House debates

Monday, 25 June 2018

Statements by Members

Menzies Electorate: Rotary Club of Manningham

1:52 pm

Photo of Kevin AndrewsKevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I was delighted last night to attend the changeover dinner for the Manningham Rotary club in my electorate. As honourable members will know, this time of this year is the changeover period for Rotary clubs when one president literally hands the chains of office to the incoming president. I was delighted to be there last night when Soula Ganiatsas was handed the chains of office to be the president of the Manningham Rotary club for the next 12 months, taking over from Roger Chong, who was in the role for the previous year, and indeed his wife, Christina, who was the president the year before. I was also delighted that district governor-elect Russell Gurney and his wife, Shelley, were in attendance, as was one of the great contributors in my electorate, Jeffrey Tan, who was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the recent Queen's Birthday awards that were notified on that day.

It was great that the Rotary Club of Manningham was able to make a presentation of a cheque to Doreen Stoves, the CEO of Doncare, the major welfare organisation in my electorate. Doreen Stoves said something which really struck, I think, everybody in the room, and that is that it's hard to understand that there are people in Manningham who have no food. This, as honourable members will know, is a relatively middle-class area of Melbourne, yet here we have a major welfare organisation saying that there are people going hungry from a lack of food in my electorate. There's much more that we can all do in that regard.