Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to mention two events that have happened in my electorate of Solomon in the last couple of weeks. The first was the opening of new facilities at Kormilda College. They were opened on 10 June by me. The capital works that were opened involved the construction of the vocational education training centre and independent living units. They are outstanding facilities that will help ensure all students at Kormilda College are encouraged to realise their full potential and attain their goals.

Kormilda College is a fantastic college in the Northern Territory and it will hold its own around Australia. The project totalled nearly $13 million, of which the federal government put in $9 million of funding. The school community also raised $2.5 million. This demonstrates the Australian government’s commitment to providing every student with the best possible learning environment through the provisions of these new and updated facilities. The school is going from strength to strength; it is one of the best schools in the Northern Territory.

The second event I had the pleasure of going to was the Glenti, the Greek festival. The Glenti has been going for 21 years. The president of the Greek community, John Nikolakis, does a lot of hard work. A lot of the stuff that the Greek community does is raising funds for charities. The Glenti co-founder, Lillian Gomatos, and her committee have been working very hard on this annual event since 1988. There are also many other people who work very hard to deliver this to Darwin: the Olympic soccer club, the Hellenic soccer club, the Kalymnian Brotherhood, the panhellenic Macedonian association, the Kalymnian sister cities, the Greek morning school and the Greek Orthodox community of Northern Australia all contribute to what is a fantastic weekend.

This year they raised $13,000 in two hours on Friday night towards the Greek aged care facility. The Glenti also raised $44,000 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation in a day and a half. They also raised $180,000—this is all on the one weekend—for the Greek associations around Darwin, and they estimate that they will probably end up raising approximately half a million dollars. The Greek community is a fantastic community in my electorate and I commend them on another fantastic Glenti.