Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I rewind the clock back to 1978, when I promised that I would do my best to do my duty to God, to serve the Queen, to help others and to keep the brownie guide law—it sticks in my memory—as I made my brownie girl guides salute. In those days, as brownies we wore the brown tunic with the leather belt. We even wore brown undies, Deputy Speaker. What fantastic times we had.

As a kid that was born with much older siblings, I was on my own a fair bit, so mum sent me along to brownies. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I went on to be a girl guide and, again, truly loved those experiences. Whether it was doing badges—I can still tie a reef knot, a bowline, half-hitches and a few other things, which keeps me reasonably handy around the farm from time to time and on the occasional boat—or other activities, I think about those things that we learnt in brownies and guides over the years. Things like reflecting on that promise, a duty, a sense of community service, whether it was going to help out in the community or whether it was going on pack holidays and learning to get along with other people and just being good members of a group, it was such an important and informative time for all of us learning together.

Now that I really think back on it as a member of parliament, I didn't quite realise how much of our First Nations culture we embraced as girl guides and brownies. I think back to some of my pack leaders and I think of brown owl Elizabeth Masterman, who still lives in Pelaw Main not very far from me. Even when I go to Coles and do the shopping I still refer to her as Brown Owl, and she says, 'Meryl, you should call me Elizabeth', and I say, 'You will always be Brown Owl to me.' It's just one of those things.

Brownies, Guides, Scouts and Venturers give kids a sense of belonging, a sense of duty and a sense of respect. These are all values which we all need. As we're growing up—it doesn't matter whether you're religious, not religious, Liberal, Labor, Nats, Callithumpian or Independent—we all need to learn those core beliefs that make us good citizens. We might embellish those values as we get older, with different beliefs of how we should get to that common goal but, at the end of the day, we want to be good citizens, we want to contribute and we want to have a sense of duty to our community and ourselves. I honestly believe that Girl Guiding and Scouting give young children that. So even if your child may not be particularly sporty or musical but you want them to be involved in a group that will give them good practical skills and that will allow them to reach into experiences that wouldn't have through that in a million years they would experience, Scouting and Girl Guiding do a fantastic job.

Scouts Australia has over 17,000 youth and adult members, and Guides have over 30,000 members. Young people thrive from the life skills and socialisation that these groups provide. Again, friendships that we made as Brownies and Guides and that I know that young people make today will stand you in good stead over the years—and you just never know when you will bump into someone again or retain those friendships.

I want to send a shout-out to my Scouts groups. The Port Stephens Scouts have Tilligerry, Nelson Bay, Anna Bay, Raymond Terrace and East Maitland—a great group of scouts. I was fortunate enough to visit East Maitland Scouts a little bit over 12 months ago. I had a fantastic night at East Maitland Scouts, talking to young people and participating in their activities. We even did a bit of cooking. It was really great. Kurri Kurri Scouts is just down the hill from where our Guide hall is in Kurri Kurri. I'd like to throw out a special mention to the Guide hall in Kurri Kurri. A really severe storm went through Kurri a few years ago, and the after-hours ambulance hall that was used for OOSH lost its roof. The Guides gave its hall for OOSH to use. That's community spirt. So keep Guiding, keep going to Scouts and keep making a contribution. (Time expired)

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