Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As members of parliament, one of our roles is to promote positive community outcomes and each of us does it in very different ways. One of the things I like to do within the Shortland electorate is to promote positive and productive health outcomes. Last month I had a prostate cancer forum that I ran down at and in conjunction with the Swansea Men's Shed. We had about 80 men come along. We had a barbecue and we looked at the issue. Professor Jim Denham came along and talked to members of the community about prostate cancer, about looking after themselves and about good prostate health.

On 26 October I will be holding a breast cancer morning tea at Redhead Bowling Club. This is an annual event. During Breast Cancer Week every year I hold a morning tea and invite members of the community to come along. These morning teas have been very successful over a number of years. Professor John Forbes usually speaks at these morning teas, but unfortunately this year he will be away. I am working with the McGrath Foundation and Hunter BreastScreening to make sure we have lots of good information at the breast cancer forum.

On 12 and 17 November I will be holding disability forums. At these forums we will be discussing the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I will be inviting people along from the community. I will be inviting carers and people with disabilities. I will work with other community groups and those people engaged in delivering services to people with disabilities and get feedback from them and to find out their thoughts on the proposed NDIS. I am very supportive of the NDIS and the community that I represent have already told me in no uncertain terms that they expect me to support it. So 12 and 17 November are two important dates. On 18 November I will be having a seniors forum at the Kahibah Bowling Club. Seniors from throughout the electorate will be coming along and getting information from Centrelink, the police, the Heart Foundation and a number of other organisations. These sorts of forums and events are very important for members of parliament to undertake. They provide information to the communities we represent that they would have difficulty obtaining if they did not have access through community forums and morning teas.

Finally, I would like to spend a little time talking about the Windale Community Day that will take place on 25 October. Windale is a community that over the years has had high unemployment and a high number of people in receipt of some form of Centrelink benefit. It has had a high number of single parents and a high number of people with disabilities. What we are doing with a group of state and Commonwealth agencies and WICA, which is a community group that operates within Windale and will play the controlling role, is putting on this community day event to provide information to the community. There will be information on licences and on state debt recovery and we will have people there from Births, Deaths and Marriages and a number of job network providers. The event is being supported by DEEWR, the local high schools, a number of New South Wales government departments, JobQuest and the local land council. It will involve the whole of the community coming together to get a positive outcome for an area that has had problems obtaining employment. It will look at addressing those problems and giving the people in that community opportunity and hope for the future.