Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Australia Day awards

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (15:59): Australia Day in Nillumbik was one really to be remembered, and I was so rapt that it was the last that I will undertake and the best in the 20 years that I have served the electorate of Yan Yean. I want to commend the mayor, Frances Eyre, all councillors in Nillumbik and the event staff in Nillumbik for a truly fantastic Australia Day, particularly the Nillumbik Reconciliation Group, the choice of music and the stories from Indigenous community leaders and musicians. It really did bring Australia together, whether you support this date or not.

I want to congratulate the Australia Day awardees. The Young Citizen of the Year awardees and the Community Group of the Year are Hayden and Stephanie Rujak and Hayden’s Helping Hands. They are brother and sister and they are teenagers. They were concerned about the issue of homelessness and were too young to volunteer, being under 16, so they set up their own charity so that they could help young people. Lorraine Hudson is the Senior Citizen of the Year, and she has cooked hundreds of meals for people during COVID together with the fruit and veggie operator in Diamond Creek and also her son the butcher. I also want to congratulate the two Citizen of the Year awardees, and they are Miranda Armstrong and Marlis Dopheide. (Time expired)