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

I want to do a bit of a regional round-up for my seat of Page. I have been to a number of BER openings, and there will be many more coming up in the near future, particularly one at Alstonville Public School—a wonderful school with great, dedicated teachers like David Wright and the principal, Lorraine Bryant. The school really is well served by the teachers. The BER project there is one that I have been very actively involved in, working with the school community so they could get exactly what they wanted, something that would work for that school community. We have been able to do that. I got an email from the school this week saying that I should be proud, along with Reeds, who have got the contract to do it, and the federal government, which has made the funds available. I will be going out there next week to have a look at it. I also want to pay tribute to the general assistant, who is a parent. He is particularly skilful and has been very active in this project as well. They really got value out of him.

The Daily Examiner newspaper in Grafton have recently announced that they have taken on a former Telstra call centre employee. I spoke in this place about Telstra axing 108 jobs, with the closure of a business call centre in Grafton. This is causing great concern to the community and everybody is rallying around to help place some of these employees. Some groups have started to look at that in the community. I am involved in a range of activities to help them with federal and state agencies. Everybody is working together to make sure that people get other employment. I was talking to one of the workers the other day. She had never been for an interview in her life and she had just scored an interview and was feeling quite good about that. She felt quite confident that she would be okay to face the future. It was reassuring to hear that.

On the 10th of the 10th, I attended a Girl Guides ceremony in Lismore to help celebrate the Year of the Girl Guide and the centenary of the Girl Guide movement in Australia. I would like to pay tribute to Helen Hargreaves, Division Leader of the Northern Rivers Division of the Girl Guides Association, New South Wales and ACT, for organising it. It was a pretty rainy day—we have had a bit of weather up my way—and we were supposed to be outside. Anyway, we ended up inside at the town hall. It was wonderful to be there with the young Girl Guides and some of the older ones who have participated in that movement for a long time. (Time expired)

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.