Jim Cusack
Mr PEARSON (Essendon—Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Regulatory Reform, Minister for Government Services, Minister for Creative Industries) (09:48): I was delighted on Sunday to join many friends to celebrate the contribution that Cr Jim Cusack made over many years as a councillor at the City of Moonee Valley. Held at Philhellene restaurant in Mount Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds, it was a wonderful celebration and acknowledgement of Jim’s outstanding contribution to making our community better. Jim served on council from I think about 2005 until 2020, and he always brought to the council a commitment to social justice, to inclusion and to ensuring that fairness was at the centre of everything that he did. The occasion on Sunday was just a wonderful opportunity for people to come together and to express our gratitude, our sincere gratitude and thanks, for Jim—and for Helene, his wife, for letting us have Jim all those years—and for the contribution that he made. I was delighted to join Bill Shorten as well as my wife, who is a former councillor, to all speak on our behalf about our thanks and gratitude for how hard Jim worked.