Wednesday, 8 February 2023

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery) (09:35): My sympathy to the member for Brighton and his family.

I rise today to congratulate and acknowledge the 2023 citizen and young citizens of the year in the City of Greater Bendigo. The Citizen of the Year is Trevor Strauch. Trevor is very well known in the Huntly community and incredibly active as a volunteer. Everything that is going on in Huntly, Trevor and his family are involved with it, and I particularly had engagement with Trevor as a member of the Huntly fire brigade. He is a life member of both the Huntly fire brigade and the CFA more broadly and has volunteered actively in a range of emergency events over a very, very long period of time. Trevor is also active in the Northern Bendigo Landcare Group, and he has previously been active in Rotary. It is a well-deserved recognition of Trevor’s service to the Huntly community.

We have two young citizens of the year this year. Amelia Leach-Unmeopa is an 18-year-old young woman, a proud Torres Strait Islander woman. She received Zonta Bendigo’s inaugural Indigenous Women and Girls Achievement Award, and that was in recognition of the work she did at Bendigo Senior Secondary College. She was influential in having the college install acknowledgement of country signage.

Mitchell Graham is 21 years old. He is in his third year as president of Empowering Eaglehawk. He is active in his Eaglehawk community in the local sporting community, and his time at Eaglehawk Secondary College saw him represent the school in a range of sports.