House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-05-02 Daily Xml

Contents

ANZAC Day

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (15:12): I thank the member for Hammond for his poignant words. I thought I might actually take the moment myself to acknowledge some of the really beautifully celebrated ANZAC Day events in my own community. I, of course, attended the Tea Tree Gully dawn service, as I have for many years. It is the only dawn service in our local community. We believe 3,000 or 4,000 people came out to Memorial Drive this year, which is a really beautiful garden that we have to commemorate the ANZACs.

On the street of Memorial Drive there is also a beautiful Stobie pole painting exhibition that has been put together as an intergenerational project by the members of the Tea Tree Gully RSL and students at Tea Tree Gully Primary School. They are memories, thoughts and reflections on war from the students alongside the veterans at the RSL who have served. When going to the RSL or to the school I like to take a moment to acknowledge the work that has been done as part of that intergenerational learning project and, of course, consider the reflections from the students, our younger generation, on just how important it is to remember those who have served.

The Tea Tree Gully service was a really wonderful one, as always, and I was joined by a number of colleagues, both state and federal, cross-partisan and local councillors. I want to acknowledge the work of the Tea Tree Gully RSL and the City of Tea Tree Gully in putting that service together each year. Afterwards, we often go for a coffee at the Tea Tree Gully Coffee Shoppe, just up the road, and Jamie does an incredible job of putting on coffee for a cast of thousands after the service, which is always much appreciated, before going off to the Ridgehaven Scouts where I attend an ANZAC breakfast each year. That is another wonderful tradition: the Ridgehaven Scouts lay a wreath at the Tea Tree Gully dawn service. Having breakfast with them after the service and hearing from the young Scouts about their thoughts and reflections with respect to ANZAC Day I think is really important.

That morning, after I went home to quickly bake some ANZAC biscuits, I then went over to Ridgehaven Rise, one of our large retirement villages, to attend a church service inside the village put on by Reverend Jo, who is from St Luke's, Modbury (Wynn Vale). She presided over the church service in the village. It is an opportunity for members of the village to attend a service later in the day from the comfort of their own village, knowing that many are not able to get out to the dawn service or to church in the way that they may like to.

Something I was able to bring along with me was this beautiful donation from a cookie maker in Hope Valley named Carly. She donated this whole box of cookies with poppies on them and other beautiful tributes and asked me to take them with me to a local group as her commemoration of ANZAC Day that she wanted to give back to the local community, and so I brought that along for morning tea, and we had a really wonderful time. It was really interesting to chat with the residents, particularly those who had served. It was another lovely ANZAC Day in my community, and I felt privileged, as always, to be part of so many different events throughout the day.

I would also like to take a moment to talk about an event I hosted this morning, which was my teal morning tea in recognition of World Ovarian Cancer Day, which is next week, on 8 May. This was a really wonderful opportunity for me to acknowledge my personal connection with ovarian cancer, having had a number of loved ones who sadly have lost their lives to ovarian cancer, including a dear friend who died at just 27 in 2022. Today we were joined by a number of groups. We were joined by Natasha Stott Despoja, who was a really wonderful special guest to have up in the Balcony Room in her capacity as a former ambassador for Ovarian Cancer Australia.

We were also joined by a survivor and advocate from the OCRF, as well as TerryWhite Chemmart, representing the OCA, and also a large group of wonderful women from OC Challenge, which is South Australia's dedicated ovarian cancer charity. OC Challenge do some incredible work. They actually have two part-time nurses who go out to support women throughout their ovarian cancer diagnosis. It was really wonderful to have them with us today, as well as those who founded the charity, Debbie Gracie, Dr Margaret Davy and Carol Martin, who some would know from Port Adelaide Enfield council. They are group of women who got together to support the cause and also to provide supports to women living with this insidious disease. It was a pleasure to have everyone join us for that cause this morning.

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley.