Archival Tape – House Speaker, from Zoe Daniel’s speech:

I remind the House that this is the honourable members first speech, and I ask the House to extend to them the usual courtesies.

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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones and this is 7am
The federal election marked a change in direction for the country but it also signalled the beginning of 35 new political careers.

As parliament returns, many of these newly elected politicians are making their first speeches, a permanent record of their intentions, that their actions in Canberra will be compared against.

So what are they saying? And what do their speeches tell us about the challenges facing Australia right now?
Today - writer and contributor to The Monthly Sean Kelly, on first speeches, optimism, and compromise.

It’s Tuesday September 6.

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RUBY:

Hi, Sean. How are you?

SEAN:

Good Ruby. How you doing?

RUBY:

I'm good. Thanks for coming on the show once again.

SEAN:

Thanks for having me, as always.

RUBY:

So, Sean, we've passed 100 days since the election. And as a result of that federal election, there is now a whole cohort of new politicians who are entering parliament for the very first time. Could you tell me a bit about who these people are and how different the makeup of our Parliament is now as a result.

SEAN:

Looks significantly different. It was a fascinating election for this reason it was fascinating to see candidates from a greater array of backgrounds. And it’s incredible to see that has reached the parliament. Both the House and the Senate have more women than ever before. Four new Indigenous MPs have joined the seven Indigenous MPs who are already in the Parliament. We have only listened to a fraction of the maiden speeches so far, but already new members have talked of their own or their parents' lives in Laos, in Sri Lanka, in Kenya. David Pocock is not not deaf or hearing impaired, but he arranged for a TV screen to be hung so that his speech can be translated in Auslan. I think there is both a much greater diversity of candidates, candidates from a more multifaceted set of backgrounds and a greater awareness of I guess how narrow our Parliament has been previously. And I think both of those elements are really important.

Archival Tape – Sally Sitou:

I want to dedicate my first speech to my Amma, my maternal grandmother. She was the most remarkable woman. Amma was a widower and a single mother of eight. She had to uproot her life twice. First China to Laos and then Laos to Australia.

SEAN:

Sally Sitou in her first speech said, as I look around the House of Representatives today, it feels like it is starting to live up to its name.

Archival Tape – Sally Sitou:

And the last photo I have with her is on the dance floor at my wedding in Laos. Amma stayed on in Laos after the wedding, choosing to spend her final years there. It was one of the few choices she had an opportunity to make. It's because of her and the sacrifices she has made. That my life was possible. Where a world of opportunities has been unlocked for me.

SEAN:

But the Parliament has quite a way to go, it is certainly more white and more male still than the country as a whole.

RUBY:

Absolutely. It feels like a shift but also that it really is only the beginning. One of the first things that happens as these people make the transition from their ordinary lives to their new roles as political representatives is they make their first speech to Parliament, and this is really them putting on the parliamentary record the reasons that they're there and what it is that they hope to achieve. You've watched many of these speeches. Can you tell me what it is that interests you about these first statements that politicians make?

SEAN:

I think in a way, the thing that fascinates me most about watching and reading and listening to the speeches is the sense of hope that emanates from them.

Archival Tape – Zaneta Mascarenhas:

Together we can solve wicked problems of our time.

Archival Tape – David Pocock:

A secure economy will play a vital role in our journey to net zero.

Archival Tape – Elizabeth Watson-Brown:

We're building the infrastructure of the lives we share. We'd better do it well, we'd better do it responsively and responsibly.

SEAN:

And that goes for MPs across the political spectrum. You know, you don't have to agree with someone's politics when you listen to these speeches to pick up the note of hope.

Archival Tape – Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah

Because only by unifying, empowering and electrifying our people can we reach that cleaner, greener, fairer future.

SEAN:

The note of belief that they are there to do something new and something different. And, you know, there is a lot of cynicism about politics, and that is, in my view, mostly justified a little despairingly. But I do think a lot of politicians go into politics for the right reasons. And maiden speeches, first speeches, are this beautiful moment in a sense where you can see the purity of those MPs intentions.

RUBY:

And you make the observation in your piece that the brutal truth of these first speeches is that we only really look back at them when they're given by the particular politicians that do actually go on to, to achieve fame, to become the prime minister to change the country.

SEAN:

Yeah. I mean, one of the strange things about looking at the first speeches of all these MPs is realising the poignancy of the fact that most of them will be forgotten. Most of them will be fairly quickly forgotten, except by the very people who delivered them. We tend to look only at the maiden speeches, the first speeches later on of those politicians who go on to become significant. But if you look at the first speeches of an entire generation of politicians, then you do get some sense of what was going on in Australia at that time.

RUBY:

And I do want to talk to you about what the speeches of 2022 as a whole tell us about where we're at right now in the country. But before I do, with the idea of political legacy in mind, what is it that we glean when we go back and we look at those first speeches from people who did go on to become great politicians? How do first speeches give us an insight into what they were like at the very beginning of their careers?

SEAN:

I think in a sense we tend to read them backwards. We look at what happened in their political careers later on, and then we go back to look for clues of those things in their early speeches. So in some senses, our view of them remains quite narrow, but nevertheless fascinating. If you look at Bob Hawke's first speech, I think certainly the most compelling aspect of it now, reading it backwards, as I say, is how much of that speech he spends talking about poverty and the chances of eliminating poverty. And that sticks with us because he made that famous pledge years later in his prime ministership to eliminate child poverty, obviously very much undelivered. So there's a poignancy and irony, I suppose, to hearing him talk so much about that issue.

John Howard, you get this real sense of his personality as a politician. It's a very dry speech, it's a very purposeful speech. And there is a focus on taxation arrangements with the states, which is something not a lot of new MPs are talking about in their first speech to the Parliament. And if you look at Anthony Albanese's speech, there are bits that drop away now for us. He spends a great deal of it talking about aircraft noise in his electorate and the fact that the No Aircraft Noise campaign fell down. Obviously, that doesn't feel very relevant, but then he talks about what he believes as well. And I think those things are always useful as you watch a prime minister's career. But for me, the most moving effort was, he says, his election to the House, he was quite young when he was elected to Parliament was the result of a collective effort.

Archival Tape – Young Anthony Albanese:

First, I would like to thank my mother, Maryanne Albanese, who raised me under very difficult economic circumstances.

SEAN:

He thanks his mother, he thanks his mentor Tom Uren, very important to him, and he thanks his future wife Carmel Tebutt.

Archival Tape – Young Anthony Albanese:

They have, I hope, instilled in me a sense of history and purpose to my activity in the labour movement and now as a parliamentarian.

SEAN:

By the time he becomes Prime Minister, only Carmel Tebbutt is still alive to see that. And by then they are divorced, or their marriage is over. So there's a real dramatic irony when you look at the speeches of these great figures, because they don't know what's coming. They are as powerless to predict the future as you or me. And I think the speeches attain a sort of majesty from that fact.

RUBY:

We’ll be back after this.

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Archival Tape – Kate Chaney:

When I was five, I visited Parliament House. The only thing I remember is that in the cafe I saw a man eating a banana with a knife and fork. It was very intimidating and a little bit strange, a little bit like this week has been. I never thought that I would end up here.

RUBY:

Sean coming back to the group of politicians, is there a collective noun for a group of politicians?

SEAN:

A deception of politicians?

RUBY:

I love it. Coming back to those politicians who have made their first speeches to parliament over the last few weeks. Listening to what they had to say. What sense did you get about the common challenges that we face, the feeling of where the country is at this moment in time?

SEAN:

Well, in a sense, the focus of many of them, especially the teals told us what we already knew from the election. Climate change was very important. Integrity was very important. A focus on gender equality was very important. Climate change in particular played a major role in speeches across the political spectrum in some senses. To me, what was most interesting about that was how difficult it was for anybody to make rhetorical points about climate really memorable. There were some sharp lines. Senator Mascarenhas talked about the fact that what we call natural disasters are really unnatural.

Archival Tape – Zaneta Mascharenas:

We can't call these natural disasters any more. Humankind has had a role to play.

SEAN:

Zoe Daniel I think really, really got me when she said to our young people, our kids, our babies…

Archival Tape – Zoe Daniel:

Our babies. I'm sorry. Sorry that your generation is going to pay the price for the failure of those who've come before you for failing to make government take the action we need to future proof our nation and the globe from the devastating impact of climate change on your lives and those of your children.

SEAN:

Think the simplicity of that apology is really quite moving. You know, there's this rhetoric in the Parliament, especially from Labour right now, about ending the climate wars. And I thought David Pocock had a great line when he said he didn't just want to end the climate wars, he wanted to win them.

Archival Tape – David Pocock:

We win them, and we start to lead as a country on climate action and biodiversity conservation.

SEAN:

So there were some sharp lines. But overall, because everybody was talking about the same topic, it all really blurred together. And I think in a way that highlights one of the difficulties facing the climate movement, especially the climate movement in politics. You know, when everyone is talking about the same thing, when everybody is using broadly similar rhetoric, does it stand out, does it reach us? Does it make us more likely to listen or do we end up closing our ears because it's just the same thing over and over? So I found that an interesting thing to experience. I think while these speeches definitely tell you what is already in the zeitgeist and in some senses aren't surprising. The thing that we can't know and this is why these first speeches are important, the thing we can't know is how these particular individuals will handle the challenges that are thrown at them will handle these topics. We don't know the way that the climate discussion will develop over the next decade in politics, we don't know what results will come out of it. We don't know the types of legislation that will be passed, the types of actions these politicians engage in. And for me, this is always the case with politics. When I ask myself why, why am I interested in politics? And often I'm not. But when I am, it's because you look at the way the moment meets the people who are alive within that moment.

RUBY:

And it's true, isn't it, that people don't always know exactly how they're going to respond in the moment. You had the example in your piece of Stephen Bates, his first speech, and the ways in which he delivered it, probably not matching to how he imagined he would, you know, present his first words to Parliament.

Archival Tape – Stephen Bates:

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land that we gather on here today.

SEAN:

Yeah. I mean, I think it's a lovely metaphor for what goes on in politics in general. Stephen Bates, a young new MP stood up and gave a moving speech.

Archival Tape – Stephen Bates:

I spent my teenage years knowing I was gay and doing everything in my power to hide it. I told myself I would force myself to get married to a woman, have kids and live in the suburbs because that is what you did. That is what you had to do. That is what was expected of me. I was lucky enough to have a very supportive, sorry.

SEAN:

And he tears up.

Archival Tape – Stephen Bates:

To have a very supportive family to come out to but.

SEAN:

And he tears up several times and he has to pause and regain his composure and he finds it quite difficult to get through the middle part of his speech.

Archival Tape – Stephen Bates:

But I spent years hiding myself because I could not see anyone in my world who was openly gay. This is so much harder than I thought it would be. I made a promise to myself once I came out that if I ever, thank you, found myself in a public role, that I would be open and proud of who I am. That I would be that person that I never saw growing up.

SEAN:

And he would not have intended that beforehand. He would have wanted to deliver that speech straight through, probably, you know, confidently and smoothly. And you can imagine that he’s quite a confident, smooth deliver. But he didn't. And the speech is much more memorable for that. And I think that is important always to remember about politics, that you have certain intentions, you don't necessarily deliver on those intentions. That is not always a bad thing.

RUBY:

Sean, thank you so much for your time.

SEAN:

Thanks so much for having me, Ruby.

Archival Tape – Stephen Bates:

Thank you.

Archival Tape – Dr Ananda-Rajah:

I thank the house.

Archival Tape – Colin Boyce:

I commend my speech to the house.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

Two men are suspected of carrying out a stabbing frenzy that has left 10 dead and 15 wounded in two remote Indigenous communities in Canada.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents First Nations groups in the Saskatchewan province, said in a statement: “Our heart breaks for all of those impacted”.

It’s one of the deadliest mass-killings in Canadian history.

And…

Liz Truss has been announced as the new leader of the conservative party in the UK, and will be sworn in as Prime Minister, replacing Boris Johnson.

Ms Truss was elected by conservative members after promising 30 billion pounds in tax cuts. She recently said she doesn’t believe the goal of taxation should be wealth redistribution.

I’m Ruby Jones - this is 7am - see you tomorrow.

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