Mr MITCHELL (Lyons) - Honourable Speaker, before I start, I congratulate you on your elevation to the chair. Congratulations.

I acknowledge that we stand on Palawa land and I express my respect to Aboriginal elders past and present.

Before I begin, I want to remark, seeing as I am the last new member to be speaking today - I know Mr Vermey will be speaking later when his family and friends arrive - on the remarkable speeches from those who preceded me today: Ms Greene, Mr George, Mr Pearce, Prof Razay, Mr Di Falco and Mrs Archer have all given wonderful insights into why they're here. There is a common thread that unites us as we care about Tasmania. We may not care about it in the same way. We may not have the same journey in how we got here, or even have the same beliefs about how we think we can make the state a better place, but we have the same care and deep compassion for the state. I don't think anybody should question that.

First of all, I thank the people of Lyons for affording me the great privilege and the great responsibility of representing them in the House of Assembly. This follows the great honour that they bestowed upon me in 2016, 2019 and 2022 by electing me to the House of Representatives. I will endeavour to repay that trust with dedication and integrity.

I also wish to thank the volunteers who helped my campaign, especially those who hosted posters in their yards and paddocks. If nothing else, they frightened the crows for a few weeks. I won't name them all because that would take us too long. I do thank Rebecca White and Casey Farrell for their service to the people of Lyons as the Labor representatives in this state parliament.

Rebecca, of course, was first elected to this place in 2010. That was a campaign I was part of and that I remember very fondly. Rebecca resigned from state parliament earlier this year so she could contest the federal seat for Labor, which she did, and won. Rebecca is already an assistant minister in the Albanese Government, and we are all very confident she will go on to play a very senior role in federal Labor governments, which is a terrific outcome for Lyons and for Tasmania more generally.

Casey Farrell was elected on a re-count following Rebecca's resignation, but he had just a few short months in the job before the unexpected 19 July state election occurred. Unfortunately, Casey was not re-elected, but he has the respect and the admiration of many across this Chamber for his diligence, his contribution and his energy, and I am sure that we will see him return to this caucus.

I also thank the other Labor candidates who were unsuccessful: Edwin Batt, Richard Goss, Saxon O'Donnell and Shannon Campbell. I look forward to seeing them contest their seat again, and hope to see some of them join Jen Butler and me as Labor member for Lyons in a Labor government led by the member for Clark, Josh Willie.

Of course, I also thank my family for their unwavering support in allowing me this opportunity to re-enter public life after I thought I'd left it. This is not what I had planned to be doing following my departure from the Commonwealth Parliament, but timing is everything, and I am delighted to once again be afforded this opportunity to contribute to public policy that benefits Tasmanians.

I am humbled to have been appointed shadow minister for TAFE, Skills and Training and shadow minister for Small Business. They are both portfolios I care deeply about. I owned my own small business for about nine years before entering politics, and I can tell you quarterly BAS (business activity statements) are not something to look forward to. Anything I can do to ease the burden for small business in getting ahead - I recognise they are the engine room of the economy - then I will do that. I look forward to working collaboratively with the minister in the best interest of small business in this state.

Of course, I look forward to prosecuting both the portfolios, holding the government to account for its commitments, and progressing Labor policy in those areas to take to the next election.

Tasmanians made it clear at the election that they want leadership and maturity from this parliament. Leadership and maturity are not inconsistent with accountability and transparency, and our Labor opposition under Josh Willie will deliver and seek both.

I happen to have the great privilege of working with a wonderful, talented group of people in the Labor caucus and I look forward to them being cabinet ministers in a Labor government in four years. I don't think it's going to be any time sooner than that, Speaker, but certainly four years is a long time to get our feet under the table, and as the Leader of the Opposition has said, there are no shortcuts to government. The people of Tasmania have made their views clear. They expect responsibility and stability and a mature approach, and that's what we will deliver.

In crafting this speech, I had occasion to revisit my first speech in the House of Representatives, which I delivered on 14 September 2016. The words are as relevant today as they were then, so rather than unnecessarily detain the House, I invite those listening to google 'Brian Mitchell MP, Hansard first speech 2016' and the entire thing should pop up at the top of your list. I know you will be avid readers, right now. You can read all about me, my history, my hopes, my motivations, and my deep commitment to my incredible electorate and its many communities. However, I will, with your indulgence, read into Hansard this small section of the speech:

I decided to run for parliament for many reasons, but if I had to give just one, it is that I do not want Australia to end up like America, where, for 40 years, trickledown economics has made a wasteland of the once-great American middle class, with wages flattened, jobs casualised and contracted out or sent overseas, and working conditions stripped bare.

We live in a fantastic country, envied the world over for its standard of living, its natural beauty and its welcoming, laid-back culture, but we did not get here by accident. We got here by design, by former members of this parliament, the national parliament, taking deliberate action to create a fairer, more inclusive society and past parliaments created a robust social security system and they legislated for universal health and affordable education.

They had the foresight to invest heavily in public infrastructure, giving us telecommunications, highways, rail, dams and ports, and they created a progressive taxation system and universal superannuation.

I digress from the speech. In Tasmania, of course, Labor governments deliver the Hydro.

Back to the speech:

They recognised that women's suffrage, indigenous rights and embraced multiculturalism and the rights of LGBTIQ Australians. Each of these elements was hard-won in the face of substantial, sometimes vitriolic, opposition, but woven together they now form the egalitarian tapestry that defines our national identity, which has been central to 25 years of uninterrupted, as it was then, economic growth.

That passage is as relevant to this state parliament as it was to the national parliament. It is the responsibility of the members of this Chamber to craft legislation that fosters economic and cultural security in order to improve Tasmanians' lives. We should take pride in delivering outcomes as seemingly mundane as delivering sound budgets, buses that run on time, hospitals that treat the sick, schools that educate our children, and building a lot more public housing.

Lofty and abstract ideals are all well and good. I like them just like the next socialist, but it is practical solutions that improve lives that matter most. It is practical solutions that the people of Lyons want from this parliament. Practical, hardworking people have no time for navel-gazing. I am proud to have delivered practical outcomes in Lyons. As a federal member of parliament, the Services Australia building in Sorell, for which I had advocated, was built. There was a jobs and training hub in Sorell, sports funding across the electorate and the very many individual outcomes for constituents who did not make headlines but changed lives at the individual level.

In what seemed a few blinks of an eye, after delivering my first speech, I was delivering my farewell on 25 November 2024. Eight years went by very quickly. I remember when the member for Franklin, Mr Abetz, retired from the Senate after, I think, 20-odd years. People say, 'Oh, 20 years is a long time.' I thought, 'You know, it goes pretty fast.' You're still learning on the job, so member for Franklin, you have a few more years in you yet, I am sure.