Seniors in Moncrieff

Just last week I was in my electorate and enjoyed a beautiful, sunny Gold Coast morning with the Broadbeach branch of National Seniors Australia at the exceptional Kurrawa Surf Club. All of the seniors took great interest in how the Morrison government is strengthening Australia’s economy and, of course, what we’re doing around COVID-19 and how we’re responding as a government, not only for its relevance to their own retirement and their positioning but also with great concern for their children and their grandchildren. A special thank you to everyone for their very warm welcome. As many people do when you’re out in the community, they referred to my maiden speech. In fact, they played a short clip of Don Burrows, who I spoke of just a few weeks ago in this chamber. They played a clip of him up on the screen, which was very poignant of them to do, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I would like to thank Jenny Johnston; Matt Johnston, who was such a friendly fellow; Glen Ireland; Ingrid Milbourn; Chris Opat; Lawrence Opat; John Chirio; Jenny Dan; Sue Docherty; and Pam Vince, for their absolutely exceptional friendly welcome to the member for Moncrieff. I can’t thank the Broadbeach National Seniors enough for the wonderful COVIDSafe pack that they presented me with, including a toilet roll for Canberra—I’m not sure how that fits in!—gloves and a mask for the plane, which I wore on the way down to Canberra. I thank them for that very much. It’s important that they’re aware of how the government is supporting them. We discussed some of the issues at the meeting. The budget has funded an additional 23,000 home-care packages, with $1.6 billion in measures, and an extra $3.9 billion to the NDIS, which they were very interested in hearing about. Seniors in Moncrieff are also very glad to see the government investing in skills and training, to protect and create jobs for their children and their grandchildren, and the JobKeeper measures with which we are assisting 10,400 small businesses in Moncrieff, who are the backbone of our economy there. And nearly 15,000 jobseekers in Moncrieff alone are now being paid JobSeeker and the coronavirus supplement, which they were very grateful for.

I once again thank the National Seniors Broadbeach branch for your continued support. I also thank all the seniors in Moncrieff for the great contributions that you continue to make to the community through meetings like the ones at the Kurrawa Surf Club and the many other surf clubs in Moncrieff. I have nine surf clubs in Moncrieff, Deputy Speaker. I wonder if I’ve got enough time to name them all. Let me just walk down the beach for you: North Burleigh Surf Life Saving Club, Nobby’s Beach Surf Club, Mermaid Beach Surf Club, Broadbeach Surf Life Saving Club, BMD Northcliffe Surf Club, Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Zimmerman ): Order! The member for Moncrieff was being a bit ambitious!