CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr KHALIL (Wills—Assistant Minister for Defence) (16:44): I recently had the great privilege and the excitement of visiting The Man Cave alongside the very first Special Envoy for Men's Health, the great Dan Repacholi, who is no longer the tallest man in this parliament. We were warmly welcomed by Ben, Al and Jan, who gave us a tour and introduced us to the incredible team delivering programs that are generally transforming young lives.
The Man Cave is a Melbourne based charity working with boys aged between 12 and 18. They focus on prevention. They focus on supporting young men to build emotional intelligence, form healthy relationships and express their masculinity in positive and respectful ways.
Their passionate team is already making a real difference, with strong feedback from students and growing demand from across Victoria and New South Wales. Last year I joined Minister Rishworth to announce $3.5 million for three projects under the Healthy Masculinities Trial and Evaluation, including $1 million for The Man Cave's empowering boys program. Under the national plan, the government is investing $34.8 million in early intervention trials to support boys and young men at risk of violence or trauma.
These investments are about getting in early. They're an investment upfront in helping young men build strong emotional foundations and tackling things that can lead to mental health issues, disrespectful behaviour and violence that comes later on. It's really important to get in early.
If we're serious about these challenges, we must invest early and back organisations like The Man Cave. Another exciting initiative the Albanese government is delivering for the people of Wills, in my electorate, is the Coburg solar community battery. It was great to be in Coburg last month with the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Josh Wilson.
He came all the way from Fremantle—it was great of him to do that—to officially launch the 400-kilowatt-hour battery, which is already powering 244 local homes and businesses in my electorate. The battery stores excess solar energy during the day and feeds it back into the grid when it's needed most. That's part of the $200 million Community Batteries for Household Solar program, delivering 420 of these batteries across the nation.
These batteries are delivered in partnership with Jemena. The battery benefits the whole community whether you have solar panels or not, because it comes back off the grid. It is staggering that in 2025, while the rest of the world is racing towards clean energy and renewables, Barnaby Joyce and the coalition, and the old dinosaurs over there on that side, are still trying to drag us backwards to scrap net zero.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Boyce ): Could you take a seat, please, Assistant Minister? Mr Buchholz: I just want to acknowledge the standing orders that members will refer to other members by their title, not by their Christian name. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The assistant minister will refer to people by their correct title.
Mr KHALIL: This is not leadership. This is— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Assistant Minister, your time has expired. Mr KHALIL: He just took up 20 seconds of my time.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call the member for New England.