Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last weekend, as I have done for several years now, I was involved in Relay for Life. Relay for Life is an event that occurs right throughout Australia where the Cancer Council raises funds for cancer victims in hopes of one day finding the result and the cure for this insidious disease, cancer. Relay for Life began in Australia in 1999, when the Victorian community of Murrumbeena raised over $75,000 for the Cancer Council. Relay for Life is now run in every state and territory, and raises over $14 million each year for the cancer fight. In addition to ensuring the events run like clockwork, volunteers are brought in together with the staff of the Cancer Council for Relay for Life events in their communities, and they help make it a successful and inspirational day and night—the event starts at 3 pm on a Saturday and concludes at 9 am on Sunday. Relaying round a track for 18 hours on the weekend is certainly an arduous task, but in a teamwork environment we get through it.

This year, as in 2010, our team was the second highest fundraising team, raising $15,161.75. To date we have raised a total of $85,000 as a team since we commenced. Overall, the Brisbane Relay for Life teams, of which there are around 83 or more, raised around $105,000 just in the Brisbane relay alone. In addition, and based on our team's theme as scoundrels, we dressed as pirates and picked up the 'best dressed team' award. It was amazing to see people come along and get into the environment and into the theme of having a bit of enjoyment—even I got dressed up in a pirate costume. Some even claim I was Johnny Depp, but I dispute those sorts of claims.

Obviously, the real purpose of the occasion is raising money for the Cancer Council, and the fundraising commences well into the early stages of the lead-up to the event. I acknowledge the people who were involved in that. Firstly, our team members Wendy and Carol Cooke got involved with a framed Broncos jersey, courtesy of Carroll Excavations. Andy Carroll is the owner and major contributor, and the SPM Group donated the cost of framing and contributed to the raffle prizes. Christian Van and his sister Natalie Van, who recently lost their father to cancer, sold hundreds of the jersey raffle tickets at a local football match. That was the early onset of raising money for the Senate Scoundrels.

Another major event involved the consideration and the generosity of two groups of people. Firstly, I acknowledge Club Pine Rivers for a fundraising event on 23 September, where we raised in excess of $4,000. I thank Bob Ebborn, the president of Club Pine Rivers, and Wayne Moffatt, the CEO. They put on the event, supplied the venue at no cost and supplied finger-food and mid-strength drinks and soft drinks, as well as beer and wine, as part of the entry cost. We sold in excess of around 120 tickets. This demonstrates the good community spirit of Club Pine Rivers in making that contribution towards raising money for such a charity as the Cancer Council.

The main drawcard, and also a great supporter of ours, was Australia Zoo. Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin came along with a couple of animals—a snake and a South American bird, a macaw. People were delighted, naturally, to have their photos taken with the Irwins and also the animals, and that was a drawcard to get people along to raise money once again for Cancer Council. There were raffles, lucky door prizes and a bit of an auction on the night of some T-shirts signed by Bindi Irwin to further raise money for the Cancer Council.

A feature Cancer Council has had for some years now is a national online site, which was one of the main areas where we drew donations. People can donate online, and we had several people put through donations online to our team and to all the other teams that were involved. During the event, our particular way to raise money was to get people to walk the plank as pirates—blindfolded, naturally—and at the end they had to drop money in a bucket of water, which we said was shark infested. Our other event was digging for buried treasure in a bucket of sand. All this contributed to raising money onsite throughout the night.

The make-up of the team was: myself; Senator Moore; Abdul Obeid; Terry Kent and Christine Stubbs from my office; Russell Vieritz; Anneleise Vieritz; Wendy Cooke and Carol Cooke; John Hamze; Sharon Stocker; Vinay Nair; Chelsea Lambert; Courtney Lambert; John Marshall; and some members who joined us along the path. Petrina Zaphir from Channel 9 News on the Gold Coast and Vicki James from Cancer Council Queensland also dressed as pirate wenches and got involved later on in the night to complement the Senate Scoundrels.

There is a whole list of donors and they need to be recorded on Hansard. We start with: Club Pine Rivers; Australia Zoo; Peter Birtles from Super Retail Group; Russell Thirgood; Gail Kerr from Access Services Inc.; Terri Irwin; Tasmanian Senator Catryna Bilyk; Russell Furner; Doug Flockart from Clubs Queensland; John Battams from the Queensland Teachers Union; Matthew Flanagan; Shan Ju Lin; Robert Mukombozi; Antione Ghanem from Byblos Bar and Restaurant Brisbane; Kath Nelson from Australian Services Union Queensland Branch; Peter Finn from Lion Dairy and Drinks; Karen Barfoot from Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals; the Hon. Mark Dreyfus; Mike Symon, the member for Deakin; Inspector John Fox from Queensland Police; Christine Flage; Robyn Deane; the Hon. Kevin Rudd; Rikki Mawad; Brendan McShanag; David Smith from the Australian Services Union; Melody Edwardson; Jeanie Rogers; Bronwyn Tutty;

Senator Carol Brown; Meg Hart; Shayne Neumann, the member for Blair; Bidvest; Glenn Sutcliffe of IGA Distribution; Laurie Ferguson, the member for Werriwa; Lanna Lee from the Thai on Grand restaurant; Petrina Zaphir from Channel 9 News; and Vicki James from the Cancer Council of Queensland. And there were many others who bought tickets and attended the fundraiser at Club Pine Rivers to contribute to our team raising over $15,000. All those donors over the years have brought our team total to over $85,000—not a bad achievement, if I say so myself.

I will give you a bit of an idea of the night. The first stage of the event is the survivors walk, where the survivors march around the relay course to demonstrate the fact that they have actually survived cancer. That is followed by a very moving candlelight vigil where people light candles for the family or friends they have lost to cancer. That time of the night is such a moving event. As I have spoken about, there are games and entertainment, along with what we did. This time round there were also stage performances. Some fellas dressed up as women. I could not get into that myself, naturally. But there was a performance by Petrina Zaphir which surprised us. She went on stage and sang a couple of numbers and showed a clear attribute that no-one knew she had.

I also want to thank the staff and volunteers who made this event so successful. It is an event that we will get involved in year after year. In fact, we are already discussing how we will coordinate the event for 2012 and what we might call ourselves as a team next year. Our aim is to smash this year's total and try to get around $30,000 or $40,000 for the Cancer Council of Queensland. I am sure that with the commitment of the people involved this year and the people who want to be part of our team next year we are going to reach that amount.

Senate adjourned at 20:39