Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Casino is the beef capital of Australia. Others claim it; they are delusional. Deputy Speaker Landry, you are a friend of mine, you are a colleague of mine and you are the member for Capricornia, which takes in Rockhampton—which you unfortunately and very sadly think is the beef capital of Australia. You are wrong and you know it!

Coming up in a few weeks time, it is Beef Week in Casino. It is a very exciting annual event. Celebrations kick off on 22 May and will continue for 11 days with more than 100 events, including the legendary crowning of the Beef Week Queen and Mr Beef. This year's potential queens are: Chelsea Law, Mikala Thomas, Lucy Amey, Olivia Hooton, Georgie King, Madeline Mayer, Alice Magner, Holly Miller and Angelique Dillon. Of course, there is gender equity with Mr Beef, which will happen later in the week. The fun does not end there: we have Beef Meets Reef at Evans Head, street parades, Breakfast with the Butchers, rodeos, busking, the Beef Week races and the ever-popular cowpat lotto.

I thank the organising committee again. A lot of work goes into putting this event on and, again, they have done a great year. I thank the committee: Stuart George, Frank McKey, Belinda Dockrill, John Hamilton, Grant Shedden, Sarah Yeo, Sam Chilton and Cherie Holdsworth. Again, sponsors are very important for this too. I thank: the Northern Co-Operative Meat Company, the Richmond Valley Council, the Casino Returned Servicemen's Memorial Club, Westlawn, TURSA, Richmond Dairies, 2LM, ZZZ, NBN, The Land, The Richmond River Express Examiner and The Northern Star. Madam Deputy Speaker, you know it and I know it: Casino is the beef capital of Australia.

Tomorrow I am attending a Mother's Day morning tea organised by the Maclean Lower Clarence Hospital Auxiliary. This is an annual event organised to give those mothers who are on their own an opportunity to celebrate the day. The women's auxiliary do a wonderful job of raising money for the Maclean District Hospital to purchase much-needed equipment. They did this through raffles; functions like Mother's Day morning tea; and staffing a trolley throughout the hospital five days a week and selling papers, lollies, magazines—et cetera—to patients. They do a fantastic job of helping others.

The auxiliary have a total of 107 members. To the executive committee of Rhonda Shaw, Rita Nutt, Sandra Bradbury, Edie Quick, Margaret Annand, Alida Morley and Janine Adams—I thank you. They have a lot of longstanding members. This financial year, they have raised $170,000; $75,000 has already been spent. The hospital has a wish list, which the auxiliary continues to fill. I thank the auxiliary for their service.

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