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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-18 Daily Xml
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Blue Donut Week

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister advise the house about SA Police Legacy's Blue Donut Week?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:54): It was important to me to have this opportunity, before I finish, to talk about this really important initiative of South Australia Police and Police Legacy as an organisation. You, in particular, sir, would know about Blue Donut Week, not because I am accusing you of eating them but because I have been strategically leaving them around your person in the hope that you will continue to raise them in the house and in that way help elevate this as an important cause.

Next week it is SA Police Legacy's Blue Donut Week. This is an annual fundraising initiative in South Australia to raise money for Police Legacy in the lead-up to National Police Remembrance Day, which is on 29 September this year. National Police Remembrance Day is a day of reflection and a day to honour the lives and service of fallen police officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the course of their duties. We also remember those police officers who have lost their lives through illness or other circumstances.

The first day was held in 1989 and it is commemorated annually on 29 September and it is the feast day of St Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of police officers. This will be the 36th year of commemoration. So from next Monday 22 September, and concluding on the 29th, participating bakeries and Drakes Supermarkets will sell blue donuts with a portion of the proceeds donated to SA Police Legacy.

Now in its fifth year, Blue Donut Week helps Police Legacy provide vital support to police families who are facing serious illness or the death of a loved one. They do invaluable work supporting police and those families. Members might recall that only a few sitting weeks ago I made another contribution about the work that they have done in South Australia. Here, in our state, they have been operational for those 36 years and they have paid more than $2.5 million to support police families, and in the last financial year more than $150,000 was provided to families across South Australia.

In particular, police officer Brevet Serjeant Nick Fatchen has benefited from their work, having Police Legacy stand by him when his wife Emma tragically passed away in 2013 from pancreatic cancer. Legacy reached out to Nick early on when his wife was sick to help lift the weight off the family and provide grants for him and his children, Izaac and Sophie, for schooling, laptops, phones, driving lessons, family outings and birthday gifts. They continue to receive ongoing assistance, with Police Legacy providing ongoing support for their studies, and Izaac, now following in his father's footsteps, is due to graduate from the Police Academy next month in October.

Police Legacy provides practical, emotional and financial assistance to families in their time of need and often beyond the initial period of bereavement. I would encourage all members out in their communities, particularly if they have a participating bakery or a Drakes Supermarket stocking the blue donuts, to go and grab one. And, of course, it would not be a parliamentary performance for me unless I broke the standing orders, and so I do so by making a display, Mr Speaker: this is them, and I would encourage you not only to buy one but to consume it as well.

The SPEAKER: The Clerk, please cover your eyes! The member for Finniss.

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