Page 717 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 March 2016
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of good education. She cherishes the importance of personal opportunity and embraces our moral obligation we have to each other to help each other. I suspect she would identify strongly with the Samaritan on the road to Jericho.
Not only did she survive my father’s death and many years of economic hardship that followed, she went on to become the secretary of the teachers union here in Canberra where she fought for increased equality, particularly for women. She championed fair pay and conditions and, above all, better laws that seek to make the playing field more level rather than protect privilege and entitlement. She strove for laws that delivered fairer outcomes and better opportunities for young people, regardless of background, race, religion or socioeconomic status. That is, after all, the Australian way, Madam Speaker—the avenue of the fair go. That is the Labor way and the path I will always follow.
Most members present will be aware that I have been for many years by profession a practising solicitor and barrister. I am also Chairman of Bendigo Community Bank here in Canberra. Less well known is that I am passionate about rugby and, like my colleague Mr Gentleman, I collect and restore old cars and own and enthusiastically operate a variety of motorcycles. In fact, I started out as an apprentice mechanic at the age of 19.
I worked hard over the years and eventually started my own small business in automotive repair and the importation of European car parts. My annoyance at the clunky, inefficient workings of various governments, import and quarantine, regulations and red tape, saw me on the board of the MTA, the peak body for automotive industry in the territory, at the age of 24. A few years later I was enrolled at ANU in law and politics.
This was not an easy journey by any means. At the time we had three children under three and I had bought into a second business comprising a couple of pizza shops. At this point in my life I was working as a mechanic and business owner during the day, running pizza shops until after midnight three nights a week, raising three children and on top of this trying to complete not one but two undergraduate degrees.
My wife and I went to school together and neither of us was from wealthy families. But we had a strong work ethic, mine Protestant, hers Chinese merchant class. We also had the lifelong benefit of good schooling and a supportive close family. We understand the importance of job security, opportunities that come from employment and developing a valuable skill set.
After 34 years together, we are proud of our three young people we have produced, now all in their 20s. All of our three children have inherited that strong work ethic. Madeline has two degrees and a masters in dietetics; Nigel is a graduate of the ANU School of Art and a successful burgeoning commercial artist; and Oliver is living in Sydney and engaged in small business and the hospitality industry. They are typical of the well-adjusted young people Canberra is capable of producing—young people who have enjoyed the benefit of successive, forward thinking progressive Labor governments here in the territory. My hope is that this experience is the same for all of us.
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