Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Out and about in the electorate of Longman, there's no question as we come into Christmas, which should be a joyful time, it's not so joyful for a lot of families. Homelessness in our communities is as high as I've ever seen it. We've got issues with cost of living. And, to top it all off, we've got broken election promises on infrastructure, which we desperately need as our community is growing faster than just about anywhere in Australia.

We were promised by the now Prime Minister, during the election campaign, that we would have a desperately needed upgrade from Anzac Avenue to Uhlmann Road to four lanes each way. The Prime Minister announced last week, after the review, that this has been reneged upon. This goes along with the other election promises that we've seen no start on. We have seen no start on the $3 million pledged to the Caboolture rugby league. This goes along with the $3 million pledged for the Narangba Eagles Football Club—again, no start. There's $3 million for a water park at the Centenary Lakes. Again, nothing. Pure crickets. So again, empty promises.

But the Longman community is very resilient, and there are some great stories there. It has been my pleasure to attend so many school awards nights over the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, with sitting weeks, we miss a lot of those, but I can say that the future of Australia looks bright with some of the talent I've seen on show at these awards nights. It was a pleasure to attend Carmichael College, who are growing a grade every year. This year they are up to grade 10; in two more years they'll have their first grade 12 ceremony, which I look forward to being a part of.

I also want to give a shout out to a couple of tremendous organisations in Renae's Pantry and the Christian ministers network of Caboolture. Both of these organisations feed homeless people in our community. Renae's Pantry is just a community member who, with two of her friends, feeds 6,000 people a week—a week!—out of her garage. I don't know how—absolutely phenomenal! And I'm pleased to say, when I ventured into my local fish and chip shop that does the best fish and chips in the electorate—sorry to all those other fish and chip shops out there who aren't these guys—Food on King in King Street in Caboolture, they approached me and said they wanted to do something for those who are in need at Christmas time. They're going to open their doors and they're going to feed some of those homeless people in conjunction with either Renae's Pantry or the Christian ministers network.

So even though there's a lot of doom and gloom out there and there's a lot of darkness, there are still lights that shine bright, like Food on King, Renae's Pantry and the Christian ministers network in Caboolture, and I thank them for that.