Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity tonight to honour a great Australian. That great Australian is Dr Graeme Blackman, who has recently retired as chairman of Anglicare Victoria, a fine organisation he has most ably led since 2001. I have had the privilege of serving with Dr Blackman in Anglicare Victoria since I joined the board in 2008 and also serving as his local member given that IDT Australia, the company that Dr Blackman founded in 1986, is based in my electorate of Aston.

Dr Blackman has had an exemplary career in both the business and voluntary sectors, including as a director of Medicines Australia, as deputy chairman of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, as chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Industry Action Agenda Implementation Group, and as chairman of the Australian Council of National Trusts, which is the nation’s top national heritage trust body.

In this year’s Queen’s birthday honours Dr Blackman was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the pharmaceutical industry and to the community through a range of Anglican Church, heritage and welfare organisations. Previously, in 2003, he was awarded a Centenary Medal for his contribution to the pharmaceutical profession and for his services in providing leadership in the pharmaceutical industry. In the same year Dr Blackman also received the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s Leighton Memorial Medal, awarded for eminent services to chemistry in Australia.

Dr Blackman is someone who not only used his time and energy to develop pharmaceutical programs and miracle drugs but is someone who has also displayed great compassion in his approach to pursuing the care of the poor, the dispossessed and those in need within our community. Dr Blackman was deputy chairman of the board of Anglicare Victoria from 1997 to 2000 and chairman from 2000 to October this year. As a member of the working party established to create the new amalgamated agency, Dr Blackman in his voluntary capacity and with a committed vision for a strong, vibrant Anglican agency delivering community services to disadvantaged children, young people and families, brought his considerable experience in financial management, governance, knowledge of the Anglican Church in Australia and its structures, and theological insights into the formation of a new community agency.

Prior to Anglicare’s formation he spoke at synods of the Anglican Church and in a variety of other forums promoting the need for a new state Anglican care agency. During Dr Blackman’s time as chairman of Anglicare Victoria he has worked tirelessly to consolidate the resource base of the new agency, to position it within the Victorian and Australian community, and to raise the profile of Anglicare in the corporate sector, including the major fundraising event, Dinner with the Angels.

Under Dr Blackman’s guiding hand, the budget of Anglicare Victoria has grown from $25 million per annum to $45 million per annum, now covering over 100 programs in 40 separate locations. The agency has been successful in gaining financial support from both the federal and state governments as well as raising over $70 million through community appeals. Dr Blackman has been a staunch supporter of the establishment of Anglicare Australia as the national peak body representing Anglicare agencies across the nation.

Services provided by Anglicare Victoria include alcohol and drug programs, family support, financial counselling, out of home care programs, emergency relief, parish partnerships, volunteering opportunities and a range of local Anglican parish initiatives. In addition, research and advocacy have become prime goals of Anglicare Victoria.

Dr Blackman has demonstrated throughout his time as chairman the ethical standards expected of a community service organisation, and his leadership has been a major facilitator in moving Anglicare Victoria forward. From a more personal viewpoint and from my own experience I know Dr Graeme Blackman to be a man of great honour and integrity. He is a person that instils and encourages greater confidence in people. The commitment, hard work and dedication Dr Blackman displayed during his time as chairman of Anglicare Victoria is an example for all of us to follow. Dr Blackman will be sorely missed at Anglicare Victoria. I take this opportunity in the national parliament to thank him for his outstanding contribution over many years to Anglicare, to the broader not-for-profit sector and to the wider Victorian and Australian community. I know that, despite his chairmanship concluding at Anglicare Victoria, Graeme Blackman will continue to serve the community with the zeal, the energy, the commitment and the ethical principles that he has displayed across the past decade. (Time expired)