Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

Much has been said in this place about how we're doing business differently as members of parliament and how we're using various media and online platforms to connect with our constituents and stakeholders, but nothing ever really replaces face-to-face contact. In a bid to keep that connection, I've been hosting socially distanced electorate office visits across Mayo. We were able to get to Kangaroo Island in August and also in June to hold mobile electorate offices, and in September we went to Aldinga, Willunga and McLaren Vale. Unfortunately, South Australia has had a recent resurgence of COVID-19, which made it very difficult for us to do the Coromandel Valley, Blackwood, Clarendon and Cherry Gardens mobile electorate office visits that we planned recently, in the last couple of weeks. But we did manage to continue with an outside mobile electorate office in Hawthorndene, and I was pleased to chat with lots of constituents in the area about the issues that they're experiencing. As I said, you can do it on the phone, but nothing beats face to face.

We were able to talk about mobile black spots, an issue I can't believe we are still talking about in this place after several years, as well as the NBN and a number of other issues. One perennial issue is the need for the federal integrity commission, and it is something that I and many other members in this place will continue to work on. I look forward to the next round in just a couple of weeks.

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