Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take a moment to celebrate a few community legends who were honoured with Australia Day honours just a couple of weeks ago. My friend Carmel Crouch AM was honoured for significant service to people with disability through the incredible national success story that is STEPS Group and STEPS Pathways College. Korey Boddington is a Mooloolaba Paralympic cyclist and Paris gold medallist whose resilience and determination has inspired our community. Jamie Perkins OAM is an Alexandra Headland local and Olympic swimmer who won gold at Paris and has done the Alexandra Headland Surf Lifesaving Club so very proud. I also want to acknowledge the 2025 Queensland local hero Claire Smith, whose warmth and passion for our local wildlife was showcased at the 2025 Australian of the Year Awards.

It is Australians like these that I encouraged new citizens to emulate at our two Australian citizenship ceremonies in Maleny and Buddina on Australia Day. I tasked nearly 100 new citizens with embracing the rights and privileges of Australian citizenship while shouldering the responsibility to vote, serve and uphold our values. Congratulations to Mooloolaba Rotary and the Maleny District Sport and Recreation Club for hosting both ceremonies, and a big shout-out goes to Clif Hefner and Theresa Craig for their great work in the Maleny citizenship ceremony.

I also want to congratulate the people of Montville and Maleny, who this week were declared the most welcoming places in Australia in the 2025 Traveller Review Awards, based on more than 360 million traveller reviews. As a Mooloolah Valley local, I know well that our hinterland communities are some of the best places in which to live, work and raise a family.

One Montville local, Sam Lucas, is certainly doing his community proud as he takes on the concert halls of Europe with his cello. Young Sam has invested a tremendous amount of dedication to master his craft, and those calloused fingers and long hours have now translated into a remarkable global career. Just two weeks ago, Sam was asked to perform at the European Parliament as part of global commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz. Sam performed on a long-lost Gagliano cello, crafted in 1720. That cello belong to renowned musician Pal Hermann. Mr Hermann was one of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, making Sam's performance all the more poignant. I want to thank Richard Bruinsma, another constituent of mine, for sharing Sam's story with me recently, and I want to congratulate Sam on his ongoing success.

As the federal member for Fisher, I, like just about all members that stand in this place, am very proud of my community—all members who come in here are proud of their own communities—but Fisher is home to an incredible number of community groups and inspiring individuals who work hard to get Fisher active, to combat loneliness, to boost health outcomes and to keep Australians safe. They say that the Sunshine Coast is a community of communities. We don't have one big city centre. We've got lots and lots of small townships, and, having recently moved from the coast back into the hinterland, I've got to tell you that going back to Mooloolah Valley, back to the bush, is like coming home. That small-town community spirit—you just can't beat it.

The Albanese Labor government's tedious red tape and reporting requirements, its skyrocketing costs and its savage cuts to community funding programs—all of these—have resulted in the decline of volunteering. So many volunteers in so many different community groups I know are just not getting the same number of volunteers coming through the door, and it's greatly as a result of the red tape and the cost of living that this government is bringing down on everyday Australians.

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