Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

Across the south-west of Victoria on the long weekend we saw the very best of what our volunteers do by putting on the wonderful community events which thousands upon thousands of people attend. We had the Port Fairy Folk Festival, and once again people turned up in their thousands to watch a great display of folk music. And to all the wonderful volunteers who put that on, a huge congratulations and thank you. In particular, thank you for what you then put back into the community, back into the clubs and the schools that service the community so wonderfully well.

There was also the nippers carnival on at the Warrnambool Surf Lifesaving Club. What a venue to host the nippers from right across Victoria, and once again the Warrnambool Surf Lifesaving Club do such a fantastic job putting that event on. And I say this to the Victorian state government: this club deserves your support, including you helping them fund a new club facility. The hours that those volunteers put in and what they contribute to not only keeping people safe along the beach but also running carnivals that people from across Victoria come to is second to none. They deserve your support. And a big shout-out to John McNeil. I was able to go over, have a chat with John and find out all the latest that was occurring with the nippers carnival.

We also had the lawn tennis championships on at the Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club, and what an event! I had the great honour of being able to enter in both the doubles and the singles—admittedly not at the highest grade. On the Friday afternoon, I had a very good social game of doubles, which was a lot of fun, and then we were able to have a sausage and a cold beer afterwards, which was great. Unfortunately we went down, but I was able to redeem myself in the singles the next morning, which was fantastic. I've got to say there were some muscles that I hadn't used before, because I hadn't played tennis for a while, which then meant I was a little bit sore to continue on for the rest of the tournament.

To Lew Officer, Kim Tobin and all the volunteers at the Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club, thank you for putting on such a great event. Once again, people travel from right across Victoria to come play and contribute. They spend dollars in the local community. They have great social fun. There are young kids, there are people playing in the veterans—it's just absolutely fantastic. So well done to everyone across the long weekend.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11 : 05 to 11 : 18

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