Great to have our local Member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell joining us on Wednesday morning for our regular On-Line club meeting.Interestingly, Angie was a Rotary Exchange Student to Denmark in 1986. “This will tell you how old I am” she quipped [we know that anyway; your Bio is plastered all over the Federal Parliament’s website! ☺ Ed]. “Rotary Exchange changed my life” Angie enthused, “even though I haven’t been able to get a lot of use out of my Danish skills”. Angie outlined the importance of foreign aid. Bangladesh (where in the past we have sent some wheelchairs to) has some 900,000 Rohingya refugees who walked across the border from Myanmar. The Australian Government sponsored ‘Safe the Children’. “Amazing what can be done with quite a small amount of money” Angie said, “I think we are talking about approximately $160 Million for this humanitarian crisis. To put it into perspective: this is only about 1.7 Km of Light Rail… ” [☺ Ed.] She mentioned that another reason why we spend that money is that that region is quite important to Australia’s national security (Angie is on the Defence and Veteran Affairs Backbench Committee and also has defence history in her family).
In relation to Covid-19: In the early stages, Angie put together a ‘Community Cabinet’, consisting of leaders of various community and multi-cultural groups on the central Gold Coast. Among others, District Governor Elect Andy Rajapakse is one of the members. Angie emphasised how very important it is that everyone is downloading the Covid Safe App to our smartphones. Angie outlined in detail why it is important. In essence: should somebody become infected, other people who might have been in contact with that person can be traced.
There is little doubt as to where Angie stands when it comes to getting the Gold Coast’s economy back on its feet: she forcefully called for the Queensland border to be re-opened. Alas, so far all the meetings she and her fellow “movers and shakers” on the Gold Coast have had with the representatives of the Queensland State Government seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Naturally, there would be so much else to elaborate on and to discuss. It is quite uncommon in our club that a speaker is allowed to substantially go over the allotted time, but with Angie we simply lost track of time! You can find out lots more on her website https://AngieBell.com.au – simply click on the Help menu. Angie’s presentation has been recorded on Zoom. A link was sent out to all members – if you require a link, please email the Webmaster. To sum it up: I’m sure I speak for all members when I state that we all much enjoyed her refreshingly open and uncomplicated manner of keeping us up to date on what happens in Canberra and how she is fighting for the betterment of the Gold Coast. By the way: Did you know that for quite some time, she was a professional Musician? Next time, we much hope that circumstances will allow us to insist that she brings her Saxophone along!