Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about Australia Day events in my electorate. Australia Day is a day of citizenship ceremonies and awards, and it is always great to welcome new families to the North Coast of New South Wales—which, of course, is the best address in Australia. It is also important on the day to recognise and to acknowledge the richness and wonderful cultural diversity that our new citizens bring. I was very honoured on the day to attend the citizenship ceremony and Australia Day awards ceremony in the Ballina Shire at Lennox Head. The 2016 Australia Day awards were presented by Mayor, David Wright, and guest speaker, Max Walker.

Firstly to the Citizen of the Year, Dawn Sword, who is a wonderful woman. Since arriving in Ballina, Dawn has been very generous with her time, spending endless hours in a variety of roles and fundraising initiatives for community groups, such as the East Ballina Lions Club. She is also involved with Meals on Wheels and the Lennox Head VIEW Club. She is always supporting and encouraging other volunteers, and she is a wonderful ambassador for the Ballina Shire community. Congratulations to Dawn and to all the other award winners from the Ballina Shire. After being named Citizen of the Year in front of the more than 500 people who attended the formal ceremony, Dawn said that she was 'speechless' and that she was 'truly proud to be a Ballina Shire citizen.' She said, 'What an honour. I am so thankful—and humbled—about this.' We also then had a wonderful speech by Max Walker. It was a very inspirational and funny speech, reflecting on his sporting life and also his personal life—it was very entertaining.

At the end of that ceremony, I was then very pleased to go to the Tweed Shire Australia Day ceremony. Fay Gleave was named Tweed Shire Citizen of the Year for her 42 years dedicated to volunteering—congratulations to her. Also, my good friend, Elizabeth Kirk, was named Tweed Shire Young Achiever in Community Service. Elizabeth does a great deal of work right across the community. Congratulations to her, and to all of those other Tweed Shire Australia Day award winners. There are so many volunteers who give so much of their time.

I would also like to reflect on the Byron Bay Australia Day awards. Congratulations to all the winners, and especially congratulations to the Citizen of the Year, Delta Kay. She was awarded the Citizen of the Year for Byron Bay for her leadership, dedication and commitment to raising awareness of Indigenous culture. Delta is an education officer with the Byron Bay National Parks and Wildlife Service, and her work in 2015 saw her Dolphin Dreaming program win gold at the state Indigenous tourism awards. Delta is a truly inspirational and outstanding leader within the Byron Bay community—congratulations to her on that fantastic award. Also to all the other award winners in Byron: congratulations. I would like to mention the Byron Bay Writers Festival, which was named Community Event of the Year,. From its very humble beginnings in 1995, after 20 years it has become Australia's leading regional writers festival—so congratulations to them and to everyone else involved.

To all the award winners across all the shires: congratulations—particularly to those people who volunteer their time and who give so much to our community. To all those new citizens: welcome to all of you. As I said, you have chosen the North Coast of New South Wales, the most beautiful part of Australia to live in. We welcome you to our community.