Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's fair to say that, this week, parliament has been pretty much focused on itself and the goings-on inside this building. It's equally regrettable to be saying that when outside of this building, in a place where I come from, a place that many people in this House come from, we've seen volunteers lending their efforts, time and energy to the crisis facing flooded communities and landscapes. On display has been the very best of what Australia stands for, whilst in this place we have seen some—too much, too much—of the very worst, and that's a matter of deep regret. There have not been many times over the last 10 years that I've walked into this place feeling a little bit of shame about the place that I work, and I have to say, regrettably, that this week I have felt that, and I know that I'm not alone.

I want to spend a little bit of time in my response on the appropriation bills to do the very opposite—to look outwards and to celebrate some of the great things that are going on in my community. I want to take the opportunity to congratulate the numerous people who were recognised and received awards during the recent Australia Day ceremonies. I want to congratulate Don Martin, who was the Shellharbour Australia Day Citizen of the Year, and Charli Ryan, who was the Shellharbour Australia Day Young Citizen of the Year.

Don is best known for his work locally with Legacy. He was also a founding member, however, of the Foreshore Improvement Group and is an advocate for the cockle moratorium and the local environment. For those not from my area, the cockle moratorium is about putting a stop to the unsustainable harvesting of cockles from the Lake Illawarra foreshore. When Don's not improving our local environment, he is regularly raising funds for and then distributing them—but, more than that, distributing kindness and company—to war widows throughout the Illawarra.

Charli Ryan, over the last 12 months, has made a huge difference in her local school and her local community. In 2020 she participated in the New South Wales kids parliament, discussing the issues that were facing young people—and 2020 was a very special year for all kids who were contributing to the New South Wales youth parliament. Charli noted that the emerging need for face masks within the community was not being met, and she set about purchasing materials for homemade face masks, which she distributed amongst the elderly people in her community and to the Salvation Army. She wasn't alone, and when she accepted the award she reached out to one of her schoolmates and said, 'This could equally have gone to her and many of the others that were involved in that project.' I want to pay tribute to the great work of Charlie and her school compatriots.

I want to give a shout-out to a great mate of mine, who I've known for over a decade now. He is Chaplain John Kewa from the Mission to Seafarers. John wasn't born in Australia. He was born in the hills of Papua New Guinea and he still has a lot of family back there. I know he is very anxious about what's going on with the spread of COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea at the moment. But it really was a wonderful day when we were able to celebrate John and recognise him and his great contributions through his faith and his work with the local seafarers by making him the Wollongong City Citizen of the Year. It's an absolutely brilliant story. He accepted that award alongside young Thura Sabbar, the Wollongong City Young Citizen of the Year.

I want to say a few words about John. John is a chaplain and manager at the Mission to Seamen at Port Kembla. During the COVID-19 pandemic, during the worst of the pandemic, John showed compassion for the 1,200 crew members who were stuck on the Ruby Princess. Remember the Ruby Princess? It seems like forever ago. They sailed out of Sydney Harbour, they had no port anywhere, and they were taken into Port Kembla Harbour, trapped on board. I want to pay tribute to John and the local community, my colleague Sharon Bird, the member for Cunningham, and the member for Wollongong, Paul Scully, who together with others organised a workshop to bring food hampers and care packs to the crew on board the Ruby Princess. They will never forget the kindness that was shown to them by the City of Wollongong.

John Kewa was at the very heart of it. John and his team delivered over 13 pallets—not packages, pallets, and that's a hell of a lot of care packages—and hundreds of letters of support to the crew. He's at it again. He is providing support for the seafarers stranded off Port Kembla Harbour who have been at sea for months and months. I want to say something about this, because we are literally witnessing a humanitarian crisis. There are nearly half a million seafarers stuck on ships across the globe. They've been stuck on those ships for over a year, and they've essentially been forced into indefinite service. They can't go home, and often they can't go into the ports which their ships are moored off.

Seafarers are performing a critical role. They transport food, minerals, medicines, farm produce and other supplies around the globe. A trading nation like Australia, where over 90 per cent of our goods come to us or go from us on a ship, is incredibly reliant on the seafarers and the ships that they staff. We've paid a lot of tribute to the people who work in our hospitals, our essential services workers and our front-line workers in the retail industries, because they're very visible. The people who aren't visible are the seafarers. I think we need to do more, as a nation which is so reliant on seafarers, to ensure that half a million people who are stranded on ships can be safely brought home, that their ships can be safely attended to, and that these forgotten seafarers are provided the care, attention and the safe passage home that they so rightly deserve.

I've mentioned Thura Sabbar. She migrated to Australia in 2009—another great migrant story. Since she arrived in Australia, she and her family and friends have been repaying what they see as an enormous debt back to the community ever since. In many respects, I think the debt is ours to them. Thura has organised and volunteered in heaps of fundraisers, including Zonta birthing kits and supporting organisations such as Need to Feed for the past four years. She has also been offering a free translation service for refugees from Arabic-speaking countries. She is a sensational young woman, and we can see hope for the future with young leaders like her coming through.

In the Wingecarribee Shire Council, we saw Catherine Constable named the Australia Day Citizen of the Year and Charlotte Gillespie named the Young Citizen of the Year. Catherine Constable is a long-term advocate for and supporter of senior citizens across the Southern Highlands and has served for more than 17 years on the board of Wingecarribee Adult Day Care Centres. I want to congratulate Catherine but also recognise the staff and volunteers at the adult day care centres in the Southern Highlands, throughout my electorate and throughout the country. They provide an absolutely essential service for those Australians, many of them living with dementia, and also their carers, who are provided some respite through the services that they provide. Good on you, Catherine. We owe a great debt of gratitude to you. I also want to pay tribute to Charlotte Gillespie, who was nominated for her community and volunteering work, which includes regular visits to the Harbison day care and The Abbey nursing home, bringing joy and delight to the residents of those services.

There are a bunch of people I'd like to recognise for their services to the community, and I won't be able to get through them all in the time that I have available. But I ran into a bloke at my regular community outreach—I do them every weekend, as many members of this place do—and I was reminded of him on Sunday, because, as you'd know, Deputy Speaker Irons, Sunday was World Poetry Day. UNESCO has named 21 March as the day when we recognise poets around the globe. In recognising poets internationally, UNESCO makes the point that poetry reaffirms our common humanity by reminding us all of the common feelings and emotions that we feel right around the globe. I was reminded of this when I caught up with Dr Mark Tredinnick, who was given an OAM the year before last for his contribution to poetry and to education. I want to thank Mark for the great work that he does and recognise the contribution that poets make to our community. Barely a week goes past when we're not quoting one of them in this place, to add gravitas and a bit of intellectual calibre to our otherwise tawdry contributions to the Hansard.

Mr Joyce interjecting—

I'm not referring to you, Member for New England. Everything that you contribute to this place is always poetic!

An honourable member: The Banjo of parliament!

The very Banjo himself.

I want to spend a bit of the time I have left paying tribute to the great work of the women—volunteers and paid workers—of the Illawarra Women's Health Centre, led by Sally Stevenson, who is a remarkable local leader. They are a great team. I'm hoping to get them down to parliament to talk about not only their great work but one of the projects that they are dearly hoping gets funded at the next federal budget. As with most valuable services during the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for but also access to the services provided to women experiencing domestic and family violence significantly increased—it's a great tragedy—as did the need for mental health services and sexual and reproductive health services. For example, during the second quarter of last year, the centre had almost four times the number of domestic and family violence contacts that it did in the first quarter of last year. Last year the women's health centre supported over 1,300 individual clients and had over 20,000—I'll say that number again: over 20,000—client contacts throughout the year. Despite the challenge of COVID-19 social restrictions, they had an ever-increasing demand for their services, and their doors remained open.

The centre is leading the way for an innovative and Australia-only service for people who are recovering from domestic violence. They also do preventative programs within local schools and local community organisations. They're in their third year of the Mothers and Sons program, which offers a unique child-rearing program that gives mothers the techniques to help their sons deal with emotions and express themselves in a healthy way. I commend this program to other members in this place. I want to raise awareness of the centre's proposal to establish an Illawarra domestic violence and trauma recovery centre. We have spoken a lot over the last fortnight about Brittany Higgins' allegations, the horrible circumstances and allegations of rape, and the stories that have been unleashed by other members and staff in this place. They have caused us all to take a step back and say, 'Are we doing enough? Are we providing the right sort of example to our communities? Are we actually doing enough to provide the services and the support that our communities need?'

I want to take the Prime Minister up on the challenge that he gave to all of us. The words that he said a few days ago were that he wants to do more, he wants us to do better and he wants us to do more. We've got a budget coming up in a few weeks. This is a great opportunity for the government to fund the Illawarra domestic violence trauma recovery centre. It will cost $10 million over three years, but the cost is nothing compared to the benefits that it will provide to the community. I call on the government ministers who are responsible for this area of policy development. I think of the things that we've spent $10 million on. I think of the waste that we have seen through the JobKeeper program going to profitable companies, paying bonuses and dividends when they didn't need it. I see the Leppington triangle and the waste. Here's something we could spend a little bit of money on and get a lot of benefit. (Time expired)

See this speech in context