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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-25 Daily Xml
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Volunteers

Ms PRATT (Frome) (15:42): Volunteering has been at the heart of many interactions I have had for the last four years, and I have developed an even stronger appreciation for the incalculable hours that go into good people contributing to their community for nothing more than the feeling of helping others. We have a national challenge to lift the profile of volunteering and boost the meaning and the purpose of altruism. I think that starts in schools with the teaching of student voice and civics and citizenship.

As I reflect on the anniversary of the Pinery fire, which took place 10 years ago, it has been my latest reminder to understand how lucky we are to have people who make time to volunteer today, so I want to tell the story of Lions Australia and their members. On Sunday, at the commemoration for the Pinery fire anniversary, it was clear that volunteering had been at the heart of the recovery.

Four Lions Clubs need a special mention for their efforts on the ground that day, that week and for the months and years that followed. Balaklava, Mallala, Gilbert Valley and Gawler clubs were all essential to the recovery effort. On Sunday, they came together again to provide catering for over 400 people. I must give special mention, of course, to the Freeling Netball Club, who supported with the afternoon tea, but back to the Lions.

The Balaklava and District Lions Club, with president Adrian Shepherd, was integral to the recovery effort, with fundraising and relief support ready and able, and I sincerely thank them for their contribution. Since then, they have continued to raise money for cancer by holding Biggest Morning Teas for the last 27 years; in fact, this year alone they have raised $9,000.

The next club to mention within my electorate is the Clare District Lions Club. The president is currently Ken Bradford, but he has been ably supported by his wife and former president, Yvonne Bradford, in the past. I also mention Art Yandell, Rosemary Gale, Sue Mayfield, Marie Parker, Rob Royal, Ron Wurst, Greg Gibbs, Gareth Heron, Allan Mayfield, John Applebee and many more. I will often find these characters hanging out at the Clare Lions Furniture Shed, particularly on a Friday where, while they are very busy moving furniture around that supports a lot of locals, including myself, to find a spare office chair or a bedside table, it is the BBQ fun and laughs that I know they enjoy most of all.

Associated with the Clare group is also the Gonna Group—'we are gonna get it done'—and I cannot commend them highly enough for the assistance they provide to elderly people for those one-off jobs, certainly in the absence of a workforce for domiciliary care in regional South Australia. The Clare group also contributes to the Community Support Services Directory, a booklet that promotes a one-stop hub of community services, and just recently they organised a 'Harmony Nook', which created a dementia-friendly community morning tea, and I thank them for it.

The Lions Club of Mallala and District, with president Vaughan Chenoweth—a hero and larger-than-life figure of the community—supported the Adelaide Plains FarmHers Day in the Dust experience, that allowed women on the land to lift their spirits during the drought, have a few laughs, kick the dust around on the Owen football oval, and focus on themselves for a while.

Since Pinery, the Lions Club of Mallala has raised awareness and funds to build the Mallala Community Complex, which was awarded Community Project of the Year. That Mallala Community Complex now exists as a purpose-built emergency relief centre. That is the innovation and progress we have seen since the tragic fire, an investment in our own recovery services. The meeting space also features a display about that Pinery fire and the disaster that prompted the club to build the centre in the first place.

I also want to mention the Lions Club of Gilbert Valley and president Mike Thompson, as well as other members like Stuart and Carmel Paxton, who I caught up with on Sunday. All those Gilbert Valley volunteers will often be cooking the cinnamon sugar doughnuts we love to savour.

All of that comes to the point I want to make; that is, it is time both houses support and establish a SA Parliamentary Lions Club. Meeting with proponents today, it is clear how meaningful that experience is for them. When I asked them why they joined, they said, 'Where there's a disaster, there's a lion ready to help.' So I look forward, in the next term, to working with my parliamentary colleagues to establish that club, given that next year the national convention will be held here in Adelaide.

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