Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (16:30): On a rainy afternoon in Boort in the east of my electorate of Mallee, my heart was warmed by the many people who came out to see me in the mobile office at Godfrey & Bear cafe. It was great to meet with a stream of community members needing help with Centrelink or Veterans' Affairs bureaucracy and women who were very concerned about the lack of child care in their childcare desert. I also met with council, who work tirelessly to find creative ways to fund the many and valid expectations of their ratepayers, with a diminishing federal funding pool.

It was also wonderful to meet Martin Duke, the secretary of the Wycheproof Men's Shed, at Boort. He had come to celebrate with me the grant awarded to his group through the 2023-24 Volunteer Grants program. The $1,286 grant will help purchase new hand drills and spare batteries as the old ones were no longer holding their charge. It is great to support local volunteering and men's health through these small but meaningful gestures.

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