Friday, 28 August 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (10:01): I wish to make a statement that is a little bit personal. I wish to congratulate my brother and sister, who last week sold their family business to a new family who will be taking over Lovell’s Shepparton Newsagency in Shepparton, the Patel family. My family have been in newsagencies for almost 60 years. My parents had a newsagency in Melbourne for eight years, and my brother, sister and parents have run that newsagency in Shepparton for almost 52 years, so nearly 60 years of service to the newsagency industry. In that time our family have seen many changes to newsagencies, from the days when everybody bought a daily paper – a printed version – to today when many people read the papers online and no longer visit their local newsagencies every day. It has been a pleasure for our family to service the Shepparton community and to make many, many friends from the customers who have come into the newsagency over the years. My brother intends to retire and play a lot of golf and also bowls – more so bowls than golf – and my sister has agreed to stay on with the new owners for a while to help them settle into the newsagency and because she is not quite of retirement age yet. I wish the Patel family the best of luck with the business, and I hope that it thrives with them.