Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to recognise a number of constituents and sporting clubs from my electorate of Newcastle. They have excelled on the local, state and national stages. Last week I alerted the House to one of Newcastle's nominees for the 2015 New South Wales Australian of the Year awards, Associate Professor Dr Kelvin Kong. Today I would like to acknowledge one more.

Renowned actor, comedian and humour therapist John-Paul Bell has been named as a finalist for the 2015 New South Wales Senior Australian of the Year award. John-Paul has been described as one of Australia's great 'humour-manitarians' and has touched the hearts of the sick and frail for more than 45 years. In 1996, he created the Humour Foundation and the Clown Doctor Program to introduce humour therapy to children's hospitals in Australia. He has also published a book entitled Laughter is the Best Medicine and is well known for taking his physical comedy to war-torn countries like Afghanistan and East Timor. Jean-Paul's great passions are health and education. In 2011, he co-founded with Dr Maggie Haertsch the Arts Health Institute, a Newcastle based national not-for-profit organisation which helps elderly people, particularly those with dementia, to laugh. Jean-Paul would be a very worthy recipient of the state and national Australia Day awards.

I would also like to recognise two outstanding students from St Philip's Christian College, at Waratah. Fourteen-year-old Saraya Muxlow was recently awarded a runner-up prize in the junior secondary section of Australia's oldest and best-known poetry competition for schoolchildren, the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards. Saraya received recognition for her poem Underage Marriages, which highlighted the plight of child brides. It is an astonishing poem, and it is very worthy of this prestigious award.

St Philip's is also home to Australia's most impressive young athlete, Lorcan Redmond. Despite focusing his training on triathlons—successfully, I might add, as a junior national champion—Lorcan recently broke two longstanding long-distance-running records at the New South Wales All Schools Athletics Championships. He broke the 14-year-old-boys 1,500-metre record that had stood for 30 years and obliterated the 3,000-metre record that had stood for 23 years by nearly seven seconds.

Finally I would like to recognise the award winners from the Northern New South Wales Football Federation. I had the pleasure of attending their awards night earlier this month and would like to recognise all volunteers, players and officials who received awards on the night. In particular I would like to highlight the winner of the Rookie Referee of the Year Award, Megan Holgate. I would like to also congratulate for their successful seasons the following local football clubs: Hamilton Olympic, New Lambton Eagles, Broadmeadow Magic, Mayfield United Senior, Adamstown Rosebud, Merewether United and Lambton Jaffas. I pay tribute to these outstanding Novocastrians and wish them all the very best in their future endeavours.