Wednesday, 6 March 2024

Ministers statements: volunteers

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:39): I am very pleased to thank on behalf of the house, for their hard work, volunteers right across Victoria, whether they are those frontline volunteers that we saw in recent weeks defending homes and properties and supporting communities across our state or the charities and faith groups who showed up, provided hot meals and offered support to those communities when they needed it the most. But also we know that there are Victorians every single day who provide great support to our community in op shops and charities, at local sporting clubs and in community organisations. I would like to say thank you to those Victorians for making our state a generous, welcoming and inclusive place to live.

Last week – and I know the minister for volunteering was also in attendance – there was a great recognition of the hard work of our volunteers at the 2023 Volunteering Awards. I would like to congratulate the Premier’s Volunteer of the Year, LGBTIQA+ advocate Caitlin Grigsby. Caitlin has worked in this area for the people of Gippsland to provide essential information and support. As a result of Caitlin’s great work, her dedicated work, Gippsland now has a thriving LGBTIQA+ organisation called Gippsland Pride Initiative. Also, more recently Caitlin co-authored the Rainbow Brick Road Report, which captures important data on Gippsland’s LGBTIQA+ community, and this is important because this data will in turn help better inform decisions and recommendations to further support the community in the Gippsland region. Volunteers like Caitlin play such a vital role in our community, and these awards are one way that we can recognise them and thank them for their service.

Paul Edbrooke: On a point of order, Speaker, I seek your guidance and a possible ruling on a trend that has been creeping into questions, whether they be questions for ministers or constituency questions. Under standing order 57 the content of questions must not offer argument or an opinion on the matter or, most importantly, give facts or names of persons except those strictly necessary to explain the question. I was wondering if you could get back to me on that.

The SPEAKER: The member for Frankston is welcome to come and see me in my office to discuss these matters.