Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the things that I learned reasonably quickly in representing a regional area, an outer suburban area, in this place was just the degree to which community organisations are run by, typically, a small group of volunteers who you keep running into again and again and again. These tireless workers are the absolute backbone of our communities, and they provide us with the support, the vibrancy and the resilience that country towns and regional areas need in order to prosper and survive.

I want to pay tribute to many of those volunteers, and, in fact, earlier this week I did pay tribute to a couple of our great seniors in Goulburn: Ray Strong and Jean Lloyd. But I want to pay tribute to many I have come across in the last couple of weeks. In particular, it has been regional show season, and, as I've travelled across the electorate for the regional shows, I've had the chance to enjoy many of the great fruits of the regions across Hume.

These shows are essential in promoting, celebrating and supporting our agricultural sectors, as well as our regional communities. The shows allow farmers, producers and rural communities to come together to showcase their products, produce, livestock and skills. They make an enormous contribution to regional communities, drawing in tourists and, of course, getting people out to have just a wonderful time. They also celebrate our great agricultural heritage. Of course, that is something that should always be celebrated because the work our farmers and those who work adjacent to the farming sector do is important for this great nation.

I want to thank, first and foremost, the incredible teams of volunteers that work so hard—throughout the year, I should say—to make these shows possible. The point so many of them make is that it is a year-long effort by the show committees to bring a great event to fruition. In particular, the shows I've visited in the last few weeks are led by Frank Hannan at Gunning; Michael Lowe, the president at Crookwell; Jacki Waugh at Goulburn; Laura Craig at Taralga; Jenny Hajek at Tarago; and David Dunbier at Camden—which I was lucky enough to visit last weekend. They all put on magnificent events. I should say, importantly, that, whilst it was a struggle for so many of these events through COVID, they are coming out fighting fit and strong on the other side, and we've seen that in recent weeks. I want to pay tribute to a couple of shows that I didn't get to, including at Luddenham, Boorowa and Picton, which always put on wonderful events.

Another magnificent volunteer run group across my electorate and, indeed, across all of Australia is parkrun. Run completely by volunteers for the local community, parkrun now has 485 runs across Australia. They come to life every Saturday morning, supported by more than 150,000 volunteers. This is an incredible success story, not just in Australia but right across the world, and I try to get to as many as I possibly can. In fact, this past weekend, before going to the Camden show, I got a chance to join the runners at the Camden parkrun at Cowpasture Reserve.

Started by Kim Rodgers, the Camden parkrun has become incredibly popular, and it was fantastic to see so many runners of all ages and abilities getting out and enjoying the event, as they do every weekend. We had well over 200 there. The numbers have increased dramatically in recent months, and that's really wonderful to see. Over time, it has been supported by over 300 volunteers, and those volunteers, of course, make this possible. One of the bits of magic about parkrun is the way it's able to enlist volunteers every weekend, right across this country, to put on these incredible events. The Camden parkrun event director from the start has been Steve Cooper—and good on you, Steve, for doing a great job. He got out there last weekend and was there as he so often is.

Of course, it's not just Camden in my electorate. There's the Goulburn parkrun—my home park run, which I get to as much as I can—with the great race director Jaemin Frazer, who's a great community stalwart, as so many of these race directors are; and Picton, where Pamela McCabe does a great job. Goulburn's inaugural park run was in 2018, and has since hosted more than 250 events. I get to a few, and I'd like to get to more. Most of all, I thank all those wonderful people who support the park run every Saturday in my electorate and right across this great country.