On 8 March, I celebrated International Women's Day with a wonderful group of women in my electorate. It was held at the Good Samaritan Catholic Primary School, who also co-hosted the event with the Roxburgh Park Football Club.
We joined to celebrate with the newly arrived migrant and refugee women, predominantly from Iraq and Syria, who have settled in our area. We paid tribute to the women who have mentored our local women in the community and recognise the tireless efforts of the school community and the community workers in assisting and supporting them and their families. I want to thank our local sponsors of the event, BRITE Services, Naturally Good Products and Nestle for their kind donations.
I want to thank in particular the school and football club for all their hard work in setting up and facilitating this event, which we all agreed on the day should become an annual event on International Women's Day. The theme for this year's International Women's Day was 'Press for progress'. I am proud to say that nowhere is that progress more evident than in my electorate of Calwell. The kind donations and the goodwill of the Calwell community show how willing our local schools, settlement agencies and community in general are in assisting in the settlement of our newly arrived migrants and refugees.
