Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to recognise two outstanding young Australians in the electorate of Casey. The first is Talitha Kooy, a young lady who walked last weekend to raise money for juvenile diabetes. Talitha was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes recently. We are all very familiar in our electorates with cases of type 1 diabetes, the efforts to find a cure and the fundraising efforts that occur. It is a chronic condition that affects 140,000 Australians. We are told that, every day, five Australians are diagnosed with the disease, for which at present there is no cure but which we all hope will one day be overcome through research. What that will require is great medical advances, which are occurring. That research is necessarily based on increased funding to make it come about.

Talitha was one of many young Australians who decided that she wanted to do something to assist that research. She wanted to help raise some money. With the support of many people in her community who sponsored her, she raised $2½ thousand when she joined the Walk to Cure Diabetes last weekend in Melbourne. I was very happy to support her, along with many other people—her family, her friends and the school community at Lilydale West Primary School. As I said, she raised just over $2½ thousand. When I originally met her, she was setting out to raise $1,000. The community at Lilydale West Primary School are very proud of her determination, her drive, her positive attitude, her leadership and her inspiring effort. I want to pay tribute to her today in this House.

I also want to pay tribute to Estelle Petrie. Estelle has been selected to represent Australia as part of the 2010 Australian delegation to The Hague International Model United Nations in the Netherlands in January next year. Estelle was selected by the United Nations Youth Association of Australia to be one of just 17 outstanding senior high school delegates to represent our country at one of the most significant gatherings of young people in the world. She was chosen after participating in a two-round selection process, first at the Victorian Model UN Conference and then at the national conference.

The Hague conference is a week-long conference involving 4,000 secondary school students from over 90 countries around the world. It is the most significant gathering of young people globally and the largest international youth conference held anywhere. Reports from the debates will be provided to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. I have met Estelle and supported her in her endeavours to travel to The Hague. She is passionate about foreign affairs and human rights. She is very much a future leader. The program will help her develop her knowledge of international affairs. I commend her for her enthusiasm, her dedication and her leadership skills and wish her very well for the rest of her studies this year and for the conference that she will travel to early in the new year.