Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you would appreciate, Mr Deputy Speaker, it is pretty rare that an individual can come into your life and make a significant difference, but what is rarer is for an individual, a single person, to make a significant difference to their local community. Today I would like to take a little of the House’s time to talk about Ron Moore as one such person. When I moved into Campbelltown some 30 years ago, as with most young families I certainly did not have the money to pay people to do things around the house such as maintenance and improvements. This is where Ron comes in.

Ron and Joy Moore started their hardware business in Campbelltown in 1956 with a store in Queen Street, Campbelltown. They relocated in 1960 to Ingleburn and subsequently in 1977 to Minto. When you seek to make improvements, you obviously go to the hardware store and have someone help you. But, in the case of Ron’s hardware, apart from being able to sell you anything from a single screw through to paint and up to heavy hardware, he was always on hand to give technical advice. He taught a whole generation of people who became handymen solely by necessity and then went on to teach many of their kids, many of whom became professional tradesmen.

Ron and Joy have been a significant part of the Campbelltown community. Ron is also patron of the Campbelltown Historical Society. Within our community, he has received many honours. I would quickly like to name a few. He was Campbelltown’s Citizen of the Year. He was inducted into the Hardware Hall of Fame. He was a finalist in the New South Wales Hardware Industry Awards. But his most treasured award is his Order of Australia Medal, which he received in 1994.

Ron and his wife Joy together started this community hardware business and serviced a community in all our needs. We are sorry that at this stage Joy is suffering poor health and Ron has now had to close his store. After 50 years, this is very significant to my area. I wish Ron and Joy well for their future. Hopefully they will spend a little more time with their three adult children and their seven grandchildren and reflect upon what they have given to the area of Campbelltown.