7 minute read
Jason Falinski A Positive Future
A POSITIVE FUTURE IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD.
Jason Falinski
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FIVE SHORT YEARS AGO, I STOOD FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE PARLIAMENT, TO UTTER MY FIRST WORDS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. I MARVELLED THEN, AS I DO NOW, AT HOW FEW NATIONS ON EARTH COULD TAKE THE SON OF A MIGRANT, WHO WHEN HE ARRIVED SPOKE NOT A SINGLE WORD OF ENGLISH, AND ELECT HIM TO THE HIGHEST DECISION MAKING BODY IN THE LAND.
In our nation, to serve others is a gift given by those you serve. I am grateful to our country and grateful to my community for the opportunity to serve.
When I gave that fi rst speech, I ended it by saying that I believed Australia’s best days were ahead of us because we have so much to hope for and so little to fear.
I am reminded of that as I look at Narrabeen Lagoon, badly fl ooded this week, along with homes in Manly, businesses in Narrabeen, Brookvale and schools in Manly Vale. Some homes were lost, people evacuated, and lives were turned upside down. But I also witnessed the resolve of our community, the instinctive response of so many to look to others, to help where help was needed, and to care for those who could not care for themselves.
In our time of need, once more, we found each other.
None of the many challenges we have faced in the last three years, both here and around the world, have diminished us. We have not been found wanting. These challenges have brought us together, and in doing so, made us stronger.
Like you, I too worry about the future - geopolitical tensions, climate change, energy prices, housing affordability and brittle supply chains just to name a few. But the lesson of our history is that we only succeed when we face our challenges front on.
When this Federation was founded, its promise was for the brave not the timid. Our Founders called to those who wanted to live in a place that did not care who you were or where you came from, but only what you were willing to give. A land where if you had a go, you got a go. A nation whose children would be afforded the best opportunities to develop their talents.
A nation that understood that care and compassion came from friends, our families, a community and not a government department. That true fairness comes from equality of opportunity, not outcome. And that when one of us have a freedom removed, all of us are less free. That these are things worth protecting and preserving because they are sacred.
No country is perfect, and we are not a perfect nation, nor are we a perfect people. However, our mission is.
This election is not about votes. It is about a commitment to that fi rst mission of opportunity for all.
Can we commit to young Australians, to once more create affordable housing so they too can share in the Australian Dream? Can we make the lives of working Australians better and easier? Can we secure the fi nancial future of people who worked and saved all their lives so that they may have a comfortable retirement? And for those who are yet to be born, will we protect and preserve our planet?
The answer, of course, is yes.
Each of us have a path we have trodden on to this point. I was born in Manly to a migrant father who met my Mum while selling clothes to her shop in Collaroy. We grew up in a fi bro cottage in Belrose, with four kids and one bathroom. It gave a very real world meaning to the economic concept of fi rst mover advantage. The house’s most notable feature was a snake in the roof to keep away the possums.
My parents founded a computer company that became Australia’s largest. They built a house, a family, and a community around this business. But that dream was shattered, like so many others, during the recession “we had to have.” I watched as the banks, the lawyers and the accountants strip everything for themselves like locusts.
Those times left their scars, but good ones. I made a promise to myself that I would always fi ght for a fairer Australia and I tried to live by that promise every day since.
We face choices about how we live every day. In the coming weeks, there is
another choice, who is going to govern us for the next three years? There is much at stake.
Can our economy deliver real wage increases not just create jobs? Can we invent new industries, make housing affordable, project strength both here and abroad, as well as show the world that reaching Net Zero is both possible and profi table?
Or will we turn away from these complex challenges and pretend they can be solved with three-line policies on websites and vague promises by the untested about doing things differently.
These are times of consequences and that approach – of imagining the world as you want it to be, rather than facing as it is, won’t cut it.
Chanting slogans hidden inside clichés, wrapped in other people’s unearned money is meaningless. Just saying ‘Climate Action Now’ without a plan to Net Zero is one of many examples of this approach.
You have to know how you will keep Australia strong. There is a great battle going on between liberal democracies in which governments serve people and authoritarian states in which people serve governments.
That is why we have been making the most signifi cant investments in our defence force since World War II. We’ve been strengthening our partnerships with neighbours, like minded countries and our allies as well. The AUKUS agreement and its commitment to build nuclear propelled submarines is another major step in strengthening Australia’s defences.
We can make these investments in this defence force transformation because we have a strong economy. Our economic security is paying for our national security.
Our record of economic management and reform have ensured the lowest unemployment rate in nearly fi ve decades with the highest participation rate on record. I believe you grow an economy by putting people fi rst – that’s why we have cut taxes again and again - because you are better at spending your money than the government.
As well, Australia has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic with one of the world’s lowest rates of death and some of the highest rates of vaccination.
We’ve led the world protecting lives and livelihoods. We built a world class policy response - JobKeeper, massive small business support, Telehealth, pandemic payments – all the while working together. We can take pride in that.
As your elected representation, I have fought to keep us prosperous and to make Australia fairer. I’ve brought down reports on creating a taxpayer advocate, establishing a retail corporate bond market, reducing regulations and taxes on employee share schemes, reforming bankruptcy laws, competition law and housing affordability. The bipartisan Economics Committee that I chair has held APRA, ASIC, the big four banks, Big Super and the RBA to account.
I have long advocated for NetZero and it is now government policy. We are taking a technology not taxes approach to reducing emissions, and we are doing it in a way that will create new jobs, secure our energy supplies, and not put pressure on energy prices.
Along with the community, I said no to PEP-11. This will protect our local environment for this generation and the next by stopping gas and oil exploration off the Northern Beaches. I believe in strong communities because you can’t have a strong country unless you have strong communities.
We have funded new phone towers at Belrose and Cottage Point, invested in the IT infrastructure of local schools, provided $7 million to fund local roads and school zones, and provided major funding boosts for the upgrading of Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club and support for Manly Warringah Football Association.
I have also been working closely with local businesses. I stayed close with them during the pandemic, and I’ve sought to encourage and harness the innovation of local businesses and young entrepreneurs like BioCarbon and Device Technologies.
And there is more to do. We have a great new hospital in Frenchs Forest, but it means little if you can’t get there if the Wakehurst Parkway is blocked. We must continue the fi ght to have Wakehurst Parkway upgraded and we need to start Beaches Link today.
This election is about choice. The choice of which path we go down on our journey to a more perfect nation.
This is a journey without end, but it is our generation’s responsibility to advance as far down that path as possible. We on the Northern Beaches have seen that alone, some might go fast, but together, we can all go far. •
JASON FALINSKI MP MEMBER FOR MACKELLAR FB & INSTA @JASONFALINSKIMP www.jasonfalinski.com.au
