John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to draw the attention of the House to a young constituent of mine named Aaron Cadd. Aaron is an apprentice master builder living in Swan Hill. Last month he was able to lay claim to being the best apprentice in the state of Victoria by being awarded the 2006 Master Builders Association of Victoria State Apprentice of the Year. It is a great credit to young Aaron. I know Aaron very well. He is the son of the partner in my consulting engineering practice. I was actually around when young Aaron was born, which goes to show how I am moving on, because he is 22 years of age.

He has always been a modest young fellow, and he has now grown into a modest young man. He is very determined. He did not want to follow his father’s career of being a civil engineer. All he ever wanted to be from a young age was a builder. It is a great credit to him that he has achieved this status. This state award now makes him eligible—in fact, he has been nominated—for the National Apprentice of the Year award, which will be awarded here in Canberra in November. So I am sending a message of encouragement to young Aaron, wishing him all the best. He is certainly ably qualified to match it with the best around the nation.

His parents, of course, are over the moon at the success of their eldest son. He is due to complete his apprenticeship in November this year. He is greatly encouraged by beating the state’s best painters, plasterers, tilers, bricklayers and builders. He said that it is wonderful to finally nail this award. He has a wonderful sense of humour.

In addition to that, other accolades include him being named Master Builders Association of Victoria Apprentice of the Year for the Bendigo region and the Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE’s most outstanding student for carpentry and joinery. These qualifications, of course, meant his application for the state award sounded very good.

His employer, David Carmichael, who is a longstanding builder in Swan Hill and who is very proud, rightly deserves some accolades for ensuring that Aaron has received the broadest of possible educations. I have known David Carmichael and his wife, Pat, for many years, going back to Rotary. He is as chuffed, I think, as young Aaron and Aaron’s father, Geoff, and his mother, Jenny. David Carmichael says:

We in our own minds thought the state award would go to the metropolitan one—

the metropolitan section winner, that is—

because that’s what they normally do.

But credit to young country people. Aaron has pulled this off. I am very confident that he will feature very well in the national awards. He is a great young man in the community. He follows his father’s favourite football club in the Swan Hill league, playing for Tyntynder. Geoff is the immediate past president of the football club. Aaron is tall and athletic, and it gives me a great sense of pride to speak in this chamber and to say that I have known him very well. I will be present in November to accompany him, and I am confident that he will pull off the national award as well. He is a great credit to, and this is a wonderful opportunity to speak to, young people out there in rural Australia, whom Aaron Cadd represents.