Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to inform the House of one of the hardworking community organisations in my electorate of Forde. I'm talking about the Scout movement. They do a tremendous job in a number of areas across my electorate, but in particular I want to speak today about the Logan Village Scout Group.

As we all know, the movement was founded in 1907 by Robert, Lord Baden-Powell in England and quickly spread around the world, with the first groups being established in Australia in 1908. Today the Scout movement is the world's largest youth organisation, with approximately 28 million members around the world, including some 70,000 here in Australia. It describes itself as:

… a voluntary non-political educational movement for young people open to all without distinction of gender, origin, race or creed …

The goal of scouting is:

… to contribute to the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual potentials as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.

To me, those sound like worthwhile attributes that we should be cultivating in the youth of this nation. Scouts in Queensland are trained by volunteer adult leaders and follow an achievement pathway that encourages personal progression. The Logan Village Scouts perform an important role in my community, and I'm very proud to support them, along with the Scouts at Beenleigh, Ormeau and Shailer Park as well.

Unfortunately, in March this year Logan Village Scouts became the victims of crime when somebody broke into their den, causing considerable damage and stealing a number of valuable items, including a lawnmower and a trailer. Upon hearing of this senseless crime, I was more than willing to contribute to help replace the stolen equipment and to support their efforts as well. The Logan Village Scout Group successfully applied for and were granted funds through the 2021 volunteer grants fund program. With these moneys, they were able to replace the stolen mower and trailer, purchase a laptop computer and finance some training courses for their volunteers. This is a great example of why governments need to maintain grant programs like this to assist worthy community groups who would otherwise struggle to replace or purchase much-needed equipment.

I want to congratulate the Logan Village Scouts for the tremendous work that they do each and every day across our community helping our youth become better persons and encouraging them to contribute and be part of our community. As I said, I had the pleasure of helping them with a small contribution towards that replacement, and I also had the joy of joining them at the Bunnings barbecue sausage sizzle to raise some more funds. Thank you to everyone at Logan Village Scouts for all the great work they do.

See this speech in context