Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to commend my local community, particularly with respect to the way in which various organisations have celebrated and commemorated the Centenary of Armistice on Remembrance Day. Ours is an outer suburban community, with a lot of those who have served in our armed forces to keep us safe. I deal with them through organisations like the Young Veterans association and other organisations as well, particularly the local RSLs with whom I have a great local relationship. I'd like to commend them for the way in which they conducted their services on Remembrance Day, particularly commemorating the Centenary of Armistice. I also want to commend our young people who turned up in droves to celebrate and commemorate Remembrance Day.

It's very important that we transmit the meaning and significance of Remembrance Day to our young people. They're the standard bearers for our next generation. In doing so, I would like to commend the RSLs for the extensive and ongoing work they do with our local young people. I would also like to commend our young people. Our young people do get a lot of negative press. We see it in The Age or the Herald Sun, but they are good young people. We have many young people in our area. Many young families have settled in our area. I really am very proud of our young people, particularly when I see them turn out in such large numbers and treat these services so reverentially, which they did.

We had Centenary of Armistice grants, and three were awarded. One in particular that I want to talk about is the $28,210 awarded to the Provenance Artists Incorporated. They commissioned local artists to paint commemorative paintings for the Holt Armistice 100 Year Fine Art Exhibition. This took place on 27 and 28 October at the Narre Warren Mechanics Institute Hall. I thank Calvin Bell and Judy Owen and members of the Provenance Artists for organising these paintings, transmitting the meaning of Armistice and what it means to the local community. These paintings were vivid evocations of a time which had a profoundly significant impact on Australia and Australian history. These paintings really do justice to what the Australian community went through. I'd like to commend the Provenance Artists for the work they've done to continue to honour our service men and women and the sacrifices they made in the First World War.