Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not at all; it is my privilege to be able to be here. I wanted today to take a small amount of the parliament's time to talk about a charity in my electorate and to update the House on the work that it does and on the fundraising work that is being carried on in relation to this charity. This charity is Learning Links, which helps children who have learning disabilities or challenges and who might have difficulties in getting the extra training and tuition they need. Learning Links have been operating in my electorate for some 12 or 13 years, and when I was Mayor of Fairfield City Council in 1998 and 1999 I opened their Fairfield office. Their services include early intervention, a mobile toy library, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, family counselling, case management, group programs for children and parents, and specialised literacy and numeracy support, including Reading for Life and Counting for Life, which are volunteer reading and numeracy programs for primary school children.

Four years ago we started an initiative in my electorate which is the Learning Links annual fundraising ball, which we call the Enchanted Evening. This ball has raised a considerable amount of money for Learning Links over previous years. We hold this event at Club Marconi, Bossley Park, each year and it has raised $200,000 over the last four years for Learning Links. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank a number of organisations and groups which have supported our annual ball consistently over the last four years: the Investment and Financial Services Association, and in particular their two chief executives over that time, Richard Gilbert and John Brogden; William Roberts Lawyers; the Fairfield RSL and the Smithfield RSL; the Electrical Trades Union; Giotto Gelato, which supplies the dessert every year for free; Club Marconi, which hosts the event very generously each year; and Wow Factor Events and Daniela Fedele, the principal of that organisation, who assists us in putting the event together each year.

As I said, over the last four years we have raised $200,000 together for Learning Links. That $200,000 has meant that Learning Links will soon move into state-of-the-art, specifically designed premises. The existing premises, which, as I mentioned, I opened 12 or 13 years ago when I was Mayor of Fairfield City Council, were not specifically designed. They were very cramped and not good for getting the best out of the children, who are suffering learning difficulties. These new facilities at Mount Pritchard are very good facilities indeed and they are only able to be opened because of the support that those charities, groups and companies that I talked about before have given the Learning Links ball over the last four years, contributing to the $200,000 that we have raised.

I would like to thank each of the guest speakers we have had over the last four years: Peter Garrett, Wayne Swan, Kevin Rudd and this year Her Excellency the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce. I am not sure who the guest speaker will be next year, having had the Governor-General, but I am sure next year we will have as good event as any. (Time expired)