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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-06-30 Daily Xml
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ROSTREVOR LIONS CLUB

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (16:58): I am pleased to rise to speak to the adjournment debate this afternoon because it gives me an opportunity to pay tribute to some of the fantastic volunteers in the electorate of Morialta, and I am thinking particularly at the moment of the Rostrevor Lions Club. I had the privilege on Saturday night to attend the hand-over dinner of the Rostrevor Lions Club, and I want to place on the record my appreciation for the work that it does in the Morialta electorate, as well as the broader eastern suburbs community.

In particular, the President of the Rostrevor Lions Club, Trevor Symonds, handed over to himself to continue in the fine tradition of Trevor Symonds being the President of the Rostrevor Lions Club for another year. The Rostrevor Lions Club does a great deal of work in the Morialta electorate in many ways. For a small Lions club it punches well above its weight, and that is a credit to every member of the club.

The Black Hill Challenge is an annual event that has been going for 10 years now, and it has hundreds of entrants every year. Last year there were fewer than 200 entrants. It was down a little, but I still think that was a remarkable result, because we are talking about a running race—running up to the top of Black Hill and down in a day that was about 40° Celsius. The fact that over 100 contestants still competed is a tribute and testimony of the esteem which the Black Hill Challenge is held by athletes in the South Australian community, as well as the community in our area. That event raises thousands of dollars every year for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, an organisation for which I know many members in this place have a great appreciation. They do very fine work and a lot of the work they do is thanks to volunteer fundraising support from groups like the Rostrevor Lions Club.

This fits in pretty well with the efforts of Lions International. It is a service organisation with over one million members worldwide. It is the largest service organisation in the world. I say that, as a Rotarian, we are a little jealous, but we are only marginally behind in terms of our numbers. I think both organisations do a wonderful job. Blindness is a health issue around the world and Lions does great work in combating it by raising money locally in our area, as well as around the world. In Morialta, we are privileged to have two Lions clubs, the Rostrevor and the Athelstone clubs. I look forward to my involvement with both clubs, as well as the other service organisations across my district.

Many members at the moment will be attending a number of changeover dinners or handover dinners. It is the season for the Lions and Rotary. I am looking forward to going to the Morialta changeover this Friday night and the Burnside Rotary Club changeover at Sunday lunchtime. I regret that I cannot attend the Magill Rotary Club changeover as it conflicts with parliamentary duties. On Monday night, I will be pleased to attend my own Rotary club's changeover dinner, that is, the Campbelltown Rotary Club. I hope to see one of its honorary members who is also a member of this place at that dinner. I hope we have the opportunity to catch up in case we miss out on anything this week.

I will now refer to the work that these organisations do. Kiwanis have a particular focus on youth and the Rotary clubs have done magnificent work towards the eradication of polio around the world over many years, and to extraordinary success, I must say. In relation to polio—I am speaking off the cuff because I did not expect to speak to this adjournment debate—I recall that, some 20 years ago, 360,000 cases of polio were found per year and we have that down to fewer than 1,000 around the world. That is as a result of the work of service organisations such as Rotary and their partners.

However, as far as Lions go, the contribution from a club of 15 people in my electorate is outstanding. People such as Harry Tornow, Harry Nitschke and the secretary of the club, Reg Ayliffe (whom I was sorry to miss on Saturday night) and all club members have been making such a contribution to our community for such a long time and I feel that it is only appropriate to register the contribution they make in an august place such as this. I commend the work of the Rostrevor Lions Club and I look forward to working with them in the years ahead.

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