Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to commend to the House today some work going on in the electorate of Lalor by a young man named Alex Petrou. Alex works tirelessly in our local community. He works with the Youth Foundation of Laverton. He works with the Laverton Community Integrated Services. And he has developed with young people in my electorate Point Blank, a youth magazine that is fully online and on Facebook. This magazine is entirely written by young people in the areas of Laverton and Werribee. I want to congratulate Alex on the work he has done in getting people onboard with this magazine. He gives special thanks to Theresa Visintin and Ines Pereira for their continued support. This has made it possible for this magazine to be fully online and fully translatable into Facebook, something that members here may not be too familiar with, but this is a first for anything locally.

The work that is done in this magazine is extraordinary. These are young people writing about their lives. These are young people writing professionally. And some of the outcomes are already extraordinary. One young person who had been on the long-term unemployed list has, through the work on the Point Blank magazine, gotten herself a very good job out of the work she has done. I would like to commend Alex Petrou and all involved in this terrific magazine.