Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to congratulate the seven constituents from Shortland whose achievements were recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday honours, a wonderful acknowledgement of your contribution to our community. Associate Professor Seamus Fagan from Belmont has been made a Member of the Order for Australia for significant service to tertiary education, particularly to English language teaching. Four of my constituents received a Medal of the Order of Australia: John Deacon of Kahibah for his service to the performing arts and education; Wendy Naylor of San Remo for service to veterans and their families; Gregory Paterson of Belmont for his service to the performing arts, particularly to music; and Lorraine Blair from Belmont for service to the community. I've been fortunate to have met Lorraine a number of times, including presenting her with Shortland volunteer awards. Lorraine is an integral member of Sailability Belmont, a not-for-profit organisation offering people with disabilities the opportunity to sail. She is also the chairwoman of Headstart Acquired Brain Injury Services. People like Lorraine are the life blood of our community, and this award is well-deserved.

Congratulations are also in order for Peter Elliott of Charlestown, who received an Ambulance Service Medal, and Ronald Calman of Jewells, who was awarded an Emergency Services Medal. Congratulations again to all the Shortland Queen's Birthday honours recipients for 2020. I rarely agree with the member for Goldstein on anything, but I do agree with his closing remarks, the recipients of these awards around the country are the foundations of our wonderful community. Congratulations to all of them.