Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the first week of August, I had the wonderful opportunity to recognise Homeless Persons' Week and hit the street of Penrith and St Marys. Firstly, I dropped by Station Street to catch up with Mama Lana, Community Kitchen and the Vinnies' van. It was great to see so many local people working hard, serving hot meals and providing warm clothing to some of our community's most vulnerable. The highlight of my night was meeting a local man called John, who made for me the most incredible dragonfly out of paper. It was just incredible.

On the following morning, I met with Pastor Marty Beckett, from Christ Mission Possible, and his team. There they were at the crack of dawn serving a great hot breakfast to everybody in Judges car park. I would like to thank Marty for then taking me on a tour of his facilities in both Kingswood and St Marys, where they provide some of the most wonderful emergency accommodation to people who have recently become homeless.

It is disheartening to acknowledge that, on any given night, more than 105,000 Australians will find themselves without a safe and suitable place in which to find shelter. This year's theme of 'Homelessness: we can't afford to ignore it' raises awareness of the devastating personal harm, significant impacts on society and costs to all levels of government that are caused by homelessness. I would like to thank Marty and the teams for having me with them.