Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today with a heavy heart to honour the life and legacy of an extraordinary woman, Carol Porter OAM, a longtime resident of Latrobe, a pillar of our community and a very close and dear friend to myself and so many. Just two weeks ago we lost Carol. With her passing our community has lost one of the greatest champions. Carol Porter was a local legend who impacted many lives with her selfless service. A lifelong resident of Officer district, Carol poured her heart, energy and her remarkable generosity of spirit into helping others, particularly in the community.

Carol was involved in an incredible 15 organisations. She served with the Officer Hall Committee, the Officer Football Club, the Officer Union Church committee, the St John of God hospital and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She also served her community through her work with the Officer community association, the Probus club, the Red Cross and the Officer Memorial Gates. Those gates were moved when the oval had to be realigned, and Carol was the one who did all the hard work putting the application in. Carol also played a significant leadership role as a director of the Board of Directors for Beaconsfield District Community Financial Services, serving since it was established nearly seven years ago and helping ensure local banking profits were reinvested back into our local community.

Carol's advocacy helped shape the Officer community we know today. She was instrumental in so many local achievements. She fought to return the post office box to Officer, and that was a very interesting one. One day Australia Post decided to move the Officer post office box, and Carol got me down there and said we want it back. I said, 'Carol, you can't go up against Australia Post.' She said, 'Well, you'd better start making speeches and petitions.' We did all that. Eventually we had the Australia Post regional manager in the office, and, after the meeting, the regional manager said to me, 'Is this Carol Porter going to give up?' I said, 'Make our lives easier and bring the thing back.' I may have used a few other words. Lo and behold, Officer now has its post office box back—all due to Carol. It's the same with the traffic lights at the intersection of Tivendale Road. There's also the big one, Beaconsfield interchange. Carol was on the Officer township committee and worked with the Beaconsfield Progress Association. That's a major project she fought to get. She also fought and stopped the poker machines coming into Officer. I think it's one of the first times a case has gone to VCAT and VCAT decided in favour of the local community, to keep pokies out because of the damage pokies do to families.

She's always been an amazing contributor to our local community. She received—as you would expect based on what I've said so far—the Medal of the Order of Australia to recognise her for amazing community service. Madam Deputy Speaker Sharkie, you'll love this. She was a staunch Liberal. She was very Liberal. She was the person who, right from the start, got behind me. If it weren't for Carol, I wouldn't be a member of parliament. She's been a great mentor. I also want to say she's a very fair person. She worked with everyone in the community to make sure that, whatever the project was, it would be delivered to our community. Many conversations I had with Carol over the years started with Carol saying, 'Jason, somebody needs to tell you,' to which I would reply, 'Carol, why is it always you?' She's one of those constituents who would never give up.

Her husband, Rob Porter, is sadly not with us any longer. He was also awarded an Order of Australia. They championed the Officer recreation reserve, and it's got new basketball courts in it. Carol was the one who led the charge there. The next mission was the sports club, which was upgraded. And, finally, there were the social rooms. I say to the Porter clan: thank you very much for allowing Rob and Carol to do so much for our community. To Geoff and his wife, Jayne; Gavin and his wife, Toni; the six grandchildren; and the four great grandchildren, we feel your immense loss, and we also feel your immense pride knowing what Carol and Rob have done for the electorate of La Trobe and especially for the people of Officer. May they both rest in peace.

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