Volunteers

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (15:18): It is my pleasure to take this time today as the shadow minister for volunteers and also the local member for Hurtle Vale to congratulate two of my constituents who have both been awarded the Premier's Certificate of Recognition for outstanding volunteer service. This happened in May of this year and it has taken us a little while to get through COVID, and today I have been able to present them with their certificates and they are watching from somewhere else as we celebrate together.

Obviously, their certificate recognises their outstanding efforts to promote the importance of volunteering in our community. It acknowledges their undeniable hard work and their dedicated service. It is a testament to both of them, and I thank them so much.

I wish to congratulate Ms Dionne Biddell, known as Dribs, and Ms Maxine McPherson, known as Max. These women are stalwarts in the south and I will explain some of their incredible work. Dribs is a local hero in Morphett Vale for the volunteer work that she does in reuniting lost pets with their owners. She works a full-time day job as a courier and works incredibly hard. She also participates in high-level sport, in softball, and she gives up her time each week after work and on weekends to run the Facebook group Lost Dogs of Adelaide. She has been the administrator for the group for about the past six years, and has a lifelong love of animals. She gives up her time to connect and support the community in their search for lost pets.

The group has over 75,000 followers and shares posts. It really has a huge reach and an ability to reunite people with their lost animals when they are in quite a state. Obviously, dogs are best friends for many people and when they lose an animal it is heart-wrenching. They have had a huge amount of success reuniting pets with loved ones, and Dionne's volunteer work has been crucial to this.

She has been relentless with me in advocating for additional scanners to be made available through the transport department in order to scan deceased pets, looking for a chip. Councils have these scanners available to them but our transport department currently does not. She is quite relentless in her pursuit of that in order for people to be given the news and know what has in fact happened to their much-loved pets. It would be a horrible thing not to know, and to have your pet just put in the bin without any knowledge would be terrible. Thank you so much, Dribs, for your outstanding work in this area.

Max McPherson is a 46-year veteran. I am sure she will not mind me saying that at the age of 83 she is continuing to hold together the Panther Club at the mighty South Adelaide Football Club. Back in the day, when it was acceptable for young girls to parade on the stage and enter contests such as Miss South Adelaide, Max did that for several years as well as being a paid employee of the club, running many fundraising events. She mentored young women and also headed up the cheerleading squad in terms of her mentorship and leadership. I have friends who have been involved in that and they all remember Maxine fondly.

She worked for 29 years as the marketing manager at South Adelaide and now I think she works more hours as the secretary and treasurer of the Panther Club. Of course, the mighty South Adelaide Panthers won half of their final the other day and then fell asleep. Sadly, they will not see a premiership this year, but they are a very young side. I know that Max McPherson shares my passion for South Adelaide and that they will be back next year. The women are incredible. They lost the final this year, but they will come back again next year.

Max's work and influence extend much further than the football club in terms of just her fundraising. She contributes to the culture of that club. The impact and scope of what she does are demonstrated through her generosity and her tenacious can-do attitude. She is a champion volunteer. She selflessly puts her hand up to support the club in many, many ways. I could go on and on about her contribution in the community. She has a rare vocal chord issue (my husband wishes I had one) and it is very painful for her to speak sometimes, so she goes above and beyond. I thank Max and Dribs for their input into our community.

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