Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure for me to talk today about an event which is very synonymous with our community. I had a phone call at about 7.30 this morning from a colleague of mine Mr Isaac Day, with whom I worked previously in Casino. He told me that he was coming here today with McAuley Catholic College, in Grafton. Some of them are here right now. To all of you from McAuley Catholic College: it is great to see you and, indeed, your teachers here in Parliament House today.

Even better than that, what I am talking about this morning is the Jacaranda Festival and every student of McAuley Catholic College and their teachers well know about the Jacaranda Festival. It is a great celebration in our community.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not know whether you have been to Grafton. But it is one of the most beautiful cities in Australia, synonymous with the Jacaranda tree. They are now in flower, so we have the festival every year at this time. In fact, this year marks the 80th year of the festival. So it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, festivals—certainly the oldest folk festival in the country.

This year's president is Monique Morrisey. The secretary is Lainie Edwards. I want to acknowledge a few people who are contesting some of the things. We have the Jacaranda Queen and we have the Junior Jacaranda candidates. They are Bonita Reynolds, Tiahna Woodward, Bernadette White, Olivia Alford, Erica Tillman and Megan Tillman. The Junior Jacaranda Queen director is Karen Hackett.

The Jacaranda Queen candidates this year are Emily Causley, Rachael Mackenzie, Stephanie Elliot and Madeline McDonald. Last year's Jacaranda Queen was Cerene Lowe, and she did me the honour of opening my private office in Grafton earlier this year.

The sponsors are very important to an event like this. They are Summerland Credit Union, Flight Centre, the Clarence Valley Council, Blanchard's, Westlawn, Sweet Treats & Gifts, Grafton Shoppingworld, Newcastle Permanent, Harveys jewellers, McKimms Real Estate, Gateway Lifestyle, Ruby Connection and Two Tails winery.

It all starts this Friday night. We have the Jacaranda ball on Friday night. I will certainly be attending that. I will be missing some of the events for Jacaranda week, next week—as parliament is sitting—but will certainly be there next Saturday when we have the float parade. It is a big day on Saturday the 1st, and hopefully I will be seeing many of you there on that day.

I hope you have enjoyed your tour of Parliament House today. I will leave here with you and we might have a photo out the front. Teachers, it is great to see you and Isaac, it is especially good to see you.