Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The end of 2021 was supposed to herald the start of the 'hot vax summer' for my electorate of Lilley. Queenslanders had smashed our 80 per cent vaccination target with a week to spare, restrictions had been lifted and we were ready to celebrate. We now know, with the benefit of hindsight, that the omicron surge delivered a fresh set of challenges, and the hot vax summer has been postponed for another 12 months.

As we prepared to enter our third year of this pandemic, there was a sense amongst my community that northsiders needed a bit of a morale booster to get through the omicron surge and kick off a fresh year. So I fired up Lilley's trusty Ute Full of Tim Tams and got to work. I asked my constituents to nominate someone they knew who deserved to be recognised for their work or for their good deeds during the omicron surge. And seeing as today is Valentine's Day, I wanted to wish everyone in the chamber a happy Valentine's and spread the love by recognising a few of the very deserving Lilley nominees of the Ute Full of Tim Tams here in the federal parliament.

Of course, the first stop for Lilley's Ute Full of Tim Tams was to our Lilley healthcare workers at the Prince Charles Hospital, who were nominated by Lily, as it was. Our nurses, our doctors, our wardies, our cleaners and our admin staff at the Prince Charles Hospital do brilliant work even at normal times, but they have worked around the clock, for two years straight now, testing northsiders at the fever clinic and treating positive patients in our pop-up COVID ward.

Sandra, who is a local nurse living in Boondall, was nominated by her husband, Kevin. Sandra works at a hospital in Brisbane and regularly puts up her hand to work extra shifts or to stay back to help out with the constant COVID staff shortages. They were a very nice couple to meet, too. Martin nominated his partner, Stephanie, who is molecular scientist at a local pathology lab. Stephanie has been working day and night to tackle the flood of PCR tests at her lab, even working until after midnight on Christmas. Stephanie was not even there when we went to drop off the Tim Tams—she was at work—but I was very glad to meet Martin and their dog instead.

James nominated Joy, from FriendlyCare Pharmacy, which is just across the road from my electorate office, in Nundah. Joy put together a survival kit for James when he was struck down with COVID and organised a contactless delivery for him. Marie nominated Kevin for his voluntary work at the pop-up clinic at Doomben Racecourse. Without volunteers like Kevin putting up their hands to help out we would not be at 90 per cent vaccination rates in Queensland, as we are now.

Sandra, Stephanie, Joy and Kevin are just a handful of the people who have received a packet of Tim Tams from me this summer and a handful of the healthcare workers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help us get through the omicron surge. I thank them and everybody who has helped out for all of their work this summer.