Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks, it's been a tough year for most Australians but it's been a tough year, too, for people in my electorate. It's been a very testing time for our community. COVID-19 has hit my constituents and, in particular, the businesses they run like a sledgehammer.

My constituency's full of restaurants and bars. It's full of night-time entertainment. It's full of sporting facilities. From theatres to music venues, our hotels, our universities, our major transport hubs, travel agents—right across the board, any type of business you can think of is represented in my electorate. So many of them have struggled, and I want to send a message to all of those businesses and the people that they employ that I understand their struggles and I understand what a very difficult year it's been.

So many organisations in my electorate have done work above and beyond the call of duty this year. Just in the last few weeks, I've visited three organisations, including the Glebe Youth Service, which has for many years—many decades—played an invaluable role in the Glebe community. It provided a lifeline to vulnerable young people through their food deliveries. This is unusual for the Glebe Youth Service, but during COVID-19 they delivered 6,000 precooked meals to local households and almost 1,600 parcels of fresh fruit and vegetables, reaching 430 people.

The Girls and Boys Brigade has served the children of inner Sydney since 1882. COVID-19 forced them to close their doors for the first time in their history. They quickly transformed their services into online groups so they could stay connected to young people, children and youth in our electorate. They provided cooking, gardening and craft activities, and even gave their young people dinner online—they have an online dinner program replacing what they used to have as a face-to-face dinner program. They provided internet access, computers and laptops to help kids with remote learning. And, thankfully, they were able to reopen their doors in June. Since then, they've been busier than ever.

I also visited Lou's Place, a community based day refuge for women in crisis who are feeling isolated or need support. Lou's Place has seen a massive increase in the need for their services, and I'm so impressed by the work that they've continued to do at this phenomenally difficult time. We've seen rough sleeping in Sydney with outreach services housing rough sleepers virtually immediately after the pandemic broke out. Congratulations to all of those organisations. (Time expired)