Hartley Electorate

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley) (15:18): I rise today to speak about some outstanding achievements in and around my local electorate. Firstly, I want to take this opportunity to talk about Team Propulsion from Charles Campbell College. I want to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Team Propulsion from Charles Campbell College, located in the electorate at Paradise.

These talented students have actually achieved remarkable success in the F1 Schools World Finals that were recently held in Singapore. Team Propulsion have been honoured with the prestigious Best Engineered Car Award and also they secured an impressive second place overall. Their dedication to research development earned them a well-deserved nomination and commendation. They achieved a commendable third place in the Fastest Car category as well.

Congratulations to the young people who were involved in this. It is great to see them going from strength to strength. They are so passionate about this area. I would like to extend my congratulations to the team members: Kuan, Noah, Hoorad, AJ, Juliana, Samuels and Joe. Your hard work, your dedication and countless hours of effort reflect positively not only on your school but also on our state. Congratulations to the students at Charles Campbell. You should be extremely proud of your outstanding achievement.

I also want to take this opportunity to talk about some local premierships that were won on the weekend. I would like to extend my congratulations to the Rostrevor Old Collegians Football Club C2 team for taking out the premiership on the weekend. What an outstanding achievement that was. A big shout-out to the players, coaches and supporters. This past weekend, the C2 team achieved premiership status by winning their grand final against the Henley Sharks. Their victory fills all of us supporters with immense pride.

Then, of course, there is the Rostrevor Old Collegians Soccer Club. The Rostrevor Old Collegians Soccer Club has seven teams, four titles and won division 1 back to back—an absolutely amazing achievement by that club this year. They, of course, play in the Collegiate Soccer League. Special mention goes to the division 4 team, which achieved a remarkable three-peat, securing their third consecutive championship. Div 1A also deserves recognition, as I said, for achieving back-to-back championships. Credit to all of you for your outstanding achievements as well.

I would like to talk a little bit about the Montevergine Festa, the feast that was held on Sunday. It was a real pleasure to share my own birthday with the feast of the Montevergine. What better way would you want to spend your own birthday—sir, you would appreciate this—than with several thousand of your own friends, family and residents. How good is that? They even sang happy birthday to me. That does not always happen in that sort of crowd, but I did enjoy it and may it happen into the future as well hopefully. It is either the Montevergine Feast or the AFL grand final, but I was very happy it was the feast this year.

I express my gratitude and thanks to the dedicated volunteers and organisers of the Montevergine Feast. A special mention to Domenico Zollo, who once again orchestrated a very successful feast. Thousands of people enjoyed the celebration during the day, also ensuring our Italian tradition remains vibrant for people of all generations not just in the eastern suburbs but also across the state. Many traversed distances right across the state. Some came from interstate and some even came from overseas as well, so how good is that?

I cannot forget those dedicated volunteers who were at the stalls early in the morning and into the night, especially of course the zeppole stand. Despite long lines throughout the day and night, the volunteers tirelessly worked hard to help serve the thousands of people who patiently waited until late in the night.

This year actually marked a very important milestone. It was the 68^th annual Montevergine Feast here in Adelaide and I had the honour of attending the annual mass conducted by Father Eldridge D'Souza. The church was absolutely packed. Many of my parliamentary colleagues joined us as well. It was a really impressive turnout. The mass followed a procession with many parishioners and, of course, all the other festa organisations that participated with their respective standards as well.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all the commercial sponsors because we know that these feasts take tens of thousands of dollars. When we were in government, we certainly did our level best to support the feast and I would like to see that support continue in respective governments. Thank you also to those who supported the feast financially. I look forward to another bigger and better feast next year.