Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the memory of my friend David Lennie, who tragically passed away aged 54 in September this year. David was known to the Cairns community as the man who ran the Cairns Community Christmas Lunch, a free lunch that last year fed over 500 people of varying backgrounds and demographics. It gave them a place to be with each other and provided joy. Over 120 volunteers came in at the behest of David and fed our community, gave refugees a place to stay and gave homeless people a day to feel wanted, valued and loved.

David was a man who believed in giving back to his community and did so in spades. He will be very much missed. I spoke to David in July to donate money so that the children who attended would have Christmas presents this year, and I looked forward to spending December with him, because the man's energy was infectious. He went from go to woah, doing 16-hour days in the lead-up to get everything ready at the boarding school and make sure that Christmas meant something to every single person in Cairns, no matter what their station was in life. Our community owes him a debt of thanks, and he will be very missed.

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