BALAKLAVA EISTEDDFOD

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (17:45): I also wish to talk about a good thing, mine being the 17^th Balaklava Eisteddfod, but I am wondering if I could just take a moment to reflect upon the fact that last week my 23-year-old son announced his engagement. I just wanted to put that on the Hansard.

The Hon. L.R. Breuer: What's her name?

Mr GRIFFITHS: My son's name is Tyler. He is engaged to a young lady by the name of Katie Elies. Her parents, Dennis and Julie, also come from Goyder. We had a barbecue with them last week, but they are a wonderful young couple. They have been together for 8½ years so Tyler's mother, Donna, and I are very proud indeed of our boy and we look forward to the wedding in March 2015, when hopefully we will have celebrated 12 months in government by that stage also.

Members interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: We'll see; I shall not be distracted. I want to talk about the Balaklava Eisteddfod. It has been going for 17 years and Balaklava is only a relatively small community. It is 1,500 people but a great town, and I know if I could live somewhere else it would probably be Balaklava, actually. I am about to lose it from my electorate next year, so I wish the member for Frome all success and the candidate for Frome even more success in trying to represent that community.

They have come together because of a strong belief that exists in that community about music and the arts. For those of us a bit like me who cannot necessarily perform it or appreciate it as much as others, I do actually go there with great expectations about the braveness of the people who stand up and perform in so many different ways, be it rock bands or public speaking or musical theatre.

It is a wonderful three days. I have been quite blessed indeed in the 7½ years since being elected to have had the opportunity I think four times to open the finale concert, which is held on a Sunday. I have tried to make it to at least one of the other days on most occasions when I have been available, but each time you go there, it is impossible not to be impressed.

The finale concert this year reflected those who had gone through the stages on Friday and Saturday to be in the finals, and then they were judged on their performance. It is a very nerve-racking time. There are choirs from about seven schools, I think, that come together as part of the practice that they hold for the Festival of Music, which is being held later this month, and which I know a lot of MPs go to at the Festival Theatre. The choirs themselves do a wonderful job; these are all primary school students.

When you look at the program on Friday and Saturday, it has younger and older people performing in bands (stage and concert), rock bands, instrumental ensembles of between four and nine instruments, a choral workshop and vocal ensembles of between four and nine voices. They have a contemporary vocal amplified voice section, a musical theatre section, a vocal section, an instrumental section, a piano section and a speech and drama section. That shows that, no matter what you like in putting yourself out there—singing, dancing, miming, playing musical instruments—it allows you to perform and be judged upon how brave you are.

I just want to pay tribute to the committee, predominantly made up of ladies who are wonderful organisers—led wonderfully well this year by Bronnie Cottle—who have been doing it for so long that they just know how to do it down pat, but it takes hundreds of volunteers and I do not say that loosely. Indeed, hundreds of volunteers come together to set up the programs, have contact with the schools, make sure the ticketing systems are right, coordinate the use of the buildings, provide for the performers and bring everybody together on the Sunday.

I think the lady who does the program for the day finishes normally about 3 o'clock in the morning because they do not know until 10 o'clock the night before who is going to be performing, but they pull all that together and present a finale on the last day for which the hall is full. The Balaklava hall is quite large, actually—the member for Bragg has been there with a public rally about hospitals—and it is full of family and friends who just want to witness the wonder of these younger people performing.

So, I want to pay tribute to them and say that I have enjoyed enormously the opportunity, as the member of parliament for the Balaklava township, to have been involved in, probably, six of the eight since I was elected. Even with the boundary change next year, I will still be attending, because Goyder will go around the township.

I want to put on the record my congratulations to everyone involved. My thanks go particularly to the sponsors, who are very generous with their financial support, not only in awards but also in hall hire costs and keeping costs down. Also, a particular thanks to Balco, a very large business from the area, which makes its boardroom available after the function for a supper to be held for the people who work so hard to put it all together. The one word I can use to describe the people on that afternoon is pure relief. They walk in absolutely exhausted after what they have done in the last three days in particular, but what they have done in the last 12 months, and just sit down and have a bit of a chinwag and it is a credit to them for making the Balaklava Eisteddfod such a wonderful event.