Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to congratulate the Macarthur region community on its activity over the weekend in regard to the 24-Hour Fight Against Cancer. My attendance there in support of Fred Borg and his committee exemplified very strong community activity and involvement in this effort. As well as me, Russell Matheson and Andrew McDonald, my parliamentary colleagues, were there with Aaron Rule, Paul Lake and Anoulak Chanthivong from the Campbelltown City Council.

It is interesting to note the effort of Fred and the way in which he has marshalled so much local commercial support. Amongst the sponsors were Clintons Toyota, Wizard of Oz, Sleeping Giant, the Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser and Bob Jane T-marts. The interesting point was that, when he made an announcement that all money from this anti-cancer effort would be locally expended, there was a huge cheer from the audience. I think that says something. This is very much focussed in the entire community, it is very regional and it does give a sense of that community feeling out in the Campbelltown region. Amongst the organisations that are being assisted are the Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre, the Paediatric Ambulatory Care Unit at Campbelltown Hospital and the palliative care unit at Camden Hospital.

Last weekend was the culmination of six years work, and $1 million was raised by their effort over the weekend. It is also worth noting the very substantial number of community organisations of a very diverse nature that had teams there over the weekend. I do salute them. Money went into state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment to reduce waiting times for tests, the purchase of texts and other materials for staff, the production of a DVD to explain palliative care to families, the printing of a memento book for children et cetera. They are also doing a significant amount of work locally with regard to avoidance.

At this stage I would also like to join with my parliamentary colleague the member for Fowler in saluting the effort of Phil Tolhurst from Liverpool City Council. His death was indeed a tragedy. I have had the opportunity over the last few days to be at various gatherings with people involved in local government in the state of New South Wales—for example, the manager of Canterbury, who is the longest serving manager in New South Wales at 28 years. It is a state-wide tragedy that a person of this stature has been lost and it is sad that in the last few months of his life he saw the deterioration of the Liverpool council after he left it, the internecine disputes that have affected that council, the lack of leadership, and the proposal at the moment, which is very novel in Australian politics, to close down libraries. We have a person who was regarded as one of the leaders in local government administration in our state. I join with my colleague in saluting the massive efforts that he made and the emphasis he put on connecting with his workers. It is rare that the staff would go out on strike action in support of a manager of a council, but that is what occurred there.

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