It is because of liberal democratic values that I proudly stand before the ACT Assembly as an elected representative for the people of Tuggeranong in my electorate of Brindabella. I want to thank the people of Tuggeranong for placing their trust in me. Tuggeranong is home to a beautifully vibrant and diverse people: each with their own story to tell about their hopes and hardships, their aspirations and setbacks, who they are, where they have come from and why they have made Tuggeranong their home.  

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Like many people in my community, I was not born in Canberra. My journey started in Perth, Western Australia, the youngest of four children. When I was three, my family moved to Cape Town, South Africa. It was a turbulent time in South Africa’s dark history. Apartheid was coming to an end, but the political violence and the unrest was not. Our Australian family pleaded with Mum and Dad not to go. “It is too dangerous”, they said, “You could get hurt or even killed. What about the children?” But Mum and Dad would not be swayed. When others were fleeing the country they were moving towards it because their hearts were set on service. Dad would serve in education and Mum would help women in townships when she was not at home with us kids.

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So they packed up our lives in Australia and off we went to begin our lives in Africa. It was only a matter of months before the realities of our new world became very clear. It should have been like any other Sunday, except on this particular Sunday my siblings and I decided we had had enough. We were overexcited and overtired, so Mum decided to keep us at home while Dad went off to the evening church service alone. Not long into the service, it was attacked by four men who threw grenades into the congregation and opened fire at unsuspecting families. Eleven people were killed and more than 50 seriously injured. Despite the tragedy, my parents were not going anywhere. They remained committed to serving in South Africa because in their hearts it was the right thing to do, even if it was not the easy thing to do.  

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My childhood in Africa was both beautiful and eye-opening. It was a very simple life. We never had much food in the fridge, but Mum and Dad always made sure that there was a meal on the table and a sandwich to spare when homeless people would knock on our door. My parents became very well known amongst the homeless in our neighbourhood. Word soon got around that we were the house they came to if they needed food, a blanket, something to wear or a word of encouragement. When one of them died, Mum and Dad were there to comfort and counsel. We lived in a place where the best and worst of humanity converged. We heard the gun fights, and we saw the poverty, the drugs, the crime and the human suffering. How do you describe that moment when you look into the eyes of a man who is robbing your home while you are there all alone and see nothing but desperation in his eyes? Or that moment when you are travelling in a car, and it is blockaded and swarmed by an armed gang? Yet despite these experiences, we witnessed something much more extraordinary at work. We witnessed the transformational power of hope, aspiration, forgiveness, personal responsibility, freedom and enterprise.  

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Many people ask me why I joined the Liberal Party. The answer is simple: I know what bad government looks like, and I know what can happen when liberal values are injected into struggling communities. The fortunes of my childhood community started to turn when liberal values were introduced. A private organisation revitalised decaying real estate to create housing, education, community facilities and places of worship. This private investment attracted small business, and this attracted visitors not just from neighbouring suburbs but from around the world. Over the years, we witnessed our crime-ridden community show signs of life and productivity as people started coming to the area for study, work, worship and even to raise a family. You do not just have to take my word for it: the Liberal tradition has done incalculable good for societies around the world that have adopted it.  

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As a Liberal, I am proud to belong to a tradition that throughout history has fought for human dignity and legal equality as well as economic and personal freedoms. From the emancipation of slaves and the recognition that every individual has inherent value, to the enactment of religious freedoms and establishing equality before the law, Liberals have pioneered the way for more just, humane and prosperous societies. These were never easy political battles to win. The champions of these reforms dedicated their lives to the cause against fierce opposition and, sometimes, popular opinion. This is the Liberal tradition. Our duty now, as inheritors of this tradition, is to protect all the good, the beauty and the truth that it has yielded, so that future generations can flourish even more than ours have.  

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I believe that families are the bedrock of flourishing societies. Healthy families build healthy communities. Sir Robert Menzies described it as the home—homes material that one little piece of earth with a house and a garden which is ours; homes human, that place where you and your immediate family are; and homes spiritual, where human nature knows its place. So, like many Liberals who have gone before me, I come to this place to fight for families. I know I have a very big job ahead of me. Why? Because too many working families in Tuggeranong are battling through each day; too many families are on the edge with their mortgage or rental payments; and too many are struggling to make ends meet, even to put food on the table. I have spoken with them over the course of the year.  

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We all know that Canberra is a beautiful and a blessed city, but if you look closely there is hidden suffering, and it is widespread. Take Michael from Gordon, who described to me the shame he feels every time he goes to a food pantry for help with his next meal, or Tracey from Bonython, a single mother who broke down in tears because she did not know whether to spend her money on food for her children or a medical bill. Take Stephen from Gowrie, who wants to start a family but will not, because after they have paid the bills they can only afford two-minute noodles, or Karen, also from Gowrie, who has to take her daughter to Sydney once a month for lifesaving treatment because she cannot access needed healthcare here. Then there is beautiful Chloe from Banks, a first-time mum in her early 20s, managing the joys and challenges of a newborn on her own while her husband works two jobs to keep the lights on. There is Ella from Macarthur, another young mum who wants to stay at home to care for her daughter but feels the choice has been taken from her because her family cannot survive on one income. Lastly, Brett Palmer and Rick, whom my husband spoke with at Lanyon shops during pre-poll, whose personal experiences shining a light on the importance for all of us being connected to our community.  

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In this place, may we never forget that these are the people we are here to serve. My vision for Canberra is that it would be a place where all families—where people like Michael, Tracey, Stephen, Karen, Chloe, Brett, Ella and Rick—can be prosperous, safe and free, but on each of these fronts I fear that Canberra is going backwards.  

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When I returned to Australia at 18, I thought I had come to the land flowing with milk and honey. I only had $50 to my name, but I never doubted for a second how fortunate I was that Australia was my home. I set to work immediately, handling fish and meat in the deli at Coles to get me on my feet. Despite having barely enough money to buy toothpaste, I was able to gain graduate and postgraduate qualifications. I will forever be grateful for that because I know many of my peers back in Africa would never have such an opportunity.  

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Australia is a great country, but that did not happen by accident. Relocating to Canberra, I knew I had found my home. It was not just the trees—so many trees—or the magnificent Brindabellas: it was overwhelmingly the people. We are a city built on service. It is at the core of who we are, and it is what we do. We serve our country and we serve our community.  

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The people of Tuggeranong have a heart of service. They are our nurses, teachers, public servants. They are tradies and local business owners. They volunteer at churches, charities and food pantries. They are working hard and they are earning their keep, but at the end of the day there is not always a lot to show for it. Why does it always feel like we are paying more but getting less?  

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I believe that strong economies build strong futures for families, but anyone who is vigilant to our economic environment would rightly be concerned for our future prosperity. Labor likes to praise themselves for 23 years of uninterrupted progressive government but I reject the notion that Labor has the monopoly on progress. Instead, what I see is 23 years of decline. Labor’s record is debt and deficit with a downgrading of the ACT’s triple AAA credit rating, and it is hardworking families who are paying the price for it. Increases in rates, taxes, fees and charges are hurting families and local businesses, and many people in Tuggeranong are struggling to see what they are getting in return.  

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Homelessness in Canberra has never been worse. Our health system is not coping with all the health needs in our community. Education outcomes in schools continue to decline. I am proudly the product of the public education system in South Africa, so I know the critical service it provides. Tuggeranong teachers have told me their concerns about declining outcomes, behavioural issues and aging infrastructure. Indigenous incarceration rates are among the worst in Australia.  

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Local businesses face prohibitive regulatory and taxation barriers and the great Australian dream of owning a home, that little piece of earth with a house and a garden is dying in Canberra. Labor’s stranglehold on land supply with the socialist dream of a high-rise concrete jungle are pushing up the cost of housing while removing genuine choice. We need to help more Canberrans realise their dream of owning a home, and everyone deserves to be safe in that home.  

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That is why I believe, in addition to building a strong economy, one of the most fundamental duties of government is to ensure the safety of its people. This is the social contract whereby individuals relinquish whatever vigilante dispositions they may have to a sovereign power that can ensure their safety and deliver justice, but in Canberra the social contract is not being honoured. Our criminal justice system is failing to deliver justice for victims, families and the community. Our under-resourced and overworked police force are doing their best to keep criminals out of our suburbs, but just as soon as they have been locked up, the system spits them back out, only for them to go on to re-offend. Our police do not always have the backing of the government and that is partly, I believe, because Labor is driving an agenda to decriminalise crime.  

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The Labor-Greens government committed an offence against its people when they decriminalised hard drugs like heroin, ice and cocaine. Drugs kill, and anyone who has spent any time in a drug-infested community could tell you this. Bobby, Aaron, Phil, Rick; these are just some of the young lives that I knew in South Africa that were cut short because of drugs or drug-related violence. Drugs usher in death, poverty and suffering, and many women are fleeing their homes because of drugfuelled violence. Jurisdictions that have liberalised them are now trying to reverse course and we should do the same before it is too late. I will strongly reject any attempt by those opposite to weaken laws designed to keep our community safe.  

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But what good is safety if you are not free to enjoy it? Menzies was right when he said:

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The real freedoms are to worship, to think, to speak, to choose, to be ambitious, to be independent, to be industrious, to acquire skill, to seek reward.

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Increasingly, the Labor Party, with the support of the Greens, have been picking away at our civil liberties. They want to tell us what cars we are allowed to drive and how we can heat our homes and cook our meals—as if Canberrans were not mature enough to make these decisions on their own.  

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On just about every metric, including workplace culture, Calvary Hospital performed better than Canberra Hospital. So on what grounds could the government forcibly acquire Canberra’s best-performing hospital? This was little more than an ideological attack; not just on religious freedoms, but on the freedom of health workers to choose their employer and on the freedom of health consumers to choose their health provider. A precedent has now been set, so what other freedoms will those opposite impinge on? I come to this place to do my very small part to safeguard the civil liberties that generations before us have secured. I know there is so much more we can do to advance the cause of freedom. For example, I want women like Ella to be free; free to return to work after having children, or free to care for her children at home without the fear of not being able to put food on the table or keep a roof over her head; equally admirable choices, yet equally prohibitive in their own way.  

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On each of these measures—prosperity, safety and freedom—I worry that we are going backwards, especially in Tuggeranong. Tuggeranong sent a loud message at the election, with a 6.9 per cent swing against Labor and 4.7 swing towards the Liberals. Tuggeranong residents have had enough of always being left behind. They have had enough of the lack of suburban maintenance, neglected local shops, less than adequate playgrounds and a long list of broken promises. They are paying for these services and I will fight, alongside my friend Speaker Mark Parton, to ensure they get them.

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I said at the start that it was because of liberal democratic values that I stand here today, and that is because there is no other political system in the world that would enable young women like me to take office. Unlike some in this room, I do not come from a family of wealth, connections or pedigree. I was never surrounded by a party machine, nor did I ever have ambitions for political office as a young girl. What I inherited from my parents was far greater than any of that—the value of hard work, reward for effort, personal responsibility and a deep sense of service, and because of that, I feel the weight of my duty as an elected representative.  

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Before I close, I want to take this opportunity to thank the people around me, without whom I would not be standing in this place today. Some of you are in the gallery today. Please forgive me for not naming all of you individually. There are too many, but I want you to know that I will be forever grateful for the long hours, the moral support, advice and guidance you each poured into my campaign in your own way. To the two Johns, Ben, Jordan, Ethan, Patrick, Talisa, Greg, Dorner, Darryl, Vic, Jan, Linda, Rich and Matt, thank you so very much. I particularly want to thank my Mum and Dad for making the great trek from the west coast for your first ever taste of politics. Who would have thought that your near-dreadlock haired daughter, who once roamed the streets of Cape Town barefoot, would today be taking a seat in parliament! Thank you for always living your values and not just talking about them. Thank you for showing me what hard work, perseverance, grit and a life of service looks like.  

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Thank you to my family: to my husband, Adam; to Ava and Lucy; and to my little baby boy, Judah. To my husband, Adam, what a year it has been. I would not have wanted to share this journey with anyone but you. Thank you for being my confidant, for always encouraging me and pushing me forward. Thank you for not quitting my campaign when I would not listen to you. I promise I will get better at updating my social media and taking photos of myself. You are a domestic legend. Thank you for feeding not just me but all of our volunteers breakfast and lunch every Saturday, too. Thank you for waking up at 4 am to fix my corflutes and set up pre-poll booths. Thank you Ava and Lucy for giving up your weekends and school holidays to help me hand out flyers throughout the campaign. I do not think there are many teenagers who would happily sacrifice time with their friends to work on a political campaign but you both did joyfully, and without grumbling or complaining. I know you won many hearts with your beautiful spirits and warm natures, not just in the community, but I think across the aisle too. I suspect many people were actually voting for you two rather than me, and I am very proud of the young women you are growing into. Thank you of course to the best baby boy I could ever have asked for. Little man, since day one you were my constant companion on the campaign trial. You chirped very happily in your pram at countless shopping centres and gurgled beautifully on the doors, only cracking it a few times when conversations went on too long. So I thank you for your political astuteness to keep mum moving! I will cherish the memories you and I have made together on the campaign trail forever. When I entered the race, Ava, Lucy, Adam and I had only one condition, and that was: if I was going to run, we would do it as a family, and I am so very proud that we lived up to that condition.  

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At the end of my time in this place, I hope I will be able to say I was a good and faithful servant: I listened to my people; I heard my people; and I served my people. I hope that when the times get tough and the battles become overwhelming that I will have the strength and resolve that my parents demonstrated to us in Africa, to hold fast to my values and convictions because it is the right thing to do even if it is not the easy thing to do, because I know there are so many people in our community who are relying on us to fight for them.

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Hi, I’m Deborah, your local Liberal Member for Brindabella. I’m a working mum raising my young family with my husband Adam in Tuggeranong.

I was first elected to represent the people of Tuggeranong in the ACT Legislative Assembly in October 2024. In November 2025, I was unanimously elected Deputy Leader of the Canberra Liberals alongside Leader Mark Parton.

Born in Australia, I grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. I returned to Australia with just $50 in my pocket, but worked hard to gain tertiary qualifications in journalism, international relations and national security. Before entering Parliament, I worked briefly as a journalist and then an adviser at both an ACT and Federal Government level, so I know the value of hard work and how to get the job done.

Whether it’s our local shops, infrastructure, roads, community safety or health services, Tuggeranong has been taken for granted, and too many people are being left behind. That’s why I want to use my skills and experience to reclaim Tuggeranong for the people so that everyone in our community can be prosperous, safe and free.

But I can’t do it without your help.

‍As your local member and a local mum, I want Tuggeranong to be the best home for everyone in our community. That’s why I’m fighting to put Tuggeranong first, because I believe everyone in our community deserves to be prosperous, safe and free.