Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Bombala community recently celebrated 150 years of the Bombala Show, which is a huge community milestone. I want to congratulate all of the committees and the volunteers over the decades who have contributed to this long-running event. I also congratulate all of the small businesses and organisations that have sponsored the show along the way.

The recent show was even more special because the community came together to celebrate a very special Bombala legend, Councillor Bob Stewart, who has been serving his community for 30 years. He is a formidable character who champions the region with gusto, from his time as councillor and mayor of the Bombala Council to, now, being the longest-serving member of the amalgamated Snowy Monaro Regional Council. Congratulations again, Bob, on this milestone and thank you for all you've done for our local community.

I want to give a shout-out to Eden triathlete Jack Caldwell. Jack is 18 years old, and he recently won a gold medal at the 2025 Oceania Triathlon Junior Championships in Devonport. The win has secured him a spot at the 2025 World Triathlon Championship in Wollongong in October representing Australia. He graduated in December last year from Lumen Christi Catholic College, where he was waking up at 5 am every day to train and then head to school to complete his studies. Jack, well done. You're a legend. We're all cheering you on from the coast. I can't wait to see how your bright future unfolds. Bring on Brisbane 2032.

At the end of last year I spoke in the House about Cindy Chawner from Cobargo, who was due to represent Australia at the Invictus Games in Vancouver this year. She competed in five sports at the games, picking up a silver in the skeleton and bronze in snowboarding. Cindy joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1999, initially as an Army Reserve operations officer and later serving most of her career as a personal capability officer. She was deployed in the Middle East in 2010 and was medically discharged in June last year. Despite a range of physical and mental health injuries related to her service, Cindy personifies what it means to be resilient and hardworking.

Before she left for the Invictus Games, I gave Cindy an Australian flag and an Australian Aboriginal flag to take with her to Canada. I bumped into Cindy in Cooma last week, and she showed me a picture of her with Prince Harry holding the Aboriginal flag. Prince Harry kept the flag as a special memento of the games. I'm going to put the picture up on my Facebook over the next few days. It was absolutely fabulous to see Cindy. Well done to her and all of the Australians who were involved in the Invictus Games.

I had the great privilege of opening Queanbeyan's new seniors centre last week. The Queanbeyan Senior Citizens Association is a dedicated organisation committed to promoting the welfare of all senior citizens in the city of Queanbeyan and the surrounding districts. When I was asked to attend the grand opening, I jumped at the opportunity because jumping is what this fantastic new space is all about—jumping and a little bit of stretching, from Zumba to yoga. There are also activities that are much easier on the body but benefit the mind, like mahjong and euchre. But, most importantly, the seniors centre is a place to connect with friends, both new and old, like never before. The space is a real testament to the Queanbeyan seniors community because it's been designed for the community by the community. This space will have a huge impact on our community, especially for the over 20 per cent of the Queanbeyan population who are seniors. Congratulations to Brenda and the entire association on the opening of Queanbeyan's new seniors centre. Well done to Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council on making it all happen and working with the community there.

Across Eden-Monaro a lot of my constituents, from Goulburn to Queanbeyan to the coast, work in the Public Service, which is why they are incredibly concerned about what they've heard from Peter Dutton, Angus Taylor and all of the Liberals about pledges to cut 40,000 jobs—which, to put in perspective, is roughly the population of Queanbeyan. He said he will cut workers' flexibility too, which will not only disadvantage workers but disadvantage women in particular, and it will result in worse services to our community.

Under the former government, Veterans' Affairs claims took over 400 days to even be assigned to assessment. We've cleared the 42,000-claim backlog, and claims are now being allocated within weeks. Where are these cuts going to come from? Is it going to be from Services Australia? Is it going to be from Medicare? Is it going to be from the Defence call centre in Cooma? Is it going to be from NEMA? NEMA is an organisation that has done so much good in our community over the last three years. If we are serious about good public service, then we have to back it, and outsourcing $20 billion to consultants is not that.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 10:30