Members statements
Bushfires
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (13:27): I rise to inform the house that members of the Mill Park community came out in full force last Sunday to support the bushfire appeal fundraising barbecue. It is an initiative that I was very keen to initiate because we know that many members of the local community are really keen to look for opportunities to participate and to help raise much-needed funds as a result of the devastation that has occurred as a result of these fires in communities in East Gippsland and north-eastern Victoria. We raised almost $2000, which will be shared between the CFA South Morang and the Victorian Bushfire Appeal fund. More than 100 people came out to this event from all types of communities—coming together, talking, having some fun in the park and really thanking the volunteers from the CFA for their participation in having attended a number of the fires in East Gippsland. I do want to acknowledge very kind donations from a number of different organisations locally, including Bertocchi Smallgoods, the BAPS mandir in Mill Park and the Kiritsis family. They all contributed food for free. Also, the AMWU helped out with cooking and staffing the barbecue, and various other community organisations provided support.