Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that Rotary Australia and New Zealand celebrates its centenary anniversary and first 100 years of service in 2021;

(2) recognises over 100 years, the strong trust, confidence and worldwide recognition developed through the actions of Rotarians in support of communities;

(3) notes:

(a) Rotary's important work partnering the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and its involvement in the End Trachoma project; and

(b) there are approximately 30,000 members who belong to one of the 1,052 charter Rotary clubs established throughout Australia; and

(4) congratulates Rotary on its participation in global initiatives that have fostered peace, changed the world, helped communities and families, and fundamentally made a measurable difference to the unique lives of millions.

Australia is a nation of givers. We are a generous people. We look after our mates, we support those in need and we certainly are a nation of volunteers. In fact, it's estimated that there are more than seven million active volunteers right across our great nation—ordinary people regularly giving up their time to achieve extraordinary things. Of all the volunteers across Australia, 30,000 belong to a local Rotary club. This year, 2021, marks 100 years of Rotary in Australia and New Zealand. That's 100 years of Rotary volunteers doing great work within their local communities right across the nation. A wonderful demonstration of the organisation's long-term impact is the project to eradicate polio. Thirty-five years ago, Rotary became a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Through this initiative, nearly three billion children in 122 countries have been protected against this paralysing disease.

Over the last 100 years the international efforts of Rotary in Australia have been truly remarkable. But equally important is the 100 years of support that Rotarians have provided to their local communities. Today I want to focus on the great work that's being done in Rotary district 9830. This district covers the entire state of Tasmania, my home state, and I'm proud of it. There are around 50 Rotary clubs spread right across the state, with more than 1,200 members busily working away. Day in, day out, they make such a lasting difference. During this time of uncertainty, the work that they do—the work that's being undertaken by Rotary clubs right of cross the state—is particularly important.

Many clubs, quite rightly, are focusing on programs that support wellbeing in our communities, and there's no doubt that there's a significant need and requirement when it comes to wellbeing. Many are struggling with the uncertainty of COVID and the issues that that pandemic has brought, and to that end the program called Boots on the Ground aims to address this need. This is a partnership between Rotary Tasmania Community Care, Tasmanian Women in Agriculture and Rural Alive & Well. The focus is on raising awareness of mental health and on practical, on-the-ground support for rural Tasmanians to improve their wellbeing. Under the program, 400 people from right across the state recently attended the 'Are you bogged mate?' workshop. This program focuses on mental health and suicide prevention within the farming community and helps to break down the stigma for asking for help.

Another program that is underway is the Grumpy Goat Co Care Farm project. This project uses animals and farming practices to assist young people in overcoming mental, social and physical challenges. The pilot program will initially be based in Smithton in my home electorate of Braddon. Partnering with the University of Tasmania, they will be collecting data to determine the effectiveness and the outcomes of treatments. If successful, this is planned to be rolled out right across the rest of the state.

One of the impressive aspects of Rotary is their commitment to partnering with other organisations at all levels of government right across the state. A great example of this in northern Tasmania is the mobile health buses. These two buses were donated by the Tasmanian government and transformed thanks to a $100,000 federal grant and additional money raised by Rotary Tasmania. The buses are now in the very capable hands of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, with the emphasis on increasing youth mental health support in the bush. These buses are focusing on preventive mental health screening, telehealth services, counselling, nutrition and health education.

So thanks to all Rotarians. Thanks for the work that you've done and you'll continue to do to make our state a better place. Kick up your heels and celebrate this wonderful achievement, this 100-year milestone. I wish you well for the year ahead.

Finally, I wish to give a big shout-out to the members of the Wynyard Rotary Club. Wynyard Rotary Club will celebrate their 50th anniversary on 18 June. I know everyone in this place will certainly join me and wish them a wonderful celebration and a wonderful Saturday night.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't think there are many members of parliament who can cite Rotary as one of the fundamental reasons why they've ended up in this place, but I can, and so I'm thrilled to be able to speak on the 100-year anniversary of Rotary.

Rotary is not just something I admire as a local MP who recognises its work as benefiting my own community as well as people around the world through programs like polio eradication or cleft palate correction through Interplast. Rotary was what pushed me fast down a path of seeing that individuals can change many things in the world and that groups of individuals can make an even bigger difference. I first got involved with Rotary as a 14-year-old when Strathfield Rotary hosted debating competitions between local public high schools. This was the 1970s. I learnt a lot as a representative of Strathfield Girls High School and I also got to see my dad's involvement as a Rotarian, including as president, treasurer—the fate of every accountant in Rotary!—and district treasurer. I helped establish an Interact club and later a Rotaract club.

Then Rotary decided that I should go to RYLA, the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camp, one of those pivotal experiences. It was my first visit to Springwood, which is now my own electorate, at Blue Gum Lodge. I still remember the people I met and the different perspectives I got on leadership.

Then I was a Rotary exchange student, one of Rotary's most challenging but transformational programs. It's one of the reasons I'm here today. Rotary sent me to Mexico. This was 1981. Now, I didn't know what I was getting into, nor did the other Aussies heading across with me, and there would have been about 10 of us. I've kept in touch with many of them, and to a person we know that the year living with generous Mexican families, making friends at school, travelling across the country and learning Spanish completely changed us—changed us profoundly. I shared the experience with people like former journalist Virginia Haussegger AM; technology entrepreneur and inventor Dr Steven Frisken, who won the 2018 Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation; TAFE policy expert James Worner; and education researcher Dr Alison Reedy. I am clearly the underachiever of the group! No doubt they would all have achieved great things no matter what, but the gift Rotary gave us was immeasurable, as it was for Elloyse Saw, now doing her PhD, around carers of people with mental illness, in Newcastle. Her year in Brazil, more than a decade ago, shaped her life, and it was thanks to Springwood Rotary club, of which my father is still a member and I'm now an honorary member.

My parents were very proud to host Rotary exchange students from South Africa and Brazil, and I've been proud to host students from Brazil and Germany. All those students, now adults with their own careers, say that the Australian experience with Rotary was life-changing. That's why we really need to mark this hundred years. It isn't just the sausage sizzles that they do in our community—although is there a weekend without a Rotary sausage sizzle? The last year has been tough without them. I want to give a shout-out to all the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains clubs, who've celebrated the hundred years in their own ways. But the big red Rotary bus—a Fantastic Aussie Tours bus decked out in Rotary signage and supported by the Rotary E-Club of Greater Sydney, of which some of my locals are members—was a common theme throughout my electorate.

Each club is different but they're all making a difference: Central Blue Mountains Rotary, where I see a strong focus on mental health, especially around bushfires; Upper Blue Mountains Sunrise Rotary, raising money for so many local causes, including homelessness; Rotary Lower Blue Mountains, who have run the local Glenbrook markets for nearly two decades, an enormous effort on their part; Rotary Club of Katoomba, who continue to strongly support youth exchange; Rotary Club of Springwood and their Music Amongst the Autumn Leaves, which brings together mountains schools' talented musicians; and Rotary Club of Blackheath, with members working on bushfire recovery, in particular following the last terrible bushfires. And then there are the Hawkesbury clubs: Richmond, with their commitment, for years and years, at the Hawkesbury show; Windsor, who have ongoing support for disadvantaged students; and Kurrajong North Richmond, with a very strong commitment to the Great Rotary Whitewater Duck Race. That's just a fraction of what these clubs do week in, week out. They're a big part of what makes our community strong. I wish them a happy hundredth and I hope they're going strong for another hundred years.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to rise to speak on this motion by the member for Braddon and to congratulate Rotary Australia and New Zealand on their centenary anniversary and first 100 years of service to our communities. I'd especially like to congratulate my local Rotary clubs: Rotary Club of Beenleigh; Rotary Club of Loganholme; Rotary Club of Logan; Rotary Club of Ormeau-Pimpana, my newest Rotary club; and Rotary Club of Coomera Valley.

Rotary's mission is service above self. Whether it's collecting pyjamas for the Fijian flood and cyclone survivors, manning the Bunnings barbecue or packing books to send to children of drought affected families, the service of our local Rotarians makes a real and lasting difference in the lives of countless people in our communities and across the word.

More broadly, Rotary is an international community of leaders who are prepared to take on the world's toughest challenges. As the founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotary have been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Rotary's PolioPlus program was the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication by vaccinating children on a massive scale. Their first program vaccinated children in the Philippines in 1979, and this led to the establishment of the eradication initiative in 1988. At that time there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. Since then, Rotary and their partners have helped immunise more than 2.5 billion children against polio in 122 countries across the globe. Focusing on advocacy, fundraising, volunteer recruitment and awareness building, Rotary's polio eradication program is one of the world's longest-standing and most significant. More than one million Rotary members have been a part of this program, and they have contributed more than $2.1 billion. But more valuable than that are the countless volunteer hours to protect the more than 2.5 billion children across the globe that have been helped. The infrastructure Rotary built to end polio is also being used to treat and prevent other diseases, including COVID-19. In fact, Rotary in India are lending the knowledge they gained from the mass polio vaccination to the COVID vaccination program in that country. We know how important that is at present.

The polio program has wider benefits beyond just vaccination. The polio surveillance networks and vaccination campaigns monitor children for other health problems like vitamin deficiencies and measles so they can also be addressed early. The global efforts to eradicate polio have saved some $27 billion in healthcare costs since 1988 and are expected to save a further $14 billion by 2050. If all these efforts to remove polio stopped today, within 10 years polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year. The global healthcare costs would rise dramatically. It just shows the value and importance of the work that Rotary has done over these past many years.

I had the pleasure earlier this year of attending the 100th anniversary lunch celebration that was held by the combined clubs of Beenleigh, Loganholme and Logan. I reflect on the work that they have contributed to our community over so many years. We speak about the polio program. We also know about the exchange programs they have and the Pride of Workmanship Awards that they hold each year. Now they are looking to reprise the Beenleigh Cane Festival, which for many years has been in abeyance.

It's this contribution to our local communities by these three clubs—and I also wish to mention the Rotary Club of Coomera Valley and the Rotary Club of Ormeau-Pimpama—that makes our communities such a wonderful place in which to live. I want to commend Rotary right across my electorate—the clubs of Beenleigh, Logan, Loganholme, Ormeau and Coomera Valley. I commend Rotary for the tremendous work that they do not only in my community but across the world, and I congratulate Rotary for their hundred years of serving our communities.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rotary in Australia and New Zealand celebrates 100 years of service this year. In 1921, four Rotary clubs were created in Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington and Sydney, and from there, Rotary clubs have been established right across Australia. Today communities all over our country benefit from the hard work and services of local Rotary clubs, including in my electorate of Oxley. I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Rotary clubs in my community who do so much work on both local and international causes. Thank you to the Rotary clubs of Greater Springfield, Brisbane Centenary, Forest Lake, Goodna, Jindalee and Sumner Park.

In April I had the honour of joining many of these local Rotary clubs at the very special unveiling of the Lorikeet Park Peace Pole. Rotary has been instrumental in celebrating and promoting peace and unity through its international Peace Pole Project. This great project, which began in Japan in 1955, has placed 200,000 of these internationally recognised symbols of peace on earth in 200 countries around the world, including at the Egyptian pyramids in Giza, in Hiroshima and even at the North Pole. This year, Rotary aims to distribute 100 peace poles across Australia in celebration of 100 years of Rotary, spreading the universal peace message, 'May peace prevail on earth.' This message is written on the pole in four languages, highlighting that, although we may speak different languages, we are one.

As the federal member for Oxley, I'm proud to represent one of the most culturally diverse electorates in the country. Our unity through diversity has always been, and will always be, what makes Australia strong. Initiatives like the peace pole are opportunities for us to share and celebrate all the things that make us unique and bring us together. Strengthening our unity and diversity should always be a priority. This is what helps to build a more understanding, welcoming and peaceful world. In service of this goal, Rotary works to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene to communities across the globe to fight disease and improve access to low-cost and free health care. They are focused on supporting education, protecting the environment, growing local economies and reducing malnutrition. Not only do they promote these important causes across the globe but Rotary clubs like the ones in my electorate bring these issues to the attention of the Australian community. They make the fight for peace and a better world accessible and meaningful to every single Australian.

Time, energy and passion to improve our world are all you need to get involved with your Rotary club and contribute to important causes locally and around the world. Through Rotary's Interact club program, young people are introduced to these important issues. They're empowered to make changes in their school community and to contribute meaningfully to the world around them. I know that my local community is richer for the work that our Rotary and Interact clubs do. The Rotary Club of Greater Springfield, for example, hosts a trash and treasure market every month to raise funds for their work in the community and to promote reuse and recycling of items that would otherwise end up in a dump. The Rotary Club of Brisbane Centenary recently shipped vital donations to Timor-Leste, and the Jindalee club organises volunteers to remove graffiti from their local community. The Rotary Club of Sumner Park organises volunteers to clean up local parks on the second Sunday of each month and the Forest Lake Interact club run a fun-run as a fundraiser, raising $1,187 for the Wounded Warrior Project. This is not an exhaustive list of what these clubs have done for my community. There simply isn't enough time to go through all of their activities.

The Oxley electorate is incredibly privileged to have these clubs serving us locally, and I know that communities all over the world have benefited from their service as well. Thank you to these local Rotary clubs and to all Rotary clubs across Australia for your service over the past 100 years. I look forward to seeing the impact you will have on our local communities, our country and the globe into the future.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's wonderful to be able to speak on this motion celebrating the centenary of Rotary Australia and New Zealand. Like many members in this place, I have family members who have been participants in Rotary in the past, who are participants in the present and who, no doubt, will be in the future because it's a fine community organisation, and that's because it embodies the values that fundamentally underpin the strength of our country. The success of our country does not come from Canberra down; it comes from responsible citizens forming community organisations as a foundation for this nation's success. Rotary, over 100 years, has done incredible work in Australia and internationally. In particular, they're a group of citizens that have taken responsibility for their local community. There is almost no community across the country that you can walk past without seeing a footpath, a seat in a park or a children's playground where Rotary has had its footprint and raised money locally from other citizens to be able to provide the best facilities for their local community.

In Goldstein, we have many important local Rotary clubs that provide an excellent service to our local community. At the Sandringham Rotary club, I'd like to recognise the efforts of the current board members in this year: President John Dennison, President-elect Ian Glover, Vice President Ian Wells, Secretary Jackie Wells and Treasurer Alan Brebner. At the Beaumaris Rotary club, thank you to the executive: President Adrian Culshaw, President-elect Lynda Doutch, Secretary Roy Seager and Treasurer James Glenwright. At the Rotary Club of Glen Eira, thank you to the executive: President Lili Teichman, President-elect Roberto Ortiz, Secretary Joan Luscak and Treasurer Geoffrey Asher. At the Hampton Rotary club, thank you to the executive: President Amanda Hill. President-elect Maria Sierra, Treasurer Rosalind Bodley and Secretary Elizabeth Ware. At the Bentleigh Moorabbin Central Rotary club, thank you to the executive: President Geoff Gledhill, President-elect Helen Nodrum, Vice President Larry Green, Treasurer Alan Kempton and Secretary Neville Kruss. At the Rotary Club of Brighton, thank you to the executive: President Cameron Ward, Vice President Julie Avery, Treasurer David Finney and Secretary Anthony Langley. Finally, at Brighton North Rotary club, thank you to the executive: President Peter Killey, Vice President Brian Cox, Treasurer Neil Graham and Secretary Judy Carruthers.

I'd like to pay proper recognition to the role that local Rotary clubs have made in our community and also internationally. Members may not be aware that Ian Riseley OAM who was president of the Sandringham Rotary club went on to become President of Rotary International from 2017 to 2018. Mr Riseley was only the fifth Australian and the third Victorian to be appointed President of Rotary International. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Sandringham from 1978 and was involved in sea scouts and sporting groups, as well as being the honorary auditor and adviser for a number of charitable organisations.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 1 pm, the time allotted for the debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 16:00