Wednesday, 28 May 2025

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:40): Last week was National Volunteers Week, which made it so appropriate for me to be able to join with the City of Kingston at their annual volunteer awards event hosted by the mayor Cr Georgina Oxley. It was a terrific opportunity to celebrate all the many incredible volunteers that contribute so much to the Kingston community, and I would also like to particularly make mention of Jaqueline Hendrey, who won Kingston Citizen of the Year 2025. Jaqueline has led the Matt’s Place community meals program in Chelsea for 15 years, serving nearly 200,000 meals, a very incredible achievement indeed. Thank you, Jaqueline. We also had the winner for the Community Group of the Year with It’s Okay Not to Be Okay named the Community Group of the Year for their incredible contributions in the space of mental health advocacy in the local community. I would like to particularly acknowledge both winners of these awards and indeed acknowledge all of the nominees, who were very, very impressive as well.