In her inaugural speech to Parliament, the new Bass MP praises the resilience of locals but reminds Spring Street that many in our community are doing it tough.
By Jordan Crugnale
Budam ba marramb-ik wandhanada guleeny ba badjurr ba Torres Strait Islander marrmbeena ganbu-ngi koolin-bulok ba yarraga marram nerrim nerrim ba babadiyl wurdiyalyal dinumaria biik ba baany Boon wurrung ba Woiwurrung galen – barreeam gooleenya narram–dhana biik yannathan-ut ba marram -dhana birrarang-ga Yuma –djerri -ngat ba ngulu weelam
[Translation from the Boon Wurrung language: I want to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as our first peoples and acknowledge the unique and continuous relationship with the land and water of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Eastern Kulin nations, whose land we walk and whose country we share and call home.]
I wish to also sincerely acknowledge the hurt, the dispossession, the scars that run deep from the hands of white people, that there are many wrongs that still need righting, a history that needs retelling and a relationship that needs recasting so we can all walk forward as Australians together.
I can't tell my story without including my family: both the one I have come from and the one I have made.
My family on both sides called the mountains of Abruzzo, in central Italy, home, their lives and their story intertwined with the land – as farmers, woodchoppers, fieldworkers and builders. The ancient italic people called the Samnites, warriors, short in stature, strategic in battle, joined with neighbouring tribes and fought three wars against the Romans. They were the first gladiators of that time and they rest in the fields by the river in their thousands, in my grandmother’s village of Alfedena.
Budam ba marramb-ik wandhanada guleeny ba badjurr ba Torres Strait Islander marrmbeena ganbu-ngi koolin-bulok ba yarraga marram nerrim nerrim ba babadiyl wurdiyalyal dinumaria biik ba baany Boon wurrung ba Woiwurrung galen – barreeam gooleenya narram–dhana biik yannathan-ut ba marram -dhana birrarang-ga Yuma –djerri -ngat ba ngulu weelam
[Translation from the Boon Wurrung language: I want to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as our first peoples and acknowledge the unique and continuous relationship with the land and water of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Eastern Kulin nations, whose land we walk and whose country we share and call home.]
I wish to also sincerely acknowledge the hurt, the dispossession, the scars that run deep from the hands of white people, that there are many wrongs that still need righting, a history that needs retelling and a relationship that needs recasting so we can all walk forward as Australians together.
I can't tell my story without including my family: both the one I have come from and the one I have made.
My family on both sides called the mountains of Abruzzo, in central Italy, home, their lives and their story intertwined with the land – as farmers, woodchoppers, fieldworkers and builders. The ancient italic people called the Samnites, warriors, short in stature, strategic in battle, joined with neighbouring tribes and fought three wars against the Romans. They were the first gladiators of that time and they rest in the fields by the river in their thousands, in my grandmother’s village of Alfedena.
Click to link to a video of Jordan Crugnale's speech My grandmother used to say “Never set the table without a bottle of wine” and “Bread is your best friend”. Like many around them, they were displaced in the Second World War: their houses bombed, burned and ransacked. They lived in refugee camps, lost newborns from malnutrition, had children separated from them, hid in the mountains and some were captured and held at gunpoint. My mother still says today that “You have no idea what it is like to be hungry”.
These stories and more were all part of our growing up. Adversity and hope, gratefulness and compassion, family and community.
My parents came here by boat, settled in regional Western Australia, rolled up their sleeves wanting a better life for their future children and grandchildren. For them, education and hard work was the path to economic and social improvement.
"Play fair, fight with the facts, give credit where it is due, be the first to admit you are wrong and look out for your neighbour". This was the essence that held us as a family.
My father gifted me a Victa lawnmower for my sixth birthday, set me to work and I spent the next eight years as his assistant in what you could call the “construction industry” on his building site, bricklaying, tiling, levelling concrete and making his coffee. Subsequent birthday presents were classically Italian: oversized blocks of parmesan cheese and loaves of bread.
As a builder he would read the ground and know its strengths and vulnerabilities and spend time getting that first piece of string level and right, a metaphor for life really – know your base, invest in the foundation and set the form work well. Like my Dad, this is Labor’s story: building a strong society from the ground up, getting the foundations right and doing the hard work.
My eclectic working history has taken me to the Kimberley, Latrobe Valley, here in Bass, Melbourne, Cambodia, Mexico and El Salvador.
I have been extremely blessed to have worked for some amazing people over my life. In a bilingual school and on an oral history project with senior Kukatja, Ngardi and Wangakunkja women, both in the Kimberley. As part of my work we collected over 40 tapes in language and assembled a collection of these stories now in print. Their stories as cooks riding camels on the Canning Stock Route in the 1930s is one of my most treasured memories.
Making musical instruments with street kids in Mexico, teaching English to migrants and refugees, with young mums we took over the town of Morwell with paste ups of them pregnant, with their children and hundreds of little baby footprints (with council’s permission of course), making wire drawing installations with kids from Bass Valley Primary and being a support worker in a mental health drop-in centre in the city – the thread that runs through is people (many of whom sit outside the mainstream) and community.
At the heart of my working life has always been the principle of social justice: Labor’s core values of fairness, inclusion and opportunity. Throwing in quality education for all, workers’ rights, access to health care and an appreciation of diversity.
When the Mental Health Royal Commission was announced, it brought me to tears. My sister is no longer here for a number of reasons but also because the system let her down. Six months after she closed her eyes to this world, I wrote letters because I didn’t want any other family to go through what we went through.
This government will dissect this broken system and start again and make sure the services, the supports, the early interventions – everything is right. I hope everyone from everywhere, across every culture, in every community, across all ages, puts in a submission because only you can help change the system for the better through YOUR STORY and experience.
I had the honour to serve as a Bass Coast councillor for four years with a year as mayor – a wonderful experience forging connections with people working in business, health, education, farming, the arts and the environment. This work gave me insight into the issues, needs and aspirations of the people and communities of Bass.
It was this insight that led me to join the Labor Party. I ran for Bass because I could no longer stand by and watch the growing inequality in our society. Despite Australia's prosperity, far too many people are doing it tough.
The seat of Bass is unique. It takes in the growing outer metro suburbs of Pakenham and Clyde, the rich market gardens of Cardinia, the nature-based tourism of Phillip Island and a beautiful coastline made up of marine parks, reserves and significant wetlands.
At one end of my electorate is Pakenham, only 20 years ago a country town, now a thriving multicultural urban community.
At the other end of the electorate is the Bass Coast, a community of coastal towns and villages where the environment is the economy.
Wonthaggi has a rich socialist union history starting out as a State coal mine. Koo Wee Rup in the middle is the nation's asparagus growing capital and so many other places and spaces with interesting points of interest and difference.
We have enjoyed strong growth, and with that comes new opportunities but also many challenges. It is essential we have a strong local economy, accessible health and social support services, modern educational facilities, efficient transport links, local jobs, housing and a healthy environment.
But people are doing it tough – we have too many highs and lows and for the worse compared with our regional and metropolitan counterparts. We have high teenage pregnancy rates, low average household incomes, high rates of family violence and low Year 12 completion. Bass is ranked amongst the highest in the state for the number of children with development vulnerabilities.
Food insecurity one of the highest. The number of children attending three- and five-year-old maternal child health checks is the lowest in the state. The rate of cancer in females is among the highest in the state.
Youth unemployment, substantial underemployment and growing job insecurity affect us all as a community. A classroom and a half is born each week on one side of the electorate, and we have a rapidly ageing population on the other.
Mortgage stress, rental stress, our caravan parks are our social, crisis and emergency housing options. People are driving crazy distances for work. Our elderly travel for hours on the bus to Dandenong Hospital with their x-rays under their arms.
This is not good – when we have people not travelling so well we are not well as a collective.
The statistics are backed with stories. Stories that are real and meaningful, distressing and enlightening – parents not able to afford the specialist support for their children, women in violent situations not knowing where to access help and families from war-torn countries here to build a better future for their children, singled out and judged at every turn.
It was no surprise, then, that the voters of Bass responded so positively to this government’s plans for three-year-old kinder, mental health professionals in high schools, dental vans in schools, community hospitals, free TAFE courses, the Local Jobs First program, and solar homes.
Locally, we also committed to four level crossing removals and a new superstation, two community hospitals, eight schools, a coastal park, inland parks, CFA, ambulance and police stations and significant school upgrades.
All these programs will make a significant difference for Bass. This is why I am here, this is why I am Labor and why the people of Bass voted for an Andrews Labor Government.
We will deliver stronger local economies that create local jobs – improving economic opportunity and cutting into travel times. We need better public transport, an integrated system that is efficient and regular and for everyone. As a first step, we need more bus services to link with V-Line and Metro services to the city, as well as bus services in and around where we live.
We need better health and social support services – tailored for each community and resourced according to need.
We want to continue to protect and enhance the environmental assets and natural resources we have and for which we are justifiably famous.
And, importantly, we need much better social housing. Because without the safety and security of housing, everything becomes so much harder.
In new housing estates, we need to mandate affordable, social and emergency housing. We need allocated space for future solar battery storage, rain gardens and space for trees to be trees and more than just decorative adornments. The focus needs to be on liveability, quality and everything we build has to be through a climate change lens.
Speaker, the strength of my community can be found in examples like that of the friends of Samantha Fraser, a mother of two young children who was killed in her own home in Cowes last year. In the midst of their grief, Samantha’s friends determined that some good at least should come out of her tragic death. They have worked tirelessly since then, in partnership with the council, police and health services, for more supports to tackle family violence in the Bass Coast region. The Change for Sam strategy was funded by this government late last year.
People in Bass have extraordinary resilience and a strong sense of community and this has been so visible recently with the fires at Grantville and those still going in Bunyip, Yinnar South and throughout Gippsland. The community have wrapped their arms around those affected, rallying to help in every way they can. Donations to relief centres abound; stables and paddocks have been offered for horses, dogs and livestock. Homes have been thrown open. This is community. Strike teams from right across the region and state, CFA volunteers who work have been let off by their boss, still receiving their wages, businesses offering free this and free that – everyone chipping in- in whichever way they can.
As the first Labor representative and the first woman representative for the seat of Bass, I will fight to make their voices heard, here in this chamber and beyond.
No one arrives here without help, and support, and lots of it.
I want to acknowledge former Member for Bass, Brian Paynter for his service to our community and wish him all the very best.
Thank you to the electorate of Bass for putting your collective trust in the Andrews Labor Government and in me.
To the absolutely magnificent branch members, supporters, friends, family, the Unions, the Community Action Network, donors, volunteers and everyone on our campaign team, indeed everyone in the great Labor family - we turned this seat around because of your hard work, commitment and spirit.
Premier and everyone making up this very large caucus and their staff – thank you and I am thrilled to be part of this team, this government, at this time.
A special mention to Kay Setches, local branch member and former Minister in this place [the Victorian Legislative Assembly] – a “positive disrupter” who has been at my side throughout.
To Elaina Haig, who I still have in my phone as “wants a new high school in Pakenham”. We’re going to do it, and we’re going to open it together in 2021.
To branch member Eric Kent from Lang Lang, who was first elected to the other place [the Victorian Legislative Council] in 1970 and was Minister of Agriculture in the Cain Government. At age 99, with his cup of tea in his Gough Whitlam mug, he held my hand with strength and sent me on my way after my pre-selection saying only… “Return as the Member for Bass!”. I overwhelmingly endorse Eric’s hope of receiving a letter for his hundredth birthday this June from a Labor Prime Minister. Eric, this one’s for you.
My Mark … always by my side. We have walked across many lands and through many tunnels together with your guitar in hand. Labor courses through your veins, our boys cherish the stories of your grandad Bill O’Neill working the trains with Chifley, being secretary of the NSW Railways Union, Lang’s secretary and importantly fighting for equal pay for women in the railways back in the 1940s.
To our little Aquilini - Augustus and Luciano, adorable warriors, short in stature momentarily - please keep asking questions and challenging the status quo ... and write back to Lego in Denmark because their response on plastic packaging simply wasn't good enough.
Walk proud with your history, look out for each other and those around you and know that those golden threads that pass through you, weave around you and connect you to your yesterday and thread your tomorrow are a story of family and community.
Speaker, I am proud that we ran a positive, forward-thinking, grassroots campaign. We listened intently, we told our story and we brought all our conversations with the people of Bass to the table.
So to the people of Bass, and in conclusion Speaker,
We will make our stories heard. We will bring forth our ideas, our priorities and challenges, constructively and with formidable intent. We will work, together, to meet the challenges we face head on. With dignity, but with determination.
Because Bass matters and we are worth it.
Jordan Crugnale is the new Labor MP for Bass. This is an edited version of her inaugural speech to Parliament on Thursday, March 7.
These stories and more were all part of our growing up. Adversity and hope, gratefulness and compassion, family and community.
My parents came here by boat, settled in regional Western Australia, rolled up their sleeves wanting a better life for their future children and grandchildren. For them, education and hard work was the path to economic and social improvement.
"Play fair, fight with the facts, give credit where it is due, be the first to admit you are wrong and look out for your neighbour". This was the essence that held us as a family.
My father gifted me a Victa lawnmower for my sixth birthday, set me to work and I spent the next eight years as his assistant in what you could call the “construction industry” on his building site, bricklaying, tiling, levelling concrete and making his coffee. Subsequent birthday presents were classically Italian: oversized blocks of parmesan cheese and loaves of bread.
As a builder he would read the ground and know its strengths and vulnerabilities and spend time getting that first piece of string level and right, a metaphor for life really – know your base, invest in the foundation and set the form work well. Like my Dad, this is Labor’s story: building a strong society from the ground up, getting the foundations right and doing the hard work.
My eclectic working history has taken me to the Kimberley, Latrobe Valley, here in Bass, Melbourne, Cambodia, Mexico and El Salvador.
I have been extremely blessed to have worked for some amazing people over my life. In a bilingual school and on an oral history project with senior Kukatja, Ngardi and Wangakunkja women, both in the Kimberley. As part of my work we collected over 40 tapes in language and assembled a collection of these stories now in print. Their stories as cooks riding camels on the Canning Stock Route in the 1930s is one of my most treasured memories.
Making musical instruments with street kids in Mexico, teaching English to migrants and refugees, with young mums we took over the town of Morwell with paste ups of them pregnant, with their children and hundreds of little baby footprints (with council’s permission of course), making wire drawing installations with kids from Bass Valley Primary and being a support worker in a mental health drop-in centre in the city – the thread that runs through is people (many of whom sit outside the mainstream) and community.
At the heart of my working life has always been the principle of social justice: Labor’s core values of fairness, inclusion and opportunity. Throwing in quality education for all, workers’ rights, access to health care and an appreciation of diversity.
When the Mental Health Royal Commission was announced, it brought me to tears. My sister is no longer here for a number of reasons but also because the system let her down. Six months after she closed her eyes to this world, I wrote letters because I didn’t want any other family to go through what we went through.
This government will dissect this broken system and start again and make sure the services, the supports, the early interventions – everything is right. I hope everyone from everywhere, across every culture, in every community, across all ages, puts in a submission because only you can help change the system for the better through YOUR STORY and experience.
I had the honour to serve as a Bass Coast councillor for four years with a year as mayor – a wonderful experience forging connections with people working in business, health, education, farming, the arts and the environment. This work gave me insight into the issues, needs and aspirations of the people and communities of Bass.
It was this insight that led me to join the Labor Party. I ran for Bass because I could no longer stand by and watch the growing inequality in our society. Despite Australia's prosperity, far too many people are doing it tough.
The seat of Bass is unique. It takes in the growing outer metro suburbs of Pakenham and Clyde, the rich market gardens of Cardinia, the nature-based tourism of Phillip Island and a beautiful coastline made up of marine parks, reserves and significant wetlands.
At one end of my electorate is Pakenham, only 20 years ago a country town, now a thriving multicultural urban community.
At the other end of the electorate is the Bass Coast, a community of coastal towns and villages where the environment is the economy.
Wonthaggi has a rich socialist union history starting out as a State coal mine. Koo Wee Rup in the middle is the nation's asparagus growing capital and so many other places and spaces with interesting points of interest and difference.
We have enjoyed strong growth, and with that comes new opportunities but also many challenges. It is essential we have a strong local economy, accessible health and social support services, modern educational facilities, efficient transport links, local jobs, housing and a healthy environment.
But people are doing it tough – we have too many highs and lows and for the worse compared with our regional and metropolitan counterparts. We have high teenage pregnancy rates, low average household incomes, high rates of family violence and low Year 12 completion. Bass is ranked amongst the highest in the state for the number of children with development vulnerabilities.
Food insecurity one of the highest. The number of children attending three- and five-year-old maternal child health checks is the lowest in the state. The rate of cancer in females is among the highest in the state.
Youth unemployment, substantial underemployment and growing job insecurity affect us all as a community. A classroom and a half is born each week on one side of the electorate, and we have a rapidly ageing population on the other.
Mortgage stress, rental stress, our caravan parks are our social, crisis and emergency housing options. People are driving crazy distances for work. Our elderly travel for hours on the bus to Dandenong Hospital with their x-rays under their arms.
This is not good – when we have people not travelling so well we are not well as a collective.
The statistics are backed with stories. Stories that are real and meaningful, distressing and enlightening – parents not able to afford the specialist support for their children, women in violent situations not knowing where to access help and families from war-torn countries here to build a better future for their children, singled out and judged at every turn.
It was no surprise, then, that the voters of Bass responded so positively to this government’s plans for three-year-old kinder, mental health professionals in high schools, dental vans in schools, community hospitals, free TAFE courses, the Local Jobs First program, and solar homes.
Locally, we also committed to four level crossing removals and a new superstation, two community hospitals, eight schools, a coastal park, inland parks, CFA, ambulance and police stations and significant school upgrades.
All these programs will make a significant difference for Bass. This is why I am here, this is why I am Labor and why the people of Bass voted for an Andrews Labor Government.
We will deliver stronger local economies that create local jobs – improving economic opportunity and cutting into travel times. We need better public transport, an integrated system that is efficient and regular and for everyone. As a first step, we need more bus services to link with V-Line and Metro services to the city, as well as bus services in and around where we live.
We need better health and social support services – tailored for each community and resourced according to need.
We want to continue to protect and enhance the environmental assets and natural resources we have and for which we are justifiably famous.
And, importantly, we need much better social housing. Because without the safety and security of housing, everything becomes so much harder.
In new housing estates, we need to mandate affordable, social and emergency housing. We need allocated space for future solar battery storage, rain gardens and space for trees to be trees and more than just decorative adornments. The focus needs to be on liveability, quality and everything we build has to be through a climate change lens.
Speaker, the strength of my community can be found in examples like that of the friends of Samantha Fraser, a mother of two young children who was killed in her own home in Cowes last year. In the midst of their grief, Samantha’s friends determined that some good at least should come out of her tragic death. They have worked tirelessly since then, in partnership with the council, police and health services, for more supports to tackle family violence in the Bass Coast region. The Change for Sam strategy was funded by this government late last year.
People in Bass have extraordinary resilience and a strong sense of community and this has been so visible recently with the fires at Grantville and those still going in Bunyip, Yinnar South and throughout Gippsland. The community have wrapped their arms around those affected, rallying to help in every way they can. Donations to relief centres abound; stables and paddocks have been offered for horses, dogs and livestock. Homes have been thrown open. This is community. Strike teams from right across the region and state, CFA volunteers who work have been let off by their boss, still receiving their wages, businesses offering free this and free that – everyone chipping in- in whichever way they can.
As the first Labor representative and the first woman representative for the seat of Bass, I will fight to make their voices heard, here in this chamber and beyond.
No one arrives here without help, and support, and lots of it.
I want to acknowledge former Member for Bass, Brian Paynter for his service to our community and wish him all the very best.
Thank you to the electorate of Bass for putting your collective trust in the Andrews Labor Government and in me.
To the absolutely magnificent branch members, supporters, friends, family, the Unions, the Community Action Network, donors, volunteers and everyone on our campaign team, indeed everyone in the great Labor family - we turned this seat around because of your hard work, commitment and spirit.
Premier and everyone making up this very large caucus and their staff – thank you and I am thrilled to be part of this team, this government, at this time.
A special mention to Kay Setches, local branch member and former Minister in this place [the Victorian Legislative Assembly] – a “positive disrupter” who has been at my side throughout.
To Elaina Haig, who I still have in my phone as “wants a new high school in Pakenham”. We’re going to do it, and we’re going to open it together in 2021.
To branch member Eric Kent from Lang Lang, who was first elected to the other place [the Victorian Legislative Council] in 1970 and was Minister of Agriculture in the Cain Government. At age 99, with his cup of tea in his Gough Whitlam mug, he held my hand with strength and sent me on my way after my pre-selection saying only… “Return as the Member for Bass!”. I overwhelmingly endorse Eric’s hope of receiving a letter for his hundredth birthday this June from a Labor Prime Minister. Eric, this one’s for you.
My Mark … always by my side. We have walked across many lands and through many tunnels together with your guitar in hand. Labor courses through your veins, our boys cherish the stories of your grandad Bill O’Neill working the trains with Chifley, being secretary of the NSW Railways Union, Lang’s secretary and importantly fighting for equal pay for women in the railways back in the 1940s.
To our little Aquilini - Augustus and Luciano, adorable warriors, short in stature momentarily - please keep asking questions and challenging the status quo ... and write back to Lego in Denmark because their response on plastic packaging simply wasn't good enough.
Walk proud with your history, look out for each other and those around you and know that those golden threads that pass through you, weave around you and connect you to your yesterday and thread your tomorrow are a story of family and community.
Speaker, I am proud that we ran a positive, forward-thinking, grassroots campaign. We listened intently, we told our story and we brought all our conversations with the people of Bass to the table.
So to the people of Bass, and in conclusion Speaker,
We will make our stories heard. We will bring forth our ideas, our priorities and challenges, constructively and with formidable intent. We will work, together, to meet the challenges we face head on. With dignity, but with determination.
Because Bass matters and we are worth it.
Jordan Crugnale is the new Labor MP for Bass. This is an edited version of her inaugural speech to Parliament on Thursday, March 7.
Jordan Crugnale with sons Augustus, left, and Luciano, centre, and family friend Sam Thexton following her speech to the Victorian Parliament.
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