CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr FRENCH (Moore) (16:50): Last week was Landcare Week, and there is no better time to recognise two patches of Moore that local people have turned into something pretty special. Landcare Week is a chance to thank Australians who have rolled up their sleeves to look after the places where they live, and Moore has plenty of them. Let me start at Padbury.

It was great to join Sandy, Sue and the rest of the Padbury Community Garden crew with my partner, Clare, and the boys for some French toast—the brekkie of champions—before dropping off some kitchen scraps and lending a hand at the worm farm. There is a real buzz about the place. People turn up, get their hands dirty, pitch in, swap a few tips over the veggie beds and spend some time with their neighbours.

I also learned that worms are surprisingly fussy eaters. Onion, citrus, dairy and meat are all off the menu. The boys probably took more interest in the worms than they did with their dad explaining that the importance of composting, which is probably fair enough!

The Padbury Community Garden has also secured a multicultural grassroots grant through the highly competitive national round, and it is well deserved. The garden is not just somewhere to grow vegetables and fruit; it is somewhere for people to meet, share knowledge, make connections and become part of their community. And that only happens because people keep turning up and doing their bit.

From Padbury, I want to head to Edgewater and recognise John Tostevin. John is over 80 years old, and what he and his neighbours have accomplished is absolutely remarkable. Between 30 and 32 Lakeview Drive, there was once an overlooked, weed filled patch of land.

John saw what it could become. After three years of persistence and planning, he and his team were able to start work on what has become the Lakeview Contemplation Garden. Eighteen months later, it is thriving, with more than 400 native plants in the ground, and it works because the locals keep showing up.

They attend the busy bees. They take their turns on the watering roster and keep the place going week after week. Someone once put it to me this way: everyone wants to pick the fruit, but not everyone wants to do the pruning.

John and the people around him are doing the pruning. I also want to acknowledge Beth Hewitt from the Edgewater Community Residents' Association, who has been a strong supporter of John and the garden. One of my favourite parts of this job is finding things like tucked in the ordinary corners of Moore.

You do not always need a huge budget or a grand plan to make a difference. Sometimes you just need a patch of land, a good idea and a few people willing to give it a crack. That Landcare Week at its best: ordinary Australians looking after their own patch and leaving it better than when they found it.

Moore is lucky to have plenty of people doing exactly that.