Mr HAASE (3:35 PM) —I thank the House for the consideration extended to me on this the occasion of my first speech. I thank also the people of the Kalgoorlie electorate for the faith they have placed in me. To be elected to represent those people in the 39th Parliament is an honour that I humbly accept and a responsibility I do not take lightly. I consider it a great privilege to be here to represent and serve the people of the electorate of Kalgoorlie.

I say `the electorate of Kalgoorlie' to highlight the difference between the very productive and progressive city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the 2,300,284 square kilometre electorate to which Kalgoorlie gives its name. My electorate is the largest in the world, covering 91 per cent of the state of Western Australia, from the Great Southern Ocean to the Timor Sea and from the Indian Ocean to the state border with the Northern Territory and South Australia. From north to south it is more than 20 degrees of latitude, or 2,430 kilometres and 1,621 kilometres wide at its widest east-west point. This electorate, with an enrolment of 80,000 people, is also the most sparsely populated.

The enormous distances and the vast areas are the major factors contributing to the diversity of the electorate. Climatic conditions are so diverse that, when the grain producers of the Southern Cross district recently had their yield expectations slashed by unseasonal frosts, cattle producers in the Kimberley were being hampered by early monsoonal rains. When deep-sea fishing crews are being lashed by winter storms off the coast of Esperance, miners in the Pilbara are utilising precious water for dust eradication programs.

However, it is also this contrast that adds great value to our high quality horticultural products. While southern parts are in the grip of winter, producers in Kununurra, Broome and Carnarvon are harvesting premium fruit and vegetables for both southern and Asian markets.

In much of the electorate, this climatic contrast is responsible for our ever-increasing popularity with both Australian and overseas tourists. The magnificent cloudless winter days of the Pilbara, Gascoyne and Kimberley encourage visitors to keep coming back, year after year. Travellers will marvel at the vibrant colours of the wild flowers in the Murchison and Gascoyne; the spectacular Karajini National Park in the Hamersley Ranges; and Monkey Mia on Shark Bay, world famous for the opportunity it provides for interaction between humans and regularly visiting dolphins.

The town of Denham provides visitors with a base from which to visit Dirk Hartog Island, the site of the first European landing in Australia in 1616. Further north, the waters of Ningaloo Marine Park, off Coral Bay, provide the most accessible and extensive display of living coral in Australia: just stroll into the water from a magnificent beach. The Dampier Archipelago not only is the site of Australia's largest tonnage port and of Woodside Petroleum's hi-tech onshore installation but also provides the best recreational fishing in Australia. One has only to experience it to believe it.

Broome, with its multicultural heritage, is already rightfully known as the `Bali of Australia' and, as a setting-out point, allows visitors to discover and explore the rugged Kimberley region first-hand—places like the majestic Bungle Bungles, spectacular Kings Canyon and Prince Regent Falls, Geiki Gorge, Winjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek and the many fascinating sights along the Gibb River Road.

If you are lucky enough to fly over the tidal whirlpools and horizontal waterfalls off Derby, you start to realise the enormous power of tidal movement. Derby is already the focus of an extensive study into the viability of constructing a tidal power station. In the near future, given a reasonable level of cooperation between the proponents and all levels of government, we should reap the benefits of this infinitely renewable and non-polluting power source.

In the far north, as the Northern Road gateway to the electorate, is Kununurra. With the life-giving resource of Lake Argyle—formed by damming the mighty Ord River—with a capacity approximately 21 times greater than that of Sydney Harbour, Kununurra and its nearby port of Wyndham have a lot more to offer the visitor than crocodile farms and barramundi fishing.

If I sound like a tourism promoter, I am unapologetic. These are just a few of the unforgettable locations within my electorate, all of them best enjoyed when the southern populations are shivering in the gloom of winter. Conversely, the coastal ports of Esperance and Kalbarri—with the majestic Bay of Isles and the impressive surf at Red Bluff, respectively—and the spectacular Murchison River gorges are more popular for their cooling sea breezes during the summer months.

Whilst I am mentioning tourism, one of the most outstanding proposals amongst many that have my support is the upgrading to all-weather status and promotion of the outback highway linking Winton in Queensland, through Alice Springs and Uluru, to Laverton in my electorate, thus giving direct access to the goldfields and the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. When complete, this transport artery will offer huge benefits, not only for the communities along the way and for tourism, but also for the exploration and mining industry and for strategic planners. Patrick Hill and his committee deserve recognition and support for their untiring efforts in promoting this project. In this climate of cooperation and reconciliation, conferring the status of `Road of National Importance' by this government would be fitting recognition.

Perhaps the only facts more remarkable than the size of my electorate are the diversity of its production and its export income earning capacity. In 1997-98, this one electorate contributed one-quarter of Australia's total export income. The minerals industry is the mainstay of the economy, underpinning the performance of a wide range of other industry and service sectors and providing the stimulus for economic growth. The total value of minerals, including petroleum production, is around $16 billion. Add to this the outstanding production of grain, wool, fish, pearls, sheep, cattle and horticultural products and you start to realise the tremendous significance of this area. On average, each member of the total work force earns for Australia approximately $150,000 of export income per annum.

The major mineral industries include iron ore in the Pilbara region, gold and nickel in the Yilgarn bloc, diamonds in the Kimberley and the LNG and oil industries of the North West Shelf. More than $4.8 billion is spent annually on exploration and development for minerals and energy. The Kalgoorlie electorate is one of the world's major mineral producing provinces. It is also an important producer of many other minerals, including copper, silver, lead, zinc, tin, tantalite and manganese, together with many non-metallic minerals, including salt, gypsum, limestone, rare earths, garnet, felspar and diatomaceous earth. Our minerals industry has many strengths. These arise from a combination of world-class resources, a skilled work force, innovative work practices, utilisation of leading-edge technologies and a developing framework of support services.

I believe the House has a reasonable expectation that I should explain my association with the electorate, the background from which I emerge and the strengths I bring to this parliament. I was born in the electorate 53 years ago in Southern Cross. My father, Frank, owned and worked the Francis Furness Goldmine in Marvel Loch. My great-grandfather, August, was sent to Australia as a young man from Magdeburg on the Elbe, in those days part of the Prussian Empire.

In 1905 my grandfather, George Gotlieb, left a small dairy property on the Barwon river in Bareena, part of the Geelong district, to clear by hand a 1,500-acre property at Shackleton in the Bruce Rock district of Western Australia. We moved to Shackleton in 1950 after the death of my grandfather, and I attended primary school there. I was brought up in a well-disciplined family, where politics was not discussed; and my mother, Thora, taught me that necessity was the mother of invention and that charity begins at home.

I completed my formal education in Perth at junior level and joined the Royal Australian Navy. My sea duty on HMAS Diamantina took me to many South-East Asian and Indian Ocean ports. After graduating from this university of hard knocks, I joined a catering management company; married my wife, Dallas; purchased a house; took up technical college management courses; joined Rostrum; and became involved with the West Australian Debating League.

In 1977 I took leave and spent 12 months working around rural Australia. I worked in all manner of unskilled jobs, including those of deckhand, barman and builder's labourer. Those experiences taught me that most rural Australians have a simple desire for both good seasons and a fair go.

In 1978 with my wife, Dallas, and children, Shane and Danielle, I moved to Karratha, some 1,600 kilometres north of Perth, where I worked as a subcontractor in the airconditioning industry. The intended 12-month stay became 20 years. Such is life in the Pilbara. During those 20 years we established a business, raised two children, built two houses, developed a property portfolio, owned and operated a delicatessen and joined many community groups.

Those years spent in the Pilbara—travelling great distances, working with construction crews, participating with communities and having the opportunity to associate with pastoral station people, whom I consider to be the absolute salt of the earth, and with battlers old and young who keep trying regardless of seemingly insurmountable obstacles—presented me with experiences which have helped forge my own beliefs: maximum personal freedom with matching responsibility, practical compassion for those in need, commitment to progress, faith in our ability to make the future good and lawful order which guards and upholds these principles.

I believe I am qualified to speak on the many problems which need to be addressed in order to make living in the remote areas of this electorate easier, not more difficult. This government has committed itself to Aboriginal reconciliation. Without doubt the most significant obstacle to economic progress in my electorate is the yet unresolved question of native title claims. If we are to effectively embrace true reconciliation, we must first satisfactorily address the question of native title. Parliamentary representatives within the Kalgoorlie electorate must ask themselves whether they serve their party or the people of their electorate.

There are concerns about the impact of national competition policy on the ability of rural and regional local government and the small business community to operate efficiently. Are we focusing too much on the economic wellbeing of the nation, and is this agenda being driven by city based decision makers with no real understanding or concern for communities in regional Australia? We must ask the question: are we endeavouring to create healthy communities in the bush, or are we simply looking for economic excellence?

In the Pilbara and Goldfields regions especially, the first body blow dealt to the strong communities was the imposition of Labor's fringe benefits tax. This has led to a steady reduction in the population with the introduction of fly-in fly-out arrangements for the work force. A rationalisation of this situation has led, I believe, to the introduction of 12-hour shifts, and this has exacerbated the situation. We now have difficulty in fielding teams for the many sporting activities that once formed the backbone of communities.

The satisfactory passage of our proposed new tax legislation through the upper house will see the removal of the fringe benefits tax from accommodation provided by mining companies. This, we all hope, will see a reversal in the fly-in fly-out process. However, the removal of this insidious fringe benefits tax needs to be extended to cover all accommodation provided for employees in remote areas.

Communication—or should I say the lack of infrastructure for effective communication—is still causing a major problem in remote areas. Once again there is a strong perception within the electorate that the majority of the policy is being developed by city based technocrats with a lack of understanding of the practical problems in the bush. The best theory in the world often fails to appreciate that, in the vast pastoral area, homesteads exist without the provision of 24-hour power to drive such technology.

Much has been said over the years by governments of various persuasions about decentralisation. One of the policies that was designed to ease the additional hardship of living in remote areas was the taxation zone rebate allowance. It is harder and more expensive to live in remote Western Australia than it is to live in cities. It is time that increases in compensation were made to address cost disparity between city and remote area living.

The electorate of Kalgoorlie is vast and sparsely populated. It has extremely high mineral wealth and potential for greater achievements. The important commodity missing is people. We need to concentrate on solutions that will put populations into this vastness. The old catchphrase `populate or perish' still has popular usage in the North-West today. We have enormous capacity for supporting a very large population.

Like it or not, there is a great lack of stability in the countries to our north. With the density of population existing in those traumatised regions, it is not inconceivable that one day we may be embroiled in disputes requiring very strenuous defence of this region. The simple truth is: if we as a nation do not concentrate our efforts in developing and populating this region, some other power may attempt to do so.

One of the most complex and, I believe, most significant issues in the shaping of our future society is the destruction of the family. The cause of breakdown of relationships is an area that I will not attempt to address except to say that in too many cases fly-in fly-out arrangements do not help. It is the aftermath of, and the further unnecessary devastation caused by, decisions of the Family Court that deserve our fullest attention.

The Family Court and the controls placed by the Child Support Agency are creating a cohort of second-class citizens. As a result, many people are marginalised. The statistics in my electorate indicate that 3,800 non-custodial parents are affected, but that is not the end of this issue. Many current partners of the non-custodial parents—and the children from the second family for which they are now responsible—are inextricably damned by decisions made by the Family Court. The act that encourages this unfair situation is the Family Law Act of 1975. In the last 23 years, the economic and parenting roles of men and women have irreversibly changed, to the point where this legislation no longer reflects the role models and aspirations of society. The Child Support Agency—supposedly the cheap, easy, flat formula method of child support which was meant to create a process to give satisfactory levels of child support—has created a rigidity that is leading to the destruction of non-custodial parents' lives.

Events resulting from family breakdown in the last few months have been horrendous. The abductions, murders and suicides are the obvious symptoms; the not so obvious are the cost of support systems and voluntary unemployment—a pathetic waste of human resources. As a government strongly supporting the integrity of the family, we should all be concerned that non-custodial parents face many onerous and debilitating obstacles. The decisions made by the Family Court often see the custodial parent awarded the family home and the non-custodial parent responsible for paying the bills.

Income and asset assessment is undertaken by the Child Support Agency to calculate the level of support payable. This assessment process results in a payment by the non-custodial parent of a percentage of their gross wage of between 18 and 30 per cent. In the majority of cases in my electorate, the tax payable is 47 per cent. The result of this impost is a disposable income that in many cases prevents any reasonable quality of life. If a new partner contributes to the household income of the non-custodial parent, a further assessment by the Child Support Agency will increase the amount payable. Taxing child support payments as income of the recipient and allowing a tax deduction to the non-custodial parent would at least offer some economic justice to this draconian act.

To make matters worse, access to children can be thwarted by the custodial parent. Sadly, and too often, an ex-partner will use the children as a tool to further hurt and humiliate. It is in many ways a biased and unhealthy arrangement. By way of solution, many non-custodial parents come to my electorate to make the most of high-income situations in order to meet the prohibitive costs of Child Support Agency rulings. The cycle, however, continues: the more they earn, the more they pay.

A 1997 study by Professor Pierre Baume, head of the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, found that 70 per cent of suicides were related to relationship breakdown. With the number of suicides each year in Australia now at an obscene level of 1,810 lives, I am invariably led to conclude that too many of these unnecessary deaths are directly attributable to the original rulings of the Family Court. The strongest evidence indicates one life lost per day.

The plight of Aborigines in detention in this country and the number of deaths in custody resulted in a royal commission. What further increases in this tragic figure will be tolerated before a decision is made to hold a royal commission into the often unfair and unjust decisions of the Family Law Court that place in jeopardy the very heart of our society—the Australian family?

Before I conclude, there are many people to whom I give my thanks for the hard work and dedication they offered to my campaign: my executive committee; many Liberal Party parliamentarians, both state and federal; the hardworking branch executives and party members; the 450 people that assisted by staffing 99 polling places throughout this huge electorate; the dedicated scrutineers who gave so much of their time during the 14-day count; longstanding loyal friends; and my brother Murray and sister Dianne.

Finally, I thank Dallas, my wife of 30 years, and my children Shane and Danielle for their continuous support and great understanding. For the duration of the campaign they spent a great deal of time without support from me. I hope that, in being elected to this position, I can reward these people by bringing hard work and dedication to the position and achieving all that those great friends and supporters expect of me.

Honourable members —Hear, hear!

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Nehl) —Before I call the honourable member for Canning, I remind the House that this is the honourable member's first speech. I ask the House to extend to her the usual courtesies.