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

The parliamentary sitting year will finish this week and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the year for the electorate of Lalor, on our fabulous community, where we proved again that informed and active people, when they band together as a community, can have an impact on policy and decision-making. I reflect on the high number of community members applying for women's city council committee positions, another example that demonstrates how active and engaged our community is at this time. I see it in school visits. I see it with young people in the electorate who want to engage around civics and citizenship, who want to talk about history, who want to talk about what we do in Canberra and who want to have their voices heard up here.

It's also reflected in the number of people who interact with my office, the thousands of people who contact us either for support or just to engage in the political narrative of the day. It was reflected in our high responsiveness to the Stronger Communities grants process and the way our community and sporting groups engaged in that process. It is reflected in the number of people who responded to help celebrate volunteers in our community. We really are becoming a community that knows not just how to look after one another but how to advocate for one another and how to ensure that their voices are heard by decision-makers.

I want to thank my staff, particularly, for their hard work in helping to make that happen. They have worked incredibly hard across the year. I want to thank Vicki Fitzgerald, John Ballestrino, Tatiana Astudillo, Jasvinder Sidhu, Ashleigh Penhall, Faysal Farah, Peggy Deng, Deb Wu, Elizabeth Vu and Cameron Nash. In particular, I want to thank a young man called Josh Rose, who will be leaving my office at the end of this week to take up a new position and new opportunities. I wish him well. I know how much he will be missed in the office. I know the impact he has had in the community. He's a home-grown boy who has worked very hard, as have all of the people who have connected in my office across this last 12 months—all locals, all working hard for locals, all working hard for me to help us deliver.

I'd finish by thanking all those who work at Parliament House who look after us when we're here in Canberra, who work so hard to support our work. Those at home don't know the employees up here, but I want to share this with you: there's another group of people who work incredibly hard to represent you by supporting all of us up here. Thank you, Deputy Speaker, and Merry Christmas.

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

Thank you. And Merry Christmas to you, as well, and a happy new year.