Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am proud to acknowledge one of my constituents, Paul Thomas, who became a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia in The Queen's Birthday 2017 Honours for his local government and community contributions. Paul is a fiercely proud resident of the Yorke Peninsula and has strong history of serving the community dating back to when he was 15 years old. He has been involved with the region's biennial Cornish commemoration, the Kernewek Lowender festival for 40 years and is proud of his Cornish roots. In fact, he is a Cornish bard. Paul's father, David Thomas, was a former Wallaroo mayor, had been involved in the festival when Paul first began to get involved. Ever since, he has been associated with the festival and can appreciate what it has done for this community. He is currently the mayor of the Copper Coast council and an accountant. He has been the mayor since 2000 and a councillor in 1990. He served as a delegate to local committees, including The Farm Shed Museum and Tourism Centre, Yorke regional development board and the Yorke & Mid North Regional Development Australia board. He has been the chairman of Northern Yorke Peninsula HAC since 2010. He has been a Rotary club member for more than 25 years and a Paul Harris Fellow. He is an exception member of the community. He has also taken time to be the chair of the Barndioota Consultative Committee, and I thank him for that involvement up to this time. He is a wonderful Australian, and I congratulate him.