Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today marks the 17th anniversary of the apology to the stolen generation made by Kevin Rudd in this place. It also coincides with the anniversary of my very first day as a member of parliament—a day that I'll never forget.

As I'm coming to the end of my time here, I'm reflecting on things. I represent, in terms of percentage, the second-highest Indigenous population of any electorate in Australia, following only Lingiari in the Northern Territory. The relationships I've formed and the work I've done with Aboriginal communities over that time is something that I take a great deal of pride in—the friends that I've made and the successes and sometimes heartaches we've shared.

One of the great success stories has been the Clontarf Foundation, which I've championed in this place right from the beginning. Across my electorate, we've got many of the foundation's campuses. Tomorrow, on the Senate lawn, Clontarf will be putting on a game of football—rugby league—and I'm looking forward to being part of that. Later in the week, there will be a presentation in the House from Clontarf as well. Because of Clontarf, hundreds of young men have graduated from high school and gone on to further education, employment, the military and a whole range of other things. The Aboriginal people in my electorate are working hard, and Clontarf has the next generation of leaders coming through.