Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is so important that we shop local, love local and support our local businesses, and I've been working with our local community in Chisholm to encourage support for some terrific local businesses. It means so much to local businesses when we choose to shop local. I've heard from local businesses about what shopping local means to them.

Melissa from Soundfair Hearing Centre in Mount Waverley told me that shopping local strengthened our community. Maria and Maria from Tinta Crayons in Burwood told me that shopping local means that they can keep doing what they love. Ben and Jerry's at Burwood Brickworks shared with me that they have supported over 60 local young people with their first jobs. Dorothy from Young and Foolish in Wheelers Hill told me that, when people shop local, it creates jobs for locals and supports local suppliers. Tristan from Natural Science Wine and Liquor in Blackburn told me that, when people shop local, they are choosing to have the most impact with their spend. Johnson from The Roe Australia in Glen Waverley told me that shopping local is about investing in the heartbeat of our community. I encourage everyone to shop local and love local today and every day.

In Chisholm, we are lucky to have some incredible early learning centres, and recently I had the great pleasure of visiting Story House Early Learning in Mount Waverley to deliver some flags. I delivered three flags—the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags—and I had a lovely morning with the children and their wonderful early childhood educators. They knew a lot about the flags themselves and were telling me about them. I was able to present the flags, and they were received with great pride. I was really touched, too, that the children made me a really beautiful card with drawings, and I'm very grateful for that. It now has pride of place in my office. One of my favourite moments of the visit was speaking to the children about what they had illustrated for me on the card and why and what their favourite colours were. It was really wonderful to see what they'd been learning with your educators at the early learning centre.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the brilliant early childhood educators in my community for their important work educating and caring for the youngest residents in Chisholm, and I want to say to them: your work is important, you deserve a pay rise, and I'm so glad that this has been recognised in our budget. I look forward to visiting early childhood educators and children in our electorate again really soon.

See this speech in context