. Regional New South Wales is the best place to live and to do business. But every state and federal win is a fight. Our people just get on with the job, facing bigger health, education and business challenges than most people living in metropolitan areas.
I would like to tell a story of a young couple in their first years of marriage, who took the significant step of buying their first home. It was a big financial commitment, but one that they took on with their whole hearts knowing this was the beginning of their homeownership journey and their family journey. Unfortunately, the market was at its peak. The young couple were unaware that the government changes were about to gut the local timber industry. The local abattoir would soon be on its knees, as well as the local mining industry, causing a huge reduction in the town’s population. Government decisions had squarely and severely impacted the economy of that town. It took ten years for the value of that first home to return to its original purchase price. That town was Gunnedah, and that young couple was my wife, Judy, and me.
We have unforgettable lived experience of the personal hardship that follows disastrous decision-making by government. This experience was a driving force in my motivation to join the local chamber of commerce and to then turn my focus to local government for solutions. I was determined to do whatever I could to prevent other people from suffering the setbacks that we did at the hands of government who failed to realise the consequence of their decisions. The Parkes electorate needs young families. We need skilled and talented workers, and professionals, to make the confident choice to live in this incredible region.
Economic policymaking needs to reflect the holistic approach that makes it easier for people to get a foothold and to establish their family. Location is a huge part of this. I want to make sure that the cities, the towns and the villages within the Parkes electorate are the places young Australians choose to put down their roots. Decision-makers must understand the implications of their choices. We must do all we can to prevent shocks to our communities that have the power to destabilise families, and, in some cases, lead to heartache and destruction. Many of the communities in the Parkes electorate have been faced with the challenge of population decline over the past decade. For that very reason, my wife and I struggled financially in our early married life.
Growing the population throughout the electorate will be my biggest challenge during the time that I serve. My role now is to serve the people of the Parkes electorate—a huge electorate that covers half of the state of New South Wales, including vast tracks of the Queensland and South Australian borders. It’s no small task. When I’m not in parliament, I’ll be clocking up the miles transversing over 400,000 square kilometres. The electorate stretches from Boomi in the north to Barmedman in the south; to Cameron Corner where the New South Wales, Queensland and South Australian borders meet; and everywhere in between. That is an area bigger than Great Britain. It’s bigger than Germany and bigger than Japan.
In the recent election campaign, I travelled more than 36,000 kilometres. I know the tyranny of distance will be an ongoing challenge, and I’m committed to turning up to the largest and the smallest of the electorate’s communities to the best of my ability. That is what is needed to serve and represent this important part of our nation.
The challenges and issues this electorate faces are as varied as the shires that make them up, and I’ll be there to listen and to act persistently and consistently. Businesses and industries across the Parkes electorate are shouldering more than their fair share of our country’s economic heavy lifting without their fair share of funding. Our communities face endless battles, sometimes just to maintain the basic levels of services. Our small businesses are at the heart of our nation’s economy. We must reward small-business owners for their commitment to the communities they serve and acknowledge the risk they take every single day. Decisions made far from the bush must include critical needs for investment in regional infrastructure.
This is where Australia’s food, fibre and minerals are produced and processed and where value is added. Transporting our homegrown products for domestic consumption and international trade must be both reliable and affordable. Infrastructure projects such as the nation building Inland Rail project are vital to ensure that we keep goods moving productively from capital ports, from Brisbane to Melbourne and west to Perth, with the ability to stimulate economic opportunities for regional communities in between.
The Nationals first developed this plan, and it was The Nationals who aggressively commenced construction. In recent years, the handbrake has been applied. Construction on the northern corridor is now at snail’s pace, and I do not intend to drop the ball on this project. I will be applying as much pressure as possible to see trains moving goods to market through Parkes and Narromine, Gilgandra, Baradine, Narrabri, Moree and North Star and on to Queensland as quickly as possible.
The views on water policy held by Australia’s two main political parties could not be further apart. There has been a lack of investment in water security and water storage in the Parkes electorate. In fact, over recent years there has been a concerted effort to take water away from our communities through water policy changes that now allow buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin. How can we seriously back our farmers and regional communities unless we protect their access to water?
In the state seat of Tamworth there is a great example of foresight, Chaffey Dam. It is a critical piece of infrastructure named after father-and-son visionaries Frank and Bill Chaffey, who were dedicated to deliver on water security for generations. These visionaries, both of whom at different times were members for the state seat of Tamworth and ministers for agriculture, knew the importance of planning for the future. We must continue this today. Investment from all levels of government in our regional communities on legacy infrastructure not only brings benefits of immediate economic growth but also generates confidence and has a flow-on effect moving beyond the Great Dividing Range.
The Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial ahead of this first sitting of parliament was a stark reminder of how many Australians throughout history have lost their lives in the defence of this country. As a member of the 48th Parliament it is my duty to forever honour those lives and their sacrifice and to protect the lives of all Australians into the future. I acknowledge that there is no greater responsibility than to keep Australians safe.
We must ensure that we have the right tools, the right people, the right equipment and the right policies and investment to ensure the sovereignty of our nation. We need a non-conditional approach towards the defence of our country. We can never be confident that conflict will not arise again. We simply must be prepared.
Weighing heavily on my mind is the enormous cost that regional Australia faces at the hands of the sudden and unguided escalation of wind, solar and battery installations. Cities, towns and villages within the Central-West Renewable Energy Zone and right across Australia are facing scenarios of developers against farmers, neighbours against neighbours and family against family. The enormous scale of these installations will be a generational disaster—one that will cost our children and their children deeply.
As I stand in parliament today, I’m conscious of the legacy of the giants of the National Party and the members who have represented the area that makes up the current Parkes electorate, and I pay tribute to the Hon. Mark Coulton, who held his role for more than 17 years with such dedication and motivation. I deeply appreciate the support of both Mark and Robyn, and I’m so glad that they’re here today in the gallery to share this moment.
In reading over past members’ first speeches, I’ve seen similar themes, starting with the Hon. John Anderson, who first entered parliament back in 1989. Concerns about the impact of poor environmental policies on our agricultural sector, the need for targeted immigration and the critical importance of transport across large geographical areas have been front of mind for this area’s federal representatives for many, many years, so too has the need for financial restructure that supports our people, attracts newcomers and gives them the desire and ability to stay within our regions. We are still talking about these same issues today.
We’re all facing a devastating increase in suicide in regional communities, an increase in mental health issues in our youth, incidents of youth crime in both boys and girls, and an increase in family breakdown—all very strong indicators that, unless more is done in regional communities, we won’t turn the corner. As you’ve heard earlier in my speech, addressing domestic violence remains a matter close to my heart.
Bold decisions must be made. We need to see help for regional Australians in areas such as tax reform, greater economic incentives for people who choose regional towns, better infrastructure and investment in our roads and local facilities, and equitable access to the basics such as quality education, childcare, aged care and health care. These are all critical areas in which I want to see change for the Parkes communities. I want to see other people, other families, thrive on the sheer potential of our region.
I began my working life as a supermarket training manager, before taking on a boilermaker apprenticeship. I entered into local government with the goal of building a strong future for my community. I see so many good people in our regions who are putting their heads down and working hard to enable their families, their employees and their communities to thrive. I want to use this role to encourage and support and to serve regional Australians.
There are so many who have supported my long journey, and I want to thank my colleagues in the National Party and the leadership team, who saw fit to appoint me to the position of shadow assistant minister for agriculture and resources. I also want to thank the army of people who assisted me in the campaign trail, including all the volunteers across 116 polling booths. It’s impossible to thank everyone. Many of you are here today and I want you to know just how much I appreciated your hard work and support. I want to extend my gratitude to the people of the Parkes electorate who have placed such great faith in me to represent them in this parliament.
I come to this role with a deep sense of respect for the work of parliament in guarding and improving the lives and livelihoods of every Australian. I believe in the difference that can be made by implementing good policy. I want to see that reflected in the lives of people in our electorate and right across Australia. I will use my life experience to serve the people who choose to live in these communities throughout the Parkes electorate, and I will serve them with the same dedication and commitment that was taught to me by my step-father many years ago.
To my church family and our wider circle of friends and family, who have loved us, prayed with us and supported us in many different ways on this journey so far, I say thank you. To our Parkes team here in the gallery today, to Miranda, Jodie, Debbie, Emma, Amy and Marie, and to Kate and Sophie, who unfortunately couldn’t be here with us today: I thank you for your patience and encouragement. Your hard work and knowledge is deeply appreciated. With my final words, I thank my family—my darling wife of 32 years, Judy; our children, Jack and his partner, Madison, Molly and her husband, James, Lucy and her husband, Elliot, and Tom and his wife, Georgia; and also our grandchildren, Noah, Josie, Camilla and the two babies we await with excitement. You are at the heart of everything I do. Thank you
