Tuesday, 22 September 2026

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:50): I want to thank my community and celebrate some of the many wins we have had together over the last four years, noting some are still a work in progress. Congratulations to locals involved in stopping the Hampton Park waste transfer facility in a residential area with underground waterways. To residents near Kingswood and Rossdale golf courses who slowed down Labor’s inappropriate developments, thank you. To Springvale business owners for campaigning against the needle syringe machine making your community unsafe, thank you. To residents in Berwick Springs for not letting this government get away with unilateral decision-making, thank you. To businesses and manufacturers in Progress Street for speaking out on poor planning and road safety, thank you. To the Australian Horse Industry Council, thanks to you Victoria now has nationally accredited training and a large animal incident rescue service. To the Filipino community that fought to keep its social worker and residents in Heatherton next to the stabling yards fighting the broken promise of the chain of parks, thank you. To the families and individuals speaking out for the fatalities and victims of poor road-planning decisions, thank you. To the healthcare workers, frontline services, teachers, nurses, doctors, ambos, police, firefighters, conservationists and families of the south-east, thank you for trusting me to be your voice. To my husband, family, loved ones and staff, thank you for supporting me. Having lost my father, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, your unwavering love and support gave me the strength to keep going. There is a parable about a boy on a beach with thousands of stranded starfish. He picks them up one by one and throws them back into the ocean. He is told, ‘This is useless. You can’t help them all.’ Throwing another starfish into the sea, the innocent replies, ‘Well, I made a difference to that one.’