Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, what a happy day it was today when I woke up to the sun streaming down on Canberra after some rain knowing that there were thousands of refugee families and former detainees that today were free of debt. This is a happy day for Australia and I am very proud to be a member of this House when this government and this parliament have shown such enormous goodwill towards those families who have had their debt removed.

It was a happy day at the Daffodil Festival at Leongatha last week also when the whole town was festooned with the beauty of yellow. At the same time, I was lucky and blessed enough to be asked to attend Leongatha’s Make Poverty History action group, organised for the fourth time to stand up for justice projects as a part of the Micah Challenge. I think Micah Challenge are coming here next week. Mrs Johanna Haasjes was the organiser of the program. What a great day it was to walk into St Peter’s Church with the Reverend Janet Wallis, when the church had been completely turned over to the Micah Challenge people. We had some great speakers—Jesse Poulton, a World Vision youth ambassador, and Mimmie Jackson, South Gippsland’s youngest ever shire councillor. It was a pleasure to hear them both speak.

Having tramped the boards and for 20 years of my life sung my songs to make a quid, I was pleased to see there was also a South Coast Christian College worship band. On drums was Luke Toohill, on keyboards and vocals was Christian Van Eck, on guitar was Nick Piening, on bass guitar was Ilene Page and on vocals were Jodie Chisholm and Rebecca Vagg. Amelia Piening composed and sang her own song just after them. What a time it was to hear those young people sing and play in that church.

It is not often we go to a function where courage is displayed by people. Excellence was displayed in all the surrounding stalls that day. It was a pleasure to stand there as the local member with a whole lot of people who had a heart for those people who were not well-off. I said in my address that there is only one place where abject poverty should exist. For us in this generation and in the generations behind us and in front of us, the only place we should ever see abject poverty in Australia and across the world is in a museum. We should never see it in lives across this nation. We have a job to do and that is the challenge for all of us. Micah Challenge will be here next week. What a great day it is for this nation.