Women in Rescue
Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (16:23): In the spirit of last week’s International Women’s Day I would like to give a big shout-out to those women involved in our rescue services, and particularly those women in the regions. Last weekend I went to the Women in Rescue event in Myrniong, which was hosted by the VICSES and organised by the wonderful Jane Patton, who is the community resilience coordinator. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet the women from VICSES Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh, Victoria Police, St John Ambulance and even the Bacchus Marsh Girl Guides, who were all taking part in a full-day training exercise. It takes so many hours of intense training to be able to save lives and respond to crises as quickly and as well they do, and I saw those hours of training up close. I had some fantastic conversations with some of the women during their lunch break, and I was taken aback by just how much passion they have for their communities and what they do. It is important that we as parliamentarians continue to uplift the voices and the work of women every single day and in everything that we do, especially those women who do such vital and life-saving work – and those who do so voluntarily and on top of their careers, families and lives. Thank you very much to the women in our voluntary services.