Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of our community, I wish to congratulate and thank the officers and staff of the Eastern Beaches Police Local Area Command who hosted a masquerade ball on Saturday evening to raise money for NSW Police Legacy and Eastern Suburbs PCYC: 350 members of our community came together at the Australian Turf Club at Randwick racecourse to support these two very worthwhile charities. Police Legacy provides support for families of police officers, particularly those who have been injured or killed in the line of duty, and the PCYC at Daceyville does great work providing support for kids at risk in our community. They were fundraising for a new bus, and I am pleased to announce that they will get their new bus after $85,000 was raised on the evening. It was great to see so many community organisations, like local pubs and clubs, both Randwick and Botany city councils, and business and community groups, come together for this very important event. The MC was Mike Whitney; celebrity auctioneers included Simon Poidevin, Kristina Keneally, and the Rabbitohs' Michael Maguire and Keith McGraw. Special thanks go to Detective Superintendent Gavin Dengate, our local area commander who organised the event and who has done a great job leading the police in our community—and we have seen a marked reduction in crime rates—and also to the members of his committee, Stacey Maloney, Sharon Frawley, Lauren Kelly, Cindy Northam, Brad Ross and Rob Townsend. On behalf of our community: thank you for your hard work and for the great work that you do in keeping our community safe.