Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy President, I congratulate you on your election today.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In tonight's adjournment, I want to pay tribute to a very dear friend of mine and acknowledge her incredible service to our community. Her name is Edna Pennicott. Edna was recently invited to a ceremony at Government House at which she was presented with a lifetime achievement award in the 2019 Tasmanian Volunteering Awards. The lifetime achievement award recognises exemplary long-term commitment to the volunteering sector, and it's an award given to someone with a history of distinguished service, who has made a lasting impact, who has exhibited community spirit and provided inspiration to others, and who has positively influenced the community or communities they have volunteered in—and, to receive this award, you must have had a minimum of 25 years service. In addition to this award, Edna has previously been acknowledged with the Pride of Australia Medal and the Kingborough Council senior citizen of the year medal. She has absolutely earned these accolades.

Edna has notched up over 40 years of volunteer service. She started when her children were in school, helping with various activities such as the canteen, book sales and excursions. As a sole parent she always had the kids with her when volunteering outside school hours, and she turned to helping local sports clubs when her children took up sports, like cricket and football. Edna still volunteers in the canteen of the Kingborough Tigers Football Club and the Kingborough Knights Cricket Club on home game days, even though her sons are in their 40s. Her support for people in need started with car trips in Glenorchy, with a group of friends, to deliver food to homeless people. This was some years ago.

In 2013, to provide a formal structure to the charity work she'd been doing for many decades beforehand, Edna established the charity Kingborough Helping Hands. Since then she's served as the charity's president. Kingborough Helping Hands, or KHH for short, is named for the municipality of Kingborough, just south of Hobart, and this is where their work is primarily focused. I must add here that I consider it an absolute privilege and honour to be not only patron of that organisation, which I have been for many years, but also a very active committee member. This charity has achieved so much for the local community, despite having no paid staff and receiving very little in government financial support.

One of the main activities of KHH is delivering care packages to people who have fallen on hard times. The average package value is about $100, and that typically includes food and essential household items—things that people rely on for their day-to-day living. The packages are put together with items donated by local businesses and community members or, more importantly, purchased with funds raised by Kingborough Helping Hands. Three or four packages are given out in a typical week, most of them delivered by Edna, who's in her 70s—I'm sorry, Ed, but I'm going to put that out there! Edna also collects most of the goods that go into the packages—does the shopping, stores the goods.

On top of that, another 200 to 250 packages are put together during the Christmas holiday season and given out to people in need. A big focus of these packages is providing Christmas gifts to people who either have difficulty affording a gift or would not usually receive one because they are socially isolated. Last year we gave out over 360 Christmas hampers. On top of the hampers, we also gave out over 300 presents for children.

As KHH doesn't have any of its own storage facilities, the rooms and hallways of Edna's house are packed with donated gifts in the lead-up to Christmas. Eddie's just got a little guvvie three-bedroom house; there's nothing suave or up-market about it. But, I tell you, it's non-stop activity at that house from about seven in the morning until often nine or 10 at night. My office also acts as a collection point for donations to KHH, and every year the boardroom in my office fills up with donated gifts.

As well as giving packages to individuals, KHH gives household essentials to local women's shelters, including Jireh House, which is in Kingborough, and the Annie Kenney Young Women's Refuge. These shelters have residents who have fled domestic violence, often without a lot of the essential items they rely on for their day-to-day personal care or the care of their children. Recently, Edna went shopping and bought 30 pairs of pyjamas and 30 dressing gowns because there's a big turnover at Annie Kenney, with people coming and going, so they always need fresh pyjamas and fresh dressing gowns. We've also supplied furniture for Annie Kenney.

One of the other things that Edna is the boss of—'the queen of', as we like to say to her—is the Kingborough Helping Hands service Loui's Van, an after-hours mobile van service that provides food, information and support to those in need, including people who are sleeping rough. In the municipality of Kingborough, Edna has the lease on the van, and Kingborough Helping Hands runs the service completely. Every week, Edna and various other people cook for the van. We take out hot meals; we take out hot soup; we take out meals for people to take home. A number of the schools donate biscuits and cakes and things that they get the kids to make in school time. They're all delivered to Edna, and we package them so that they're ready for people to take out. It's a truly amazing service. I often help out on the van. In fact they set the roster around when parliament sits so that I can take my turn on the roster.

It's amazing to see what a difference a bit of food and companionship can make to someone who's fallen on hard times. And we don't ask questions; we don't even ask to see people's pension cards or anything like that. If you're in need, you come along; there are no questions asked. Kingborough Helping Hands also supports the breakfast club at Kingston Primary School. We all know how important breakfast clubs are to ensuring that schoolchildren—particularly those from disadvantaged families—get a nutritious meal at the start of the day, which helps them to focus on their study.

Kingborough Helping Hands, of course, couldn't undertake its amazing charity work without funding, and the overwhelming majority of its funds are raised in the community. It's a sign of the regard in which Kingborough Helping Hands is held—and, in particular, Edna, who is the driving force behind all this—that its fundraisers are such successes. Last year we held a Christmas lunch where we raised $17,000, and we had 205 people at it. These were just people from the community who knew that it was going to happen and came along. The other thing we do—we are doing this in July—is the Soup and Sandwich fundraiser. Both of these events are typically attended by a couple of hundred people, and we just have a great time. But, more importantly, we raise an enormous amount of money to help Kingborough Helping Hands do what it does. Edna's first Christmas lunch, around 25 years ago, raised $240, and, as I said, the most recent one raised over $17,000.

KHH has a number of other minor fundraisers throughout the year which help supplement the income it receives from individual donations. We have recently, in the last couple of years, set up the Sharing Tree. Most people would be aware of the ABC Giving Tree. This is a Sharing Tree that we put up in the southern suburbs of Hobart. We have volunteers sit there and accept the gifts and vouchers and things that come our way.

I know I'm going to run out of time without being able to say everything I want to say, but what I really want to say is that, at just over five foot and in her 70s, Edna is a woman who certainly packs a punch. She has no problems in asking for people for donations. She's done this work for over 40 years. And not only was she a sole parent but she was a foster parent. She fostered five children full time and many children part time, all as a sole parent, all while doing this charity work. She has the biggest heart of anyone I've ever met. She has a way of bringing people together so that people want to help. People are often dropping donations at her door. As I said, she will work from 7 am till, often, 9 or 10 pm. She does it all for nothing, all for no pay. She's just got the biggest heart of anyone I think I've ever met. Around Kingborough, everybody knows her. In the municipality, everybody knows who she is. She has the title—that she's not very happy with!—of being the 'Queen of Kingborough', but that is what she is. She can say whatever she likes to the mayor, and things get done. The council has been very generous to us. That's my friend. (Time expired)