Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) | Hansard source

CFA volunteers give back so much to our community, and today I want to pay tribute to a good friend of mine, someone I've known for 20 years: Tim Mitchelson, better known to all of us as Loaf. He's stepping back from the BMT at the Wandin Fire Brigade, but he has served our community with distinction. He was fourth lieutenant from 2009 to 2016 and captain from 2016 to 2022, and he has been the first lieutenant from 2022 until today. Loaf, thank you for your service. You've given so much to so many, keeping the community in Wandin, the wider Yarra Valley, all of Victoria and the country safe when called on. We appreciate your service. I know you're going to continue to give more to the Wandin community, continuing to work and be a volunteer for the CFA. Thank you, mate. We love you. We appreciate you. Thank you again.

The Casey community is lucky to have the best wine region in the world, the Yarra Valley. In my community, it provides jobs, it provides opportunity and it brings tourism to our community. We always deliver quality wines, and I want to pay tribute to some of the winners of so many awards.

At the National Wine Show of Australia Awards, Coldstream Hills had chief winemaker Andrew Fleming and winemaker Greg Jarratt be successful in winning the Sparkling Trophy for their 2018 Yarra Valley Pinot Noir Chardonnay. I want to pay tribute to De Bortoli—the managing director, Darren De Bortoli, and the Yarra Valley estate manager, Leanne De Bortoli—for winning the Red Varietal Trophy for their 2025 Yarra Valley Estate Vineyard Gamay. Giant Steps general manager Melanie Chester received the Pinot Trophy for the 2024 Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir, and they were also finalists in the Chardonnay and James Halliday red wine categories. To Soumah: congratulations on being a finalist for Sparkling. To Yarra Yering: congratulations on being a finalist for the cabernet blends and for being named in The Real Review's 2026 Top Wineries of Australia as Australia's top winery for the third year in a row. Levantine Hill, also in the Yarra Valley, came second. At the Victorian Wine Show, Oakridge Wines received the award for Best Wine of the Yarra Valley and the Victorian Premier's Trophy for their 2023 864 Funder and Diamond Drive Block Chardonnay. On the 2027 Halliday Wine Companion shortlist—with winners to be announced in August—are Oakridge Wines and Yeringberg for Winery of the Year; Rohan Smith from Medhurst Wines for Winemaker of the Year; Andrew George from Yarra Yering for Viticulturist of the Year; and Medhurst Wines for Best Value Winery. Congratulations.

There are not only amazing wineries—thank you for everything you give—but gins as well. I want to pay tribute to Four Pillars Distillery head distiller Sarah Prowse, who is the 2026 ADA Australian Distiller of the year, following in the footsteps of Cam Mackenzie, the founder and first distiller. Well done, Sarah. It is well deserved.

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