House debates

Monday, 23 February 2015

Statements by Members

University of Newcastle

4:35 pm

Photo of Jill HallJill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Last Thursday, I went to the University of Newcastle for O week. I was out there with the state member for Swansea and some young Labor members. We had students and prospective students lining up to sign a petition that we had about the cuts to funding to universities, about the deregulation of unions and also about the increased fees they face. I have never seen such a strong response to a petition, other than the petition that we put out about Medicare where I had people coming into my office just to sign it.

As I left my stall on the way out, I stopped off at the Young Liberals stall. I was absolutely surprised when I looked and I saw the big photo of Mike Baird, the Premier of New South Wales, and next to that a photo of the member for Wentworth. There was no photo of the Prime Minister. When I asked the Young Liberal member who was working on that stand why the Prime Minister's photo was not there, she said that they were hard to get. I commented that that must be because he is so popular!

Photo of Don RandallDon Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Shortland for her enthusiasm!