Eight years ago at the 2006 Queensland election, after giving it my all and doorknocking on thousands of doors, I was defeated in Mudgeeraba by a narrow margin. Today, though, I am pleased to report that after two elections I now have a majority of almost 26 per cent.

As I look around the chamber I am struck by how common this story has become. The members for Burleigh, Ipswich West, Greenslopes, Stretton and Toowoomba North, amongst others, were all defeated in an election prior to taking their seat in this place.

It is a testament to their tenacity that for years between elections they have continued to work hard for their local communities to raise the tough questions without pay and without a lot of support. It is that spirit of tenacity and never giving in that will serve both them and their constituents well in the 54th Parliament. As an American poet once said, defeat is not the worst of failures; not to have tried is the true failure. Those members know better than most how true that quote is.

Since being elected in 2009 I have taken this spirit and applied it to all that I have done. Today I would like to update the House on some of the many local issues I have been advancing since being elected. I turn first to the M1 Motorway. This is the lifeblood of my electorate. Its importance to both the lives of Mudgeeraba families and the productivity of businesses within my electorate cannot be overstated. Keeping the former government to account on its promises on the M1 upgrade was one of the first promises I made when I was first preselected in 2005 and I have spent the last seven years doing so. Having been dubbed the ‘member for the M1' by the local media, I am pleased to report substantial progress. The M1 has been widened between exit 73 in Nerang and exit 77 in Worongary.

The department of main roads has completed the installation of sound barriers along Hinkler Drive and further sound barriers are being constructed in the area surrounding the M1 exit at Merrimac. I have also requested the department of main roads to undertake further noise testing around the new development on Bourton Road. The upgrade to exit 79 is complete and has resulted in a significant decrease in local traffic congestion. The sound barriers in this area for which I fought the last government tooth and nail are currently under construction. I will continue to lobby the Gold Coast City Council for sound barriers at The Glades and I am hopeful that the new council will finally rectify the issue for residents and install this important noise mitigation.
Exit 82 will be completed in June this year, weather permitting, together with sound barriers for long-suffering residents at Queen Charlotte Court. Sound barriers have been installed on Hinkler Drive at San Fernando Drive and I understand a tender is to be announced in September this year for the continuation of the M1 upgrade from exit 77 to exit 79. I will be working with the member for Burleigh to fix the mess that the previous government has made of exit 84 and exit 85. The plan simply does not work and it will exacerbate, rather than ease, traffic congestion.

However, the M1 upgrade is not all that I have been working on. Last week I tabled a petition of over 900 signatories for a new high school to be built west of the M1. At present, high school students in the Mudgeeraba electorate have to attend Robina State High School, Varsity College or Nerang State High School. If they attend Robina State High School or Varsity College they have to be driven, considerably increasing the congestion on the roads because they do have to cross the M1. Even if they are not driven, children have to cross at a series of dangerous crossings. It is a dangerous situation and one that could be remedied.

The electorate of Mudgeeraba can support a high school. Recent figures show 68 per cent of people living in my electorate have school-age children, but the previous government ignored the problem, saying that a new high school would not be built on the western side of the M1 for 20 years. This petition from my constituents only asks for a feasibility study, something I will continue to discuss with my colleague, the Minister for Education, Training and Employment.

I turn now to the Nerang Fire Station. My colleague the member for Gaven and I fought side by side for a fire station at Nerang for five years. I was pleased and proud to attend the official opening of the station at the end of 2010. I was even more proud to be photographed at the opening with one of the original petitioners, Gloria Jones, who along with thousands of others, never stopped trying to persuade the previous government of the folly of being so underprepared for fires in the Gold Coast hinterland and even in suburban areas such as Carrara and Merrimac.

It is important also that people feel safe in their homes and in their community. Honourable members will have heard me speak at every available opportunity during the last parliament about the need for a 24-hour counter service at the hinterland police stations. I am still going to continue to advocate for that. The nature of the coast means that a police communications centre at Broadbeach cannot adequately serve the needs of my constituents. The distances are simply too far for a truly rapid response.
Honourable members would also be aware of the history of the overhead powerlines at Mudgeeraba and Reedy Creek. Following community consultation and a lot of community anger, we won the battle against the Labor government to have the overhead powerlines built on the eastern side of the M1 and nowhere near homes. When I was first elected, Worongary Road was a mishmash of small sections of upgraded road surface and a patchwork quilt of potholes haphazardly filled in. It took over two years and a flurry of lobbying of the previous government for action.

However, I can now report that the upgrade between Brixton Court and Uplands Court is now complete. As part of this upgrade, a service road has been constructed on the western side of Worongary Road for residents to access their sections of the road from Eyrie Street to Brixton Court. Woodvale Drive to Advancetown-Mudgeeraba Road has also been resealed. I continue the process between the department of main roads and the Gold Coast City Council to hand this road over so it can be fixed once and for all.

Beechmont Road is Queensland's worst state funded road. This road links Nerang to Canungra via Lower Beechmont and Beechmont. It has literally been sliding down the mountain. The condition of the road is horrible and, for the residents who use it every day, it is a massive liability. The $2 million election commitment in 2009 for which I fought and that had been held up by the federal government over a number of macadamia trees is now resolved. It is my understanding that roadworks are happening as we speak. A further $1.5 million has also been secured for the bottom of the mountain where members would remember there were a number of fatalities. The landslip which occurred last year is also to be rectified with NDRRA funding to fix this issue once and for all. In conjunction with the new member for Beaudesert, I will continue to fight to ensure that the road is upgraded quickly and safely.

I turn now to Springbrook. Many members would have heard me speak about Springbrook. The previous government had a plan-it was a secret plan, a surreptitious plan-to buy up houses in Springbrook and then demolish them. It simply made no sense for the government to buy tracts of land and demolish the houses, particularly when state housing was so stretched on the Gold Coast. This secret plan made little sense on any level, unless it was a plan to demolish not only these houses but also the Springbrook community.

I have been asking questions on what the last government's thinking was behind that secret plan and why it was never announced. I did not receive any real response from the last government. I look forward to actually receiving some answers from the current Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection and wrestling back control of their own destiny for the silent majority who voted for me in Springbrook from the vocal green minority who have held these residents to ransom.

In November last year a petition of 9,200 residents of the Gold Coast against the proposed Boral quarry at Reedy Creek was also tabled. This is in addition to a postcard campaign in which 75 per cent of Reedy Creek surveyed residents replied saying they did not want the quarry there. Residents have serious concerns about the potential devaluation of their properties, additional traffic congestion, and the constant noise, blasting and dust associated with quarrying in this local area. I will continue to work with the government to ensure that the needs of my constituents are listened to in relation to the placement of the quarry and to honour my pledge to local residents that I will do everything in my power to amend the planning legislation and the South-East Queensland Regional Plan's state regulatory provisions to ensure that new quarries on the Gold Coast are not approved within the existing urban footprint.

When I took office there were two problems that, while they affect the entire state, disproportionately affected my electorate. Those two problems were hooning and graffiti. Hoons were a major nuisance problem in the quiet streets of Mudgeeraba and a major safety problem on our rural roads. With the help of the community and the local police we have reduced this problem significantly. The community was given the incentive and the means to contact the police when they saw someone hooning. This increased vigilance as well as swift action by my local police has provided the increased deterrent required to stop this behaviour. This vigilance has also assisted in the fight against graffiti. We have relied on the assistance of locals to find graffiti and report it quickly. As I am sure honourable members are aware, the sooner graffiti is removed, the better. Those who deface surfaces receive less attention from having their tag on display and other graffiti is less likely to be placed on a cleaned wall than a wall where there is already graffiti.

I have a level of community engagement with my community forums which is displayed through the graffiti and hoon watch programs and it is something that I have prided myself on since becoming a member of parliament. I hold regular action posts throughout the electorate, including regularly hosting a stall at the Mudgeeraba farmers markets and a large presence at the Mudgeeraba Show. I am a regular at the Mudgeeraba Chamber of Commerce, the Central Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce, the Springbrook Chamber of Commerce and Communities for Sustainable Futures. I attend meetings of the Springbrook Mountain Community Association; the Bonogin Valley Community Association; my Lions clubs; the Mudgeeraba-Springbrook Country Women's Association, of which I am a proud member; the Rotary Club of Robina; the Rotary Club of Mudgeeraba; the Gold Coast Local Ambulance Committee, of which I am still a member; and the Mudgeeraba Police Consultative Committee, of which I am very proud.

I have played a very active role in the Mudgeeraba Neighbourhood Watch, the Merridown Neighbourhood Watch, Friends of the Gold Coast Hinterland Heritage Society and the Numinbah Correctional Facility Group. I also continue my active support of the Mudgeeraba Action Group. I am proud to be a patron of the Mudgeeraba Pony and Hack Club, the Merrimac Football Club, the Magic United Football Club, the Mudgeeraba-Nerang Cricket Club, the mighty Carrara Saints AFL Club, the Gold Coast Dolphins Cricket Club, the mighty Mudgeeraba Redbacks Junior Rugby League Club, the Hinterland District Netball Association, the Robina Braves Baseball Club, the Robina Raptors Junior Rugby League Club. Despite having a hinterland electorate, apparently I am also the patron of the Surf Life Saving Queensland South Coast Branch, which I attend every now and again. I would like to thank everyone involved in those organisations for generously giving up their time for the betterment of their communities. Without their hard work it is impossible to have a community.

Together the Mudgeeraba community and I have achieved so much, and I would like to acknowledge those who have assisted me in my re-election. Firstly to the people of Mudgeeraba, thank you again for your overwhelming trust in me. I am humbled by your confidence in me and I will not let you down. I will continue to fight hard to improve our local area in whatever way I can. Thank you to my electorate staff who have worked tirelessly to assist those who came through the door, called us or stopped by one of the hundreds of action posts I have held since being preselected. I would like to thank Nikki, Margot, Harvey, Alex and Gloria in my office for their support. I would like to thank my campaign team. There are too many to thank individually, so I would like to table a list if that is okay, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Tabled paper: A list of names of people on Ms Bates campaign team.

Without your persistence and hard work I would not be here today. I would like to thank my
mentors Tim Nicholls and Jeff Seeney and my good friends Tracy Davis and Jarrod Bleijie for their friendship and camaraderie. This place would not be the same without you. I would particularly like to thank the Hon. Campbell Newman for his leadership, his friendship and his support. I would also like to thank James McGrath, Mitch Redford and Lincoln Folio for their assistance in getting me and the team across the line. I would like to thank all the people who were on my shadow ministry team who also helped solidify the policies we took to the last election. You all know who you are and you have helped me immensely.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank those who have supported me in my dreams. To my parents, both deceased, Snowy and Barb, I am sure you are continuing to look out for me. To my sisters, Josie and Cathy, who have been mainstays through all of my campaigns, I am so thankful for your friendship and love. To my three children, Ben, Greg and Jill, all three of you have been there for me and supported my journey to this place. For that I cannot thank you enough.

I do not agree with the old idiom that if you want a friend in politics you should get a dog. For me I have made many, many friends along the way. To my close friends who have always been on hand to offer advice and support-Kaye and Shane Martin, Lyn Fidler, Cheryle and Richard Royle, Nikki and Craig Ross, Daryl Fennel, Derek and Chris Pingel, Jessica Christmas, Kim and Terry James, Peter Ord, Richard Towson and the big guy from up north: thank you for proving that friendship in politics is possible.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my friend the new Mayor of the Gold Coast, Tom Tate. I also congratulate the new councillor for division 9, Councillor Glenn Tozer, and the councillors with whom I regularly work, Councillor Daphne McDonald, Councillor Jan Grew and Councillor Bob La Castra. Those councillors have a lot of work ahead of them to get the Gold Coast back to work, but I know that Mayor Tate and all of the councillors will pull together to have a consistent, cohesive vision for the future of our city.
My electorate is like most others in middle Queensland. We were affected by the failure of the building boost to address the slowdown in the construction industry, our families suffered under the same weight of cost-of-living pressures brought on by two decades of both government neglect and short-sighted decisions. Our families paid the fuel levy. They scrimped to meet the power bill increases and saved as much water as they could so they could afford their water bills just as the rest of Queensland did. They suffered under the cost-of-living increases and worked harder to balance their family budgets while all the while the government refused to balance theirs. The Beattie and Bligh governments instead borrowed more and more and passed the costs of an out-of-control freight train of a government on to those who were being responsible. My electorate responded to this financial mismanagement, this cavalier attitude and their government's arrogance by giving the Bligh government one of the greatest kicks in Queensland history and the Newman government one of the greatest mandates to fix it.

As I am sure everyone acknowledges, the 2012 election was an enormous rejection of the tired, out of touch, negative, Bligh government. Twenty years of poor planning, poor delivery, broken promises, debt and waste was too much for Queenslanders to handle. Queenslanders have overwhelmingly decided that Campbell Newman and his team will be the ones to get government back on track. I call on those opposite, most of whom were members of the Bligh government, to understand the new paradigm and change their mindset.

The Labor Party was once a proud party, a party with deep roots in the community, who represented working people and served an ideology. Somewhere, step by step, the Labor Party lost that compass and stopped being the party of ‘Red Ted' Theodore, Anderson Dawson and Vince Gair and started lusting for power for power's sake. I hope that those opposite turn their backs on the unplanned, short-sighted, chaotic philosophy of the Beattie and Bligh governments, when today's press release was worth more than good policy, and start talking to Queenslanders again about what they want for the future. If those opposite fail to do so and instead embrace the legacy of Beattie and Bligh, they will be condemned to perpetual opposition.
I encourage those opposite to support the Newman government in our essential reforms and help us get Queensland back on track. Reforms like repealing the waste tax, reducing real estate red tape and minimising the cost of stamp duty. I would also encourage the Labor Party to speak up for their constituents and against federal Labor's carbon tax. Until they support these reforms and speak up for their constituents on the great big new tax, Queenslanders will continue to take action against them, just as they are waiting on the front porches for Julia Gillard.

Madam Deputy Speaker, at the end of my maiden speech I made this comment-

To the residents of Mudgeeraba, my resolve to effectively and vigorously serve you is made even stronger by your continued support and encouragement. You told me many times my role is to champion your local issues, and that is how I will spend my time. My pledge to you is that I will not let you down. Your concerns are my concerns. I will continue to listen to you and I will continue to fight on your behalf to ensure that our needs are loudly and effectively represented in this parliament.

Time, three years in this place, and the tenacity I have gained from not giving up on a dream have only strengthened my resolve. Thank you again, Mudgeeraba, for your support. I will not let you down