Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise proudly to talk about an exceptional group of people and organisations that I honoured recently on Australia Day as part of the 15th annual Holt Australia Day Awards. At the Cranbourne Community Theatre, with about 200 people, including friends and family of the award recipients, we came together and we celebrated people, organisations and what they do, which gives a window into what makes this country great. But that couldn't have been done without the support of my Holt Australia Day Awards Committee: Barry Rogers, Chris Drysdale, Judy Owen, Leanne Petridis and Mladen Krsman. I would like to thank them for the work they did so that we could honour these people.

Australia Day is the perfect day to recognise people that unobtrusively and in a very Australian way contribute to their community—not seeking awards and honours; they just do it in an Australian way. I wanted to read their names into the record of this parliament so that they could be remembered and honoured. The people and the organisations that I awarded the Australia Day awards to include: Alex and Vianney Clark, Aladin Berari, Anthony Tassone, Bill McMartin, Bradley Scicluna, the Cranbourne Food Truck volunteers, Cranbourne Little Athletics Centre, Danielle Johnson, David Haynes, the Doveton Drought Relief Fundraising Committee, Hampton Park Community House, Jeff Weir, Joel McQuie, Lions Club of Hampton Park, Loc Huu Lam, the Malayalees of Melbourne, Maleuth Dot Mac Anyar, Marlene Hargreaves, Mary-Ann Spencer, Michelle La-Brooy, Mohammad Nabi Esakhil, Narre Warren & District Family History Group, Sabesan Sanmugam, Sakatter Singh, Sepal Patel, Shirley Aolei, Simon Stafrace, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Australia Inc, Stacey Herring, Stephanie Panza, Stuart Merrick and Sukhwinder Kaur. They're names and they're organisations, but they're people, and they're people who did wonderful things.

I wish we had the time to be able to talk about why these people were awarded the Australia Day award, but to give just a quick insight into a couple of people and organisations that were awarded, to give you a flavour of why they were awarded, I wanted to mention Jeff Weir, who also received an Order of Australia on Australia Day, so congratulations to him. He was awarded this for his marine conservation work. Jeff is currently the executive director of the Dolphin Research Institute and has a great passion for marine biology, especially in Western Port Bay and Port Phillip Bay. One of Jeff's great success stories is helping to create the 'i sea, i care' marine ambassador program, designed for students in years 5 and 6. Through the 'i sea, i care' program, students get to learn about what lives in our bays and waterways and the many issues that face them.

Also amongst the award recipients were the Cranbourne Food Truck volunteers. A team of about 60 volunteers provide free food and fellowship to the needy and disadvantaged in the Cranbourne area. The food truck is owned and run by the Cranbourne Regional Uniting Church. It provides about 20 to 25 meals a night; that's over 3,000 meals a year.

In particular, I wanted to mention a very worthy organisation, a group called the Malayalees of Melbourne. The Malayalees of Melbourne were a group of people that came to this country from the state of Kerala. They were formed as a collective in response to the disastrous flooding that happened in the Indian state of Kerala in August 2018. The southern state of India—and they will want me to say this—is known throughout India as God's own country, but it faced one of the worst calamities in its history when a once-in-a-century flood killed 483 people and forced over one million people to flee to safer, higher ground. The floods damaged the entire infrastructure of the state. Many of its roads were destroyed, as was its agricultural land and its electricity generators. But what this fine group of people did to help the people in their state of Kerala and also drought-affected farmers is hold a fundraiser on 5 October at Bunjil Place, which over 600 people attended. They were entertained by performances by a musical maestro called Ouseppachan. They raised $45,000, of which $44,000 was presented to the Chief Minister of Kerala on behalf of the Malayalees of Melbourne and $1,000 went to the drought relief fund in Doveton. People who come from a different country, who make this country their home and make Australia great—congratulations to the Malayalees of Melbourne and all the other award recipients on the day.

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