New Leichhardt MP Matt Smith participates in a smoking ceremony to welcome parliamentarians back to Canberra last week. Photo: Facebook (Matt Smith MP).
Losing your voice before addressing your Parliamentary colleagues and the nation for the first time isn’t an ideal way to commence your Canberra career, but it was a hurdle new Leichhardt MP Matt Smith was able to overcome with Far North Queensland humour last week.
Mr Smith stood to deliver his maiden speech in Parliament at about 4pm on 28 July, and told Cape York Weekly he had been excited to put the northernmost part of his electorate on the radar.
“My voice went earlier this week, so I was a bit nervous about perhaps not being able to speak at all,” he said.
“I am really looking forward to introducing my vision for Leichhardt to the nation.”
The Member for Leichhardt said he wanted to use his first speech to highlight the opportunities and challenges remote regions like Cape York faced daily, including ongoing crippling freight costs for residents and business operators.
“I want the country to understand the challenges and the potential of our region, reinforcing that the Cape is perfectly positioned to be a part of the transition to renewable energy, the potential of our ports, but also that connectivity remains an issue, as is the cost and reliability of freight, which stifles the region’s growth,” he said.
Make sure you check out next week’s Cape York Weekly when we sit down with the Leichhardt MP to find out how his speech had been received by his fellow parliamentarians.
