INAUGURAL SPEECH - Address-in-Reply 1 June 2021

Aug 28, 2026

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Inaugural speech and address-in-reply delivered by Hon Neil Thomson, MLC, Member for Mining and Pastoral, in the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia on 1 June 2021. The address responds to the Governor’s speech by expressing loyalty to the sovereign, acknowledging traditional owners, and sharing a personal migration and family history from New Zealand. Themes include reconciliation, faith, redemption, perseverance, and acceptance of cultural diversity, connecting community stories to healing and understanding.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Address-in-Reply

Acknowledgements and background

Migration and family narratives

Faith, redemption, and reconciliation

PARLIAMENT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA INAUGURAL SPEECH Hon Neil Thomson, MLC (Member for Mining and Pastoral) Legislative Council Address-in-Reply Tuesday, 1 June 2021 Legislative Council Tuesday, 1 June 2021 ADDRESS-IN-REPLY Motion Resumed from 27 May on the following motion moved by Hon Pierre Yang— That the following address be presented to His Excellency the Honourable Kim Beazley, Companion of the Order of Australia, Governor in and over the state of Western Australia and its dependencies in the Commonwealth of Australia— May it please Your Excellency: We, the members of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled, beg to express our loyalty to our most gracious sovereign and thank Your Excellency for the speech you have been pleased to deliver to Parliament. HON NEIL THOMSON (Mining and Pastoral) [3.38 pm]: I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, and their elders, past and present. I also acknowledge the Aboriginal people of different nations across Western Australia, many of whom I have worked with and have developed close friendships with. Like others in this house, I am a migrant, arriving from New Zealand 37 years ago. I am a proud Australian, living the affirmation I took when I became a citizen in the late 1980s. I was born in the small town of Ōpōtiki, New Zealand, which is located on the North Island’s east coast where I lived until my family moved to the regional city of Gisborne. Those early days involved plenty of fishing and camping and, as I matured, a love for the mountains. Winter was especially important. However, I spent too many of my university years skiing on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu and with friends hiking the high peaks ofthe Ruahine and Tararua Ranges. It seemed normal that after I finalised my study at Massey University of New Zealand, armed with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, I would work for a period as a shepherd, with working dogs in tow, on Mount Earnslaw station in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. If you have watched the cinematic version of Lord of the Rings, then you will be familiar with Earnslaw station and the location of my shepherd’s quarters. These were later to become the site of the Wizards Tower and the Orc’s lair—with additional computer generated imagery. To this day, I struggle to imagine the Tolkien series as they should be, rather than thinking of the settings I have walked and each peak I have climbed. I was part of a family of five children. My dad was a country police officer who worked in inquiries and youth aid. My mum was an artist and businessperson, owning and managing florist shops when she was young, using those landscape paintings to further subsidise household expenses. I am grateful for her artistic talent. Some of which has brushed off on me a little. Some of my earliest memories include travelling with dad in his personal car—there were no patrol cars in Ōpōtiki in those days—when he did his inquiries. We visited Maori families along the rugged east coast of New Zealand where I was plied with copious amounts of tea and biscuits as dad listened intently to Maori concerns. My dad passed in February last year. He was deeply committed to his faith, as is my mother, with the theme of redemption always being at the forefront of their way of being. This theme also guides me. Dad’s parents were Finnish migrants to New Zealand in the early part of the twentieth century and to this day we continue to have contact with our family in Finland. Hanging on the wall in my mother’s house is a painting depicting a scene of a snow-covered forest in Finland, a gift in gratitude for the many food parcels my grandmother sent from New Zealand during World War II and afterwards during the recovery. I am told that the painting is on the very canvas that wrapped the food parcel—such a potent symbol of how resilient people can repurpos

FAQs

Who delivered the inaugural speech and in what role?

Hon Neil Thomson, MLC, delivered the speech as Member for Mining and Pastoral in the Legislative Council of Western Australia.

What date and session is the address-in-reply associated with?

The address-in-reply is delivered in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, 1 June 2021.

What central themes does the speaker connect to reconciliation?

The speaker connects family and national stories to reconciliation, emphasizing healing, understanding, faith, perseverance, and acceptance of diversity.

Aug 28, 2026

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