Mr MATT KEAN ( Hornsby—Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation) (13:30): I recognise Scott Jones, captain of Mount Kuring-Gai Rural Fire Service and president of the Hornsby Touch Football Association, for his outstanding charitable work in Papua New Guinea. In 2014, alongside Bill Slade, Peter Jones and Peter Lloyd, Scott hiked along the Kokoda Trail. In recognising the significance of sport to the local communities in Papua New Guinea, the group donated a substantial amount of Hornsby Touch T-shirts and footballs to the Efogi village orphanage.
Scott created a Boots4PNG program in August last year to improve the chances for kids in Papua New Guinea to be involved in touch football, an already popular sport over there. This initiative strived to collect more new and old touch-football shirts, boots and playing gear. Through the program more than 80 pairs of boots and shirts were collected, showing the commitment of the local community to such a worthy cause. Through Scott's correspondence with representative teams from Port Moresby Touch, the donated equipment was able to be dispersed among the children in remote villages. Scott's work has forged close bonds between the local community here and the Port Moresby community in Papua New Guinea. I thank Scott for his incredible work and for demonstrating the initiative to start up such a positive program that brings out the best in people in the Hornsby area.
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