Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the excellent and invaluable service to our community provided by guide dogs. In the gallery we have Iain Edwards, the interim CEO of Guide Dogs Victoria, and his Labrador guide dog Olympia, and my dad, Johnny Gosling AM, who has worked with guide dogs for over 50 years.

Staggeringly, almost half of Australians, including me, are impacted by some sort of long-term vision condition, but almost half a million live with low vision or total blindness. Guide Dogs breed, raise and train about 150 dogs per year, with over 1,700 dogs currently in active service. Not every dog that is trained becomes a guide dog—about half graduate from the class—but the others go on to be therapy dogs or pets. Dogs are only one part of what Guide Dogs Australia does. It offers assistive technology and mobility training, helping Australians to navigate independently in the community, to engage fully in social activities and sport and to have as much freedom as possible to fully engage with life.

There's a need for more puppy raisers, so if you've got some time, some room and some spare shoes at home that they can have a chew on, please contact Guide Dogs and get amongst it. Thanks, Guide Dogs.