Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Volunteers are the lifeblood of our community. In my electorate of Burt, there are countless local heroes that give their time and energy to make our community a better, more vibrant place to live. Volunteers don't go out with the goal of gaining money or glory but instead to do their part to support others and to leave their suburb, state and country better than they found it. Their work, however, should not be taken for granted. That's why every year I run the Burt Volunteer Awards to give our local heroes the recognition that they deserve and to encourage others to consider volunteering, too. This year we had more than 30 people nominated for an award. Each and every one of them would have been a deserved winner for the countless hours that they have spent supporting important causes like local disability services, multicultural groups, sporting clubs and so much more.

Congratulations go to the six winners of the 2024 Burt Volunteer Awards: for sport, Zara Fear from the Armadale Triathlon Club; for community services, Georgina Barker from the Piara Waters Primary School Parents and Citizens Association; for disability support, Dawn Barker from Good Sammy Enterprises; for youth, Maisara Muzaffar; for multicultural, Stephanie Wei Yin Chan from the Gosnells Chinese Association; and, for the environment, Carol Hughes from the Animal Protection Society of Western Australia. And congratulations, of course, to all the nominees. Your contributions to our community may be away from the limelight, but they should never go unrecognised.

Another group that deserves more recognition is our early childhood educators. As a dad with young children, I know too well how much work goes into preparing our kids to have bright futures and how reliant families are on having high-quality early childhood education and care. In June the Prime Minister and the Minister for Early Childhood Education joined me to visit Goodstart Mount Nasura in Armadale, just down the road from my electorate office. While there, we heard from educators about the positive difference Labor's policies like paid prac placements will be making and we saw firsthand the hard work that goes into early childhood education day in, day out—work that educators should be fairly paid for. That's why I'm so proud of our government's announcement last week that will see a 15 per cent pay increase for our early childhood educators and a cap on childcare fee increases over the next year. That's a win for workers and a win for families, and that's what Labor is all about.

We're not just making sure that local workers earn more; we're also making sure that they keep more of what they earn. That's why last month we delivered tax cuts to all taxpayers in our community, with an average tax cut for the people of Burt of just under $1,500.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to our local Olympians, including Caitlin Parker, who took home a bronze medal in boxing last Thursday. Congratulations. You've done your community and our country proud.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.