Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I wear yellow as part and in support of the Believe in Bendigo campaign, a great campaign and movement that started in my community to put out publicly how proud we are to be from Bendigo. Part of the Believe in Bendigo campaign is about showing the world, as well as ourselves, that Bendigo is a welcoming place and an inclusive and diverse community. A key part of the campaign is to ensure that there is a positive message about people's right to worship and come together and people's chance to play and to share one another's food and culture and what makes us really strong as a community.

To date there have been a number of very successful events to help promote the Believe in Bendigo campaign. Our local small businesses got together and ran a two-page ad in our local papers—businesses willing to put on the record that they believe in Bendigo. There has been a fantastic day of music and a family picnic day in the park on the Grand Final public holiday. Over 2,000 people came together in yellow, sharing each other's company, enjoying music and enjoying the food.

I would like to acknowledge some of the people involved. The committee driving it includes Damian Wells, a local person, and Margot Spalding, one of the owners and creators of Jimmy Possum furniture. These are two of the many people who have come together to form the Believe in Bendigo campaign. It is an opportunity for us to set the record straight, to include people and to educate them, and to make sure that everybody knows that Bendigo is an inclusive and connected place.

The Believe in Bendigo campaign is a grassroots campaign. It started in somebody's living room with the best will and intentions at heart. It is people from a variety of walks of life coming together with a common purpose—to halt the negative media that was starting to get out about Bendigo and to say that we are proud to be from Bendigo. It is a positive campaign and a fun campaign that encourages people to come together. It provides some education so that people understand what their rights are as Australian citizens, what their rights are in terms of local government and what their responsibilities are as well.

Recently, the Premier of Victoria came and met with the group and declared his support for the Believe in Bendigo movement and campaign. It has been a tough couple of months in Bendigo, but, with campaigns like Believe in Bendigo, I know that we will be able to recover from those bad media reports that we have had. I encourage everybody to get behind the Believe in Bendigo movement, trade the blue and trade the red for yellow, and support Bendigo in the Believe in Bendigo campaign.