House debates

Monday, 18 November 2013

Statements by Members

Pride of Australia Awards

1:45 pm

Photo of Amanda RishworthAmanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise today to congratulate a very deserved Australian, Natalie Cook, who won the Pride of Australia medal in the national Pride of Australia awards on the weekend. She along with her husband Neil have won this award in the category of Courage. She has shown immense courage after some tragic circumstances in 2008 when her son unfortunately was king hit and died at a party, ending his life way too short. But she used this experience, while quite devastating, to harness what she believed and to try to make sure that this did not happen to anyone else.

Along with her husband, she set up the Sammy D Foundation, which aimed to ensure that young people can go out and have a good time and come home safely. They go around South Australia providing educational opportunities for schools, telling young people to party wisely and giving them some information. They were at Schoolies Week and they will be there once again passing important information to the local community. They have been provided with many grants across government, however it is disappointing that the current federal government has withdrawn a grant from them. It will really hamper the work that they do. (Time expired)