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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-11-16 Daily Xml
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Morialta Electorate

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (16:06): On the 11th day of the 11th month the guns fell silent and people across the world stood in reflection and memory. Still, so many years later, I did, along with members of my local community and the member for Hartley and the Mayor of Campbelltown at the Magill RSL, last week reflect on Remembrance Day. I am sure members across the house did the same.

The Magill RSL, in offering that service to the community—paying tribute to the members of our local community who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms in wars from the First World War and indeed subsequent conflicts—do the community a great service. It is a service they have been giving to their community and a service they have been providing for their members and their families for 75 years.

It was with great pleasure that on Saturday night I again joined the member for Hartley and the Mayor of Campbelltown to spend some time with the members of the Magill RSL on their 75th anniversary dinner. Indeed, for obvious reasons many RSLs around South Australia in the last couple of years have commemorated their 100th anniversaries. In Magill, there was a meeting of veterans in 1919 or 1920. They met sometimes, but they did not form a formal RSL group until 25 years later.

Meredith Burgess, the President of the Magill RSL, gave an outstanding presentation to all present and reflected on some of the history of that RSL and what it has done in that community. I commend her for that and thank Cheryl Cates and her husband for representing the state RSL. I know that all members of the Magill RSL were honoured by Cheryl's presence and her reflections too. James Stevens and Councillor John Flynn joined the mayor and the member for Hartley and I at the Remembrance Day service, along with other members of the local community, and I thank the Magill RSL once more.

It seems to have been a period of the year ripe for birthdays. I am very pleased to acknowledge the Lions Club of Athelstone and its 45th birthday celebrated a couple of weeks ago, with former district governor Tony Pederick in attendance and so many members of our local community, Lions clubs and other service clubs from the area congratulating John Heffernan and the committee. I thank Mike Cook and his team for putting together an outstanding evening reflecting on the service the Lions Club of Athelstone provides our local community, living in Athelstone, the Campbelltown council area and the broader Morialta district.

Their achievements in our local community do not go unnoticed, although they happen without any attempts at grandstanding or anything like that. This is a group of people who go about their business, who serve our community, and they serve our nation and our world and make it a better place. So thank you to the Lions Club of Athelstone.

In Athelstone, we are served also by an outstanding CFS brigade which for 60 years now has been providing that service to our community. Indeed, CFS Chief Officer Mark Jones was an honoured guest, as was the emergency services minister Vincent Tarzia, at St Ignatius College in the gym to celebrate a wonderful bringing together of so many current and past volunteers with the Athelstone CFS.

This brigade was established 60 years ago, yet it was still fantastic to have four of the founding members celebrating with us just a couple of weekends ago—four of the founding members, including Max Amber who would be known to many members of the house. I told Max I did not think he would possibly be old enough to have been one of the founding members of the Athelstone CFS 60 years ago. He assured me he was very young when he was one of those founding members. It was great to see him there.

Obviously, it was great to meet, engage and talk to some of the other founding members, some of whom are still active in the local community. So to Captain Mick Rossi and the team, Wayne Atkins and all the active members of the group, particularly the 60th anniversary working group, especially Jan Inkster and the team, thank you for that.

While reflecting in our local community on some of its achievements, I cannot go past the Tea Tree Gully Rotary Club and congratulate their president, Ray Whalley, and Glenn and Joylene Mitchell in particular, on organising all the service clubs in the Tea Tree Gully district to bring our new Governor, Her Excellency Frances Adamson AC, to the Dimples restaurant at the golf course to share with all the service clubs. There were a couple of hundred people there who heard her reflections on her new role, and those service clubs absolutely loved it. All those members of those service clubs very much appreciated the Governor's role there—as did I, as did the members for Newland, Florey and King and other members of the parliament who were in attendance.

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