MARK DREYFUS MP

The government has in place a comprehensive safety plan to deal with the wind-up of the Home Insulation Program.

With the theme being Many Species. One Planet. One Future. there could be no more appropriate day to officially launch Animalia Wildlife Shelter, which is based in Frankston but looks after animals and wildlife up and down the bayside area as far north as Brighton.

The Liberal Party is long on fear but very short on solutions and very, very short on facts.

I rise today to speak about the opening of an important business for the Aspendale Gardens and Edithvale area, which is the community bank at Aspendale Gardens Shopping Centre.

Joeys Van provides healthy, nutritious meals to needy people in our local community. Joeys Van is an outreach ministry of St Josephs Parish, Springvale.

We have presented a credible pathway back to surplus in three years, and that time frame is half the time that it was expected to take when Australia first responded to the global economic crisis.

The Dandenong area - and, in particular, suburbs like Dandenong South, Braeside and Carrum Downs - provides a significant chunk of Victorias and the country's manufacturing output. So, when times are tough, manufacturing, retail and hospitality jobs in this area are often the first to go.

These real effects are what make it necessary for all industries, including agricultural industries, to adapt to the changes that are already occurring and will continue to occur.

We are going to see measured consideration of Australia's national security legislation. We are going to see discussion conducted slightly outside the atmosphere of partisan political debate about where the balance should be struck between the protection of individual liberty and arming our authorities with appropriate powers.

I very much hope that this terrific tradition which has now been running for five years at Edithvale Bowling Club continues into the future, because it provides an opportunity for those who have just entered the sport to compete in a way that might not otherwise be available to them.