Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, I invited the Minister for Social Services back to the North Coast to visit Krurungal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Welfare, Resource and Housing and talk with their amazing team about how the Albanese Labor government's increased funding for their organisation will support our local community. Our government has increased emergency relief grant funding for Krurungal by 41 per cent to support them in delivering a range of culturally appropriate community based services. The services include emergency relief and community pathway connector programs as well as supporting individuals with mental health concerns and transitioning to the NDIS and other services. Krurungal has a strong track record of working closely with family, friends, support people, carers and other services on behalf of community members to ensure that locals receive culturally appropriate support and their health and wellbeing are addressed in a holistic manner. I'd like to say a very, very big thank you to the chairperson of Krurungal, Aunty Joyce Summers, and the whole team for the vitally important work that they continue to do to help support our local community in accessing services. Thank you so much for welcoming the minister and me last week.

Also earlier this month, I had the great pleasure of greeting Matilda, our very own 'local mobile wildlife hospital', as she and her team arrived at Parliament House in Canberra. What a treat that was for everyone. I also invited the Minister for the Environment and Water to meet the whole team and see the incredible work they do utilising Australia's only mobile wildlife hospital which operates inside a fantastic custom-built semitrailer. I know many members and senators were able to visit Matilda during that week. It was a wonderful visit, I can report that the Minister for the Environment and Water, who visited, is very fond of Digby, a nine-month-old wombat, and that he was also very impressed also by the terrific volunteers and workers who were nursing Digby back to health after an accident. It is a great example of the incredible work that Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital do.

Matilda and the team are on a tour throughout the entire country. They're visiting New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT as I said, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. They're on tour to demonstrate and showcase the mobile capacity to assist wildlife impacted by natural disasters, disease outbreaks and accidents as well. Now, while Matilda is on tour, the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital continues to do their work tirelessly from their permanent base in Lennox Head, which is in my electorate of Richmond, and I'm very pleased to have worked with the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital over many years and also very proud to have delivered on my 2025 election commitment of $2 million for the expansion of operations of the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital. By providing funding for Australia's only mobile wildlife hospital, our government is helping to ensure they continue to provide that very important care to injured wildlife through surgery, intensive care, X-rays, ultrasound and other facilities so they can continue their amazing work. So I want to say a really big thanks to all the team at Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital and a happy travels, Tilly, as you continue around the country. You're doing a great job.