Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to touch on some great events that have been happening in my electorate of Deakin just in the last month. On 1 March we had a fantastic turnout for Clean Up Australia Day at Heatherdale Creek Parklands. This is a beautiful part of our community. Whether you're walking the dog, going for a run or taking kids to the playground, it is a beautiful place to be every weekend. One of the reasons it is so beautiful is the Heatherdale Creek Parklands Advisory Committee, a dedicated group that have for years energetically and enthusiastically worked to maintain the facilities at the park. They're led by a very determined Valerie Turnbull. Val and many other volunteers have been looking after our local park for years, organising countless working bees and events to maintain and improve community spaces.

Clean Up Australia Day has long been a part of the big event calendar that they host. Working with Val and Rob, it was a pleasure to make this year's the biggest one yet. I'm proud to report that we had more volunteers turn out for Clean Up Australia Day than we've ever seen before, so much so that we had to fight over the rubbish on the day! I was very excited when I was able to find something under a rock or something like that because we had a lot more volunteers than pieces of rubbish by the end of it. Rob made the important point that each year they find less and less rubbish at the park, a trend that we really do need to celebrate. It seems that when a community is maintaining something together, the collective respect for that facility is also increased. It's become a really valued and treasured part of the community and locals have really taken ownership. They rightly expect our local facilities to be maintained and kept spick and span.

In my first speech to parliament, I spoke about how Deakin is home to active citizens who really care about their community. That community spirit was definitely on show for Clean Up Australia Day that day. It was wonderful to see so many people from all sorts of backgrounds. We had young kids, we had teenagers, we had young adults and we had older Australians all together, including the first Heatherdale Scout group and the Ismaili community, as well as many other locals who gave up part of their day. It just shows that, while many of us come from different backgrounds and fill our lives with different activities, we all share the same natural environment and we all care about maintaining it so we can share our parklands for generations to come.

It also made me think about the kinds of multicultural events we love seeing in our part of the world, ones that bring communities together, ones where we get to know each other a little bit better and help build that trust and respect between communities, ones where we get to know the authorities in our area and ones where we get to really work towards lifting one another up.

That reminds me of another event we hosted in our electorate only last week: a senior's morning tea. It was my pleasure to host it at the Mitcham bowls club. We had over 60 older Australians come to the event and hear about the government's policies around aged-care services and groups relevant to them. More importantly, it wasn't just a propaganda fest; it wasn't me just dishing party lines. It was an honest and respectful dialogue with older Australians in our community. We had the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors come out to Deakin to speak directly to the residents. They asked some very perceptive and worthwhile questions. We had an honest conversation about what that legislation was about, its benefits and how it will work in the future. We connected them with people who could answer questions they have but also took on board the feedback that they shared, which is important as well. It's important that we have this as a dialogue. The relationship with the community can't be one about me just providing one-line messages and standard replies to things. It's about genuine dialogue, understanding what the real concerns are and addressing them directly and, when we don't have the answers, finding out what those answers are and getting back to people. That's part of that ongoing respectful engagement I've really wanted to foster with different parts of our community.

I'm very lucky in my electorate because it's the home of Robyn Abrahams, who is one of the members of the Aged Care Council of Elders. She would hold me to account if I were to start just spewing standard government lines. She's someone who is an incredibly honest, dignified person, and her presentation at that session as well was greatly enjoyed by attendees and really highlighted the commitment we as a government have and that she has to hearing the voices of older Australians, taking that feedback on board and making sure that we are making improvements that respect what they have to say.

I want to thank the minister, Sam Rae, for coming across and being so generous with his time. I know a lot of constituents also gave him a lot of homework on individual cases, so I thank him in advance for providing those responses. I also want to thank very much the Lions and Rotary clubs that came along as well because they highlighted that our older Australians aren't just recipients of services; they are essential parts of our community. Not only are older people helping one another but they're also building up our community in so many ways—supporting young people with assistance with eye testing and providing grants of books and things to students in our schools who they know come from lower-SES backgrounds. It's really subtle, quiet work just to help them out with their education. They do so much in our community. Every barbecue they have is fundraising for one group or another in our community. It's not just themselves or their own activities. They are always thinking about how they can help. I know in our job we often get people coming to our offices and requesting various forms of support. These are groups that always come in and really do ask: How can I help? What can we do to support people? I'm incredibly grateful for the contribution they continue to make. They really are one of the many organisations in my electorate that also highlight the profound contribution older Australians make to our community. They're making a difference to people of all ages and all backgrounds, and they just do incredible work and give so much of their time. It doesn't really look like retirement when I observe them working. They are working harder than many full-timers I know, and I'm incredibly grateful for the wonderful work they do in our community.

I also want to thank the people who came from local council and explained the services that they provide to older Australians in our area, as well as the Australian Taxation Office, who came and talked about scams and other matters relevant to older people—and, more importantly, provided them with a business card with a phone number they could call to get answers to questions. This was something that was very often requested. Whenever the response was, 'Oh, it's on the website, go and look,' they were quite rightly put back in their place and told about ways that would be useful for communicating information to people. Again, that's the kind of feedback we need to take on board. How can we make government better for people? That's the real question.

Services Australia also brought a few people along and, again, provided really useful information to our locals. They are aware, as am I, of the importance of always taking printed material to these events. That is something that I will ensure is in abundance for all future meetings as well! I'm grateful to all 60 people for coming along. They were telling me already about how the information they collected was being shared with friends and family. They were already taking that on board. So many of them there continue to make incredible contributions to our community.

Another event I want to briefly discuss in my remaining three minutes is a visit I made to the Ringwood RSL just a few days ago. There we were hosting a relatively new program in our part of the world—eSports. So this was about installing a range of computers and some very cool screens and lighting that enabled veterans to come to the RSL and compete in eSports with these very cool and highly capable computers, play a range of eSports and engage in international competitions with 'you-beaut' technology. The RSL in Ringwood is really dedicated to engaging with younger veterans. The days of the gaming floor and the long general meetings attracting the crowds just isn't playing like it used to. I'm very grateful to the fantastic leadership at Ringwood RSL that are really dedicating a lot of time and thought to new ways of engaging with younger veterans by trying new activities and doing things they haven't done before. It was fantastic to see this incredible facility.

The Albanese government is supporting that new eSports hub with a grant of over $130,000, enabling a great new initiative to support young veterans' mental health by fostering connections through gaming, teamwork and that shared passion. It's something that people can bring their kids to as well, so there's a lot of people really looking forward to that facility. They're still doing more work on the space. They're putting a big screen in the room, which'll be fantastic not only for grand final time but for other activities that the veterans are running. I think it's fair to say that this isn't the first thing I naturally associate with people doing in an RSL on a given day, but it's exciting to see that they are really reshaping themselves to support new veterans. I'm really looking forward to seeing veterans actually using those facilities. The minister, Matt Keogh, really enjoyed himself—and I'm sure the veterans will, too, as it opens in the coming days. I really want to thank the team there at Ringwood RSL—including the President, Colonel David Jamison, for hosting both the minister and myself—and the minister for his fantastic support of the project.

It's incredibly important that we as a government continue to do whatever we can to support our veterans. There is a range of challenges around service delivery and things like that, but we've got to get creative in how we engage with the veteran community, and the best way to do that is to listen to what they're interested in—to really take on board what they have to say and implement programs that reflect what their interests, passions and concerns are. Like so many things in government, it really is just about taking the time—investing that time—listening to what people have to say and doing everything we can to support the great ideas they have and empower them. We owe our veterans everything we can do to support them. This is one example of one great initiative, but it is a small part of a very big picture. It's something that I was very, very pleased to be part of, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Ringwood RSL.