These were among Dr David Gillespie’s final words to the Australian Parliament after almost twelve years as the Member for Lyne.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

Dr Gillespie announced his retirement last month with the Nationals to pre-select his potential replacement in coming weeks, ahead of next year’s Federal Election.

Among the contenders is the former state Member for Oxley, Melinda Pavey.

Dr Gillespie’s address can be found in full on his Facebook and Instagram pages.

In it, he thanks the people of Lyne, his wife Charlotte and their children Isabelle, Oliver and Alice, their extended family, his staff and his National Party colleagues.

He also refers to experiencing his own annus horribilis (Latin for a horrible year).

Following are selected passages.

Valedictory Speech

“For nearly twelve years I have given my best, but many of you who know me… realise that I haven’t been my best during this past term. I have had my annus horribilis and I was not able to perform at my peak.

“I’ll give you a quick run through: vaccine side-effects followed by a serious bike accident – fractured ribs, sternum, vertebra, amnesia for a day or two – pneumonia then pleurisy, kidney damage, and then the ignominy of injuring myself playing cricket. I now have the experience of driving a four-wheel buggy.

“It’s a bittersweet moment for me to be leaving now.

“I’ve worked out that you need a lot of skills to be a good MP. You are not just a legislator. You’re a voice for your constituents. You’re an inquisitor in committees. You’re a policymaker.
You’re a negotiator. You’re part parish priest. You’ve got to be an economist. You have to be an industrial advocate, a diplomat, a social media genius, a writer – and the list goes on. It has been a journey and a half, full of highs and lows.

“Lyne getting its fair share of our nation’s infrastructure build has been fantastic.

“The big favourites are the two major Pacific Highway upgrades that bookend the seat of Lyne: north of Port Macquarie to Kempsey delivered in the first term and now the Hunter River crossing.
But there is still unfinished business. There are six highway overpass interchanges and several realignments that will need to be completed for it to turn into a full freeway.

“At the southern end of the electorate, we have the big one: the Newcastle Airport. We were able to secure two grants totalling $130 million. It will be the best-value international airport in the country, not just for the 750,000 people in the Hunter but also for all the people in the Mid North Coast region, who will all of a sudden have their own international airport.

“As a country MP, you see a lot of community and sporting infrastructure and arts funding totally skewed and massive amounts going into capital cities. So I worked really hard to develop sporting facilities in my electorate of Lyne. New surf club upgrades are scattered across the electorate… and there were new grandstands, female change facilities and oval upgrades in Maitland, Gloucester and Karuah.

“We were able to secure two funding grants to make… the Taree Universities Campus [a reality]. So Manning Valley, Gloucester, Forster-Tuncurry and the region now have access to a multi-university, community owned facility in a permanent campus for the next 25 years.

“During this time in parliament, we’ve had some major challenges. We had the devastating, record-breaking 2019 fires after years of really extreme drought. Then a year later we went to the other extreme and had the most massive floods since the 1960s.

“I had a few hiccups and a challenge in 2016. They took away Port Macquarie… but I gained something better. [I] inherited all the territory down to the Hunter across to Hawks Nest. Just about every tourism and primary industry is now encapsulated in Lyne, plus I picked up the mighty Hunter River and Maitland and all that Hunter history and many service industries and even more people in the mining industry.

On the coast, there were two coalmines. I’ve got one left, but there are about 20,000 people who work because of the Hunter coal-fired power stations or the coalmines, and they all live in the beautiful part of Lyne.

But there are opponents and obstacles everywhere, coming for all these primary industries. They are all at threat with the net zero agenda. We have a huge problem because these are all the industries that make us our money. We won’t have an energy system, if we don’t have a base load.

“My best thing ever, and probably my most substantial non-legislative role, is setting up the Parliamentary Friends of Nuclear Industries. The idea that any radiation is bad is a totally debunked theory.

“The urgent necessity for this nation now is that we’ve still got an electricity system that works – just. But where we are really thin is on liquid fuel security. We have got to, as President Trump said, ‘drill, baby, drill’, because we need to get liquid fuel security in this country.”

By Sue STEPHENSON