Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been such a joyful few weeks in my electorate of Hotham. I recently helped open the new pavilion at Jack Edwards Reserve. This was the delivery of a 2022 Labor election commitment, and it was a hugely emotional moment for me and for my community.

The journey to getting this pavilion built started a very long time ago. My friend Ann Barker, one of the greatest champions for south-east Melbourne, asked me to go down to the Oakleigh Cannons and meet with their club president to hear their vision. Whenever Ann asks me to do something, I'm onto it immediately. I met down there with Steve Dimopoulos, our local state MP; our mayor, Paul Klisaris; and the club leadership. I vividly remember sitting in the kitchen at the Oakleigh Cannons' old building. The Cannons chair, Kon Kavalakis, pulled out these elaborate plans for the new stadium that they wanted built. There was no funding; there was no pathway. It was just a dream. Yet, from that moment, the three of us took away this project and said, 'We have to work together, across three levels of government, to make this a reality.'

Together with Kon, Cannons president Stan Papayianneris, Steve, Paul, Monash council and every club member, we achieved something truly extraordinary for my local community. Thanks to a $2 million commitment from the Albanese government, along with very significant support from the Victorian government, an historic commitment from our Monash city council and the support of the Oakley Cannons themselves and their community, we have just built the best football stadium in a suburban club in the whole of Australia. Mark my words on that. If you've got a better option, come and show me. But I actually reckon we've taken the cake there, so I cannot wait to spend so many fantastic evenings at the pavilion and cheer on the mighty Oakleigh Cannons and Chisholm United.

That's not where the celebrations end with Hotham. I am so lucky to represent a truly remarkable Vietnamese community in my electorate. This is a community of people, many of whom arrived in Australia in 1970s and 1980s with nothing but the clothes on their back, who are the backbone of entire suburbs in the south-east of Melbourne today. They've gone from a community of many people who arrived with very little education to a community that urges their children and grandchildren to take every advantage and opportunity that we have in our beautiful country. The doctors, lawyers, pharmacists and community workers of my patch of south-east Melbourne are, in so many instances, come from this beautiful, vibrant community.

I had the great pleasure of joining them for the Mid-Autumn Festival hosted by the South Eastern Melbourne Vietnamese Associations Council—or SEMVAC, as we know them locally. This is an amazing organisation, and I want to give a shout-out to Kim-Son Vu, Trung Doan, Tan Nguyen, Hue Linh, Thuy Tran and Anh-Dung Tran and thank them for all the work they do in supporting our community and sharing their beautiful culture with the rest of us who live in Hotham.