James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to spend my time today paying tribute to Isobel Marshall, who was announced as the Young Australian of the Year by the Prime Minister at the event here in Canberra on Australia Day eve. Isobel lives just outside of my electorate of Sturt in Adelaide. I know her whole family very, very well. They're great philanthropic contributors to so many worthwhile causes in South Australia. But what she has done is truly inspirational. Isobel, with a friend from school, established a charity called TABOO. They produce women's sanitary products and sell them, and the profit they make through that process they invest in providing those same products into disadvantaged communities, both overseas and here in Australia: in Africa in particular, Uganda and Sierra Leone, but also in remote Indigenous communities in Australia.

The initiative is truly inspirational. She started it when she was in secondary school, as a Year 12 student. She is now a medical student. You're hardly renowned for having much spare time when you're studying medicine, but what she has achieved already is extremely inspirational. She is only at the beginning of what she intends to achieve through that initiative, but I'm so proud of her and so proud that she was recognised by her country for what she has achieved.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 43 the time for members' statements has concluded.