Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to inform the House that preparations for the centenary of the Anzac Cove landings are proceeding apace in my electorate of Eden Monaro.

We have received a number of very worthy applications for the Anzac Centenary Local Grants program. A committee has been established to review those bids and to submit them to the Department of Veterans' Affairs by the end of May this year. I want to congratulate the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Senator Ronaldson. One of his earliest decisions as minister was to increase the grant level to each electorate from $100,000 to $125,000. That was a significant boost to the program. In my view, the good senator would have to be the finest Minister for Veterans' Affairs since, well, since you, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott!

I also want to note a visit I made to the Eden subbranch of the RSL recently, and the great work of Steve Mahoney and his team. I also had the pleasure of formally launching the third volume of the book, We Will Remember Them, by local resident Peter Lacey, recording the biography of the soldiers from the far South Coast who made the ultimate sacrifice in World War I. Voluntary work such as this is a huge service to the community. I am sure that the centenary grants program will assist in many more worthy projects of this type.

Finally, can I say that the 90-second statement in sign language by the member for Ryan was extremely well done!

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