Thursday, 22 February 2024

Members statements

Murray Plains electorate volunteers

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:36): I want to give a shout-out to all the great community volunteers in my part of Victoria that make it such a special place to live along the Murray River. The community events calendar is absolutely chock-a-block at the moment. Those events are driven by the community volunteers, and I would like to thank them for what they do for our communities. Whether it is the harness racing at Gunbower or Boort that is coming up, whether it is the gallops in Swan Hill or Echuca or the Kerang racing carnival on Easter Saturday, it is the volunteers that put it together. Particularly the Kerang racing event is all volunteers – there are no paid staff that put that together, so a great event there.

I recently got to attend the Summerwave music festival in Kerang, which the youth volunteers of the town put together – a great event for everyone there in Atkinson Park in Kerang. We are seeing the cricket finals and the tennis finals coming up. Those clubs are driven by volunteers in our community, and I thank them for what they do to have the sporting opportunities there for both young people and the older adults who play cricket and tennis. Most importantly, the football and netball season is starting shortly. Think about all the volunteers that go there to run the football clubs and the netball clubs. Without them, you would not have the opportunity for sport in the town, so thank you to all the volunteers in my electorate who make it such a great place to live.