Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I do not know whether you were a Joey, a Brownie or a Guide, but many people in leadership positions, like you, have had some exposure to Guiding or Scouting. Guiding is a hundred years old and over one million Australian women are or have been Guides. Robert Baden-Powell, as we would all know, was the founder of Scouting and decided that girls should have their own organisation. This led to the Girl Guides being founded in the UK in 1910. Agnes Baden-Powell, his sister, took on that role.

On a very, very cold night at Warragul last week, I met with the Warragul Guides and Brownies—young women decked out beautifully, presented beautifully, well disciplined in their approach and obviously taking great pride in the fact that they are Girl Guides. I was able to present them with a certificate to mark the 100th year of Girl Guides in Australia and Girl Guides throughout Victoria, especially in my electorate where they play such an important role. Present that night were Sharon Axford, a leader; Denise Marriott, a leader; Wendy Smethurst, a leader; Kerryn Grigg, a leader; and Diana Purvis, Tara O’Halloran, Monique Olswewski and Chantal Currie. District leader, Janet Drummond, was absent that night, but I would like to name her here. Our Guides and our Brownies are very, very special. These leaders that go out on these freezing cold nights are not interested in a big new tax of any sort. They are not interested in what goes on in this parliament. They are not interested in the toing and froing that happens here that we think is so important. These leaders are out there every week training our young people to make a difference in this nation. They make a bigger difference because of the education that they receive. The girls were beautifully decked out with all the badges that they had received over the years of Guiding and they took great pride in that.

We can take great pride in people that lead our Scout groups and our Guiding groups right across this nation. From Western Australia all the way through to our borders here on this side of the country, we pay tribute this morning to all those people—we do not know their names but I have read out some of them—who make such an enormous contribution as volunteer leaders, whether it be in Scouting or in sport, or as mums and dads, who were sitting around the room, having made sure their girls were there on that freezing cold night. Would you believe what they were learning to make as we came in chilled? I was rugged up with two coats on and scarves and the whole lot. They were learning to make ice-cream. That is only one of their skills. I was proud to be the member for McMillan that night. (Time expired)