Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nathan Ephraums and his family are very familiar faces around the electorate of Hotham. That's because Nathan is, of course, part of the Kookaburras, Australia's national men's field hockey team, and he very proudly represented Australia at the Paris Olympics. Nathan is an elite athlete, but he has often spoken about the fact that he got his start in sport through community clubs. He's talked about the fact that community clubs like the ones in my electorate foster great values and build all-round good individuals. I couldn't agree more, and I want to talk a little bit about some of clubs that do amazing work in my community.

I have to start with the Oakleigh Krushers, the Oakleigh Amateur Football Club. I'm very honoured to be the joint No. 1 ticketholder of this amazing institution. They are a phenomenal club. They have men's seniors and reserves teams; a thriving women's seniors team, which is absolutely phenomenal; under-19s; and an over-35s team. They do breast cancer fundraisers, they host sausage sizzles—they raise money for important things. They are absolutely phenomenal. They share a venue with the Oakleigh Dragons. Go the Dragons! My little one started out his footy journey this year playing under-eights, and I was very lucky to see those young ones get started on many Saturday mornings this year. I want to shout out to my friend Pat Heverin, who is the President of the Oakleigh Krushers and an absolute legend.

Just next door is the South Oakleigh Bowling Club, another remarkable example in a different type of sport. Their chair, Greg Telley, has doubled their membership in the last two years. They have made this club one of the most thriving bowling clubs in our electorate. They don't just do bowls, of course, Deputy Speaker. Like a lot of clubs in your electorate, I'm sure, they do dancing, yoga, music and, of course, the classic—barefoot bowls. It's absolutely awesome. They received a $10,000 grant through the Australian government's Stronger Communities Program and they used that money to help replace the women's toilets, which weren't up to scratch, with new ones. This has ensured that they are seeing the membership of women in the club grow really strongly, and I'm superproud to have been able to participate in that.

The Clayton Seniors Snooker and Social Club rounds out this list of extraordinary sporting clubs. This is led in part by fundraising team member Chris Francis. He talks about the fact that they have a great diversity of membership. The club members range from 70 to 86. They are men and women from the incredibly rich multicultural family in my community of Hotham, including Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Egyptian and Australian members. The club recently received a $2,000 volunteer grant. They play snooker, one of my all-time favourite sports, and they play table tennis, do linedancing and more.

I could go on and on but I'm running out of time. I want to say one quick thing: none of these clubs work without the parents, friends and community members who volunteer to make things happen. They are part of the beautiful fabric of my Hotham community, and I'm so proud to be able to speak here in parliament about their work.