Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nightlight Outreach is a wonderful volunteer organisation in my electorate of Forde which helps the homeless and the vulnerable in the Eagleby and Beenleigh areas. Importantly, they do this work without judgement, prejudice, fear or favour. For the past 17 years, the Nightlight team have poured their hearts and souls into our community to support those doing it tough. They have quite literally saved countless lives through their work, whether it's providing emergency food parcels, free community feeds or street swags to those sleeping rough, or offering counselling and men's support groups. More recently they have set up a new initiative called Night Watch, in response to community concerns around homelessness and antisocial behaviour in the Beenleigh CBD. The Night Watch team has now been out nine times to assist the homeless and to clean up the back alleys and streets of Beenleigh. They have also spoken to three groups of individuals and provided them with hygiene packs and support to seek better accommodation.

I want to commend Nightlight and their team for spearheading this initiative—in particular, John and Michaela Porter, who head Nightlight. It's great to see such Australian spirit is truly alive and well in our community. To the many locals involved with Nightlight as part of the volunteering group and as part of the Night Watch team, thank you for your efforts, and I hope that they continue well into the future.