Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take this opportunity. It wasn't planned, clearly. I'm not standing in the right position, but here we go anyway. I very proudly stand here as the first woman elected to the seat of Lyne on the mid-north coast of New South Wales and as only the second woman from the New South Wales Nationals Party elected to the House of Representatives in over a 100-odd years. It's quite an achievement. In my first speech, I paid tribute to the very first woman elected from New South Wales, Kay Hull, an absolute dynamo. I had the privilege, as a staffer, to see Kay in action here in the parliament. She was somebody who, frankly, ministers found it very difficult to say no to. Perhaps, she didn't nag about urgent care clinics like I have been doing since I entered the parliament, but she certainly found a way to get her case across. She has served until recently as our federal president of the National Party and has done an outstanding job. I'm incredibly privileged to have seen Kay and many other very strong women enter the parliament from the Nationals in my own area. Wendy Machin, former member for Port Macquarie, was one of the first female ministers for a coalition government in New South Wales. Wendy really was a trailblazer and continues to contribute as the chair of the local primary health network. She certainly continues to show a great deal of passion for the area that she represented.

On the weekend, on Saturday, I had the great privilege of attending the Rotary Club of Taree for Manning's International Women's Day event to raise funds for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which is quite an incredible charity that's doing amazing work to support our children to thrive. It was an honour and a privilege to be there as one of the panel speakers with May Ambour and Meg Nicholson, the other two women on the panel. We were joined by a gentleman as well who runs a very large business from Taree. My state colleague Tanya Thompson, the member for Myall Lakes, also joined us, as well as women from across the Manning, including a number of women who were affected by the floods of last year.

I have to say, it was an incredibly emotional luncheon event in celebration of International Women's Day. A lot of tears were shed because, for a lot of us, the trauma of that flood event lives large in our lives. There are many people, many women, who remain out of their homes. For some people it's very hard to imagine that 10 months after an event of that significance—you don't see the rubbish on the side of the road anymore. You can look out across paddocks that were once covered and completely underwater that are green, appear lush and have cattle grazing on them. But the fact of the matter is that the trauma of that May event lives large, and it certainly lived large on Saturday.

There are the stories of the women, including Rhonda Futterleib—I didn't mention her by name, but I spoke of her in my first speech—whose business was affected. But, like so many women across the Lyne electorate, they mucked in. Again, I think I said in my first speech that strangers went to best friends in a moment by simply saying, 'Mate, how can I help?' So many women showed that mateship to their neighbours, their family, their friends and complete strangers during that event in May last year.

The trauma that we're experiencing—the fact that so many people are not yet back in their houses and that businesses are suffering—is the very reason why the member for Myall Lakes and I continue to fight for justice for Taree, Wingham and the Manning Valley. We are still fighting for additional support for our communities. We still have not yet seen it, despite call after call for additional funding for small businesses across the region.

The Deputy Speaker would appreciate this: Queensland does do disaster recovery funding quite well compared to New South Wales. I've seen quite generous support to flood affected communities in Queensland, and rightly so. Our community is looking for similar levels of support, given this was a once-in-500-years flood. We're still calling for that additional funding for small business. We still need an equivalent program to the one offered in Lismore for house raisings. We still need more support for farmers and oyster growers in the region.

These are the issues that women in Lyne support and continue to call for. They themselves are small-business owners. It's wonderful. I know this parliament celebrates women who are entrepreneurs and innovators wherever they are in this country. I'm very privileged, like all members, to be able to get up here and represent these incredible women. But many of these women remain devastated by this flood event and, equally, need this additional support to get back on their feet, as do a number of people that are still not back in their homes. Some continue to struggle to find a residence to call home. I was myself lucky during the flood event that I had my own bed to go back to. So many didn't. It's still a very painful and traumatic experience.

I want, in this short period of time—unplanned as it is—to simply say that it was an incredible honour and privilege to participate in this event on Saturday and to share with so many incredible women the stories of survival, courage and tenacity that women showed during that flood event and continue to show today. I congratulate Rhonda and I congratulate the Rotary Club of Taree on Manning. As a Rotarian myself, I'm very proud to always participate in Rotary events. Rotary, too, has a big focus on domestic violence. I've participated in a number of rallies through my own Rotary Club, focusing on domestic violence and how we can better support women and men in our communities through very difficult and traumatic experiences.

I want to send a shout-out to all of the women in the Lyne electorate. I'm so incredibly proud of all of you, of what you get up and do every day. I hope that I can continue to do my very best, as the first female member for Lyne, to represent you with all my heart and all my passion.

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