Mark Coulton delivers valedictory speech
Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton delivered his valedictory speech in parliament last week, 17 years since he was first elected as the 1029th Member of the Australian Parliament.
Mr Coulton took the opportunity to thank his family, friends, supporters, and current and former staff – many of whom travelled to be there in person – as well as his National party and Coalition colleagues for their support over the past 17 years.
He paid special tribute to his wife Robyn who he said has been by his side every step of the way.
“We decided to do this as a team,” Mr Coulton said.
“So, for the last 18 years – we spent a year campaigning beforehand – we’ve travelled together, and in a big year we’ve probably spent the equivalent of twenty 40-hour weeks a year in the front of a car – Robyn reading the emails and me dictating messages back to the office.”
Mr Coulton spoke of the great diversity and uniqueness of the Parkes electorate which he said is much more than just the agricultural and mining industries that underpin the economy.
He said there are so many projects and ‘shiny things’ he could highlight as achievements over the years, such as the Western Cancer Centre in Dubbo, the Australian Opal Centre in Lightning Ridge, the Baaka Cultural Centre in Wilcannia, the library in Broken Hill, the small stock abattoir in Bourke, and of course, the Inland Rail – “just build it for God’s sake!”
But Mr Coulton said some of the achievements he is most proud of are those that are more difficult to describe.
“Sometimes your successes with issues become invisible, because if you fix the problem people stop talking about it,” Mr Coulton said.
“A lot of the things that are achieved here are done without recognition.
“When I was Regional Health Minister, I introduced the generalist pathway, which is training doctors with more skills to work in rural areas.
“The medical school at Dubbo had over 520 applicants for the 30 places, so we’re training local doctors in the area.
“I graduated the rebate for Medicare. I don’t know that anybody here even knows that if you’re a doctor working in the more remote areas, you get a higher rebate for every patient you see than the doctors in the cities.
“As Assistant Trade Minister, I represented the country a couple of times at APEC in tourism and trade. I was at the first ministerial meeting of the TPP-11, which was the biggest trade deal done in the history of the world. But what people wouldn’t realise now, when the farmers are going to the silo and looking at the price of barley, that one of the buyers now is Mexico. They’re buying barley to make beer in Mexico because of that agreement.[…]
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