Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before making my comments about the electorate today I would like to welcome the nine young Queenslanders who are here today as part of the National Schools Constitutional Convention: Maddi from Saint Mary's College, Cairns; Jacob from Innisfail State College; Jerome from Ingham State High School; Jaya from Indooroopilly State High School; Lauren from Mackay North State High School; Peta from Toowoomba State High School; Joel from The Cathedral School, Townsville; Javier from Bremer State High School; and, from my own electorate, Eilish from Kawana Waters State College. Her dad and I went to school together, so what a small world it is. No stories out of school. Welcome to you all, and congratulations on being down here. I hope you find it a time of inspiration. We look forward to your inspirational leadership in the years to come.

I also rise today to talk about the generosity of the Sunshine Coast community. I often talk about it here in this place. It does not matter whether we are saving the lives of children who need brain surgery or whether it is helping local community groups, the Sunshine Coast is an incredibly generous community and that has been demonstrated yet again.

In 1922, the Glasshouse Mountains Sports Club was established. This is where my wife Sue and I and our family played sport—touch footy—and many other sports. Unfortunately, it has fallen on hard times. It had a debt of $160,000. With the ANZ Bank able to call in a mortgage, it looked like netball, soccer and touch football and cricket were no longer going to be played, and over 1,000 young kids as well as young adults were going to be denied the opportunity to play sport. It affected the whole sunshine coast. But the community got behind it. We needed $160,000, and as of today, they have now raised over $119,000.

I pay credit to the local paper, the Glasshouse Country News, and Leah, who has led the charge on the old committee and the new committee. I want to put on record a few of the families that have donated between $5,000 and $10,000 each. We have the Morgan family and Hansons Quarry. The Apex Club of Maleny, up on the range, has taken the time and the effort to donate to us in the lowlands. We have Armestos Transport; the Gowens family; the Forster family; the McNamara family; Basett Barks; Braetop Strawberries, with Peter Young; Pelican Waters; and Henzells real estate. Another 150 community members have donated small amounts of money. Over the weekend, we saw the Sunshine Coast Soccer Federation—every club across the coast—come together to raise money for this club. I thank them all. Finally, McDonald's out on the highway will be donating 15 per cent of all its sales across the counter from this Thursday. This is a great community. They deserve our support. I applaud them for making our community what it is.