Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my seat of Page there were lots of events and activities over the Christmas-New Year period and in January. Some of them were sad and tragic, while others were full of joy and were positive. I will speak of two events that happened recently.

Some members would have heard about the tragic drowning of Joe and Carole Sherry at South Ballina. They drowned while they were trying to rescue their two children who were in the surf and were caught in a rip. The children, Elise and Nicholas, thankfully, made it back to shore. But their parents, tragically, drowned. On behalf of all the people of Page I would like to extend my condolences and sympathy to the family, to the grandmother, and I am sure that all the members in this place would join me in that. But I would also like to say, ‘Well done,’ to the local police, from the Richmond command area particularly, who just set to and started to raise money for the family. They have raised quite an enormous amount of money for the children and their futures. So I say, ‘Really well done,’ to everybody who was involved and rallied around.

The other thing that happened was that on 27 January we had a fierce storm which ripped through Casino, Kyogle and Lismore and then went further afield to Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby and the Tweed area. It is estimated that it did about $5 million worth of damage. I was actually following behind it. I am often out, driving around the electorate, and I was going over to Casino. It ripped through there, down the Summerland Way, and I saw some of that damage. A few roofs came off. One belonged to someone I know quite well, Kay McGrath in Kyogle. That has been repaired. Nobody was hurt, thank God. And well done to the Richmond Tweed SES who hopped to—I think they had 71 jobs that came out of that storm—and to the Rural Fire Service and the fire brigade.

I will talk of one other thing. The other day I opened the Our Life Blood exhibition. It contains memorabilia from Red Cross and the Voluntary Aid Detachments, as they then were; they started as ‘blue aides’, I think, back in World War I. The exhibition showed all of their activities in the Richmond River area. It was hosted by the Alstonville Plateau Historical Society, whose president is Ian Kirkland, and there were present Helen Wynd, who gave the Red Cross 71 years continuous service; Pat Steeles, who gave 73 years continuous service; and Elsie Johnston, who gave 71 years continuous service to the Red Cross. Those are remarkable achievements. And thank you to Kerrie Gray and Claire Dwyer of the local Red Cross who put the exhibition together.