I’d like to acknowledge the excellent and invaluable service to our community provided by Guide Dogs.

In the gallery we have Iain Edwards, interim CEO of Guide Dogs Victoria and his Labrador Olympia, and my dad John Gosling AM, who’s worked with guide dogs for over 50 years.

Staggeringly, almost half of Australians are impacted by a chronic long-term vision condition, and almost half a million live with low vision or total blindness.

Guide Dogs raise about 150 dogs per year, with over 1,700 dogs currently in active service.

Not every dog becomes a guide dog, with some going on to be therapy dogs or pets.

But dogs are only one part of Guide Dogs Australia’s work.

They offer assistive technology and mobility training, helping Australians to navigate independently in the community, to engage fully in social activities and sport, and to have as much freedom as possible to fully engage in life.

There’s a need for more puppy raisers, so if you’ve got time and room at your place to raise a guide dog pup for a year, please reach out so we can help even more Australians partake in the same freedom we all enjoy.