Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the weekend I had the great privilege of opening the 2019 Southern Orchid Spectacular, held at the Sutherland basketball stadium from 11 to 13 August. I would like to put on the record my congratulations to the organisers, the vice-president of the Sutherland Shire Orchid Society and event chairman, Frank Daniel, and the president of the Sutherland Shire Orchid Society, Jan Robinson, for organising such a highly successful event. Over the three days the event attracted around 2,300 people, making it the premier orchid show in New South Wales. I also congratulate the many exhibitors that took so much time and effort in creating such wonderful displays. I know that transporting your stock in, setting it up and planting it is a lot of work. I would also like to congratulate the many vendors who turned up. I understand they also had a very successful show. Many of them sold out. When I was there I met Phil Thompson, a vendor that had come all the way from Townsville, in the member for Herbert's electorate. He had brought all his stock down, and I'm sure he had a very successful show.

When you look at the orchids, it's easy to see how people become addicted to collecting them. They are grown in the wild and propagated around the world, and their beauty is something to be seen. What is truly amazing is the appearance of those orchids and how they imitate insects for pollination.