It's wonderful to be back in this place having been elected for a record seventh term in my electorate of Blair. I'm humbled by the election result and indebted to the people and communities of Ipswich, the Somerset region and the Karana Downs area for their support.

It's an honour and privilege to represent an area in which my family has lived for seven generations, but I couldn't have done it without the hard work and dedication of so many volunteers and supporters.

For me, the highlight apart from increasing my majority in a marginal seat, was seeing Labor re-elected. I'm immensely proud to have come through what was a very bitter and hard-fought local campaign. At the same time, I'm encouraged to see so many new Labor MPs and senators elected. I take this opportunity to congratulate them all on their success. The future of our party, our government and our country is indeed bright.

I also want to congratulate my neighbour in Ipswich, the member for Oxley, on his re-election as Speaker, and I look forward to working with him and all the deputy speakers over the next three years. Thanks, Speaker, for the cooperation on all the joint booths in Ipswich.

Again, I want to thank the good people of Blair for putting their faith in me to continue to represent them in federal parliament. I look forward to continuing to work hard for my local community as part of a re-elected and re-energised Albanese Labor government. It was a hard-fought victory for Labor in Blair and ultimately a rejection of the coalition and its former leader, Peter Dutton. You didn't have to be very long in a polling booth to meet people coming through saying that they couldn't bring themselves to vote for Mr Dutton. It was a negative for the coalition. As they always do, the LNP talked up a big game in Blair and talked up their chances, but in the end their message struggled to gain traction.

For our part, we ran a disciplined, well-organised grassroots campaign, and I'm confident we had the right message for voters. At the end of the day, you don't win a rugby league grand final by just turning up in the semi-finals. You have to work hard and campaign continuously.

Our campaign focused on cost-of-living relief, health and delivering the road and community infrastructure needed in my rapidly growing electorate.

We made numerous election commitments during the campaign—things like $200 million in funding a long-term fix for the notorious Amberley Interchange, major upgrades to the Brisbane Valley Highway and the Mount Crosby interchange, a new rugby league and sports centre in the Ripley corridor, upgrades to the Ipswich basketball stadium and Fernvale Sports Park, expanding the Chuwar Koala and Native Fauna Conservation Park, a new headspace mental health centre in Redbank Plains, a new House of India community and cultural centre in Springfield, a major upgrade to the Lowood pool and upgrades to the Springfield Central YMCA.

At a national level, voters connected with the Albanese government's clear plans for the nation's future: delivering cost-of-living relief with tax cuts for every taxpayer, more affordable health care, help for first home buyers, free TAFE, cheaper child care and cuts to HECS debt.

Ipswich is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. We're grappling with infrastructure needs, housing pressures and youth unemployment, so our positive policies and local commitments really resonated with Blair's booming suburbs like Ripley and Spring Mountain. The result reflected the strong local support for our agenda in areas like this.

In contrast, the coalition shot themselves in the foot by running one of the most negative and nasty campaigns I've seen anywhere in all of my 40 years of local campaigning for the Labor Party—that cuts across 15 federal campaigns. I make no apology for describing the LNP's 2025 campaign in Blair as toxic and a new low in local politics.

The LNP engaged in disgraceful personal attacks on me. There was no record of me anywhere, verbally or personally, attacking the LNP candidate, yet they spent much of their campaign caricaturing me, alleging false things about me, even accusing me of being responsible for alleged rising crime in Blair.

There's been extensive national media reporting on the role of the fringe Plymouth Brethren Christian Church —also known as the Exclusive Brethren—in this election. Perhaps what is less well known is their presence in the LNP campaign in Blair. There was a clear arrangement, a quid pro quo, between the LNP and the Exclusive Brethren.

What did the LNP get out of it? In Blair, they recruited the Exclusive Brethren in their hundreds—up to 20 people on a polling booth—to campaign on issues like road funding. I doubt, by the way, very few of them could even name five streets in Ipswich or in Esk.

Not only that, we saw bullying, and aggressive, intimidating and offensive behaviour at polling booths by the Exclusive Brethren in LNP paraphernalia. Exclusive Brethren members stood in front of Labor volunteers and verbally abused them—men and women—physically blocked them from handing out how-to-vote cards, filmed Labor volunteers and other volunteers on their phones and made petty and vexatious complaints to polling booth returning officers. Yet they themselves refused to obey lawful directions by the AEC at pre-polls, and I saw this myself.

The Exclusive Brethren even harassed and stalked me and my campaign staff during the campaign. On election day they even followed me and my car at one point, from booth to booth. They followed my campaign workers at night, doing laps of polling booths, heckling and yahooing. When I went to Ipswich State High School, on the last day, they abused and abused and abused me as I walked in to hand out how-to-vote cards for the Labor Party. On top of this, they regularly defaced and destroyed my campaign signs and plastered the electorate with LNP signs, which really just succeeded in annoying voters.

In the social media space, several times during the campaign, my posts appeared to be swarmed by coalition, Advance and other extreme-right trolls and bots from all over the country. To be clear, there is no issue with people of faith or no faith campaigning. After all, I'm a Christian by faith and a member of my local Baptist church.

They flooded the pre-poll. A number of female voters told me and my Labor volunteers they felt intimidated by these hordes of Exclusive Brethren men, in LNP garb, haranguing and yelling at them as they attempted to make their way into polling booths. This is backed up by voters on social media posts in Ipswich.

I believe the coordinated conduct of the LNP and the Exclusive Brethren in this campaign in Blair and elsewhere all around the country—highlights why we should consider a truth-in-political-advertising framework at a federal level, like they have in South Australia and the ACT. We also need stronger and better electoral rules and laws around groups like the Exclusive Brethren operating as an unofficial third party. I certainly hope that parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, JSCEM, takes these issues up as part of its post-election inquiry.

Yet, despite everything we had to put up with in terms of the final result, these ugly tactics backfired and blew up in the LNP's face. Critically, the LNP wrecked their voter base by preferencing One Nation and doing a deal for second preferences. As a result, they lost many moderates, middle-of-the-road voters, who want a centrist, liberal, free enterprise party. I was proud that Labor put One Nation last—as we always do—in Blair. The LNP should have done the same thing.

I was fortunate to have so much help from so many quarters during the campaign. I thank the Prime Minister for his support and leadership. Congratulations on an historic victory.

There were so many people involved, and I want to thank them. There are probably too many to name, but I want to do my best.

First of all, I want to thank the voters of Blair for putting their faith and trust in me. I won't let you down.

I thank the traditional owners of my area, the Yagara and Yuggera and Yugarabul people, and pay my respects to the work that they do and to their elders past, present and emerging and also to the fact of the tens of thousands of years they have cared for country in my area.

I want to thank all the local Labor Party branches and unions who supported me and the local residents and community activists who helped me on the ground.

To the ALP national secretary, Paul Erickson, and assistant secretary, Jen Light: thanks for your leadership, your extensive research and the resources provided to me.

I also want to thank former Queensland state secretary Kate Flanders and assistant secretary Zac Beers for their support. I look forward to working with the new incoming state secretary, Ben Driscoll. It's fair to say the incredible results we got in Queensland reflect the strong leadership and directions that Kate and Zac provided at the state level.

I want to thank my Queensland Labor organiser, Bella Scattini, and my field organiser, Jeremy Wong, for their work on the ground and behind the scenes in keeping me on the straight and narrow.

I want to thank the unions as well, including the Queensland Council of Unions and the general secretary, Jacqueline King, who came and handed out our how-to-vote cards for me at prepoll and on election day.

I've been a member of the Services Union for a very long time. Thanks to Jen Thomas and Neil Henderson for their ongoing support, and thanks to all the ASU members who came out to stand on polling booths for me.

Thanks to Stacey Schinnerl, Joey Kaiser, Luke Richmond, Max Braddy and the mighty AWU and all their members who provided such hands-on support. Stacey even worked through election eve with her team, setting up election booths.

Thanks to Gerard Dwyer, Justin Power and the SDA, the “shoppies”, for their generous support, for members who doorknocked and letterboxed whole suburbs and country towns and worked polling booths across Blair, with Justin spending election day in the country town of Esk with Lionel and Doreen Shaw.

Thanks to Josh Millroy and the TWU for providing valuable personal and logistics support, especially setting up and staffing polling booths.

Thanks to Sally Gunner and the CPSU for their help. Thanks to the Queensland Teachers' Union and those teachers who fought for public education at polling booths.

I had amazing support from so many Young Labor members who mucked in and did high-visibility campaigning, doorknocking, letterboxing and making phone calls. I recognise the valuable work of people like Chris, Jacinto, Kyall and Brodie, whose dedication and youthful exuberance were inspiring.

There are many hundreds of branch members across Blair. I want to thank them all, including those in my own branch, the Raceview Flinders branch, which is the biggest Labor Party branch west of Brisbane. These people are the backbone of the campaign. I want to thank the local branches from Somerset to the greater Springfield area.

I especially want to thank my campaign director, Madonna Stott, for her relentless work ethic, campaign discipline, wise guidance and strong leadership. Madonna was the point person who worked with me to develop our campaign plan and then liaised with everyone from party office to campaign HQ, ministers' offices, unions and branch members just to make it all happen. Thanks, Mad, you were absolutely fantastic. Madonna transformed her house into a campaign staging post, the nerve centre of the operation, possibly to the chagrin of her local neighbours. I've known Madonna for decades, and I thank you for your friendship and leadership in the Blair campaign.

My constituent and community liaison manager, Cate Oliver, kept the administrative side of things running smoothly and provided huge logistical support on election day, keeping volunteers fed and watered—also known as Cate's café. Both Cate and Nicole Chapple from my office organised the booth rosters and handled the prepolls. Blair has over 50 booths; it's a big regional and rural electorate. Despite having to deal with a range of challenges, Nicole and Cate ensured we had the best booth rosters I've ever seen in Blair. Nicole is secretary of the Blair federal organising council and, along with the treasurer, Nick Hughes, ensured the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted. Thanks, Nicole, and thanks, Nick.

A big thanks to my diary manager, Kerry Silver, who kept the electorate office going and made sure I knew where I needed to be. She was an indispensable part of the campaign and fundraising team. Kerry worked closely with my former electorate officer, Janice Cumming, who still is much loved in the local community, on postal votes and aged-care facility voting.

To my then media adviser and the former award-winning journalist Brian Bennion: thanks mate.

To policy adviser Chris Condon, who helped pull together my election commitments and campaign announcements: I don't know what I would've done without you, Chris. Chris was vital in prepping me for the many candidate forums we had in Blair. They seemed to go on forever—right to the eve of the election. He made sure I was on message and well briefed. He was an indispensable part of our campaign team.

I can't thank enough Paul Cantrall and William Hartley from my office. They made tens of thousands of calls to constituents and volunteered much of their spare time.

Thanks to Jeremy Wong, who worked with me in doorknocking and calls, organised the young people and made sure I was always up there on the leader board of the Labor candidates around the country and certainly up near the top of the leader board in Queensland. Jeremy became the campaign hi-vis whiz, ensuring teams of people were standing on street corners, engaging with commuters and passers-by months out from the election.

Thanks to Mick Watkins, who worked with a small team to get the signs up and keep them up in the face of daily vandalism across the electorate. Once again Mick transformed his ute into a mobile billboard and became a regular troubleshooter.

Thanks also to the many campaign volunteers, supporters and branch members.

I want to thank local state Labor MPs Wendy Bourne, Charis Mullen and Lance McCallum; and Ipswich councillors and Labor members Jacob Madsen, Marnie Doyle and Paul Tully for their support. Paul, to you on the loss of your wife, Liza: my deepest condolences. In addition, I thank councillors Andrew Antoniolli and David Martin for their support and friendship.

Thank you as well to Somerset Regional Council member Michael Bishop for his wisdom and support in the rural areas and also to Bud Smith for his corflute help and constant campaigning in the Somerset region.

We are blessed to have a number of former MPs who give so much back to the party. This is why the Labor Party believes in lifelong calling. There are people like former state environment minister Pat Comben, whose withering biography of Peter Dutton helpfully came out during the campaign. There were former state member up in Gladstone, Neil Bennett, and the former federal member for Ryan and first female member for Ryan, Leonie Short, while former Ipswich state MPs Rachel Nolan and David Hamill provided useful sounding boards. These are some of the elder statespeople whose wisdom and advice I find invaluable, along with my mate, the head of the Clem Jones Foundation, Peter Johnstone.

To my good friend and supporter, Everald Compton, who spoke at senior forums and provided personal support and good company. He's a great raconteur. He's one of Australia's true independents, according to Wayne Swan.

Thanks for your support, Everald. Meanwhile, Beryce Nelson, who served as a cabinet minister in conservative governments at state level but is now a supporter of mine in Toogoolawah, is a fierce community advocate and wonderful supporter.

The Toogoolawah booth was staffed entirely by community members, like Charlie and Jade Lewis, along with people like Carolyn Barker.

Thanks to Paul Whewell in Raceview, Arthur Needham in Karana Downs, Geoff Beattie in Glamorgan Vale, Malcolm Scott in Kilcoy, the greater Springfield 'cartel' of the Labor Party branch members, the wider multicultural and refugee communities across Ipswich and Springfield and all the regular and first-time volunteers.

Thank you to my praetorian guard from the Bundamba branch of the Labor Party, especially Alison Young, Lachlan Enshaw, Brad Snow and so many others.

Thanks to the North Ipswich Tigers rugby league club for hosting a jubilant election night. It certainly was when Antony Green announced the result so early. To the Witch Hotel in West Ipswich, a place where all the journalists from the Queensland Times used to hang out, for hosting a volunteer thankyou function as well.

Thank you to all those who helped me fundraise and contributed financially in any way.

Finally, a big thanks to my family for their love and moral support. To my wife, Carolyn, who's been my biggest backer. Next year we celebrate 40 years as a married couple. Despite her ongoing health battle, she has provided ongoing family support. Thanks, Carolyn.

To my daughters, Alex and Jacqui, and their families: thank you for your love and support.

To my brothers, friends and confidants, Regan and Darrin, together with Darrin's wife, Claire, and their children, who provided great support up in Kilcoy and Mount Kilcoy: a big thankyou. They know the local LNP people and get on quite well with them up there.

Also, a big shout-out to my mum, Joy Butler, and her husband, Rob, for their ongoing support and home cooking. My mum is like the godmother of the Labor Party in Ipswich.

Thank you to all those wonderful individuals. My victory is a victory for you, as I am just the front person. I am just the representative. This is a victory for the true believers in Blair, a victory for the Labor Party and the union movement. I go into every campaign holding two tickets in my pocket: (1) a Labor Party ticket and (2) my services union ticket. I don't forget that the Labor Party has all been for the trade union movement. I thank all the unions for their fantastic support.

In closing, I thank my colleagues, particularly those ministers who visited my electorate and my colleagues with whom I spend so much time in Canberra—you become good friends with so many!

I especially want to thank the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, for launching my campaign, and Senator Anthony Chisholm for making a number of announcements in Blair. So many of them could have rented a flat in Ipswich!

I also want to thank Senator Deb O'Neill for her constant support, encouragement and financial help.

Thanks to now Senator Corinne Mulholland for her pre-poll help and regular campaign assistance.

They are more than just colleagues; they're friends, brothers and sisters in arms—comrades. We share similar values and a desire for a better future for our communities and for the nation. We believe in social justice, equality of opportunity and a fair go for all. That's what I've believed in all my life.

I remain energetic, enthusiastic and excited about representing my local community and the people of Blair for another three years. I look forward to delivering on my election commitments and I've already hit the ground running. I look forward to this coming term and getting those much-needed projects I've talked about going for the people of Blair, so we can build a better future for my local community.