Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Claydon, may I congratulate you on your elevation to Deputy Speaker. The last time I was in this chamber speaking about my fabulous Cowan community was a while ago, actually—back in March—and a lot has happened since then. Since then, we've had an election; I've been honoured to be sworn in as the Minister for Early Childhood Education and the Minister for Youth; but, most of all, I've been honoured to be elected for a third time as the member for Cowan. It was, in fact, the very first time I was able to celebrate my win on the day of the election as the member for Cowan, because the previous two elections had been so tight. I am eternally grateful to the people of Cowan and the Cowan community for once again putting their faith in me and returning me to be their representative here in this place.

With parliament now resuming, it's a wonderful opportunity for me to give a shout-out to some of those great organisations and community groups in Cowan that I've had a chance to catch up with since the election. In June, I was fortunate enough to attend the Lockridge Senior Citizens Association at their recently upgraded centre. Beryl and the team are doing great work for their local community.

Also in June, I had a wonderful time attending the Ballajura Senior Citizens Association annual dinner with my husband, David—a great evening. I really want to thank Val and the committee for making us so welcome. I will get you that sewing machine and those fabrics, Val, I promise.

On Saturday 25 June, Dave, my husband—once again, always accompanying me because that's our social life—and I were thrilled to attend the Type 1 Diabetes Family Centre night of celebration. It was to celebrate a milestone of 10 years, but it was also a chance to honour the founding CEO, Bec Johnson, who's moved on after a very successful time at the T1D centre. They do fantastic work, working with children with type 1 diabetes and their families, and I look forward to continuing some important work with them.

In July, I went and addressed the Malaga masjid on the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha. That community met at the Herb Graham centre in Mirrabooka, in the heart of new Cowan, for prayers. Thank you to Muhamed and the masjid community for welcoming me and also my husband, Dave. Dave features very prominently!

Also in July, Dave and I went to the Tuscany Club Annual Ball. What a hoot that night was! Huge thanks to Sandro and the whole committee for welcoming us there.

That's just a small snippet of the things that are going on in Cowan. It's a wonderful community, and once again I'm super-duper honoured to be here representing Cowan once again.