House of Representatives on Thursday 6th February 2020

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Every Australia Day we celebrate our great country, our democratic values, our freedoms, our beautiful landscape, our oceans and our national character of resilience forged over many years. I'm reminded of this quote from Charles Bean, who, after returning from the outback, wrote a column for The Sydney Morning Heraldin 1907. In it, he said:

The Australian is always fighting something. In the bush it is drought, fires, unbroken horses, and cattle; and not infrequently strong men … All this fighting with men and with nature, fierce as any warfare, has made of the Australian as fine a fighting man as exists.

It's a great quote and something to think about as we think on Australia Day.

We also celebrated outstanding members of our local community. We had five honour recipients from Canning appointed a Member of the Order of Australia last month. They are the late Mr Eric Lumsden AM PSM, for significant services to public administration and to planning; the Hon. Fred Riebeling AM of Dudley Park, for significant service to the people and parliament of Western Australia, who I note is a Labor member and has done great service to his party; Mr David Hicks OAM of Meadow Springs, for service for people with a disability; Mrs Joanna Randell OAM of Carmel, for service to the community through music; and Ms Christine Thompson OAM of Furnissdale, for service to the local government and to the community of the Murray Shire. On behalf of us all, congratulations.