Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to inform the House that recently I was honoured to recognise 72 outstanding volunteers in the Gold Coast as part of the annual Northern Gold Coast Volunteer Awards. It was a tremendous day of recognition and celebration of service to others. All 72 award winners represented a diverse cross-section of age, gender and background. The diverse mix also shows that no group or community has the monopoly on service to others; it is so extensive as to include everyone. All award winners were nominated by their peers in their local community. The many people who nominated someone to be recognised were, like me, inspired by the dedication and commitment shown by those who received an award. Their selfless actions are carried out with no expectation of praise and no expectation of payment or reward, and in doing so they inspire countless others in the community.

There were too many award winners to be able to publicly list them today, but I'd like to give special mention to the Volunteer of the Year for Northern Gold Coast, the organisation The Mooring. Congratulations to that team. It's a not-for-profit service that comes out of the Southport Church of Christ and has been in operation for two to three years. They offer care and compassion to the family of patients in the intensive care unit at the Gold Coast University Hospital. I'd like to commend to the House the outstanding service of the team at The Mooring, acknowledge the work they do and thank the Pastor Steve Peach for all the leadership there. On behalf of the community, I'd like to say thank you to the award recipients this year. Your service is acknowledged.