I am proud to announce that the 2021 Summer Hill Woman of the Year is Cheree Toka, a Kamilaroi woman of the inner west.

She is a formidable inner west activist and entrepreneur, leading an extraordinary campaign to fly the Aboriginal flag permanently on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Cheree's "Fly the Flag" campaign started in 2017 and acknowledges that the Aboriginal flag only flies 19 days a year over our city.

Cheree's petition to permanently fly the flag on the harbour bridge has been signed by over 165,000 people and was debated in Parliament in 2018.

She is now crowdfunding the $300,000 the New South Wales Government has told her it will cost to permanently fly the flag.

It is clear that nothing will get in Cheree's way.

In addition to her activism, she manages an Indigenous‑owned company specialising in providing services to government and which has many commercial clients.

She is an inspirational young woman.

I congratulate her on being the Summer Hill Woman of the Year.