TRANSCRIPT

Of

THE HON PETER COSTELLO MP

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HIGGINS

Declaration of Higgins poll result

10.00 am

E & OE

SUBJECTS:      Declaration of Higgins poll result

NEIL MANNING:

Ladies and gentlemen my name is Neil Manning and I am the Divisional Returning Officer for the Division of Higgins.  It is my duty today to declare the poll for the House of Representatives Election for this Division.  On the 17^th October 2007 a Writ was issued by His Excellency the Governor General commanding the Electoral Commissioner to cause an election to be held for a member to serve in the House of Representatives for the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia for the Division of Higgins. 

At the close of nominations on the 1^st of November 2007 the following candidates had nominated: Peter Costello, the Liberal Party, Michael Wilbur-Ham for the Greens, Penny Badwal from the Family First Party, Graeme Meddings Independent, Stephen Mayne Independent, Barbara Norman from the ALP, Mary Deltman from the Democrats and Genevieve Forde an Independent.

The election was held on the 24^th November and the results of counting of votes at the present time are Costello 43,758; Wilbur-Ham 8,845; Badwal 628; Meddings 227; Mayne 1,615; Norman 25, 355, Deltman 993; Forde 269.

The votes I have listed are the following figures for each candidate.  I am still in the process of conducting a formal distribution of preferences for information purposes.  It is possible a small number of changes may occur which will not affect the result of this election.

Accordingly under the provision of Section 284 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act I declare Peter Costello duly elected as the Member for Higgins to serve in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia for the Division of Higgins.  Congratulations.

MR COSTELLO:

Thank you very much.

NEIL MANNING:

I would now just call on the candidates to speak.

BARBARA NORMAN:

I am Barbara Norman.  I am the Labor candidate for Higgins.  It was a great privilege to represent the Labor Party in Higgins and may I congratulate Peter on his…

MR COSTELLO:

Thank you very much.

BARBARA NORMAN:

…victory.  Well done.  And I wish you the very best over the next three years and I found it very rewarding and exciting process.  I learnt a great deal and I was overwhelmed by the support that I got from the local people of Higgins in my campaign.  Thank you.

MR COSTELLO:

Well first of all can I thank Neil Manning and his staff for yet again conducting this election and conducting it with the utmost professionalism.  You are fearlessly independent as you should be.  I never had a moment’s doubt about the conduct of the election and I want to thank you and all of your staff from the AEC for the work that you have done.  Conducting ballots is absolutely essential for a functioning democracy.  To think that we can have a change of government without any disputes about whether or not the ballot was free or fair, that it can be done seamlessly and without any violence indicates how different Australia is to most of the world and it is a great credit to you and your team, the part that you have played. 

Can I congratulate Barbara Norman from the ALP who is here today for the way in which she conducted her campaign and for achieving a swing on first preferences of 0.54 per cent.  Congratulations to you Barbara and thank you for your kind words.

Of course it is a great honour to be re-elected.  The swing in Higgins which was a swing on first preferences of 1.6 per cent is never welcome but far better than the national swing of 5.6 per cent against the Liberal Party.  And I thank all of those electors of Higgins who have returned me and returned me with a very strong result against the national swing. 

If our Party could have kept the national swing to 1.6 per cent we would still be in government but nationally of course it was 5.6 per cent and as a consequence a new government has been elected. 

I want to thank my Campaign Team led by Andrea, Andrea Coote, Alan Freedman, Alan Cullen and others.  My Electorate staff who have been absolutely magnificent – Aly, Mel, Lou, Athene and Philippa who worked so hard on this campaign and I want to thank them very sincerely for everything that they have done. 

One of the most important pledges that I made here in the Electorate of Higgins during the campaign was the installation of closed circuit TV in Chapel Street and Toorak Road with real time feed into the Prahran Police Station.  It is not a large sum of money and I would urge the new government to deliver on that commitment.  Violence in our streets is a major concern.  We have too many alcohol fuelled assaults.  It is particularly bad outside the nightclub district of Chapel Street in Prahran.  I made a pledge of $260,000 for closed circuit TV. 

This is not a large sum of money and I would urge Mr Rudd to deliver on that promise.  Real time feeds into the police station where the police can (a) break up violent assaults and (b) use it as evidence afterwards for the prosecution and punishment of offenders would really improve this local community.  Not being in control of the Commonwealth finances any more I am not in a position to deliver that promise but I would urge Mr Rudd to deliver for the people of Higgins who voted for it and the people of Higgins want it. 

Can I also say in passing that the person who achieved the largest swing in Higgins was Stephen Mayne with 2 per cent and I noticed he delivered that back to the Labor Party on preferences in the end.  I do want to say to Stephen I had a side wager with him that he wouldn’t get his deposit back and I don’t think he will on 2 per cent but any time he wants to come and see me and have a discussion with me about whether or not the Commonwealth is carrying any debt I would be very happy to explain the figures to him. 

I assume that this is him recording for his You Tube and let me say to Stephen that the Commonwealth carries no net debt and aside from Stephen I don’t think there is anybody in the country who believes that it does – certainly not the Auditor General, certainly not the new Labor Government, certainly not me, certainly not the Treasury.  And I would be very happy to explain the figures to Stephen because that was his principal election manifesto in Higgins.  I do agree with Stephen on some of his other policies including poker machines which I think are completely out of control in this state and need to be reined back in. 

Can I say there is no economic reason at all why the State Government needs to persist with this level of poker machines.  They now have the GST revenue base which is growing year after year in excess of expectations and there is no need for them to rely to the extent that they do upon revenue from poker machines a most regressive tax.

Poker machines are a way of taking from the poor and giving to the rich in this case the State Government which has engorged on GST revenue.

Can I say to the incoming Government led by Mr Rudd and his Treasurer Wayne Swan they are the luckiest lotto winners in the history of Australia – especially Mr Swan.  When I became Treasurer the Budget was $10 billion in deficit, we had $96 billion worth of debt, mortgage interests rates were 10½  per cent, unemployment was 8.2 per cent.  Rather than having Budget deficits of $10 billion we will have Budget surpluses of $10 billion plus.  We have cleared Commonwealth debt.  The home mortgage interest rate is at 8.5 per cent rather than 10.5 per cent, unemployment has halved from 8.2 to 4.4 per cent. 

There would be no incoming Treasurer in the world that would have a set of books like that. I would urge Mr Swan to deliver on the tax plan which we put forward during the campaign and which he adopted.  It is a good tax plan.  It is a tax plan which will deliver more jobs for the Australian community and I really believe that in order to manage Australia’s economy in the years that lie ahead we have to make it more competitive and continuing to reduce the tax burden is a very big part of that.

For our own Party of course this is a great disappointment that we have lost this election in probably the most prosperous economic times since the Second World War if not in Australian history.

The message which I take out from this is that if Parties don’t renew themselves the electorate will do the job for them.  The electorate will renew a political party if the political party does not renew itself. 

As I moved around the electorate and indeed as I moved around Australia there was no great enthusiasm for any policy differences between Labor and the Coalition.  To the extent you could pick up any mood for change it was a mood for newness, there was a mood for differentiation, there was a mood for a bit of renewal.  And if political parties don’t give that sense of freshness or renewal the electorate will take it into its own hands which they did and as a consequence we now have a new Government in Australia.

I hope that the new Government governs wisely and well for all Australians.  Peoples lives, their mortgages, their businesses, their families, their futures rely upon it.  This is important stuff and the margin for error is very, very slight.

It is a great honour for me to have been re-elected to represent the people of Higgins.  It is a trust which I take very seriously and since the election it has been a pleasure to again be the local Member opening school facilities, dealing with constituents something that I hope to continue to do in the interests of all the people of Higgins in the future.  Thank you all very much.