Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the weekend I was proud to attend the Oxley CWA Christmas bake-off, which also hosted the local Oxley Boomerang Bags association, headed up by Jennifer Bennetts—and I'm holding up a bag in the chamber today. Boomerang Bags are a not-for-profit started on the Gold Coast as a means of providing a sustainable alternative to plastic bags. Over time the movement has grown to an estimated 800 communities across the world, with more than 200,000 bags made and at least 62,000 kilos of landfill waste diverted.

The bags are given away or sold to friends, family, colleagues and strangers. They create a platform to start conversations, upcycle materials and work towards shifting society's throwaway mentality to a more sustainable one.

In Oxley, our 30-plus regular volunteers have sewn over 1,000 sustainable bags for the community to use and re-use—it just started in May this year. The plastic bag ban prompted the local Oxley group to provide an alternative while spreading awareness and advocating a cultural shift in our attitudes towards waste. These bags have been almost completely made from donated and upcycled fabrics such as used linen and tablecloths, and the majority are even given away for free.

This week I'll be proudly presenting the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition with their own Oxley Boomerang Bags for use at Christmas time. But, for the many volunteers, I want to give them a big shout-out and thank them for their great service to our community. My congratulations to everyone involved with the Oxley Boomerang Bags group: to Jennifer, Marilyn and all the volunteers.