Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Each year my office receives donated gifts and toys from the Macarthur community to be distributed to local children and their families doing it tough at Christmas time. This year we've partnered with two wonderful local charity groups, Kids of Macarthur Health Foundation and Uniting Macarthur, both of which provide tremendous community services and are well-placed to act as the community's Santas. So far we've received many gifts and toys that would make any boy or girl in the Macarthur region smile, from babies to young adolescents. I'd like to particularly thank the following Macarthur residents for their donations to my office: the Millar family, the Sporne family, the Lowry family, the Steele family, the Nissiotis family, the Legge family and the St John family.

I would also like to give special mention to the Pelican Pre-School & Long Day Care centre in Blair Athol. The wonderful staff, families and, of course, kids of Pelican preschool ran their own toy drive to supplement my office's and contributed a huge number of gifts and toys to my office for young people in Macarthur. I'm very grateful for their continued support. They've helped make Christmas that little bit better for many Macarthur households who are doing it tough this Christmas time. I again thank the Macarthur community for their continued generosity this holiday season; they always give and they give incredibly generously. I'm very grateful for their support and that they are putting the less fortunate first for once. I'm sure that, come Christmas Day, together we will have made many Macarthur households and many Macarthur kids that little bit happier.

Finally, I would like to make a plea to everyone in our community this year. We've had a terrible increase in our road toll statistics. Unfortunately, many more people have died on our roads around Australia this year than in previous years. The reasons for this are unclear. One particular problem is that we don't collect adequate data to give us information about our road tolls. That's something that needs to happen on a national basis so we can better understand the causes of many of these fatalities. It's obvious to me that many things are happening, like the size of vehicles increasing; the huge utility vehicles don't leave much room for error, and, if you're hit by one of them, very often the result is fatal. In my own community, we have terrible roads, like Appin Road, that really urgently need upgrading. This could be one of the causes. I just want to make a plea to everyone in our community to drive defensively, drive safely, think of other people on the roads and, please, try to stay safe this Christmas and holiday time, because it is urgent. We don't want people dying on our roads like has been happening in the last year and we must do something about it.

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