Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak about a very important organisation in my electorate called Gateway Industries, which provides disability employment support services. It was established by Dandenong Rotary about 25 years ago. The moving spirit behind it was of a gentleman called Arthur Wren, who unfortunately is no longer with us. When he was Cranbourne Shire president, it was his brainwave to give people with a disability every chance to work in a genuine workplace environment under normal working conditions. Arthur, if you are listening somewhere up there: you have achieved great work.

Gateway Industries is an iconic service in my area. It was relocated from Futura Road, Keysborough about five years ago to Progress Street, Dandenong. The service now employs about 40 people with special needs, and it has employed about 100 over 25 years. I would like to give special thanks here today to Alex Neitz, Arthur Wren, Margaret Cleary and Russell Smith for their dedication to and their work with this incredible organisation. They have achieved amazing results and they provide a great service to the local community.

Gateway provides a range of services, including litter collection, wine shelving and packaging services for local businesses and clients. They keep Dandenong tidy, with litter collection services for all parks, gardens and sporting fields in the city of Greater Dandenong. As well as services for the city of Greater Dandenong, they provide packaging services for Gates Australia in Dandenong South, who provide components for Ford and Holden Australia, and for Irwin Industrial Tools in Dandenong South, a large supplier of tools for Bunnings.

The wine shelving is built on site for clients right around the country—and we are talking about leading restaurants in Australia. If you walk down to this special needs employment facility then you will see these magnificent wine racks, which are being sold for a large sum of money. We should be very proud about these things. We hear about the work of people with special needs, but if you want to see the outstanding work that people with the right sort of motivation and the right support can provide then come down to Gateway in Progress Street. You will be blown away by the quality of work that they are doing.

On 8 September, I had the opportunity to open a new mezzanine floor at Gateway with David Neitz, the former Melbourne Football Club captain. He is a proud supporter and a great supporter. The centre received a $247,000 grant from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, which assisted in the development of a new mezzanine level, giving the centre more space to package goods. Along with the mezzanine floor, a new specialised lift was built to assist staff in accessing the work space. The new space has already started to pay off and the staff have explored the surfaces. It is a great service and we should have a great deal more—

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