Tuesday, 7 June 2022

 Ms SETTLE (Buninyong) (12:46): Last week I had the absolute pleasure of visiting Bacchus Marsh with the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers and my good friend and colleague the member for Melton. We had a really wonderful day visiting lots of just really passionate people. It was an absolute joy to join the U3A Shakespeare group at the library. This group love their Shakespeare and are studying the sonnets. We also met with Renae from the Darley neighbourhood house. Her enthusiasm is just infectious. She loves everything that happens in that house. We had the pleasure of seeing some beautiful ceramic work and fluid painting happening while we were there. Of great importance was the visit to Grant Lodge—just an amazing group of people in their commitment and dedication. It is a publicly owned aged care facility, and the minister announced additional funding for the refurbishment. It is just wonderful to know that those people are going to be getting facilities of the same quality as the staff they have at the moment. In Ballarat the minister met with the Ballarat Foundation to hear about their plans for revitalisation of the volunteer centre, and Les showed us around the Sebastopol Men’s Shed. Then we finished the day with Anne Tudor at the world’s only dementia trail. Each and every time I visit the trail I am reminded of the care and compassion in our community.