Universal values
Elizabeth Lee draws on her own lived experience to provide a powerful reminder of the universality of Liberal values as she welcomes delegates to Federal Council. The following is an edited transcript of her speech.
My thoughts go out to our friends and colleagues in Victoria who are of course in the midst of their latest outbreak and lockdown.
It is a stark reminder about the unpredictability of this virus and why we need to take realistic and sustainable action to combat the virus; but why we always must not be complacent.
But when we look back on even a year ago with the pandemic in full swing with thousands of Australians who were uncertain about the future of our health and our economy. How enormously fortunate are we to be in Australia. Is there any other place in the world where we would rather be right now?
I acknowledge and pay tribute to our health professionals and other frontline workers who have stepped up when our country needed them.
I acknowledge and thank our Prime Minister and leaders all around Australia for the decisions they have made in the darkness of uncertainty and fear from an invisible virus.
We may not have agreed with every decision made around the country, leaders step up to make difficult decisions when they are needed and that takes courage.
Australia is where we are today because our leaders across the country had the courage to make those difficult decisions early and did everything to support our medical experts to guide Australia’s health response to the pandemic.
When Australia entered this crisis, we did so from a position of economic security, giving us the firepower we needed to respond to COVID and to secure Australia’s economic recovery.
The Prime Minister and his team know, as all Liberals do, that a growing and a more dynamic economy is the best way to deliver a strong budget and guarantee essential services. And this was clearly set out in the recent Federal Budget, with tax relief for low and middle income Australians, support for first home buyers and single parents to purchase a home, record investments in skills and training, and child care and early childhood education so that our youngest Australians get the best start in life and to support higher workforce participation and economic security for families, especially for women.
The Budget invests in the essential services that so many Australians rely on in health; education; disability; aged care; mental health care and suicide prevention; measures to protect our economy, and infrastructure projects to get our country moving and Australians in jobs.
Decisions governments make are a reflection of its values. And we see so strongly how the Morrison government is putting Australia first so that all Australians get a fair go.
Contrast this with the decisions made by the ACT Labor-Greens Government over the last few years which have left more and more Canberrans behind.
Our hospital waiting times are consistently the worst in the country. Our children and teachers are being let down by a government that will not take seriously academic standards and safe school environments. Our Indigenous incarceration rates are the worst in Australia. Thousands of Canberrans are left languishing on public housing waiting lists whilst hundreds of houses remain empty falling into disrepair.
We pay some of the highest rates in the country and yet we do not even have access to a working platform to log simple maintenance requests like fixing a pothole or a broken streetlamp. We have received record funding from the federal government, received record revenue from rates and charges, and yet this government has failed time and time again to provide a balanced budget, leaving the ACT in one of the weakest budget positions of all the States and Territories when the pandemic hit.
Canberra is too good a city for a bad government, and unfortunately, this ACT Labor-Greens Government is, to borrow a quote from Sam Dastyari, “worse than bad”.
And the decisions that we, as leaders – whether in government or opposition – make today are about our values.
Our Liberal values of individual freedom and responsibility; a government that trusts our fellow Australians to make decisions that are best for them and their families; equality of opportunity; of working hard and making a contribution to our community; and government support being provided and prioritised for those who may not have the same opportunities as others.
These are Australian values. These are Liberal values. These are the values that my parents instilled in me. And these are the values that drive me as an elected member, and as Leader of the Canberra Liberals.
I migrated to Australia with my parents, John and Cecilia, and my younger sister, Rosa in 1986 from Korea. I was seven and Rosa was five. My youngest sister, Sara, was born two years later, completing our family.
Ours is probably a very typical migrant story. My parents working as labourers, cleaners, in takeaway shops. My dad having a go at small business not once but twice … and going bust not once but twice.
Debt collectors coming around to our shabby little house on Blacktown Road. And through all this, I do not remember the heartbreak of my parents almost losing everything. Nor do I remember the anguish of my parents trying and failing; trying again and failing again, at creating a better life in this new country we were now calling home.
What I do remember is my parents – and who are still, to this day – so grateful for the opportunities afforded to us in Australia was providing for us to create a better life; a better future.
The reason I am standing here today; the reason that I am privileged to be where I am today – is because of the sacrifices my parents made. Leaving behind the culture and the language they know; leaving behind their family and friends – so that my sisters and I could strive for something more.
I didn’t know it at the time – and I didn’t know it until much much later; but this lived experience embedded these values; Australian values; Liberal values deep inside me.
I am very proud to be the first Korean-Australian to be elected to an Australian parliament, and the first Asian-Australian to lead a major political party.
It was not something I set out to do but it’s a reality and it is a huge responsibility to be a visible Asian face in Australian leadership. The saying: you can’t be what you can’t see, really speaks to me. I know because as a young girl from Korea growing up in Western Sydney, a life in Australian politics was not an option for me.
It was a foreign world; a world I did not belong in. And if I can play my part – a small role – in inspiring other migrant Australians, especially young women, that they do have a place in Australian politics, that they do have a place in Australian public life, then it is a pretty extraordinary privilege that I have.
And, let’s remember that whilst ACT Labor like talking about diversity and inclusion, it is the Canberra Liberals that preselected and then elected the first Asian-Australian leader of a major party. It is also the Canberra Liberals that elected the first female leadership team in my Deputy Giulia Jones and myself in the ACT.
Because that’s what Liberals do. We get on with it. We get things done.
And I know that our path to 2024 will clearly show to the Canberra public that a Canberra Liberal government is for the future of Canberra.
A government that does more than talk the talk. A government that is led by someone who brings a diversity of life experiences and views. A government that governs for all, not for the select and elite in the inner circle. A government that takes responsibility for its own actions and respects the community.
Just as I know that the Prime Minister and his team will work tirelessly to deliver a Morrison government for the people of Australia at the next federal election.
Today, I stand before you as a proud, confident Liberal woman, leader of the Canberra Liberals, and a mother to a young daughter. But the core foundation that made me who I am today are those Australian values; those Liberal values.
And sometimes – just sometimes – I think back to where it all started. And I am still that seven-year-old girl from South Korea who had a big dream to make her mark in her new home in Australia. And providing that hope; that opportunity; and that inspiration to the future generation is why I am where I am today.
This is an edited transcript of a welcome speech delivered by the leader of the Canberra Liberals, Elizabeth Lee MLA to the 62nd Liberal Party Federal Council on 29 May.