STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (13:39): I rise to mark the life of Tony Wood, a fervent antidrug campaigner and, the House will remember, the father of Anna Wood, who was just 15 when she took an ecstasy tablet in the Phoenician nightclub in Sydney and died, Marking for a generation the dangers of drug use. As a young man, I found myself in New York with her mum, Angela Wood, at a conference where, as a young person who lost my own mother with a mother who lost her daughter, we formed a bond that has lasted for many years.

In state parliament, I was able to help Anna's mum and dad, Angela and Tony, campaign against drugs in schools across New South Wales and in Sydney. In fact, just one week after the death of their daughter, they started a foundation called Love This Life—the iconic Anna Wood's life—saving the lives of tens of thousands of young people across New South Wales and around Sydney.

It was a great privilege to know them. It was a great privilege to know Tony and Anna. We shared many views about the inadequacies of harm minimisation and some of the policies that have been adopted in modern years by governments that simply aren't sufficient to teach young kids about the dangers of drug use.

There's nothing more effective than parents who have lost a daughter going to schools and speaking with young adults about the dangers of drug use and about loving their life. I want to commend to the House the lives of Tony and Angela Wood, both of whom have passed away, and this remarkable family, this remarkable Sydney story and this remarkable Australian story that has saved the lives of so many young people.