Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For 40 years, Des Whitney has been serving the residents of Kyogle as a paramedic with Ambulance NSW. He loves working in Kyogle where everyone knows everyone. He received recognition in the Sydney paper The Daily Telegraph when he and fellow paramedics helped a young boy at Cedar Point after he was kicked by a horse and for the many other rescues that he's done.

The community of Kyogle held a farewell for Des recently at the Kyogle Bowling Club, where many from the emergency services fields turned up, including members of the SES, police and nurses from the local hospital. There were plenty of tears and memories from the past 40 years. I congratulate Des on such a long and worthwhile career and wish him all the best in his retirement.

I would also like to acknowledge the great work my state colleague Chris Gulaptis is doing in our community. The new $240 million Grafton Bridge is finally being constructed thanks to Chris. He also secured $27 million to build a new bridge at Sportsmans Creek at Lawrence. He is delivering Australia's largest prison in the Clarence Valley, injecting $560 million into the local economy over the next 20 years and will create up to 1,100 jobs during construction and 600 once operational. He secured $17.5 million for stage one redevelopment of Grafton Base Hospital. And there's much, much more. I wish him all the very best in the upcoming state election.