GordonMoyes.com

I rise to offer comments about the factory farming of meat chickens, which I learned more about while reading the publication From Nest to Nugget: the Expose of Australia’s Chicken Factories published by Voiceless, an organisation working for farm animal welfare.

Many honourable members will be familiar with the work of English parliamentarian William Wilberforce, especially since the release last year of the film about his work against the slave trade called Amazing Grace. But many honourable members might not realise that another great social reform that Wilberforce championed was the founding of the first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

About a year ago the year 10 students of Redeemer Baptist School in North Parramatta, a school that has been trenchantly criticised in the House, started to raise money for Aboriginal communities in need after I advised their headmaster, at his request, that the school readiness program, known as HIPPY La Perouse, would be one project very worthy of their assistance.

The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts is currently accepting public comment regarding the proposal to convert Sydney Olympic Park into a street circuit for the V8 supercar races. The public had 10 days to submit a comment from when it was posted on the departmental website on 6 March 2009, so only five days remain.

On Tuesday this week a friend of mine died in America. He was a miracle of what God can do with a man to whom he gave a hammer. Millard Fuller, the millionaire entrepreneur who gave it all away to help found the Christian house-building charity Habitat for Humanity, died Tuesday 3 February 2009. He was 74.

The shocking attack in Mumbai on two hotels and some other public places, which resulted in nearly 200 deaths and hundreds of injured, shocked the world. When we learned of the deaths of Australians in the attack we all felt involved—as we did following the Australian deaths that occurred in the New York Twin Towers attack, and with the tragedies in Bali the following year.

Billy Graham celebrated his ninetieth birthday this week. Graham has preached in person to more than 215 million people in more than 185 countries during his more than 70 years of ministry. Billy Graham is believed to have spoken face-to-face with more people in more places than any other person in history.

This week Dr Jim Nixon Pendlebury, the honorary treasurer of Wesley Mission Sydney for 40 years, decided to retire and not seek re-election. His has been an extraordinary term of service, not only in its length of time but also in its growing complexity and detail. In his years of service he has overseen the accounting and raising of more than a billion dollars in New South Wales alone, which has been used to serve the needy in our State.

Many people here today will be familiar with the work of English parliamentarian William Wilberforce, especially since the release last year of the film about his work against the slave trade called Amazing Grace. Another social reform Wilberforce championed was the founding of the first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, an institution that has been replicated around the world and which is a very important part of our community here in New South Wales, reflecting the compassion of people through the humane treatment of animals.

I rise today to tell you about a very special aid organisation that performs real miracles throughout the developing world. The Christian Blind Mission International is a Christian international development organisation whose primary purpose is to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities, as well as to reduce the risk of disability, particularly for people living in the poorest areas of the world. In fact, Christian Blind Mission is the largest organisation in the world working with people with disabilities.