Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is one of the great privileges as a member of parliament to be able to acknowledge our wonderful community of volunteers. As we know, volunteers do more than just provide services for our communities. They bring people together locally, encourage friendships, understanding and respect, thereby keeping our nation strong. This is particularly true of the Sturt State Emergency Service's volunteers, and I would like to pay tribute to them today.

The Sturt SES group is led by the irrepressible Sturt Unit Manager, CJ Shaw, and Deputy Manager, Marnie Sales. They do incredible work. In the 2016-17 financial year, the Sturt SES responded to 1,532 calls for help. That is a lot of times in 12 months that their volunteers stopped whatever they were doing to answer our community's calls for assistance. The SES volunteers have given over 6,500 hours to help others. When you bear in mind that this is spread over the unit's 40 to 50 volunteers, you can see that this is truly a superhuman effort. On behalf of our community in the Boothby hills area, I cannot thank them enough.

Earlier in August, the Sturt SES opened their new facilities in Coromandel Valley. I would like to acknowledge the local businesses who supported the event. The Bake Bakery at Coromandel Valley provided the food and Blackwood Hire proved the heating. Most importantly, I thank all our Sturt SES volunteers for serving our community and keeping our residents safe.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 43, the time for members' statements has concluded.