Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

MEMBERS STATEMENTS
Wednesday, 1 June 2011 COUNCIL 1601
Like the club’s benefactor Alex Popescu, Bob Davis
was honoured at a large funeral, which took place last
Tuesday and was attended by family members and in
excess of 1000 mourners. Eulogies by Bob’s son, Guy,
former Geelong Cats president, Frank Costa, and the
Coodabeen Champions’ Ian Cover certainly highlighted
Bob’s time in football, the respect the Geelong
community had for him and Bob’s love of family. The
Geelong Cats hold a very special place in Geelong, and
the committee, administrators, players and supporters
will long remember Bobby Davis for his fair dinkum,
unbelievable contributions for over 60 years to the
Cats’ outstanding and ongoing success.
Broadmeadows Special Developmental School:
facilities
Mr ONDARCHIE (Northern Metropolitan) — I
wish to report to the house my visit to the
Broadmeadows Special Developmental School on
Friday, 27 May, for its footy colours day. The past few
years have seen the school rapidly expand from around
40 students to its current population of 101 students.
This growth has created the need for larger and more
modernised facilities to bring the school into the
21st century. It has been let go for too long. On behalf
of the Minister for Education, Martin Dixon, I was
delighted to announce to the school community that the
school had been allocated $4 million as part of the state
budget funding to upgrade its facilities. I wish to
congratulate school principal Susanne Wirth, assistant
principal Megan and the rest of the school staff and
council on the great environment they have created.
My visit to the school was a positive one, which
allowed me to see firsthand the sense of spirit, the
beautiful children and the support within the school
community. As part of their school assembly the
students put on a display of skipping, and quite frankly
it was inspiring. Some skipped rope in the usual
fashion, some did it while cartwheeling, another
skipped while blindfolded, others skipped in pairs and
others took turns to turn the rope. It made this MP very
emotional. This is one of the great parts of this job —
visiting kids, chatting with them and observing their
development. Bless them! I am also very grateful to the
many parents and staff who chatted with me and
thanked me for my visit.
The funding is part of the Broadmeadows schools
regeneration project, which I announced two weeks
ago. This funding will also go to the Hume Valley
School and the Northern School for Autism. This is a
huge step forward for education in the north, which is
my region. It is a great region — a region in which I
was born, in which I live and in which I have raised my
family. I congratulate the school community and look
forward to my return visit when, as promised, the
students and teachers will teach this MP how to skip.
Lance Corporal Andrew Jones and Lieutenant
Marcus Case
Mr ELSBURY (Western Metropolitan) — As
someone who was raised in a defence force family it is
always sad to hear of the passing of our defence force
men and women. I would like to pay my respects to
Lieutenant Marcus Case and Lance Corporal Andrew
Jones. Lieutenant Case was an army aviator. He had
only recently arrived in Afghanistan, a month after
assisting with the efforts to help flood victims in
Queensland. Lance Corporal Jones was a cook in the
9th Force Support Battalion. He was killed by a
member of the Afghani security forces while he was on
sentry duty. We pay our deepest respects to both of
these men.
La Comunità di Filadelfia
Mr ELSBURY — On a lighter note I was pleased
to join with the Italian community group La Comunità
di Filadelfia in Bulla last Saturday night. The Filadelfia
township is in the region of Calabria in the south of
Italy, and it was great to see the vibrancy of the people
of this community, which was celebrating a great
number of its traditions and its culture.
Republic of Cyprus: presidential visit
Mr ELSBURY — I was also pleased to be able to
join with various members of Parliament to welcome
the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Demetris
Christofias, last Friday night when he visited Victoria.
Children: Take a Break program
Mr DRUM (Northern Victoria) — My issue this
morning relates to the Take a Break occasional
child-care program. This is a federally funded program,
or at least it used to be.
Ms Broad — And it had state funding.
Mr DRUM — I remind Ms Broad that federal
funding for this program has been pulled by her good
friend Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Federal government
funding for this program stopped in June 2010, and the
previous Labor state government picked up the funding
for another 12 months.
Ms Broad — Why won’t you?