Michael Sukkar MP

Statement by Members: Community Fetes

It’s fete and festival season in the electorate of Deakin, and I want to congratulate everybody who’s been involved with some really outstanding community events of late. We had the Maroondah Festival and Whitehorse Spring Festival over the last couple of weekends, but we’ve also had parent communities throughout the electorate working really hard to raise money for their local schools. I’ve been really pleased to spend some time and visit the Holy Spirit Community Fete and the Warranwood Primary School Spring Fair. I have seen the great work done by Rangeview Primary School, St John’s Primary School and a range of others that are just excuses to bring the community together to raise some money for great causes.

In the course of spending time at each of those events and speaking to hundreds, if not thousands, of people from our local community, it has become very clear that leading into Christmas 2024 many families are doing it tougher than probably any of them have felt they’ve ever done it before. With the cost-of-living pressures that they’re feeling, whether it be higher interest rates and higher mortgage repayments, higher energy costs or higher rents that they’re paying, for many this will be a very difficult Christmas. My message to them has been that there will be an election next year in 2025 and a great opportunity to turn the page on a government that’s made their life worse and has made them poorer, and we look forward to earning their trust in the election next year.

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