Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the past few months I've been hosting a number of community forums in Reid. I have held forums with our Chinese community, talking about COVID vaccines. Local GP Dr Stephen Zhang and local pharmacist Claudia Nguyen spoke about the importance of vaccine uptake. I also had the privilege of hosting an online forum with the human rights commissioner for children and also an online forum on mental health, where I was fortunate to have Professor Ian Hickie talk about the importance of looking after yourself in lockdown.

We also had a local community forum on small business. Small business is so important to the people of Reid. There are over 26,000 small- to-medium-sized enterprises in Reid; many of them are family owned as well and they've gone true a very different time. I thought the time to host the forum was a few weeks ago, before we all opened up. We were very fortunate to be joined by the Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, the Hon. Stuart Robert. He outlined the government's pathway to recovery. We were also joined by Jade Angelopoulos, the marketing extraordinaire for a local business, Schibello Caffe, located at Rhodes, and also Paul Zahra, the CEO of the Australian Retailers Association. He gave an incredible insight into what lies ahead. After what has been a really difficult time, this was an opportunity for local constituents, businesses and the chambers of commerce to come together to ask questions, and also to instil a sense of optimism about trading in the next couple of months. It was also about ideas to stimulate buying. It was a fantastic opportunity and I was very fortunate to have so many constituents on the line. After the harsh lockdowns and unfair curfews in Reid, I think, my constituents from Drummoyne through to Rhodes answered the call to get involved in community events. That was whether that meant getting vaccinated or participating in online forums to talk about mental health and how they can help their families during lockdown, or participating in an online forum on small business.

Because we have now reached 80 per cent double-dose in New South Wales, a wonderful milestone for us, we're open. I'm so excited and optimistic about the future of small business in Reid. Whether it's the small villages in Homebush, Five Dock or Croydon, or the big shopping centres, like Westfield at Burwood, the Birkenhead shopping centre at Drummoyne or the DFO at Homebush, I'm very excited about the future of small business in Reid.