Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I congratulate all of the volunteers and hardworking people who engaged in Clean up Australia Day 2015 in the electorate of Mitchell and indeed in Western Sydney. I was pleased to host my own site, as I have done for 15 years—before and since I came to parliament—and I have always taken the view that Clean Up Australia Day represents one of those great programs in which people get together as a community and do something about their own local environment in a meaningful and practical way. So I thank all those 50 volunteers who turned up to the site that I hosted at Third Settlement Reserve in Winston Hills—those Winston Hills residents who were able to get up at 8 am and get into historic Toongabbie Creek and get rid of all the rubbish that we were able to remove from that creek, which was considerable.

I thank Councillor Mark Taylor from the Hills Shire Council, who co-hosted the site with me and was a fantastic asset in this process; and the Deputy Mayor of the Hills Shire Council, Michelle Byrne; the Mayor of Parramatta, Scott Lloyd; and Parramatta Councillor Bob Dwyer—great support from our local councillors. We were also joined by the Girl Guides, who were fantastic in picking up all the rubbish on either side of the creek.

As we have heard from other members, over 300,000 people participated in the first Clean Up Australia Day some 25 years ago, removing tonnes and tonnes of rubbish. It has become one of those iconic environmental programs that are uniquely Australian, where people get involved in their local community and do the hard work that needs to be done for the environment.

I particularly thank all of those who assisted with putting the day together and all of the sites in Mitchell.