By leave: I thank the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Vaucluse, for bringing this public interest debate to the House. I also thank the member for Myall Lakes for sharing her incredibly painful story and all members who have shared their personal stories. It is huge. I thank our special guests, who are doing such great work for our communities. We cannot do it without them, and I thank them for moving this issue forward and pushing this Parliament to do more and do better. On the northern beaches there are a lot of men's groups, some of which I have worked with. The member for Pittwater mentioned some of them.

I know that the member for Manly works a lot with the Vipers Run Club. He is a lunatic runner—I do not know what is wrong with him. That is his vice. Another group is Head Above Water, which raises a lot of money for men's mental health. We also have The Men's Table, Mongrel Men, Tomorrow Man, Movember, men's sheds, Mentoring Men, Lifeline and Kids Helpline. There are so many.

A friend of mine, Bradley Spillane, has a podcast. Many members know about him; he has been here in Parliament talking about it. He has been quite influential in changing people's attitudes and getting men to talk about health. That is all because of the work that those in the gallery do—getting people to talk about men's health and raising money. The Saltwater Veterans help our current veterans get through what they are going through. I have a cousin who was in the special forces and he is going through his own journey. He did something like nine tours of Afghanistan and it massively impacted him. His stories and the way he shares them are a testament to what those in the gallery do—encouraging those conversations to be had. They need to be had so that we do not end up talking about our friends and family sadly taking their lives. I, too, have known too many to talk about.

Gotcha4Life was founded by a mate of mine, Gus Worland. We are approached by many worthy groups like those in the gallery, and we need to work together to fund and support them. Yes, we need strategies and plans, but we need to listen to what works. Gotcha4Life asked us for a simple program to put into primary schools—not to have the P&Cs raise money to fund it, but for Parliament to fund a simple program to get in early and influence schoolchildren. I take the opportunity to talk about my two boys, who went to St Pius X College in Chatswood. That was not my choice; it was their mother's choice. They would have gone to a public school if it had been my choice but, to St Pius's credit, they are great kids.

When my boys were 16 and 14, Gus was taking Steve Smith around the country to speak one‑on‑one with students. My boys have no interest in sport, even though their dad is a massive cricket tragic. They came home and said, "We saw your mate today and he brought some cricketer with him." I said, "Who was that?" They said it was Steve Smith. I asked them, "What did you learn?", and they said, "It was fabulous. We learned that we have a mate for life." I asked them to tell me more and they told me about what it meant to them—to have that person that they can ring any time of day, anywhere in the world, and to have that mate from school onwards, whom they can talk to about anything. Nothing is off limits.

Skip forward to just before Christmas last year. My youngest is now 21, and he was violently assaulted. That is every father and mother's nightmare, and thank goodness for organisations like those represented in the gallery. We need to do better at funding them, because he will need that kind of support going forward. It is lucky he has had that training and has that best mate from the Gotcha4Life program. He remembered that when I mentioned it to him and said, "Oh, yeah. Sorted, Dad." He is a typical kid who knows everything—bravado and the like, bless him. I emphasise that those programs work and we should support them. We do fundraisers and go to dinners and lunches. We host functions—although I wasn't invited to this one by the Leader of the Opposition. Is she worried about all the champagne I would drink? We need to work together. It is not a political thing, a Government thing or an Opposition thing; it is for all of us to work together to support all the great work those organisations do. I thank them for doing that work on our behalf. They rock.

You can read the full debate here.

13 May 2026, 17:47.