Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The second member for Mallee, a guy called Peter Fisher, who was a member of parliament from 1972 to 1993, used to say: the people of the Wimmera Mallee are very fair-minded people. I'm the fourth member for Mallee. I know we're not meant to use props, but this is a good cause. Did you know that we in the Mallee participate in a thing called Operation Christmas Child? This is where we get children, with their parents, to wrap a shoebox. These shoeboxes are then dumped at our electorate offices and sent overseas into the refugee camps in the poorer counties of the world. Last year, 13.1 million shoeboxes were delivered Australia-wide. My wife was fortunate enough to go to Cambodia a few weeks ago, where they handed out some of these shoeboxes. She said some of the children didn't want to open them. It was the first gift they'd ever received in their life.

What I want to say to the people of Australia is: it is really good to teach your children to be generous. Operation Christmas Child is a great thing to get involved in, to get children thinking about how they could pack a shoebox. All you do is get your shoebox. It has either a boy or a girl on it. There's a list of things you can put in, like toothpaste, a tooth brush or some toys. You pay $8 for the packaging and you get to send these shoeboxes overseas. This is an opportunity for Australians to be really generous to other parts of the world and encourage their children to be generous. Our offices will once again be open. Get involved!