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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-29 Daily Xml
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Neighbour Day

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:23): Today, I would like to rise to recognise Neighbour Day, which is Australia's annual celebration of community, encouraging people to connect with those who live in their neighbourhood. I am sure we would all agree that there has never been a more important time to find ways to creatively connect with neighbours, families and workplaces. This is so important because positive social interactions, even remotely, can help reduce loneliness. Showing genuine interest in others, sharing positive news and helping our neighbours enhances people's lives and our own lives too.

Positive social support improves resilience for coping with stress and this is certainly needed in this challenging time. This is imperative because loneliness and isolation are associated with an increased risk of earlier death and it is just sad. It is not just older people in our neighbourhood; one in three young adults are reported to be lonely as well, and this affects their mental health.

On Neighbour Day in the past, people have probably thought about their street, their block or maybe even their suburb. I normally think about my neighbours across our whole King electorate; however, during this COVID-19 pandemic, we have been reminded how dependent we are across our state, our borders and internationally. Today, I want to acknowledge a couple of neighbours in King who are to be commended for their kindness and proactivity in connecting people in our neighbourhood.

One special angel in our King community is Helen Hide. I met her when I was calling people to check in on them. Helen has lost her own job during this crisis, which is sad, but now she is using her time to offer her assistance to her neighbours. She has found a unique way for her neighbours to signal that they need her help, that they need her to do some shopping or that they need support. She has also offered her volunteer services to me in case I come across any other neighbours in King who might need her support. She is wonderful and I say thank you to Helen.

Another special person I wish to thank and recognise on Neighbour Day is Sonia Blackwell. Sonia started up and administers a community Facebook page that aims to connect people living in our local area. This group is called Tea Tree Gully Area 'What's Up' and has more than 15,000 members who live locally. They ask their questions, share information and help each other out. Sonia has created a virtual neighbourhood for people to connect any time of the day or night.

An example of a recent question Sonia posted on the page is: 'It is so important for us to keep positive and remember we have so much to be grateful for every day. Can you tell us what you are grateful for today?' This post received a flood of positive comments, positive stories and people sharing about their families and about their neighbours. For instance, one lady told the group how she gave her neighbour some toilet paper and in return her neighbour gave her some pumpkin soup. Posts like this make us feel good and spread positivity.

Sonia is a volunteer who does this from home with the help of a couple of volunteer admins who post questions and share local information. I commend Sonia Blackwell for creating a very interactive and successful online community that is successfully connecting people and, importantly, also helping our local businesses. It is a 2020 way of people popping in to say hello to their neighbours.

Neighbour Day was founded in 2003 in response to the remains of an elderly woman named Mrs Elsie Brown being left undiscovered in her home for two years. It is with this in mind that I remind this place and our community about a recent domestic violence incident in SA that resulted in the death of a young mum, Kim. I send my sincerest condolences to Kim's family, who I know. Kim was a sister, an aunty and a cherished mum of young children. She was our neighbour. She was murdered by her ex-partner in a street, where her cries for help were ignored.

I hope this never, ever happens again in our South Australian neighbourhood. When it comes to family violence in our neighbourhoods, we must do better. We must step up, we must speak up, we must call for help. Silence condones violence and that is not the type of neighbourhood that I or most people I know would like to live in. Let's speak up.

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