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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-19 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:25): I want to change tack today. Certainly, while I acknowledge the importance of country hospitals, I want to talk about some good news stories and things that have been happening in my electorate in relation to community groups. One of those will include some words about the Minister for State/Local Government Relations, too, and her attendance at the Ardrossan art exhibition just prior to Easter.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: No, the minister had the opportunity to open the art exhibition, which was our fifth in Ardrossan—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: Yes, I was advised by the minister's office that she was going to attend, I think. The first Ardrossan art exhibition was in 1994, then 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008. Since that time, it has grown enormously. It is a very successful event. It brings thousands of people to Yorke Peninsula. It runs over the Easter long weekend. It really does promote the peninsula in a great way and beyond the traditional attractions. I have had the pleasure of attending every event since 2002, and also digging into my pocket and buying one of the art pieces each year. I always ensure that I buy one because there is some great talent on the peninsula.

It was a pleasure having the minister visit the Goyder electorate. I hope she enjoyed her evening. Let us hope the Ardrossan art exhibition continues for many years. It relies very heavily on sponsorship, so I thank all the businesses that have contributed and the individuals who are involved in arranging it. An immense number of hours are spent over the preceding 12 months to ensure that everything runs smoothly—and it does. It is with great pride that I can say it is held in my electorate.

Presumably, most members of the house are invited to the hand-over season of Lions, Apex and Rotary clubs. Like all members, I try to attend as many as I can. I have Apex clubs in four of my communities, Lions clubs in five of my communities and Rotary clubs in two of my communities. In some of those communities, there is a double up, but they are all wonderful groups. I have had the opportunity to attend all Lions club hand-over dinners except for two. Unfortunately, they seem to have their hand-over dinners on days when parliament is sitting in late June, so it is difficult to attend. Having attended the other hand-over dinners, I usually have the chance to speak on behalf of the guests who might be invited or to say a vote of thanks to Lions International. It is a great chance for me to meet with the people who do so much in our communities. I really do commend them.

Those people make an enormous time commitment. They do it out of a sense of wanting to contribute to their community. They certainly do not do it out of a sense of wanting to be thanked or acknowledged for their work: they just want to ensure that they make their town and region a better place. I pay particular tribute to the Maitland Apex Club, a great group of young people who do some good work. One of their big events for year is catering for the ANZAC Day breakfast at Maitland. For them, it is a very early start to the morning, probably around 5 o'clock. They ensure that seats are in place at the war memorial and the breakfast is cooked, and they clean up afterwards. After that, about 20 of them tend to go to one of the hotels to celebrate—for far too long, I think, for their own good, but they celebrate and enjoy the day.

Like all community groups, though, it is a great struggle to keep people involved in these groups. We all know they struggle for numbers, but they undertake some great projects. It is with much pride that, on the last Sunday in June, I will be attending the charter meeting of a new Lions club. I think it is quite rare these days for a new Lions club to be establishing. This one is based in Stansbury and is called the Stansbury Dalrymple Lions Club of Yorke Peninsula. Six of those members previously belonged to the Yorketown Lions. The club managed to attract not just those six people but another 22 people to become members of the Lions club in Stansbury. Stansbury is a community predominantly made up of older people who have made lifestyle choices to live there. A lot of the farmers in the area retire there. It is a great town, right on the coast, and it has a new Lions club starting up with 28 members.

I think that is a wonderful effort to break the trend of community groups struggling for membership. It would have taken a lot of drive from a few people to make sure that they established a group there. They have done some good work, and I am looking forward to attending a charter meeting for the very first time in my life. We all have the opportunity to attend a lot of these meetings as guest speakers and their handover dinners, but to be at a charter meeting is fantastic.

I am advised that Lions International has something like 1.3 million members around the world in 34,000 clubs across 200 nations. Certainly, the members in Australia are all dedicated. I know of people who are very committed to becoming district governors and attending the national and state conventions. They all do it because they love what they do and because of the difference they make to the community. So, well done to them.

Another function that I want to mention is a production held by the Mallala Institute Committee called Crackers. It was a play written by Mr Richard Verner, and it was wonderful.

The Hon. J.M. Rankine interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: Crackers, it was called.

The Hon. J.M. Rankine interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: True; it was a cracker, as the minister said.

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