Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has been an overwhelming response of generosity and solidarity by the people of the Northern Rivers district, which takes in my seat of Page, to the people of Victoria affected by the devastating bushfires—and I acknowledge the member for McEwen, who is nodding at me affirmatively.

The Northern Star, one of the local newspapers, ran a campaign and collected a whole range of goods and also money. I pay tribute to it and its editor, Sue Short. Two individuals, David Dowd and Andrew Roberts, one of them unemployed, managed to organise and collect a whole lot of toys and other goods and also get the services of ARTC—the CEO, David Marchant, is originally a Grafton boy—and Queensland Rail, and they got the trains to Grafton to take the goods down to Victoria. So I pay tribute to them. Grafton Public School have organised 29 boxes of books to go to Marysville public school—and there is much, much more. I really want to pay tribute to the outpouring of what I call generosity and solidarity. People wanted to help and help they did, and they will continue to do that for the people, families and communities of Victoria until their lives regain—although they can never regain what was—some sort of semblance of normalcy.

The second matter I would like to talk about is the young people in my electorate of Page. I recently attended the Royal Sydney Show Miss Showgirl final for zone 1, held in Grafton and attended by 16 Miss Showgirls from as far away as Laurieton, up to Warialda, and all over my area. Thanks to the local show societies and The Land newspaper. There were five young women, all from Page, who were in the finals: Naomi Watson from Alstonville, Stacey Maslen from Casino, Danielle Bower from Grafton, Mardi Wilson from Kyogle and Amy Morton from Lismore. Amy, who is a local butcher, was selected as the winner, and Holly Jarrett from Bangalow, which is in Richmond, the seat beside mine, was runner up. They now go to the finals in Sydney, which will be held on 18 April. I will be there to see them. All the women are wonderful ambassadors for our community. All are budding community leaders. All acquitted themselves brilliantly and intelligently and are serving their local communities. Thanks to Neville Heyward, Grafton Show Society president, for hosting the night, and to the mayor of Clarence Valley, Councillor Richie Williamson, who did the MC-ing.