Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

There's a sentiment I know that is widely shared. There's something about being born and bred in Western Sydney that compels you to try harder than everybody else. The residents of Western Sydney could not have tried any harder than they did over our 106 days in lockdown.

I pay tribute to the good people of Greenway for their resilience in the face of tremendous adversity. I pay tribute to the countless community organisations and volunteers who established free food distribution networks to so many people isolated and doing it tough; to the small businesses who made the incredible sacrifice of closing for the public good, too many of them permanently, unfortunately; to the parents and teachers who, with patience and ingenuity, helped navigate the remote learning environment—and a shout-out to the Blacktown school principal whose wisdom went viral when they told us to focus on our children, rather than their learning; and to our frontline healthcare workers and our police, who exercised professionalism and compassion, knowing that the vast majority of residents wanted to do the right thing, which was made so difficult when at one stage there were 40 rule changes in 60 days. Most importantly, the smart people of Greenway knew all along that getting vaccinated was a race, so much so that by mid-September our electorate became the most vaccinated one in the entire country. I thank Greenway for keeping one another safe during such a tough time.

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