Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Christmas decorations are going up in our local streets and shopping centres as Australians across the country start to ready themselves for Christmas. Adding spark to this joyous spirit, my annual Higgins Christmas card competition, based on the theme 'What Christmas Means to Me', again brought an avalanche of wonderfully creative entries from local school children in my electorate. Sun, sand and barbecues were merged with the traditional themes of reindeer and Christmas trees. For the first time, I received an entry in Chinese, reflecting the diversity of residents within my electorate. One common theme was family, giving pause to reflect on how lucky a country we are but also to remember those less fortunate than ourselves.

Along with my fellow Christmas card judges—Archibald Prize artist Andrew Mezei and Stonnington Leader newspaper editor Michael Gleeson—I found it very difficult to select this year's winner. I congratulate my second-runner-up, grade 5 student Steffi Delimitrou; first-runner-up, grade 3 student Mitchell Hoskin; and winner of the competition, grade 5 student Alannah Tuohy. I also congratulate and acknowledge their wonderfully dedicated art teachers, Ms Susan McDonald from Sacre Coeur and Ms Connie Barkatsas from Stonnington Primary School, and I acknowledge and thank all of the other schools who entered the competition and whose children's works are now proudly on display in my electorate office windows in Malvern.

As American author Marjorie Holmes said, 'At Christmas, all roads lead home.' I wish the members of this House, the people of Higgins and all Australians, a joyous and safe Christmas season with their family and friends.