Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to acknowledge two environmental achievements within the electorate of Flinders. The first is in relation to the Sunshine Reserve Conservation and Fireguard Group. This is a group in Mount Martha which has spent many years working on bank stabilisation, land remediation and planting. The group has been led by Jill Gordon and supported by her husband, Malcolm. Over the last decade and beyond they have done extraordinary practical work in turning an area which was largely a wasteland into a viable, functioning area of publicly accessible parkland. It is a privately philanthropically created parkland which is available to the entire Mount Martha and Mornington community.

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to have attended the Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria awards. The primary award for community service is the Dame Phyllis Frost award. I was delighted to see—and it was to my genuine surprise—that the recipient of that award was Jill Gordon, and she received it on behalf of the Sunshine Reserve Conservation and Fireguard Group. So this small group of volunteers from Mount Martha, who have acted on their own with support from the Envirofund over the past few years, was acknowledged as the single environmental group within Victoria to have done the most to enhance community environmental awareness and the most to enhance their specific environment, and as the outstanding group. So I want to pass on my congratulations not just to Jill and Malcolm but to all the members, both past and present, of the Sunshine Reserve Conservation and Fireguard Group.

The second thing that I wish to acknowledge before the House is the allocation of $200,000 under the Natural Heritage Trust to the Australian Maritime College to establish an international level marine biosecurity program as part of their work at the National Centre for Marine and Coastal Conservation at Point Nepean. In essence, the Australian Maritime College have been assisted in bringing together international experts from New Zealand, the United States and Latin America to focus on marine pests such as the Northern Pacific sea star, which have invaded and are having a real impact on the environment of Port Phillip. This is part of building a world-class marine education facility at Point Nepean for the Mornington Peninsula, for the people of Victoria. I am delighted that we have been able to help in a small way. (Time expired)