Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Many of you would be aware of the mattress run I do up to the Kimberley region in Western Australia with my partners from Centurion Transport, Bedshed Midland, Bedshed Osborne Park and, of course, my old mate Nick D'Adamo from Keys—The Moving Solution. Bedshed has a 60-night comfort guarantee, which allows customers to return their mattress if it wasn't what they were looking for. The mattresses returned via this guarantee—some have only been slept on for one night; some may have been slept on for 59 nights—can't be sold again, so my very, very dear friend Don Bantock from Bedshed, over the last four years, has donated those mattresses, free of charge, so they can go to people in need in the Kimberley. My great mate Justin Cardaci from Centurion Transport donates a prime mover, three trailers, a couple of dollies and a fuel card to me and my team—I'm assisted by my old mate Nick D'Adamo and his crew from Keys, as I said, to load the mattresses with Don's crew—and then I drive the mattresses up to the Kimberley. Since we started this project in 2021, over a thousand mattresses have been donated and delivered to families in need across the Kimberley region.

On my recent trip, just a couple of weeks ago, we delivered a further 164 mattresses to associations including Emama Nguda Aboriginal Corporation, Ngunga Group Womens Aboriginal Corporation in Derby, Ngaringga Nguraa women's safe house, the community projects arm of Job Pathways in Halls Creek and Ngnowar-Aerwah Aboriginal Corporation, with assistance from the Wyndham Youth Aboriginal Corporation and Job Pathways in Wyndham. I'd like to thank all of the community leaders who are involved in supporting this important community project, including the teams who helped us unload at each stop and those involved in making sure the mattresses got to who desperately needed them. I was also pleased to learn that the crew at the Ngnowar-Aerwah Aboriginal Corporation in Wyndham, under the fine leadership of CEO Elaine McLean, had already identified homes for most of the mattresses to be delivered to based on hardship, need and women fleeing domestic violence situations—which, sadly, is way too many in that part of Australia.

One of the more touching moments was when we got to meet Fiona and Edna in Wyndham. Now, I'll paint the picture for you. Fiona was not far off my age, so you can imagine her mother, Edna, would have been close to, if not well into, her 80s. As the boys pulled up out the front with the mattresses that we'd just unloaded from the back of the Centurion trailers, I said I'd like to go and meet with Edna and Fiona. I was joined on that run by my partners in this, Don Bantock, as I've said, and Carl Cardaci, the founder of Centurion Transport, who had come up as well—as they do many times—to help with the unloading and the distribution and to see where their generosity goes. And I can tell you: when I said to Edna, 'Edna, when was the last time you had a new mattress?' she started crying; she teared up. And I tell you what: this crusty old truckie got a little bit watery too when she said to me, 'I've never had a bed.' It's 2025, and she'd never had a bed. And her daughter Fiona said, 'Glenn, none of us have had a bed.' I said, 'What do you sleep on?' She said, 'We had a piece of foam that we used to share'—and in Aboriginal culture, they do share; they all sleep together, with the grandkids.

So you had to be there to believe it, to see the faces of these people when they are given a king-sized mattress and they think that, for the first time in their lives, they get to do what we expect to do every day. They don't get a bed under it; they just have a mattress on the floor. And it was so moving for me, having done this for so long, and for my partners to actually see that and to meet them. Yet it's from something as simple as saving a mattress from going to the tip because it couldn't be sold again, even though it may have been slept on for only one night or up to 59 nights. I tell you what: if that doesn't move you, nothing will.

I just want to send out once again a sincere, heartfelt, thank you so much, Don, for what you do with me in helping me to do this in the Kimberley. Thank you so much, Justin Cardaci and Carl Cardaci from Centurion Transport. You make a world of difference. And they never whinge about the cost. They can't wait to do it. We do this twice a year. And if we can do that one little bit in the Kimberley, it darn well ain't closing the gap but, by crikey, it leaves a very warm feeling in your heart. So thank you, guys, and I continue to look forward to the next run at the end of this year.