Wednesday, 8 June 2022

 Mr LEANE (Eastern Metropolitan—Minister for Local Government, Minister for Suburban Development, Minister for Veterans) (09:42): Last week I was more than delighted to visit the Emerald RSL with the Deputy Premier, James Merlino. The Emerald RSL—and I have spoken to Ms Shing about this; she would know—is an absolutely beautiful building in a beautiful area. They do some amazing things to embrace the area they are in, to the point where Puffing Billy parks behind the RSL and they utilise Puffing Billy during a number of their commemorative services, which is just fantastic. They have amazing carvings. They have a number of audio stations where you can learn about people that have represented Australia in different conflicts from that particular area. They have, amazingly, someone that is a Victoria Cross winner, and they pay tribute to that particular person. I really want to thank the president, Peter Maloney, for having us and showing us around. We discussed some funding from our government that will resurface their car park, and as Peter said, that is probably the last thing to get it completely done, and also some funding for more plaques. They want to pay tribute to a number of people that have been in conflicts since World War I and World War II in their memorial. James and I cannot thank them enough for having us, and I just want to say that we are really pleased that they are going to keep up the great work that they do.