Mr FERGUSON (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, I rise to reflect on Australia Day. I want to highlight what it means to be proud to be Australian, I am grateful to be Australian, but also the fantastic events held across my electorate of Bass. I also want to recognise the amazing individuals who were recognised for contributing to our Australian way of life.
As a sign of changing views, Woolworths made the sensible decision to put Australia Day merchandise back on its shelves. The company said, We will be celebrating Australia Day as a team and with our customers.’ Woolworths later went on to say, ‘Our store team members are also welcome to celebrate the day in store.’ That should not have been such an ordeal, but it would appear that Woolworths recognised that it made a commercial mistake the year prior and that their customers are more patriotic than they gave them credit for. Nonetheless, credit where it is due.
Coinciding with this, I would like to bring to the notice of the House that there is plenty of public research this year which shows increasing support for Australia Day on 26 January. The Resolve Political Monitor, the Roy Morgan SMS poll, the Deakin University Contemporary History Survey all showed significantly more support to retain our national day as it is. As a further example, the Institute of Public Affairs survey results showed the 69 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that Australia Day should be celebrated on 26 January, up 6 per cent on the year before. Only 14 per cent disagreed, down 3 per cent.
I witnessed that sentiment across my electorate of Bass in the northern community at events that I attended. As a grateful Australian, I celebrated by attending George Town’s citizenship ceremonies. It is a great event where it is always an honour to witness people becoming new citizens of our wonderful country – even more so on this special day.
Honourable Speaker, I know you will join me in wanting to congratulate Dr Tim Mooney, who was named George Town’s Citizen of the Year for his extensive and generous contribution to the life and health of the people of George Town and the district. I know Mr Wood will join me as well in congratulating him. It is a wonder that he has not been Citizen of the Year many times already.
It was also a great opportunity to listen to Australia Day ambassador, John Zeckendorf, who is known to many of us in this Chamber. He has travelled all the way from Kingston to George Town to talk about his Everest climb, our wonderful country, and the importance of Australia Day to him. John is a very inspirational person and, I understand, the only Tasmanian to have summited Everest.
I then spent the afternoon at Scottsdale’s Australia Day pool party. This has become a regular event in my calendar. I look forward to spending that time celebrating with my fellow Australians in the beautiful north east. This included locals who travelled from all over the state just to be there for that weekend. There are also many other successful events in Bass, such as the Greens Beach event, organised by the hard working volunteers of Kelso Fire Brigade; the Riverside pool party organised by the West Tamar Council; and the George Town pool party. It was inspiring.
In the moments I have remaining, I want to celebrate the Australian of the Year awards. It was inspiring to watch this year’s awards and see such a worthy recipient of Australian of the Year, co-founder of Fight MND and AFL legend Neale Daniher AO. Other inspiring recipients included senior Australian of the Year, co-founder of Wheelchairs for Kids, Brother Thomas Oliver Pickett AM. I hope I can speak for other members when I say that the story that was broadcast on the ABC about both of these wonderful Australians and their acceptance speeches were extremely inspiring. They both spoke with such clarity about the contributions of volunteers and the generous donors across our nation. Who could not be moved, in particular, by Neale Daniher’s acceptance?
Further to this, I was so inspired to see Tasmanians stepping up as finalists and want to congratulate founder of Sea Forest, Sam Elsom, on winning our 2025 Tasmanian Australian of the Year. He is doing amazing things with reducing stock methane emissions in the global livestock industry, and the many other nominees for state awards, they make us very proud, in particular Penelope Bloomfield, Ariarne Titmus, and Keren Franks. We are very proud of the winners of the Tasmanian Awards.
