Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to pay tribute to a local Canberra company, a company that is doing fantastic work across the capital region. All of you here have probably seen their work, with a number of their projects out at the Canberra airport.

Cercol has been operating in Canberra for more than 16 years and currently employs 18 full-time staff. I was fortunate enough to meet one of those staff members at the launch of Habitat Recruiting, the newest member of Karlka Recruiting Group, Australia's first national Indigenous-owned recruitment group.

Clive Connolly is a young Indigenous Australian who moved to Canberra from the Yarrabah community, outside Cairns in Far North Queensland, to learn his trade as an apprentice carpenter. He was given an opportunity by Habitat Personnel and Cercol, and by all accounts he grabbed it with both hands. At the event last week, Cercol Constructions director, Greg Spencer, described Clive as a model employee. According to Greg, Clive is a very determined person and has a wonderful vision of where he wants to be in the future. Greg told me that Clive would love to be in a position in the future to build himself a house back home in the Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire. 'Well, Clive, I believe you have the ability and the determination to achieve that, and I am going to help you get there,' says Greg.

Clive is well on his way to fulfilling his dreams as a qualified carpenter and, then, licensed builder. Watch this space! I would particularly like to thank Cercol, Nathan and Greg Spencer, and Habitat Recruiting for the opportunities they are providing to Indigenous Australians and for the great work they are doing in the Canberra community.