Chhour KarenKAREN CHHOUR (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise and speak on the Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill. When I was thinking about the conversations I've had around disabilities over the years and the connection that it has to me with my family as I have family members that have relied on guide dogs and other things and also family members that suffer from learning disabilities and other issues—and a lot of it is confidence and feeling like you belong and not being afraid to go out and do the things you really want to do. By changing the definition to a disability assist dog I think it just gives people confidence to go out and know that businesses now know they are obligated to not discriminate against service dogs really because these aren't dogs; these are working dogs that are doing a job and assisting these people to be the best that they can be.I have stood up on many occasions here and said sometimes it's the littlest things that make the biggest difference. It's about as I just said before making sure that we put things in place in this Parliament to help people be the best that they can be and I feel that this bill does achieve that. So I'd just also like to give a little plug to how animals can help us in many ways. Seeing as it's St John's Heart of Gold Annual Appeal Week I'd just like to mention their therapy pet programme that they have. They go along with pets and visit people and it's been found that animals can help people with their wellbeing and with their mental health. So there are many ways that animals help us in this life and I feel that the more we acknowledge it the further we'll get when it comes to disabilities and we will find animals that will do even more than what they're already doing.So when it comes to my family members that I know that have used disability assist dogs they're also like family. So when you discriminate against a dog that you're taking out with you to live your normal everyday life you're not just discriminating against the person you're also discriminating against an animal that is just doing its job. So we need to stop looking at these animals as pets and start looking at them as an extension of the person that they're beside and treat them with the respect that they deserve.Out of the 75 submissions we heard pretty much all of them were in favour and expressed that the bill would bring a positive outcome to the disabled community. But what I really would like to mention is this opened up new avenues of the way we do things within our select committees. So not only did it bring the attention to the disability assist dogs it brought attention to the fact that there are many barriers for the disabled community.I'm really proud of the fact that our select committee the Social Services and Community Committee is taking on a role of leading the charge in making Parliament more accessible to the disabled community. We've had a lot of different ways of promoting how the disabled community can submit to us in ways that fit with how they are capable of submitting. We've had interpreters within our select committee—even on our Zoom meetings we've managed to get interpreters in—and we've also had the captions added to the bottom of our submissions for the disabled community that's watching and trying to follow what's going on. So I'm really proud of that and I feel we're learning a lot and we're also opening up our eyes to the barriers that we take for granted every day. Some people just as I've said just want to be the best that they can be. And if we can help just a little bit with that then that makes me proud to be part of the select committee I'm on. Thank you very much to everyone on our select committee that has made that possible.So I hope that this small change makes a big difference in the lives of people when they go out and they don't have the fear of being turned away and discriminated against the next time they walk into a shop just to live their lives. With that I support this bill.