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

I congratulate the Clarence Valley Town Crier, Trevor Green, who, in the words of our local paper the Daily Examiner,has 'cleaned up at the 21st National Town Crier Championships in Maryborough on Saturday'. I am not too sure how many people still have a town crier but we are fortunate to have one in the Clarence Valley. It is an old and great tradition that we all love.

Trevor Green said that he was surprised that he won three out of five of the awards at the championships and he paid tribute to some others. There had been a town crier before him, Roy Bowling, who had been there for a long time. Trevor paid tribute to him and said Roy had been a mentor. He said his win was not just about the voice, volume level and control. Clearly, it is about voice clarity, pronunciation, volume control, volume level and the cries—those are assessed—but it is also the costume, known as regalia. He has that custom made, and donated, by Kerri Benson, of Sea Eagle Fashions in Maclean. Maclean is in the neighbouring seat of Cowper but is very close to my electorate.

Trevor was quite excited that this had happened to him. I have written him a letter of congratulations. On his first occasion of being the town crier, I was there to see him perform. Of course, everybody was sad to see his predecessor Roy go but it was great to see somebody want to take it up. As well as being the town crier, Trevor Green is a paramedic so he has a very noble day job. Well done, Trevor, and may we continue to hear the town crying go on and continue that tradition.

In the same vein, I also congratulate another person in my electorate. Gary Amedee has gone from the farm to fudge. He was a farmer in Tabulam and he has now set up a business that makes fudge, called Byron Bay Fudge Factory. Byron Bay is a name that a lot of people know, but he has set up the Byron Bay Fudge Factory in Ballina. It is in the local paper Northern Star this week with a photo of Gary outside his shop, which is a far cry from cattle farming.

Gary says he felt good about making fudge, although he said it might be a risky move. Setting up any small business can be seen as a risk but isn't it wonderful that we have people who take that risk. He also said he had been making fudge for as long as he can remember, since he was five or six. He said his mother taught him how to make it—it is his grandma's recipe—but that it was also an art and a science. I make fudge, but for me it is neither an art nor a science. It is a long time since I have made it and I am sure it would not be anything like Gary's. I will just keep eating his fudge.

He said:

You think I would get sick of eating fudge, but I don't. It's just so good—if I do say so myself.

It is wonderful to see someone have that commitment and that sort of courage to set up a small business. Everybody likes fudge, so I am sure he will continue to do well.

That leads me into our economy. Often people say, 'I am too scared to do this and that with small business'. If you have a look at our economy we have some really good figures that can get lost in this place, in the media and in the debates that we have—unemployment 4.9 per cent; inflation 2.7 per cent; public net debt is about seven per cent of GDP; RBA interest rate 4.75 per cent; and growth rate 3.3 per cent. When you look at the Aussie versus the US dollar—and I know we always have a debate about who it is impacting on—the upshot is that to have it at 1.0703 is a good figure. Trade surplus was $2.23 billion in May 2011. Australian families depending on one breadwinner pay among that lowest amounts of tax in the world and have become better off under the Gillard government. (Time expired)