Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk about the good work that many Rotary and service clubs are doing across my electorate. Swan is in Rotary district 9470 and there are clubs in Ascot, Belmont, Bentley-Curtin, Cannington, Como, Mill Point, South Perth-Burswood, Victoria Park and Welshpool. Rotary was founded in 1905 by the American Paul Harris. He aimed to enlarge his circle of business and professional acquaintances to provide services to the local community. The spirit of Rotary has extended beyond the organisation, with other small business groups in my electorate giving regularly to charity. However, Rotary itself continues to lead the way and I have been pleased to support the clubs in my electorate.

A couple of months ago I attended a meeting of the Cannington branch. The Cannington branch has a prestigious history and received its charter on 25 September 1965. A Cannington member, Dr Push, is the district governor of district 9470 at the current time. The Belmont branch is also very active and held its annual changeover night on 4 July. Like many Rotary clubs, they are constantly looking for members. I will be including a notice in my next community report to encourage all interested and potential members in the community to get involved.

I was also pleased to be given the opportunity recently to meet with the Mill Point Rotary Club. Although Rotary concentrates much of its efforts on international development, the district has many good programs running at the moment. One of them, the Pride of Workmanship program, promotes and recognises employees whose high standards of vocational service are worthy of recognition. It gives employers opportunities to recognise worthy efforts that might otherwise go unnoticed. Its ultimate aim is to raise Australia’s standards in the workplace.

Another program, the Four-Way Test speech contest, aims to provide year 11 students with the opportunity to compete in public speaking, bring the concepts of the Rotary Four-Way Test to the attention of secondary students and provide Rotary and its Four-Way Test with valuable exposure within the community. All year 10 students in the electorate are eligible to enter the contest by applying through their local Rotary club. Note that by the time students participate in zone and district finals they will be in year 11. Any topic may be chosen but the speech must refer to the Rotary Four-Way Test and centre on any one of the components of the test. Each speech is to be a maximum of six minutes.

I have also had involvement with the Ascot Rotary Club and their Grandcare program, which I spoke about in this place last year. It is a fantastic program and benefits many children in the electorate who have been left without parents.

I have also been a member of Rotary, at Northbridge Rotary Club during the eighties. I recently attended their 25th anniversary, and it was great to catch up with a lot of old friends and mates whom I had established links with back in the late eighties.

I also recently attended the Victory Park changeover night, which I attended with the president, Wilf Hendriks. The night had an Egyptian theme with some belly dancers. They had me get up and take part in a belly-dancing contest, but I have lost 10 kilos and so was not much good at it. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the night.