Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We made history in this building a couple of weeks ago when we held the first meeting of the Parliamentary Book Club. I'm told it is the only one of its kind in the world. While the Parliamentary Book Club is a book club just like those many other Australians participate in, it is different in one very important respect: the books to be read by this book club are chosen by the Australian public. Every Australian had the opportunity last year to choose the first book we read, and the majority of Australians who participated in the nomination process voted for Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu. We were very privileged to have Bruce Pascoe speak at our first meeting, discussing and answering questions about his revelatory book.

Personally, Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu made my deep love for Australia even more profound. Through the prism of more than 60,000 years of carefully laid out history of our First Nations people, I rediscovered the essence of a home that I thought I knew well beforehand. Now, I just know it better and even more proudly.

Looking forward, the call has now gone out to all Australians to vote for the next book, so check your MP or senator's social media, or contact them directly and let them know what book you want the Parliamentary Book Club to read next. It must be an Australian author and the book must have been written in the last five years. I can't wait to see what books are nominated for us to read, and also to help in the process of selecting the winning book and making sure that the author and publisher come along to this parliament.