Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure today that I stand up to speak on a number of events that have happened in my electorate of Forde over recent weeks. To give some background to this, on 6 June 1859 Queen Victoria signed the letters patent that created Queensland as a state. That means that this year Queensland will be 150 years old. This weekend, as the member for Maranoa pointed out, there is a state election in Queensland. Irrespective of the outcome—I know he had some passionate words for his colleagues and those running for office—it is about continuity, understanding the state of Queensland and the importance of the organisations and groups that come together in harmony. The member for Petrie has spoken about Harmony Day, which is also occurring this weekend.

Last weekend I attended the 90th birthday celebrations of the organisation Quota. Quota Australia is a women’s organisation. It has done an enormous amount of work with the community. In fact, it parallels very closely with a lot of the principles of Rotary and is very active in the community with fundraising. The 90th celebration in my electorate, and certainly for the Beenleigh Quota club in the township of Beenleigh, was all about putting on some events that were also celebrating what we are calling the ‘Q150 celebration’ in Queensland—the celebration of 150 years of Queensland. This particular organisation, Quota, matches with other women’s organisations, like Soroptimists, working very closely with similar organisations to fundraise and to provide a range of community services. This particular event was a coming together of the Quota organisations in district 30—the district governor being Janet Hughes. It was a great display of how the community does work well together.

Many of these service organisations are the unsung heroes in our communities. They are selflessly working away raising money for many different causes. Quota in our area has a program called Quokka, which is a program to bring the cops and the kids together for a reading program. It is about providing schools and children with the opportunities for and the understanding of good reading material. There is cooperation between members of parliament, those in the community, the police and the children to sit together and read through a book—whether it is a display of pictures or caricatures or simply for them to read and understand. It is a great program and it is a credit to organisations like Quota and Soroptimists who operate in different areas around the country.

Queensland is 150 years of age this year. We have a state election this weekend, which will be interesting, but we understand in Queensland that continuity is important irrespective of the outcome. All organisations, all members of parliament—federal and state—and certainly local government and councils will work together to keep Queensland the greatest state in Australia.