Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

On Anzac Day, many of us are able to visit various RSLs and other community groups as we acknowledge the contribution of our armed services over these last 125 years. This Anzac Day, I was honoured to be a guest of the North Bondi RSL Club's service at dawn, which was attended by the Governor-General. This is a particularly important RSL branch in New South Wales because it is the largest group of returned service people anywhere in the state of New South Wales. When you attend these services, as I have a few times now, it is strikingly different to many of the other services that we would attend as elected representatives, because of the extent of the families bereaved by recent family losses because of service abroad in the last 10 or 15 years, or, very tragically, in training accidents, as we were again seeing this week with the sad loss of Warrant Officer Lachlan Muddle. I want to acknowledge the North Bondi RSL for conducting one of the largest services anywhere in the state. It brings together the community and, more importantly, gives returned servicemen and women a community that is large and substantive. Sadly, at the moment, I expect they would be grieving. I also want to acknowledge the North Bondi RSL Club's significant service in the wake of the Bondi attacks, where they provided their clubrooms as a place for people to take refuge.