Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (10:45): 20 May was Wear Orange Wednesday, or WOW Day. It is a national day of recognition of our incredible SES volunteers. I dropped in to the Port Fairy SES unit and met with Max Kelly and Ray Young to thank them in person for the work that they do. It was great to visit the unit and their station, which was very special to me because I was part of opening that station along with my fellow member for Western Victoria Gayle Tierney, who is here in the chamber, who undertook an enormous amount of advocacy for that new build. I want to also take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank south-west Victorian SES volunteers who service the region in such a dedicated way: Adam Jones and Che Wellens of Warrnambool SES celebrated a quarter of a century; John Stirling of the Heywood SES, 15 years; and Colin Malin of Portland and Max Kelly of Port Fairy were also acknowledged by the New South Wales government for their service in response to the floods. The work they do is essential to keeping our community safe, and I thank all volunteers for the work that they do.