Ms SPENCE (Yuroke) — Congratulations to Cr Helen Patsikatheodorou, who was elected mayor of Hume City Council on 28 October. I also congratulate Cr Chandra Bamunusinghe for his election as deputy mayor. This is Cr Patsikatheodorou’s second term as mayor, and like she was in her previous term as mayor in 2011, I know she will again be a champion of the people. In her acceptance speech Helen said that the focus of her mayoral year would be on the services that matter to people and that she would work to support programs that assist the city’s most disadvantaged residents. Helen also said that she would use this year to promote breast cancer awareness, which is an issue that is very important to her following her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2013.

During her term as mayor Helen said that she wanted to be known as the ‘pink mayor’. She has committed to wearing something pink every day of her mayoral term so that husbands, sons, brothers, partners and friends will be encouraged to remind the women in their life to have a breast check and mammogram. Regular screening, as Helen knows too well, can detect breast cancer early, and when breast cancer is detected early women have a much greater chance of being treated successfully. I commend Helen for her efforts in promoting breast cancer awareness, particularly given that in the Hume municipality there is a very low uptake of breast screening for migrant women. I wish her every success for her mayoral term, and I would also like to thank Cr Adem Atmaca, the outgoing mayor, for his great service to the City of Hume and for his cooperative efforts with other levels of government.