Thursday, 18 April 2024

 The PRESIDENT (09:34): It is the Council’s pleasure to welcome everyone to this sitting of the Legislative Council in Echuca. On behalf of all the Legislative Council, I really want to thank the people of Echuca and the Campaspe shire for their warm welcome, along with all the other local governments, all the local shires and councils, for their warm welcome and assistance.

Thank you to the shire for opening up the doors of your library for this sitting, and I want to give a big shout-out to the wonderful Campaspe library services team, who have gone to all ends to accommodate us this week. Libraries are a vital resource and much-loved part of the community. They keep people connected through a love of learning, community events and programs, and libraries provide a space for everyone that is welcoming and where everyone can feel that they belong. We are so grateful to the Echuca library.

I can say firsthand that the odd person that did not realise the library had closed kind of bumped into the front of the library. There were mixed reactions, from ‘That’s a terrific thing that the Legislative Council is here for the week to come to the region’ to ‘That’d be right, bloody politicians taking it over.’

We are also grateful to so many local organisations that have assisted us in this regional sitting, including the students from Echuca College who have prepared an amazing morning and afternoon tea today. We really look forward to that.

I want to, on behalf of all of us, pay tribute to the wonderful staff of our parliamentary departments – the Legislative Council department, of course, and we have had assistance from the Department of Parliamentary Services and assistance from the department of the Assembly. We have seconded some fantastic people to be able to put on this event. For the MPs, just to let you know, the who’s who of Parliament have been up here – all the people that we love and rely on for all sorts of services have been up here and have worked like a well-oiled machine. But I single out two people who led the well-oiled machine: our Deputy Clerk Anne Sargent and Bronwyn Gray, who has been the regional sitting coordinator. This is a dedicated project for her, and she has done a power of work for the last six months. We seconded her from the Assembly. I would like to find a way that we can steal her permanently, but I reckon the Speaker and the Clerk of the Parliaments might fight us on that.

It is just so fantastic for us to be in this region. We feel privileged that we have been welcomed so warmly. It is just such a wonderful part of our great state. That is it from me.