Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to stand up here today and lend my voice, along with the member for Moore, who's my neighbour in Western Australia, in showing appreciation for the communities of Wanneroo and Joondalup as well as the other communities situated within the Cowan electorate.

I've got 90 seconds to express the gratitude of a nation. It hardly seems enough to capture, in a matter of seconds, our appreciation of those men and women who went about their daily tasks, putting their own lives at risk, to keep us safe: healthcare workers, early childhood educators, aged-care workers, police officers, firefighters, first responders, ambulance drivers, transport workers, retail workers, teachers and school staff, hospital administrators, Services Australia, Medicare workers, and security guards. They often get left out, the security guards, but they have to go about their daily tasks as well. There are too many to mention them all, but all are deserving of our thanks. And I think the best way to thank them is to take this opportunity to recognise and acknowledge that in the past we haven't always valued them as they should be valued. We haven't acknowledged their contributions with remuneration that reflects their value.

We live in new and uncertain times. We can't bomb our way out of this, we can't shoot our way out of this, we can't arrest our way out of this and we can't legislate our way out of this. We need a new way of looking at those people who have kept us safe through this and will keep us safe going forward.