Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's been a tough year in Western Sydney, and Western Sydney has responded with toughness. The New South Wales Liberal government was addicted to creating two Sydneys. We had a curfew. We had helicopters flying over our houses five or six times a day. We had very harsh restrictions which impacted on our economy. But what I want to focus on is how our community responded. Our community responded with toughness and with compassion. I want to thank our frontline health workers. I want to thank the vaccination teams. I want to particularly thank Clare, Kristy and Raj at the Prairiewood vaccination hub. They went for weeks without seeing their families. One of our vaccination-blitz Sundays was Father's Day. Not for one moment did they think of not turning up at work, and they vaccinated thousands of people. I want to thank our testing teams. I've come to know them very well. I've come to know the testing team at Rosford oval very well, given I get tested every three days. We've now become old friends. Right across the McMahon community, the testing teams, at some points 24/7, are always testing with a smile. It's not the most pleasant thing to go through, particularly for those of us who have had to go through it every three or four days, but the friendly faces of the testing teams have made it a bit easier.

I want to thank, in particular, the volunteers. These are the unsung heroes of this crisis. We think of the Rural Fire Service in relation to fires, but the Rural Fire Services from all across Western Sydney made the vaccination hubs work: volunteering, managing the crowds, providing the water. St John Ambulance were, again, at the vaccination hubs and the testing clinics and, in my community, the Fairfield and Granville divisions were at the food hamper canteens every Sunday. Then there's our multicultural community. Turbans 4 Australia—Amar Singh, what an amazing effort. We've all been out there, packing hampers with them, with the trucks and the mini-vans taking food deliveries. When Amar rang me and asked, 'Does anybody need help?' I said: 'Yes, the Assyrian retirement village in Fairfield is doing it tough. The older villagers don't want to go to the shops in this environment.' On the next day, in comes the mini-van, with Turbans 4 Australia, a Sikh community, dropping off hampers to an Orthodox Christian retirement village. The Hindu Council's Hindu Benevolent Fund—every Sunday a canteen at Wentworthville.

I want to particularly mention OzHarvest. Julia Finn, the state member for Granville, Glenn Elmore and I spend every Thursday—when parliament is not sitting—at the OzHarvest hamper canteen in Granville. We normally give out around a thousand hampers a day, which just shows the need. Susannah, our manager, our boss at the Granville OzHarvest hamper hub keeps us on the straight and narrow. We have a very efficient operation, and we get the hampers out to those who need them. I acknowledge all the volunteers at Oz Harvest—there are too many to mention by name. We've become good friends. We have a great atmosphere as we prepare the hampers and get them out the door.

I again acknowledge Man Cave Support Group. Charities right across Western Sydney have responded magnificently. It has brought out the best in our community.