Country Shows

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:20): As the country roadshow rolls around South Australia, men and women pulled into Loxton on the long weekend to join with locals for the 105^th Loxton Show. It was a great weekend at Loxton, albeit 38°, for families right across the Riverland and Mallee to enjoy and to come out into the sun. It is one of those country shows that is filled with great opportunity, with the equestrian horses in action, the sheaf toss, sheepdog trials, the cowboys, the whips, the horses, the wood chopping, the car show that dropped into town and the vintage tractor display, to name but a few.

Again, this year, this was an opportunity for that community to display what has been a great landmark for Loxton and that is their great pavilion opportunities: the cooking, the flower displays, the paintings, the artwork that really does go above and beyond. And, yes, I was part of that. The competition entries were full. The exhibition hall had all sorts of cookery, all sorts of displays and was a sea of blue ribbons. I will have to blow my own trumpet for some of the local produce that I made—I managed to stump up six blue ribbons, as well as a few red and a few green. But what I must say is that the dried fruit, the confectionery and my jams were very hard to beat.

Lyn Arnold, a stalwart of the Loxton Show, managed to beat me in many categories. She is outstanding, I must say, because I struggle. As the education minister and many on this side might attest to, the jam will be delivered to many of your offices and doors in the coming days, just to taste some of that great Riverland produce. In those 30 categories the participation rate was outstanding, and I cannot thank all those people enough.

It does not come together without a lot of contribution by the locals, by those people who are hardworking show patrons: the patron, Theo Kaesler; the president, Richie Darling; president-elect, Glenda Cass; vice president, Ian Crambrook; the secretary, Lynn Hand; the treasurer, Denise Vaughan; the liaison officer, Ian Cass; the entertainment coordinator, Jo Sheppy; grounds coordinator, Steve Schulz; pavilion coordinator, Paul Kaesler; property managers, Tony and Tania Klix; and everyone on the management committee. It really was a great day, two days of great show action, and I look forward to being back there again next year.

Then a little way past that long weekend, I attended the Lions Youth of the Year, hosted by the Renmark Lions Club. It is a program about fostering and encouraging student interest in leadership and public speaking, and it was great to see five finalists step up and be asked random questions without notice and be given five minutes to answer those questions. I think all of those young secondary school students did an outstanding job of off-the-cuff speaking in front of an audience of around 100 people. I congratulate all of them.

Sadly, there can only be one winner, and some complementary winners, and Riley Broad won the night. She was an outstanding candidate. She spoke for five minutes without notes. She answered questions for five minutes without notes. I compliment her on the way that she performed and the content of her speech and what she put to people. Noor Dhillon received the award for public speaking. Both Noor and Riley received my Tim Whetstone MP Award for student leadership in 2024-25 respectively. The other three contestants must also be congratulated: Stephen Files, Banjo Rumbold and Kayleigh Stevens from Renmark High because they did an outstanding job. They gave hope to everyone in the room that they are the next generation of leaders, they are the next generation that will be public speakers, and they will present themselves extraordinarily well.

Thanks also go to the judges—Gillian Stevens, Bronwyn Cant and Ian Andrews—who all did an outstanding job. It would have been a tough judging exercise because all five speakers performed impeccably well. So congratulations to all of those young finalists and congratulations to the Lions Club of Renmark; it was an outstanding opportunity for our young ambassadors and leaders to show their stuff.