PARLIAMENTARY FRIENDS OF MEALS ON WHEELS
Great to be able to acknowledge the fantastic work of Meals on Wheels this week at Parliament House. They recently celebrated 70 years of service to the community, providing so much more than just a meal! Delivering over 4.5 million meals in NSW alone last year, Meals on Wheels provides a nutritionally balanced meal to frail, aged people, people with a disability and their carers, enabling people to be independent in their own homes for longer.
Meals On Wheels has a strong tradition in our community, with branches in Coffs Harbour, Sawtell, Kempsey, Macksville, Urunga and Port Macquarie. As anyone who uses the service will tell you, the meals are great, but the companionship and care provided by the amazing volunteers who deliver them makes the food delivery even more special.
Great to chat to Chris Watt, President of the NSW Meals on Wheels Board who I discovered is very good friends with my brother! Small world!
Thank you to Meals on Wheels for everything you do in our communities, here's to 70 more years to come!
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IN PARLIAMENT: RECOGNISING FALAK OTHMAN
I was delighted to be able to speak in Parliament today and recognise an impressive young woman in our electorate; 19 year old Falak Othman.
Falak and her family fled war in Syria for Iraq in 2012, landing in Australia in 2017.
Already fluent in Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish, Falak added ‘English’ to her linguistic credentials within just one year at the age of 14.
She also has a basic grasp of Chinese and German. Now, I think there are many who would admit to only just grasping one language, let alone SIX!
Falak has put these skills to good use. As a child, she translated for others with UNICEF in Iraq for three years during the war in the Middle East – supporting people suffering in trauma.
And since arriving on our shores, she has volunteered as a translator for refugees in the Coffs Coast community. As a refugee herself, Falak has a deep understanding of the gaps that exist in being able to create a smooth transition into life in a new country. Falak is currently studying Nursing and Business, and balances her academic endeavours with her community work.
On International Women’s Day earlier this month, Falak was presented the Coffs Harbour Woman of the Year award.
A well-deserved recognition for an inspirational young woman. Congratulations, Falak!
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: BRELSFORD PARK TRANSFORMATION IN FULL SWING
Great to chat to NBN last week about the upgrades to Brelsford Park that are currently underway in Coffs Harbour.
It's taken a little while to get to this stage, but it will be worth the wait to see the original community led vision come to life. The $5 million of joint Federal and State funding was originally delivered by Gurmesh Singh MP and I back in 2021 under the former Coalition Government.
I look forward to attending the official opening alongside the wider community in coming months!
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Call Now
IN PARLIAMENT THIS WEEK: CALL TO ADDRESS ILLICIT TOBACCO
This week, I was able to draw attention to the rapidly expanding Illicit Tobacco trade within this country and acknowledge its far-reaching impacts.
The efforts of various agencies, both Commonwealth and State, have been compromised by an inability to disrupt the entire supply chain using a counter network approach.
In short, the precautions taken to date have not been as effective as we had hoped. Despite our collective best intentions, the trade of Illicit Tobacco has not only increased but flourished in many areas of the country.
Unlike the trade of other illicit substances, this particular criminal commodity can be measured against the Government Purse. In 2022, a report estimated that 23.5% of all tobacco consumption in Australia was illicit, resulting in a staggering $4.2 billion loss in tax revenue.
The majority of this revenue was earmarked to be spent within our overstretched Health systems on both a Federal and State level.
Increasing the price of legal tobacco products is not the answer. Combined with the current general cost-of-living pressures, creating an even larger gap between the cost of legal cigarettes and cheaper ‘chop chop’ only drives more people to the black market out of desperation, fuelling the trade and putting money directly into the pockets of criminal syndicates.
As the trade has expanded and become increasingly lucrative, we have seen an escalation in the inevitable power struggles between serious and organized crime groups resulting in personal violence and fire bombings of tobacconists, particularly rampant in Melbourne and Brisbane. The increasing profits within the Illegal Tobacco Trade have enabled organised crime groups to fund serious criminal activity including large scale drug importation and human trafficking.
I call on the Government to:
(a) increase the penalties for illicit tobacco offences;
(b) work with states and territories to implement compatible licencing systems for tobacco sales to assist in enforcement, detection, and disruption efforts; and
(c) ensure that multi-jurisdictional responses can be adequately funded
Without the simultaneous implementation of the above three measures, we will continue to see a torrent of Illicit Tobacco pouring into the country and onto our streets. We will continue to see legitimate businesses run out of town. We will continue to see negative health and safety impacts on the community. We will continue to line the pockets of criminal institutions and fund avenues into more serious crimes like drug and human trafficking. We will continue to hemorrhage lost tax revenue out of the Government coffers. Enough is enough.
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ShoreTrack are a fantastic organisation in our community giving young people the chance to grow their employable skills in a unique learning environment. I love seeing these updates. Go, Noah!
Looking forward to seeing the ShoreTrack team here in Canberra next week at the SEGRA exhibition 👏👏
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BELATED ST PATRICK’S DAY
Fantastic to be able to commemorate St Patrick’s Day at the Irish Embassy here in Canberra tonight. With a surname like Conaghan, my Irish heritage isn’t exactly hard to decipher.
Great to have an excuse to pull out the Shamrock socks as well 😂
Thank you to His Excellency Tim Mawe, Irish Ambassador, for the invitation. And to the thousands of Cowper constituents with Irish heritage, Happy St Paddy’s!
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