Kelly O’Dwyer farewells parliament with an appeal to colleagues to overcome ‘tribal echo chambers’

Kelly O’Dwyer urges politicians to overcome “tribal echo chambers” and thanks friends including Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull.

Kelly O’Dwyer strides into today’s Question Time alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison today. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP

Kelly O’Dwyer has urged MPs and Senators to overcome “tribal echo chambers” that have “warped perceptions of Australians’ views” and spend more time in the community to restore trust in the parliament and in democracy.

In her valedictory speech after a decade as the Member for Higgins, Ms O’Dwyer also defended a legacy of closing of excessive superannuation tax concessions enjoyed by wealthy Australians as guarding of “the intergenerational compact”, and called for better pathways back to work for women who have children and more flexible arrangements for “both halves of our population” who want to be a part of their children’s lives.

The Minister for Jobs, Industrial Relations and Women, who was elected in 2009 and is the youngest woman to serve in Cabinet, is retiring at the federal election and leaves with a parting call for the government to adopt a “conflict free, low-fee government default fund” with the backing of the Future Fund to manage the superannuation of Australians who make no choice about their nest egg.

“Given that the Government compels Australians to put an ever-increasing percentage of their wages into superannuation, it’s only right that the government should offer up a solution to look after those forgone wages,” Ms O’Dwyer said.

“It would boost retirement incomes by taking advantage of economies of scale and would stop Australians from being defaulted into underperforming funds.”

While giving particular thanks to fellow Liberal MP Julie Bishop for her “friendship and guidance”, along with Scott Morrison, Speaker of the House Tony Smith and Senate President Scott Ryan, Ms O’Dwyer also said she wanted to “place on record my thanks to Malcolm Turnbull for his friendship and also his great support of me when I gave birth — the first serving Cabinet Minister to do so”.

One of Senator Ryan’s proposal’s also received support from Ms O’Dwyer — that the Australian parliament adopt a version of the Salisbury Convention, which would mean the Senate would not obstruct government policy for which it won an electoral mandate to implement.

The Minister said the Senate had grown to become a “forum to frustrate the government’s agenda and the will of the people” and was undermining faith in the country’s institutions.

“Social media, and a proliferation of tribal echo chambers, have led to warped perceptions of Australians’ views, a failure to listen to alternative ideas and a decline in genuine policy debate and civil discourse,” Ms O’Dwyer said.

“Parliamentarians need to prosecute the case for patience and a deeper conversation with their electorate.”

An emotional Josh Frydenberg, right, during Kelly O'Dwyer's Valedictory Speech. Picture: Gary Ramage

While Ms O’Dwyer withstood sustained criticism as Assistant Treasurer after capping tax-free pensions for wealthy retirees — “It wasn’t popular among all my constituents, and divided opinion among sections of my Party’s membership. But it was the right thing to do” — she said each generation “has an obligation to try to put the next generation in a stronger position to the one that they inherited”.

“The intergenerational bargain, fairness and women’s issues all animated me before I came to this place. I never imagined that I would see them intersect in what many consider one of the driest policy areas — superannuation,” she said.

Ms O’Dwyer’s husband Jon, an investment banker-turned primary caregiver to her young children Olivia and Edward, looked on as she called for more affordable childcare arrangements and to assist women build their financial security. As Minister for women, Ms O’Dwyer delivered the first annual Women’s Economic Security Statement which earmarked over $100 million to help achieve this.

“As a feminist I have always believed that girls and women deserve an equal stake in our society and economy,” she said.

“There should be no limit on what girls and women can aspire to, and no limit on what they can achieve.”