Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (15:23): I am happy to be here and happy to be making an address-in-reply here today. Gee, it is good to be back in this house. It is good to be re-elected and representing my beautiful, wonderful community of Wendouree in the 60th Parliament.

I am so grateful to the electors of Wendouree for the confidence they have shown in me and the Andrews Labor government’s agenda to make Victoria fairer, safer and better. Thank you to the Ballarat community for your strong support, and I promise to work hard every day to make Ballarat an even better place to live and work.

Over the last four years I have been supported by the most incredible and dedicated team in the office: Kallista Kaval, Matt Burns, Caroline – she has got this double-barrelled name, she has worked for me for four years and she will laugh if I get it wrong – Vanderklift-Stobart, Hayley Murphy and Issie Freeman. I have been just blessed with this incredible team in my electorate office. I am so fortunate to have worked with them. They are competent, they are clever and most importantly they are committed.

My name may be on the door, but Kallista, Matt and Caroline have been the heart and soul of Team Wendouree. I am so grateful for their support and hard work and I welcome so much their advice and wise counsel. Caroline and Kallista are off to do other exciting things. But we have had a great four years, and they will be very much missed. I had to get that in in case I ran out of time at the end.

My wonderful electorate of Wendouree is located on the lands of the Wathaurong people, and I pay my respects to Wathaurong elders past, present and emerging and thank them for caring for and nurturing the land and waterways of Ballarat for tens of thousands of years. Our city’s name comes from two Wathaurong words: ‘balla’, meaning elbow or reclining on elbow, and ‘arat’, meaning meeting place. So Ballarat means a lovely place to rest on one’s elbow or recline on one’s elbow, and that is what it is. It is a beautiful place. And Wathaurong means ‘the water tribe’, and at the heart of my electorate is beautiful Lake Wendouree. Wendouree too is a Wathaurong term or comes from the Wathaurong language. It means ‘go away’ or ‘get nicked’. It was said to colonisers at Lake Wendouree when they first came to Ballarat.

As we know, colonisation has had a devastating impact on our First Nations people in my community, in our state and in our nation. I wish to acknowledge the Ballarat Aboriginal community, many of whom were forcibly removed from country all over Victoria and interstate during the stolen generations decades and were brought to Ballarat, the place of a number of orphanages and children’s homes. Many of them have chosen to stay and make Ballarat their home. As a member of the Andrews Labor government I am proud of Victoria’s truth and justice process that is recognising and addressing historic and ongoing injustices, and it forms a key part of our treaty process.

My electorate of Wendouree comprises the suburbs Alfredton, where I grew up, where my mum still lives; Ballarat Central, where I currently live; Ballarat North; Black Hill; Bonshaw; Delacombe; Invermay Park; Lake Gardens; Nerrina; Newington; Redan; Soldiers Hill; Sebastopol; of course Wendouree; and Winter Valley. Following the Victorian Electoral Commission 2021 boundary redistribution Wendouree gained the suburb of Sebastopol. The Sebas community has previously been in the electorate of Ballarat West but for eight years was in Buninyong. I am so pleased to be able to represent this strong, established community that is an integral part of Ballarat.

But I am also disappointed that as a result of the redistribution I no longer represent residents in Bakery Hill, Brown Hill, Ballarat East, Invermay and Mount Rowan. However, I know these constituents will be well represented by my Labor MP neighbours the member for Eureka and the member for Ripon.

We are a proud and progressive community who are inclusive and accepting. We are an aspiring community who want Ballarat to be an even better place to work, live and study, a growing city that people from across the state, across the nation and across the world proudly call home.

Ballarat is the place where I am from, where I was raised and where I call home. Importantly it is the place where Mike and I choose to live and raise our daughters Johanna and Sophia. There is no place I would rather do this, and likewise I would be very disappointed if I finished this, with so much to talk about in my wonderful electorate, without acknowledging Mike, Johanna and Sophia – just the best. They are the best. They do everything at home when I am here. They support me in every way. These girls are little crusaders. Every time someone says something about the Premier they feel it is their job to defend him. I have told them that is not the case. But they are just absolutely beautiful girls with hearts full of social justice, and I look forward to them joining Young Labor Left in the very near future.

I am only here because of my family. I know most people will say that as well, but particularly being a regional MP, being here 15 weeks a year is an additional burden on family, so I really do want to acknowledge them today for the incredible job they do without me and the way that they support me.

I wish to congratulate my dear friend the newly elected member for Ripon for her hard-fought campaign. I look forward to working with her closely, as well as with the re-elected member but first member for the district of Eureka, so congratulations to both of them.

We are also very excited in western region to have Jacinta Ermacora in the other place, a fantastic woman from Warrnambool who will be a really, really strong voice for the western region, and of course Gayle Tierney in the other place re-elected – such a strong representative of our region, and she will now be able to continue her outstanding work as a minister in this government.

Wendouree – or Ballarat West, as it was previously known – is an important seat for Labor. It has been won by Labor at every election since 1999, first by local champion Karen Overington with a more than 5 per cent swing, a win that contributed to the end of the Kennett era and the formation of the Bracks Labor government. It is a seat that has been held by Labor ever since, with Sharon Knight holding onto the seat in 2010 despite the election loss of our government and winning again after a challenging redistribution in 2014. Because of the hard work of Labor Party members and supporters, we won Wendouree in 2018, and with a strong grassroots campaign and hard work by so many volunteers, we did it again with an increased majority in 2022.

Ballarat has enjoyed a period of unrivalled success and investment under successive Labor governments. We have welcomed unprecedented investment across our city and across our community. We have built the iconic infrastructure at our GovHub and Selkirk Stadium. We are redeveloping Ballarat Base Hospital, and we have completed the $500 million Ballarat line upgrade.

On top of that, we have increased train services to and from Melbourne and upgraded Wendouree train station. We are keeping Ballarat moving, with $60 million being spent on our congested roads and on our busiest intersections; providing record funding for local schools; upgrading sporting facilities; and supporting the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, with the establishment of the National Centre for Photography. We are also building trains at Alstom, making the Ballarat railway station accessible and bringing the 2026 Commonwealth Games to Ballarat. Only a re-elected Labor government will put people first and deliver on our promises, and that is what we will do.

The people of Victoria have endorsed our bold social, economic and environmental agenda, including taking strong action on climate and investing in renewables, transformative mental health reform and record investment to address the scourge of family violence. We are moving towards treaty, legislating for gender equality, introducing free kinder, supporting multiculturalism and ensuring that every Victorian can be who they are, because equality is not negotiable. We are also doing what matters for Victorians, delivering positive change that is transforming our state, and in doing so changing opportunities, outcomes and ultimately lives.

Locally the Andrews Labor government is doing amazing things in Wendouree. Sport is such a big part of our community. It is in the city, but it is particularly in the regions. It is why we have invested in significant upgrades and improvements across the Wendouree electorate.

We have delivered funding for world-class sporting facilities at the Wendouree West rec reserve, at Mars Stadium, at the Alfredton rec reserve, at Selkirk Stadium and at basketball stadiums at Delacombe Primary School and Phoenix community college, but there is more to do. That is why I was delighted to pledge that a re-elected Andrews Labor government would deliver a major upgrade of up to $8.4 million to the Marty Busch Reserve in Sebastopol. This is excellent news for Sebastopol Football Netball Club; Napoleons Sebastopol Cricket Club; Ballarat Sebastopol Cycling Club – road and track and BMX; Sebastopol fire brigade – CFA; Ballarat Ultimate Incorporated; St James Parish School; and local Sebas residents. This redevelopment is a great example of how the Andrews Labor government is investing in sports, making them more accessible, welcoming and inclusive, particularly for the growing number of women and girls playing sport.

Another election promise that I am very proud of is Labor’s funding commitment to the first Australian memorial to acknowledge all survivors of sexual abuse. A re-elected Andrews Labor government will contribute $500,000 to support the establishment of the Continuous Voices survivors memorial in Ballarat. The public art project will be built near a lake adjacent to Plane Avenue in Victoria Park, Ballarat. This place will be designed to recognise the pain and the trauma caused by all forms of sexual abuse and support healing and hope.

I want to support and thank the 50 survivors and supporters who worked with the Continuous Voices community reference group and artists to contribute creative research that will inform the memorial design. Thank you to Blake, Ember, Trevor, Maureen and Sarah-Jane for joining me for the election announcement at Victoria Park.

A re-elected Andrews Labor government will provide $900,000 for the Ballarat Hindu Temple & Cultural Centre to help build and upgrade community space in Ross Creek. It was very special to join with the Deputy Premier, the member for Ripon and many, many friends from the Ballarat Indian community to hear that a re-elected Andrews Labor government will support the building of a temple and prayer room, a kitchen, a community garden and a playground. Ballarat’s growing Indian community deserve the best possible community spaces to celebrate and share their culture and their traditions. This project has been six years in the making, and I am delighted that a re-elected Andrews Labor government will make it happen.

The re-elected Andrews Labor government will also support the Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre in Sebastopol with an $80,000 grant, ensuring the hardworking and dedicated staff and volunteers can continue to provide the services that our community needs. This commitment shows our support for the Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre, which is a brilliant place that offers opportunities for education, training and community connection, along with a range of support services, in a comfortable, friendly and accessible environment.

One of the many highlights of the election campaign was to welcome the Minister for Women to Ballarat to announce that a re-elected Andrews Labor government will invest $79 million in women’s health, including $5 million to support the creation of a women’s health research institute to find new ways to identify and treat diseases such as endometriosis; $64.8 million to double the number of surgeries for endometriosis and associated conditions – that is about 10,800 extra laparoscopies over the next four years; $3 million to establish an inquiry into women’s pain management to examine the systemic issues and find solutions; and $4 million for research support services so lessons learned at our new women’s health clinics can be fed into the inquiry and used to improve patient care.

These are really, really great announcements for my community, and I am so proud of them, but we can only deliver them because of the incredible volunteers that I had by my side: first and foremost my incredible mum Trudy Dickenson, Andrew Boatman, Craig Fletcher, Pauline Burke and Donald Murtagh, Russell Burns, Roland and Loretta Kaval, Heather and Kevin Roche, Geoff Peck, Sue and John Hines, Terry Grange and Wendy Symons, Pennie and Michelle Roberts, Don Henderson, Mary Hollick, Dulcie Corbett, Leo Rennie, Dawn Glen, Bill and Heather Horrocks, Clinton Young, Peter Dwyer, Dave Brownlee, Kat Petrucco and Chris Harvey, Penny Murphy, Christy Bell, Ray Ferguson, Barry Harris, Patrick Porter, Stu Harridge and so many other people.

It is the greatest honour in my life to represent the community that I grew up in. I am so proud to be able to stand here and be a member of this government. I take the full weight of responsibility for the role, and it means that I will work really, really hard to make sure everything that we have committed to is delivered to the people of Ballarat and to the state of Victoria, because that is what this government does.

We do what we say and we say what we do, and I could not be prouder to be a member of the Andrews Labor government.

 

Watch and read more of my speeches to Parliament here, including responses from ministers on how we’re working for Wendouree.

You can also view videos from Parliament, browse Hansard transcripts, learn about bills and legislation, and much more at the Parliament of Victoria’s website.