Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak on the fantastic milestone reached by one of the most extraordinary organisations I have in my electorate, Brite Services. Last week I had the pleasure of attending Brite Services' 40th anniversary morning tea. I did so with my Labor colleague the member for Wills and the Governor of Victoria, the Hon. Linda Dessau, who is also the patron of Brite Services. The morning tea gave us all an opportunity to celebrate Brite's ongoing service to the community and to also reflect on the history of Brite Services, a 40-year history that began in 1969 with a group of northern suburbs parents who were looking to establish a facility and services for their children with disabilities. That journey resulted in the creation of Brite Services, and organisation with a strong sense of family that is still very prevalent today and continues to be nurtured throughout its staff, people and its volunteers.

Brite Services has a person-centred approach to their service and delivery. They treat everyone as part of their family. They understand their specific needs, all the while giving people with a disability a job, people who might not get employment otherwise in any mainstream business or any other employment setting.

Today, Brite Services employs more than 143 people in supported employment in their warehouses, their packing division, their wholesale nursery and their infamous herb farm. But it does not just employ people. It also offers social activities that encourage participation, learning, employment, and education that includes fully accredited certificates, pathway courses and skill sets.

At the morning tea last week, six very special ladies were honoured for their services at Brite Services: Moira Chisholm; Deborah Jones; Brenda Mitchell; Patricia Meli; Eileen Gavaghan; and Pamela Stevens. All six started in Brite in 1976. For 40 years they have been working for the same company and five of them are still current employees. When I spoke to these ladies, each of their stories were the same. It was a story of how much they have enjoyed their time at Brite, how much they have enjoyed the variety of work given to them and how much they have enjoyed the community and friendships they have made along the way.

On the day, another special award was handed out to Chris Jones, who runs the wonderful nursery at Brite. It was the Jonathan Moore Brite Employee of the Year Award for 2016. The inaugural award was named after a former employee of Brite who sadly passed away just two years ago. Jonathan worked from 1979 to 1994 and then again from 1998 to 2014—all up, 31 years of employment at Brite. As a person with Down syndrome, Jonathan really thrived at Brite. It is Jonathan's mother, Betty, whose tireless efforts as a community activist for the rights and dignity of disabled people, and the legacy left behind by her son, that I want to reflect on for a moment. Betty Moore has not only made a valuable contribution to life at Brite, firstly as a parent to Jonathan, a past director of the board, and as a member and life member of the organisation, but she too, in her own way, fought to change the way society views people with a disability. In fact, I remember Betty from when I first became the Member for Calwell, when she literally stormed into my office and asked me in a very matter-of-fact way if I knew just how much she and other carers like her were saving the government financially.

Betty was a mother, doing all the heavy lifting. She did not ask for much but she wanted it known that she was doing us a favour by doing that heavy lifting. Betty's tireless advocacy for the rights of people living with a disability is the key to Labor developing the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This very Labor initiative was established to provide the security and purpose for organisations such as Brite, and for the people they serve. Paras Christou, the community development officer at Brite Services, said: 'Brite Services makes sure that everyone gets an opportunity to have dignity in employment and feel part of a community, and it allows that person to have choice and control over their life. The NDIS is heralding a change in how we think about disability, and it is allowing the whole sector and society to become more inclusive.' When the NDIS rolls out in the Hume Moreland local government area in March 2018, it will be Brite Services who will be taking a lead role in assisting other organisations with the transition.