Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker—and can I say I'm so pleased to see you sitting in the chair. I am very glad to have this opportunity to acknowledge some of the community servants in our community. These are the people who have received Australia Day Order of Australia awards and Citizen of the Year awards from the Frankston City Council and the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.

We had five people in my local community honoured in the Order of Australia general civilian division this year. For significant service to tertiary medical education, Emeritus Professor Paul McMenamin of Mount Eliza was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia. Professor McMenamin has been emeritus professor of anatomy and development biology at Monash University since 2020, and his service to tertiary medical education means that he is a very worthy recipient of this honour. For distinguished service to medical research in the field of haematology, to tertiary education and to the promotion of science, Professor Michael Berndt of Mount Eliza has been awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia. He has been a John Curtin Distinguished Emeritus Professor since 2018. We in our community know, as do people across Australia—more so perhaps than anyone realised before 2020—how important it is to have people like Professor McMenamin and Professor Berndt, who promote science, who serve tertiary education to educate our future scientists and who work in areas where medicine and medical research save lives.

For service to the community through a range of organisations, Mrs Jean Gilbert of Mount Eliza was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. Mrs Gilbert has volunteered with Toorak College, St James the Less Anglican Church in Mount Eliza, the Peninsula Home Hospice Women of Action biennial luncheon and many more. She is such a stalwart of the community. For service to veterans, Mr Kevin Hunter of Frankston was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. He has been on the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia's Victorian branch as a state welfare director for 25 ongoing years. As a patron of the Frankston branch of the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia, I thank him and everyone else for the work that they do. He has made many veteran welfare contributions and served in the Army and Army Reserves for almost 30 years, receiving recognition for his service in Vietnam with several medals.

For service to the community, particularly through the church, Mr Ricky Painter of Langwarrin received a Medal of the Order of Australia. He is a senior pastor at Gateway Church Australia and a co-producer of the Good Friday Family Festival, a terrific festival that occurs on the Frankston foreshore. I'm very proud of our two police officers who received a meritorious award: Commander Martin O'Bryan, for 42 years with the Victoria Police, and Detective Leading Senior Constable Paul Roberts, who has served 37 years with Victoria Police.

The 2023 citizens of the year awards in Frankston were a terrific event. The Citizen of the Year was Warwick Exton, who is an amazing 100-year-old, cheeky man, who I have spoken about in the chamber before. His contributions to the community are outstanding, and his book, Action Sweetwater Creek, is a great historical record of some very important environmental work in our community. Young Citizen of the Year, Jack Lyons, is right now incredibly tired because he has almost finished running 50 marathons in 50 days to raise money for those experiencing homelessness. It's a feat that I think is actually unimaginable, and he is amazing for having done it.

The Community Group of the Year, that I am an ambassador for, was the Women's Spirit Project, which grew out of a grassroots community initiative established by women for women within Frankston. Jodie Belyea is a woman who is incomparable; she has such a drive and passion to serve our community and to help women who are vulnerable or in need. It is so well-deserved for everyone who was part of the Women's Spirit Project.

The Mornington Peninsula Shire Council's Young Citizen of the Year was Josh Berry from Mount Eliza, who is collecting 50,000 pairs of socks so that every one of the 23,000 homeless people in Victoria can have two pair each. What a contribution and dedication to the community! Congratulations, everyone.

See this speech in context