Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to talk today about a unique microbusiness that deserves special mention. It is in my electorate and it is called JACKmail. Some of you may have seen the red van around Canberra with the JACKmail logo on it. It is a postal pick-up and delivery service that caters to Canberra businesses, but it is a service with a difference. About five years ago, Sally and Mac—Jackson's parents—started a small business built around their son, Jackson, who has Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, which has deprived his brain of the proteins essential for brain development. Jackson has a profound intellectual disability and requires support for almost every activity of his daily life. Sally Richards decided to create a small business around what her son does best—that is, he is a fabulous walker, he can carry parcels, he loves car travel and listening to music. So a courier business made sense and with great business nous, she single-handedly established JACKmail.

Today, Jackson works five days a week and is helped by a truly wonderful Canberran, Philippe, who is Jackson's support worker and delivery driver. I have been told by some of the businesses who use JACKmail just how valuable and meaningful this service is. Each morning Philippe and Jackson arrive with a big welcome and greeting. Everyone says hello to Jackson, they make him feel welcome and valued, but he also provides a very important service—mail and parcel deliveries. As his mother Sally has said, Jackson now has a legitimate and valued place in the ACT business community.

Jackson has travelled over 67,000 kilometres, completed almost 18,000 deliveries, worked almost 5,000 hours and, most importantly, JACKmail has given Jackson a quality of life his mother could only have dreamed of before she established this microbusiness.