Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Today is 17 March, St Patrick's Day. Happy St Pat's day to everybody. It's also three years to the day since the Batman by-election, when I was elected. It's when I started this fabulous experience of representing the good people of my electorate. I like to think that with a name like Gerardine Mary Kearney there was a bit of the luck of the Irish in getting me across the line in that election, but I've got to say it was a hard-fought win against a very worthy opponent. It was an emotional win in extraordinary circumstances.

I am so lucky. I have really had some of the best years of my life in this role. Every day I am challenged and I am cheered on. Most of all, I am really chuffed to be the member for what is now Cooper. We changed the electorate's name to Cooper; it is now named after a great First Nations activist, William Cooper. Everybody that comes into my electorate office is greeted by a fabulous portrait of the great man that was given to me by his grandson, Uncle Boydie. It really sets the tone for the electorate. I have a lot of great activists who care about First Nations, climate, refugees, industrial relations and community sport. They really are wonderful and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Last week we had a poster making session at Jika Jika so that the hundreds of people who went to the rally in Melbourne could carry a sign. Thank you to my team, thank you to my great colleagues and thank you to my community.

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