Great Western - 18. GW Chap 18

“Fiddlesticks, it is my land, and you are trespassing” the man replied. “I think we have seen enough for now, Mr Goodman, we might as well return to Bunbury, the conventional way” I said ignoring the farmer, who stepped forward, and put his hand on my shoulder and forced me to turn to face him.

“I suggest that you remove your hand, as you are assaulting my son, who is a minor” my Dad said as he stepped in between us, “Oh and who are you, to be so Mr High and Almighty” the farmer demanded, “If you must know, my Dad is Mr Christopher Ashburton, from ARG” I said looking around my Dad at the Farmer.

“Ashburton, as in Ashburton Engineering?” the farmer asked, “Yes, that is correct, this is my oldest son Vern, and my Project Manager Mr Hiltz” Dad responded. “I see, so is it really still a railway corridor, I thought that had been removed years ago, when my Dad was running this farm” the farmer asked. “I am afraid so, sir.

Mr Ashburton and his team are here to assess the rail line, with plans to restore the rail line from Bunbury to Northcliffe” George said. “Wow, I would have never expected the line to be reopened, but I guess that will be good for the towns down this way. I am Sam Kent, local farmer and Manjimup Shire Councillor, and I apologise for the rudeness, earlier” the farmer said.

“Apology accepted Mr Kent, no just a few small matters, for this project to go ahead, we will need your assistance, by carefully removing the sand that covers over the rail line in two places, and also to fill in a small section of your dam, so as to provided a stable footing for the rail line, of which we will be happy to supply the bluestone gravel to do that” Dad responded.

“That will be fine, Mr Ashburton. Will the council be hearing some more, about this project in the near future?” Mr Kent asked, “Yes, but we are just doing a preliminary assessment for now” Dad replied.

Then we arrived back in Bunbury in the late afternoon, George took us directly to our hotel, which Dad had booked yesterday, and we relaxed for a couple of hours before dinner, and retiring early, as we would be catching the 6am Australind back to Perth in the morning, and Franz would catch the lunch time flight back to Albany, while Dad and I spend a day in Perth.

At the Perth Central train station, the next day, I spotted a newspaper at the small shop, with headlines that I wasn’t expecting, “Ashburton Engineering, South West plans”.

I bought a copy of the paper and continued to follow Dad, as I began to read the article. “Manjimup Farmer and Shire Councillor, learnt yesterday, that the old timber mill railway line, from Northcliffe to Bunbury, passing through Pemberton, Manjimup, Bridgetown, Donnybrook and Boyanup, plus a number of smaller communities, will be restored and used as an extension to the Australind train journey, believed to be a new project of ARG, formally known as Ashburton Engineering”, the article said.

I handed the paper to Dad, as we stopped at the taxi rank, before we climbed into a waiting taxi, and Dad gave the address to the hotel, where we checked in and dropped off our luggage, before heading to the office of the Minister of Transport. When we arrived at the office, the receptionist recognised us and smiled.

“I am sorry Mr Ashburton, but Parliament is sitting, and the Minister will be there the whole day” the receptionist informed us. Dad thanked the receptionist, and we headed back down to street level, and caught another taxi, this time to Parliament House, which I had not been to before, although I had seen it sitting on top of the hill, on the northern end of St Georges Terrace.

Once there, we were screened, passing through a metal detector, and having our clothes scanned, before we were directed to the public viewing gallery, where we sat down near the front of the gallery. “…Premier, what other secret deals is your government doing, that is bound to cost the tax payers millions of dollars?” the leader of the opposition demanded before sitting down.

Just as the Premier was about to stand, to answer the question, we saw the Transport minister, who was seated beside the Premier, lean in and make a comment, before indicating in our direction, and smiling at us.

“If the leader of the opposition, is referring to the headlines of today’s state newspaper, then no, we are not making any secret deals, if you wish to find out more about it, then I suggest you direct your questions to Mr Ashburton himself, and I welcome him to Parliament today, along with his son, Vern, who are currently in the gallery” the Premier responded before sitting down, and suddenly all eyes in Parliament were looking in our direction.

“Oh Crumbs” I muttered quietly to myself, and Dad just chuckled, and when we saw the Minster for Transport leave the Chamber, we also headed downstairs, where the Minister was waiting for us. Mr Ashburton and Vern, what a pleasant surprise” the Minister said as he shook our hands, “I could have done with the all eyes on me, thanks sir” I commented, which made the Minister laugh.

“Not only that, but you are now in the official Parliament Hansards, which is the records of all comments in Parliament” the Minister informed me, and I groaned in displeasure, which Dad laughed at. “Shall we move to my office, so we can talk” the Minister suggested, and we followed him through some large doors and down a long corridor, until we reached his offices, where we found James Markovich seated at a desk, looking busy. When he saw us enter, he smiled and jumped up to greet us.

“Welcome to Parliament House, would you like a cup of tea or dink of some kind” James said to Dad and I, “Just water for me thanks James” I replied, “Same for me thanks” Dad added, as we entered the Ministers office and took a seat.

Over the next half hour, Dad and I informed the minister of our ideas for including the old rail line, into the Australind Rail service, and we were just finishing when there was a knock on the door, and James entered, “Sorry to interrupt Minister, but we have a very unusual situation, in the Assembly” James said as he stepped forward, “and that would be?” the Minister asked.

“An informal vote was just made, with 52 members for and 10 members against, that during the Matters of Public Interest, Parliament has asked Mr Ashburton to make a twenty-minute address to Parliament, in regards to his plans for the South West Rail project” James said. “Well that is a first for me, and probably a first in history of this parliament” the Minister stated.

“It is 12.15 now, so that gives you about 2 ½ hours to prepare” James said to Dad, “Well, I don’t know about this, we haven’t really done any planning of any kind, just the inspection of the rail line that we did yesterday” Dad commented.

Dad and I were led into the conference room, where James provided us with a laptop computer to use, to prepare for this presentation. Dad was too nervous to do much, so he let me take the lead with writing a presentation, and after about twenty minutes of typing, I would stop and read back what I had written, and Dad would make some suggestions for changes, which I would make, before continuing on.

James came with drinks and food for us, while we were working, and when we felt that we had put together a good enough presentation, Dad asked James to print out two copies. At 2.35pm, Dad was led off towards the door to the side of the Legislative Assembly Chamber, and Dad asked me to sit behind the Speaker of the house, so he could see me for support.

I sat down in the front row of the gallery directly below the speaker, just moment before Question Time came to a close, and the Premier stood up. “Mr Speaker, as agreed by the majority of both sides of this place, I wish to call Mr Christopher Ashburton, to present to the house, his companies plan for a railway project in the South West” the Premier announced, and I opened my copy of the presentation.

Much to my shock, written at the top of the page in big letters, was a hand-written note from Dad, “You will be presenting this, good luck”, and I looked down as Dad entered the chamber, and he looked up at me and smiled, and he saw the looked expression on my face, as he stopped in front of the large central table, where the Premier and his opposite sat.

“Honourable Ladies and Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia. It’s a great honour to be asked to speak to you today, and with the help of my Executive assistant, we have come up with a short presentation for you today. I am not very comfortable with speaking in public, although I have had to do more of it recently.

My Executive assistant, has excelled in public speaking during his high school years, and also more recently with our business, and he will be making the presentation today” Dad announced, as he indicated up into the gallery, to where I was, and I stood up, which brought a lot of discussion amongst the members.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I may look very young, but I assure you that I am well prepared, as I put together most of this presentation this afternoon…” I said beginning the presentation. “In conclusion, ARG, or Ashburton Rail Group, as we are known now, has the financial support of a major Swiss Rail company, of which one of its senior staff, is a Director in our company.

Our aim is to provide a fast, safe and high-quality rail service to regional Western Australia, with plans on the way to extend the rail service well beyond Geraldton in the near future. Thank-you” I said, and I sat down, and breathed a sigh of relief that it was over.

Much to my surprise, the whole of Parliament began to applaud, with many of the members standing up as they did. By now, Dad was back in the Gallery, and he placed a hand on my shoulder, “Well done son, I am extremely proud of you” he said to me, as we watched the members of Parliament continue to clap, until the Speaker of the House called for order.

Once everyone was silent, the Opposition Leader stood up and was recognised by the Speaker, “Mr Speaker, it has been a historical and memorable day to witness, what is most likely a first in this place, the presentation given to us just now, by a young and talented young man.

On my side of the house, I wish to congratulate Master Vern Ashburton on what he has achieved today, and wish him all the best for his future” the Opposition Leader said before sitting down, and members on his side all agreed with that statement, before the Premier stood.

“Mr Speaker, I wish to echo the comments made by my colleague on the opposite side. We have witnessed today, a truly talented young man, who I see will achieve great things in the future.

I invite Mr Christopher Ashburton, and his son Vern, to meet with the cabinet, at a time soon, for a more detailed briefing, on what ARG plans to do, to increase rail passenger services in our state, which I am sure will promote a large amount of tourism into Western Australia” the Premier stated, and calls of agreement, came from both sides of Parliament.

At that point, Dad and I stood, gave a slight bow and we left the gallery. When we came down the stairs, we were both surprised, to see two lines of Members of Parliament, gathered from the bottom of the stairs, to meet us and shake our hands.

James was standing at the end of the line, and escorted us back to the Minster’s office. Once inside, I sighed loudly, “Holy smokes Dad, please don’t do that again, without prior warning” I said in German, and Dad chuckled, “I knew you were the best person to do it, so why complain” Dad responded also in German, and James and the Minister just smiled.

“Sorry, I was just telling my Dad off in a mild way, for springing that surprise on me” I explained to the minister and his assistant, who nodded their understanding. After a short chat, James escorted us back to the front door of the building, and wished us a good afternoon, and a waiting taxi delivered us to our hotel.

We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, and decided to watch the news before heading down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

“Good evening, at the top of the news tonight, 16-year old Vern Ashburton made history today, by being the first ever public citizen, to speak in WA’s Legislative Assembly, from the Public Gallery, after parliament had made an unexpected vote to invite Mr Ashburton to speak to Parliament, about his companies plans on new railway passenger services in WA.

After a brief introduction, Mr Ashburton of ARG, formally known as Ashburton Engineering, handed over to his son in the Gallery to make the speech. It is understood, that Mr Ashburton’s son had a copy of the speech, but was unaware that he would be presenting it, even thou he himself put most of the speech together.