Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the reasons might be because of strong representation from their local member, but a more compelling reason might be because of the character of the Australians who make up the Ryan constituency. Part of the character of the Ryan community is its sense of community. This is a community which is very much dedicated to helping each other; this is a community which comes together and contributes very strongly and very genuinely to the wider society.

People from all over the world come to Australia to make this country their home and they do so for many reasons. They do so, of course, because of the great values that we cherish: the values of democracy and the values of freedom. Freedom includes freedom to publish, freedom to associate, freedom to practise our own faiths and, indeed, the freedom to protest—of course, the key point about that last one is that it is the freedom to protest peacefully.

One of the other reasons I think people come to Australia is the sense of community, and I want to give some figures in relation to the generosity of Australians. The Giving Australia report published in October 2005 estimated that the giving of money, goods and services to non-profit organisations by individuals and businesses totalled in excess of $11 billion a year. This excluded the enormous amount of resources given in response to the Asian tsunami crisis in late 2004 and early 2005. This comprised $7.7 billion from an estimated 13.4 million individuals—or 80 per cent of adult Australians—in the year to January 2005; and $3.2 billion from almost 536,000 businesses—or 67 per cent of all businesses—in the 2003-04 financial year.

I mentioned that the Ryan electorate is very generous. I want to bring the House’s attention to two young Australians who will be representing the Ryan electorate at the National Youth Roundtable here in Canberra. We all know that the National Youth Roundtable is the centrepiece of the Australian government’s youth consultation mechanism. It brings young people between the ages of 15 and 24 to Canberra from all over this land to discuss some of the important issues that impact not only on them as young people and as young Australians but also on issues that affect the wider community and their country, Australia.

I want to pay tribute to Naomi Lim from Middle Park in the Ryan electorate, who is 17 and is completing her final year in school. She is an active volunteer in her local community and is interested in the issue of drug and alcohol abuse among young people, addressing Indigenous issues and, in particular, confronting prejudice. That is something that we in this House and indeed in this parliament must work together to not only minimise but indeed to eliminate from the fabric of our community.

The other young Australian from the Ryan electorate is Eve Campbell from St Lucia. Eve is 23. She recently started working for the Australian Red Cross and she is a member of the Army Reserve. She is interested in education, homeless issues and access to justice for young people. These are two, fine young Australians who very much embody the notion of community—the subject of this motion.

I want to commend once again my friend and colleague the member for Cook, who has a reputation in this parliament and in this country for his very strong sense of justice and for his very strong sense of community focus. In the parliament today I want to congratulate very strongly all those in the Ryan community and all those in my home state of Queensland who contribute their time very generously to make this country great. Of course, part of that is because of their sense of community and their generosity of spirit.

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