Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia) Share this | Hansard source

It's that time of the year again, when ParlyFOF takes over the halls of parliament: each November, the 'Parliamentary Friends of Aussie Fashion', also known as ParlyFOF, encourage members and senators to don their best Australian fashions in support of shopping locally. Once again, ParlyFOF will patrol the halls of parliament this week, checking members and senators' clothing labels to make sure they're wearing Australian-designed clothes. We all know that shopping locally helps build our local economies and local jobs. Many people don't know, though, that I've been wearing locally-designed clothes and jewellery—and I am today—almost every day in parliament since I was elected in 2004. And it's easy to do, because Western Sydney has some excellent local designers. Some of those I've been privileged to find include Ruth Fattal, Melange Chic, Indie Colours, Seewa Collections, Evaloka, Ilham A Ismail, Mash Accessories, and Maa, but there are plenty more, and I hope to find them all in the near future. This week, I encourage members and senators to Facebook, Tweet and Instagram photos of themselves wearing Australian-designed clothes, preferably ones from their own electorate. I'll be sharing the results on my social media accounts, too. As always, it is a bit of a competition, so let the FOF-off begin.

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