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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-17 Daily Xml
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Gonis, Mr B.

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:23): I rise to speak on a reflection and a sad situation but a celebration of a life. When you become a public figure, when you become the local member, your community becomes much more available to you, if you like, and you participate in many other community sectors within your local community and you are introduced to new ones for the first time.

As a new member, elected in 2006, one of the first communities to embrace me as their local member was the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia. One of the people I had the absolute pleasure of meeting and developing a wonderful friendship with since that time was Bill Gonis. Sadly, Bill Gonis, at the age of 63, lost his life due to a health condition just a couple of weeks ago.

I want to reflect on Bill Gonis's career and what he has done for his community. I will start by reading out the first line of his own CV where he stated, 'I am a passionate public servant dedicated to influencing the future of the public sector and the passenger transport industry,' as we know of Bill's work in the passenger transport sector. He went on to state:

I have focused on empowering individuals to work together to address critical business issues, and in doing so have drawn on specialist expertise and fostered ownership of solutions that genuinely make a difference to an organisation's major stakeholders.

Nowhere did we see that more than in his presidency of the Greek Orthodox Community here in South Australia.

I was first introduced to the Greek Orthodox Community through the local parish in Goodwood, at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, on Goodwood Road. It was only a week or two after I was first elected that I was invited to their Easter service. We know that community groups can be turbulent at times and they can also flourish at times. There is no doubt that when Bill was in that role as president—and he was until his death and he was the longest serving president of the Greek Orthodox Community here in South Australia—the community flourished.

I remember how caring he was for his community and how his focus was not just on the organisation itself and the Greek Orthodox church, which we all know is a breakaway church from the Archdiocese and it is the last remaining two-church system, Greek church system, in Australia, as I understand it. Bill was certainly a very steady set of hands for that community and he developed relationships right across the Greek community and beyond.

Bill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2006 for his services to the taxi industry and also to the Greek community because he was seen as being a person who cared very broadly about his community. I can remember when COVID first hit in March 2020. We know how important the church services are to the Greek community and there was a real dilemma for the Greek community about how they could continue to offer communion.

Because Bill knew me, and my being a member of cabinet, he called me for advice on how they could manage to continue with their church services but also keep the congregation safe. He had a very open mind to getting a solution. I was pleased to have been able to introduce him to the appropriate person in the Department for Health, who was then able to work with the Greek community on a solution so as to be able to continue with their services in a safe manner.

I was very sad to hear the news. I considered Bill a friend, someone I could rely on, someone who always made me feel welcome. So, Bill, please rest in peace.

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