Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with a lot of pleasure that I now get to speak about one of the young people from my electorate. We have a young man who, at 19 years of age, believes that the world can be a better place if you are prepared to get involved. In two days time he will be in Bangladesh on a fun run with the sole purpose of raising awareness of good water quality. Something often put to me by all the older members of the community is, 'The young people of today! What are they doing?' I see that young people of today do give a damn. They care about the world they live in and they are there to make a difference, even in their own small way. When I said that I was going to name Nicholas Pridan in parliament and talk about the great things he was doing, he was shocked, surprised that the Australian parliament would take an interest and a pride in its citizens.

Nicholas's motivation is freshwater, nutrition and access to education in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has a population of 154.7 million people. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and 17 per cent lack access to water. When I also said to Nicholas that the Australian government is looking at its aid project and where we might spend money effectively, I told him I would be interested to hear his firsthand views and to get his feedback. People who live in rural areas value communities but also, because of the globalised world, they have a sense of the value of contributing to the world they live in. It has been a real pleasure to meet and to talk to a person such as Nicholas. Nicholas is from Stawell, a university student who wants to make the world better place.

One of the great things about this parliament is that members get to interact with so many outstanding people in our communities, to speak on their behalf and hopefully to be worthy of them in the Australian parliament.

I conclude by saying that freshwater, nutrition and access to education are very important to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We have young Australians who care a lot about this and it is our role as members of parliament also to care and to play an active role in delivering good humanitarian aid around our region.