Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the great privileges as a local member, as I'm sure everybody in this place agrees, is going out to local community organisations and meeting some extraordinary people doing remarkable things. That these individuals think they are not that remarkable at all is, I think, the most extraordinary thing about them. It's terrific to see and talk to these community organisations, whether they be sporting organisations, local RSLs, local clubs, local support groups or charities. They are all doing a remarkable job in our local communities and providing that cohesion in our society. It's an incredibly valuable role. As we know, most of them are volunteers. Most of them are putting their own time into these roles and doing wonderful things.

I want to talk about a few of the organisations in my community that have been in receipt of Stronger Communities grants in recent weeks. I want to start with the Olympia Football Club. This is a female change rooms grant of $19,000 for Warrior Park in my electorate, as it's called. I think it's a great name for a women's soccer team or football team. Olympia Football Club is a well-established soccer club in Hobart and it's seen significant growth in recent years. It's established on the eastern shore of Hobart, in my electorate. Indeed, it reflects the trend in my electorate that saw 21 per cent of households directly involved in soccer or football last year. That means that one in five people in my electorate are somehow involved in this sport, which I think is pretty extraordinary. Olympia now has over 320 players across 27 teams, and the grant will assist the club in reaching its goal of completing a million dollar project in its electorate to provide these change rooms. They had already received some money from the state government. This is a terrific project, and I want to congratulate on the record all of those dedicated volunteers, the players, the members, the parents and the family members that are involved. It's a terrific sporting club, and they're doing some great work.

The next organisation I want to talk about is the Cygnet Association. They recently received a grant for $8,225 for the installation of a water station at Loongana Park at Cygnet. The water station supplies filtered water through a water bubbler as well as stations to fill water bottles. It has hands-free activation, which is particularly important in COVID, as we know, to promote good hygiene practices. The Cygnet Association aims to encourage good hydration in the Cygnet community and help improve overall health whilst also helping to reduce waste and plastic pollution by cutting down on the purchasing of plastic water bottles. I was pleased to be able to support this grant. I want to congratulate Patrick Synge and the members of the Cygnet Association for putting this grant application forward and for the extraordinary work that they do supporting our local community in the township of Cygnet.

The other one I want to talk about is the Lindisfarne Junior Football Club. A grant of $3½ thousand was provided to them to replace and update the club's jumpers, driven again by an increase in female participation in the sport. It's wonderful that these new jumper designs will ensure consistency amongst all the teams of the Lindisfarne Junior Football Club. There are now 22 teams playing in the same jumpers at Anzac Park clubrooms, which are also being redeveloped in 2023. I've been a proud supporters of the Lindisfarne Junior Football Club for many years. It has over 300 players playing at Anzac Park, close to where I live. Of a night-time and certainly of a weekend, I can see the lights on Anzac Park and I can hear the noise coming from the families and the community accessing that sporting facility. It's a wonderful thing to see. Of course, I have in the past sponsored some of the players at the football club. So it's wonderful to be supporting the grant of $3½ thousand to support the club's own fundraising efforts. They have fundraised a very significant amount of money, which has been very difficult for community organisations during COVID, when they haven't been able to hold a lot of events. I want to congratulate Alana, James and the entire team at the Lindisfarne Junior Football Club for all the work they do in ensuring players and families have a great time playing the sport that they love so much.

I want to make a quick mention also of the Rotary Club of Lindisfarne, which received $3,900 to purchase gardening equipment and a new lawnmower at the Risdon Vale Neighbourhood Centre, which is where it will be based, to provide maintenance of the garden and surrounds. It was a real pleasure to go out there and have a look at the new gardening equipment and talk to them about why they wanted to be able to provide this equipment for the local community garden run by the neighbourhood centre. It's providing fresh produce to local community members and also to the neighbourhood centre to cook fresh meals, which they do on a regular basis, for local community members. So small amounts of funds are being matched by local community organisations and by volunteers, and it shows what a great place the electorate of Franklin is to live in.