Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week is Hearing Awareness Week and yesterday I attended the Power of Speech function, here at Parliament House, which showcased the remarkable listening and spoken skills of children who are deaf. Power of Speech was organised by First Voice, an alliance of six world-leading early childhood intervention centres across Australia and New Zealand which provide life-changing support for more than 1,000 children who are deaf or hearing impaired. This is the largest group of children receiving services for hearing impairment in the world. First Voice centres provide services to children with hearing loss from birth to five years. Some centres also support children on their journey through school and beyond.

Claudia Worland is an 11-year-old girl from Brisbane and the winner of this year's Power of Speech speaking competition. Claudia was born to parents who both have profound hearing loss. As a result of her cochlear implants and Hear and Say—a Brisbane member of First Voice—Claudia has been able to develop communication and listening skills that allow her to interact with her peers. Claudia loves that she can do everything her friends can do with one extra-special benefit—she can take her cochlear implants off at night and sleep in absolute silence.

I would like to take this opportunity to again commend the incredible work of Dimity Dornan and the Hear and Say centre in supporting children and their families in developing strong listening and spoken-language futures.