Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 31 October I opened the Kapunda Show. It was a great honour to open the Kapunda Show for 2009. Kapunda, of course, is the town I grew up in. It was a very special day for me. I saw many of my old schoolmates and friends from Kapunda. I would particularly like to thank the show committee for the great honour, including the President, Mrs Roxanne Rosenzweig, who I went to school with; the Vice-President, Ms Lorin Fiebig; the Treasurer, Mr Ron Lee; and the Secretary, who I know always has a busy show day, Mrs Jacqui Bridge. They run a wonderful show every year.

The show is a great focus for community involvement and participation. It is a great place for people to see one another. I did bump into a few old charges too—Ross Vogt, who is 86 years old and still riding motorbikes, which I think is pretty incredible, and Reg Rawadi, who ran a deli in Kapunda for many years and was involved in the musical society in the town. He is an absolute institution in the town. He is a great fellow.

On 7 November we had a charity dinner in my electorate called Championing the Cause. They used me to advertise it, but of course there were a great many people who were really involved in the organisation. I want to honour them. The charity dinner was for the Elizabeth Special School, the Elizabeth Vale School, Northern Carers and the Northern Domestic Violence Service. They are all very good causes. I want to thank Ian May; Jodie Habermehl; Kathy Tripodi; Marge Roger; Ian Hartley-Brammer; Carmela Zappia; Chris Miller; Sharon van Pamelen; David Chehade; Angela MacFarlane; Leona Cox; Shirley Young; Lee Odenwalder, who works in my office; and Leesa Vlahos, who is the state candidate for Taylor. All of those people did a great job in organising a very good dinner. It raised a great deal of money for local causes.

On 15 November I also attended the Balaklava Community Children’s Centre for their 50th anniversary. I want to thank Chris Fisher, the director, for that honour. We opened a new veranda. The chairperson there is Jo Michalanny. They both work extremely hard at providing a very good kindergarten for Balaklava. To survive 50 years, to prosper and to be able to construct a new veranda is a terrific achievement. I want to congratulate them as well.