Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Members statements

Colin Sinclair Scholarships

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (10:18): I would like to congratulate Cora Wilson, Oakley Tarrant, Matilda Sowter, Billy O’Toole and Layne Trevena on receiving Colin Sinclair Scholarships to track the Kokoda Trail in June. These year 11 students from Swan Hill, Kyabram, Rochester and Echuca–Moama will join other students from around the state on a trip organised by the Nationals, particularly the member for Gippsland East Tim Bull. They are going with the generous financial support of the Moama Bowling Club, the Moama RSL, the Kyabram Club, the Swan Hill RSL and the Freemasons Foundation Victoria.

As I said last week when I was addressing the Swan Hill Anzac Day commemorative service, this is about the next generation taking responsibility to make sure the story of Australia’s men and women who have served and who paid the ultimate sacrifice continues to be told and is kept alive. Their journey to Papua New Guinea as representatives of their community is the next chapter, a new chapter in that story which will continue to be told into the future and one that they will share when they come home. I look forward to them fulfilling their role as Kokoda ambassadors, as they tell their community of what they have learned on the Kokoda Trail and the understanding they now have for the sacrifices that Australians made to keep us safe during, in this case, the Second World War.