Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to talk firstly about the Bonbeach Lifesaving Club open water swim which I took part in last Sunday alongside more than 240 other swimmers in beautiful sunshine and fantastic conditions. While my lack of training since parliament resumed this year saw me finish the 1.2 kilometre course in the not very quick time of 27 minutes and 52 seconds, as always I had a great time down at the Bonbeach Lifesaving Club and I was very pleased to see the state member for Carrum and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Jenny Lindell, hand over a cheque for $5,000 to the club from the state government to help with running costs. It was also great to see the completed first aid centre which the Bonbeach Lifesaving Club was able to fund with the almost $2,000 the club received from the federal government’s volunteer grant program in December last year. I would like to congratulate all those at the Bonbeach Lifesaving Club for making the day a success, in particular the president, Debra Jordan, and the secretary, Campbell Jordan. I also congratulate the winners of the swim: overall winner Oliver Wilkinson and the winner of the women’s category Anna Yuohey, both of whom finished in a time significantly quicker than mine, although I will not confirm just how much quicker on the public record.

After the swim I attended the newish bowlers day at the Edithvale Bowling Club, an annual tradition at the club for the last five years which sees recent converts to bowls from around the south-east converge on Edithvale to battle it out in a friendly mixed pairs tournament. I take great pride in sponsoring the event and was on hand to see some of the action, although I am not a very good bowler myself. Luckily for the Edithvale Bowling Club, they did not need me as Lisa Williams and Bryan Findley won the tournament for Edithvale, beating Sue and Steve Taylor from Mornington. I would like to congratulate Edithvale Bowling Club director Terry Cheshire and the chief executive, Andrew Benson, for organising the event, which drew around 40 people. I would also like to thank Pamela Bryant for kindly showing me around the club and inviting me down for the day. I know that the numbers for the day would have been a great deal higher were it not for the major storms that hit Melbourne the previous weekend on both Saturday and Sunday, which resulted in some clubs not being able to send competitors to the terrific newish bowlers day at Edithvale Bowling Club due to those competitors having to compete in make-up pennant finals for their clubs. I very much hope that this terrific tradition which has now been running for five years at Edithvale Bowling Club continues into the future, because it provides an opportunity for those who have just entered the sport to compete in a way that might not otherwise be available to them.