Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the Gold Coast, we look after our own, and my community's generosity seems to be limitless. We have around 12 fundraising balls a year through the winter on the Gold Coast. I've actually lost count of how many, and I'm just estimating based on how many I attend. But we have some stellar citizens who run fundraising balls on the Gold Coast to help those in need, particularly during this cost-of-living crisis.

On the Saturday night just past, I was privileged to attend the St John's Crisis Centre fundraising ball and to witness the generosity of such stellar citizens and of a foundation called the James Frizelle Charitable Foundation. I was in the room with a couple of hundred other Gold Coasters who were generously donating to the St John's Crisis Centre, who help women and children fleeing from domestic violence and who help those who find themselves in that predicament of being homeless—perhaps living on the streets or living in tents—in my electorate. It's very sad. Older women are the largest cohort suffering from homelessness on the Gold Coast.

I was there when it was announced that the James Frizelle foundation would deliver $25 million—not thousand—to the St John's Crisis Centre to build accommodation for such women fleeing domestic and family violence. I applaud the efforts of the foundation and of James Frizelle and his wife, Trish, for donating that to the St John's Crisis Centre. I also want to thank the board of St John's—including the president, Fiona Browne; Clea Javillonar; Mario Fairlie; Travis Welsh; Raj Anand;, Nicole Bricknell; and Diane Eadeh, who is the former president, and her very supportive husband, Ed Eadeh—for their support of St John's Crisis Centre for so long. I also thank Dianne Kozik, who's the general manager there and who is on my Moncrieff community cabinet and regularly attends meetings where we talk about how we can help those in our community who are doing it tough.

To finish, I want to highlight once again the remarkable generosity of Gold Coaster's when it comes to supporting our own, through the fundraising balls that we have but also through the Vinnies CEO Sleepout for those who are doing it tough. We really do care about our fellow citizens. I thank every single person who attended that ball, and all the other balls across the Gold Coast during the winter, to support Australians struggling with this cost-of-living crisis. Thank you to the Gold Coast.