Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In February each year cricket clubs across the country come together to support the important work of the McGrath Foundation by taking time from their schedules to host a Pink Stumps Day. An initiative of the foundation, it is designed to raise much needed funds to assist them in their work to support families experiencing breast cancer.

I am very proud to say that these events have been enthusiastically adopted by many of the cricket clubs in my electorate of Deakin, with more and more clubs participating each year. I want to take time to acknowledge these clubs and the wonderful volunteers who put so much time and effort into making these events the success they have been in the past and will be in the future.

Last weekend I was pleased to attend the Ringwood Cricket Club's annual president's lunch, hosted by club president Mark Freeman, where all funds raised went to the McGrath Foundation. This Saturday I am looking forward to attending the Heatherdale Cricket Club's Pink Stumps Day cocktail afternoon, and I want to acknowledge Nicole Joseph and club president Andrew Kovassy for their work in putting this event together, the fourth year they have held such an event. Also this Saturday night I will be dropping into the Eastfield Cricket Club's third annual Pink Stumps Day fundraiser. President Dallas Leeming and event coordinator Lauren Beaton have done a power of work and I want to thank them both, in advance, for putting in such a great effort.

The following weekend I will also attend the Pink Stumps Day South Croydon Cricket Club's ladies lunch and I will take my wife, Anna, who is very much looking forward to it. Now in its third year, this club has raised over $5,000 for the McGrath Foundation. I particularly want to thank Lindy Dench, Daniel and Penny Barsenbach and the rest of the social committee who really do put on a splendid event every year.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the gold medallist, in a sense, of the Pink Stumps Day, the Bayswater Cricket Club, who are holding their fifth Pink Stumps Day this year. They are certainly a trailblazer in the east and have raised more than $16,000 for the McGrath Foundation over this time. I want to particularly thank the club president, Rohan Pollard, and the event coordinator, Lyn Shepherd, for the fantastic effort I know they will put in this year and, of course, have done in previous years too.

I say to all those clubs: thank you for what you are doing for the McGrath Foundation, for these families who so deservedly need your help. As somebody who can just come along and enjoy these events, I want to thank you too. They are great fun, they are great entertainment and they are a great way of bringing the community together in pursuit of a worthy cause.