Rotary Club of Mount Barker

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (15:36): I mention in the house the efforts of the Rotary Club in Mount Barker to assist my community. I had the very real pleasure of attending the club's changeover dinner, and I wish to record in this place my gratitude to the club for its work. The dinner was an opportunity for me to speak with club leaders and members and to reflect on the scope of the club's work over the past year.

Shiralee Judge has led the club with distinction and brought fresh energy and a willingness to examine complex social issues. I was impressed with her leadership and commitment to the club. I was also impressed by and grateful for the efforts of her executive and members, including past president Peter Baur; vice-president, Ian Rose; secretary, Florence Yeardley; treasurer, Helen Marshall; director of community service, Rod Cooper; director of membership and club service, Mary Roebuck; and director of youth and international, Helen Marshall.

Throughout the year, the club was able to raise over $80,000. That is a significant sum. I understand funds have been invested in 17 community grants and awards through 11 Rotary Youth projects, including the Mount Barker High School student award and the Rob Burford Award at Littlehampton Primary School and assisting the Mount Barker Scout Group 2019 jamboree. The club also subsidised comps for students to participate in local and international developments and exchange programs. In addition, the club has been a significant supporter of Operation Flinders and the End Polio campaign and has funded tent and shelter kits for future disaster relief.

I understand that the club applied for and was successful in receiving a district grant to help fund the Bhutan 2020 SkyHydrant project. This project aims to supply safe drinking water to every school in Bhutan by the end of 2020. The club also donated to the End Trachoma by 2020 project to assist remote Indigenous communities. I was delighted to learn that the club's very significant work has also been recognised in other ways by Rotary International.

At the District 9520 conference, the club was the joint recipient of the international project award for supporting a vital program to provide safe drinking water in Timor-Leste. I understand that club members Carola Sanders and Peter Baur travelled to Timor-Leste in November 2018 to assist in the project. I was also pleased to learn that the club will qualify for the Rotary Citation from Rotary International.

I take this opportunity to wish the new president, Rod Cooper, and his committee well for 2019-20. I am confident the club will continue to make an extraordinary contribution in my community and to other communities through Rotary International. You will know that Paul Harris formed Rotary in 1905 so that professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful lifelong friendships and serve their communities. The Rotary Club in Mount Barker continues to closely observe those objectives.

In the time now remaining on the floor it is not possible to individually recognise other club members whose extraordinary service was appropriately memorialised by the club and by Rotary International at the dinner, but I will place these remarks in correspondence to members as soon as I am able. In that way, I will also extend and make plain the real appreciation of my whole community for their work and the work of the club.