Burnside Citizenship Awards

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (15:33): I rise to acknowledge the Burnside Citizen of the Year award winners in my local electorate. It was a couple of months ago now that my local community gathered at Hazelwood Park to not only mark Australia Day, to not only welcome 89 new citizens to our local community but also, importantly, to acknowledge and celebrate some of the great work happening in our local community and award the Citizen of the Year award. That was awarded this year to Mr Andrew Bills.

A staple of the Burnside community, Andrew Bills has been the area coordinator for Linden Park Neighbourhood Watch for over 13 years now. That is an incredibly important association; it is instrumental in educating the community on safety and security strategies, raising awareness and inspiring local action to prevent crime by working together between the police and the community. I have had the privilege of being able to attend a couple of Linden Park Neighbourhood Watch community meetings. I know it is a really valued service in our local community and you can pick up a lot of very handy safety tips.

I think the other thing that Linden Park Neighbourhood Watch does so well is bring our community together. As recently as this weekend just gone, Linden Park Neighbourhood Watch organised a Neighbour Day barbecue in Linden Park, which brought together lots of neighbours from around the local area to share a barbecue that was cooked by the Rotary Club of Burnside. I want to thank them for their support of that event and also thank others who supported that event, including Bakers Delight at Marryatville and Churchills Butchery at Marryatville. This event was a really important way of bringing our local community together to share concerns and foster a sense of community in our local area.

I commend Andrew Bills for his work in organising that event and for all of his work over the last 13 years. I also acknowledge and commend Arth, who is going to take over from Andrew this year, for his eagerness and willingness to take on that role and step into those very big shoes. I think there are only about three Neighbourhood Watch groups left in the entirety of the City of Burnside, and I think the fact that the Linden Park group has been kept running this long, with quite good attendances at their meetings as well, is all thanks to the work and commitment of Andrew Bills and those who have assisted him: a very worthy winner of the Burnside Citizen of the Year.

I also acknowledge the Burnside Young Citizen of the Year, Brandon Marlow, who is an inspiring community leader. He demonstrates remarkable mentorship abilities at a very young age. He was selected to be a South Australian Youth Forum member in 2022 and progressed to be an executive member and mentor for the forum in 2023.

I have had the opportunity to meet with Brandon and with the South Australian Youth Forum, which is a great little group that has been put together by many local young people to advocate to this parliament on behalf of youth, and to present an annual report each year tackling many different youth issues. I had the opportunity to meet with them and see their 2022 annual report, as well as recently meeting with them to see their 2023 annual report raising some really important issues that affect youth in our local community. I commend and congratulate Brandon on all of his work in the South Australian Youth Forum and on winning this award. I also congratulate and commend Amber, Abbey, Lucy and everyone else involved in the South Australian Youth Forum and urge them to continue their very good work.

Finally, an award called the Active Citizen of the Year was awarded to the Burnside Military History Research Group, including Ian Fitzgerald, Colonel Peter Scott and Ian Sando (deceased). They have spent a lot of time researching soldiers who are honoured at the Burnside District Fallen Soldiers' Memorial in Rose Park, also known as the Avenues of Honour. This is very important work, for which I commend them. I acknowledge and congratulate all of the Burnside Citizens of the Year.