Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good morning, colleagues. Firstly, I congratulate the City Marians Hockey Club on the 75th anniversary of its existence. It is a terrific club and a very good night was had by all on Saturday evening. As you may well know, there are six senators in Tasmania who happen to be female, and they all came to visit my electorate for two days last week. We had a terrific time going around one of the most beautiful parts—if not the most beautiful part—of Australia.

We went to Petuna Seafoods, which is a wild fishing and aquaculture company, and met with them. We then went for a ride on the newly restored Julie Burgess, a ketch in the Mersey River in Devonport. The Commonwealth has contributed significantly to its restoration, particularly in the skills that have been developed in relation to that. We then went on to the Devonport Maritime Museum, which again has been funded with state and federal money to develop the maritime history of Devonport. We then went to Home Hill, which is the home of Joe and Enid Lyons. It is in fantastic working order and wonderful condition, and I am hoping to get it even more national significance. I hope anyone who visits the Devonport region goes to visit that extraordinary home with its extraordinary history of the people that inhabited it.

We then went to the University of Tasmania Cradle Coast Campus in Burnie to attend a mummy masterclass blog and information session on the development and use of social media and how you can use it, particularly to inform. We met with the Burnie City Council and went to the Makers' Workshop in Burnie, which is a fantastic facility which the Commonwealth has contributed towards, with Burnie investing in itself. There, under the auspices of ConnectPink and the McGrath Foundation, we had a 'working mums have a night off' function, which was very successful and made a very good case for further funding for another breast care nurse for the north-west coast of Tasmania.

On the next day we made our way to Fonterra, the fantastic dairy company in Wynyard, to Nichols Poultry and Redbanks Farm at Sisters Creek, with a huge array of fantastic food and products organically grown and developed, along with a wind farm. We then made our way to the Myrtle Park retirement unit to see our good friends there who are trying to develop an affordable housing scheme using self-help means, and finished off at the Yolla District High School to celebrate their solar school's success. This was a great example of the continuation of the BER projects in my region.

Thanks to everyone who helped to contribute to a fantastic two days.