Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I alert the House to the presence up in the gallery today of northern Mallee leaders and the community leadership from the Loddon-Murray, from the electorate of Murray and the electorate of Mallee. We build wealth by building capacity in our people. We build community by creating interaction. In our leadership course we take young, dynamic Australians on a great journey over a 12-month period. They've got to do community development, arts and culture, media and communications, regional economy and tourism, health, wellbeing, how to effect change through the state and federal political landscape, and water and environment.

We produce $5.1 billion worth of economic activity in the electorate of Mallee—$5.1 billion. Not many electorates in Australia can do that. But the best thing we produce is the people who live in the Mallee. The best thing we produce is hardworking Australians who want to contribute to their community and want to make this country a great place. Take the opportunity of this leadership course. It is envied—I bet you we should run it in every state, not just in the state of Victoria. Take the opportunity to admire and contribute. I'm sure that in this gallery are future representatives for the electorate of Mallee—I'm sure they will find a better guy than me in years to come! But I want to say that we are committed to ensuring that our people contribute to this great Australia, and the leadership program is a great program.

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