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Australia Day Honours List

Published on: February 2024

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-138430

Australia Day Honours List

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (20:51:20):

I feel, on a daily basis, that I won the lottery at birth by being born an Australian. There is no greater day to celebrate and recognise all that is Australia, throughout our history and the many iterations of this nation, than on Australia Day. We have such good fortune and we need to reflect on the history of whose shoulders we rest. Modern Australia has an Aboriginal heritage, a British foundation and a multicultural character. We honour the ancestors who were the custodians of this ancient continent, we pay tribute to those forefathers who enshrined freedom, fairness and unity in our Constitution and we look to the future that all of the new Australians who come from across many different seas bring to our nation, our national fabric and our identity.

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On Australia Day we also welcome many new citizens to bless our nation. Their skills, experience, values and culture will enrich our country. This year I was excited to join and welcome new citizens at Mosman Council's citizenship ceremony, at which we also honoured the 2024 Mosman Citizen of the Year, 1 Balmoral Scout Group leader, Matthew Brownlie. Matthew and I have spent many years working together. I remember about five years ago he officially retired from the scouts, but obviously never left. He was recognised for his many years of volunteering with our local scouts and scouts across Sydney. He has attended a significant number of jamborees, including a very challenging one in South Korea recently.

I congratulate those recognised in the 2024 Australia Day Honours list. The Australian Honours and Awards system recognises the outstanding service and contributions of Australians, with recipients coming from across the country and all walks of life. Most of them are unsung heroes. I acknowledge the 2024 Australians of the Year, Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer, recognised for their pioneering melanoma treatment changes. They have a mission of zero deaths from melanoma by 2030. The Melanoma Institute of Australia, which they are co‑directors of, is based at The Poche Centre in Wollstonecraft. We are very fortunate to have such a significant treatment and medical resource in our local community, servicing people from across Sydney. I also recognise the separate work that Professor Scolyer is undertaking with a multidisciplinary medical team on his own brain cancer. He is raising awareness and seeking to make advancements in immunotherapy treatment that are incredibly profound.

Award recipients from my local community included Catherine Livingstone, AC, from Milsons Point. Catherine is well known and was recognised with the Companion of the Order of Australia for her service to business, particularly through governance and strategic reform, to tertiary education, to science, technology and innovation capability development, and to the arts. Another local resident from Cremorne Point, Peter Lowry, AM—I think a number of members might know Peter—was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to the community through a range of roles and organisations. For instance, he is the president and chairman of the Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation, which supports the performing arts community and has also served on a range of other organisations, including the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, which saved and preserved historic military lands across my community from what could have been development more than 25 years ago.

Paul Roach, AM, from St Leonards was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to nuclear medicine and to medical research. He is the head of nuclear medicine and positron emission tomography at Royal North Shore and is the clinical director of nuclear medicine for the local health district. Kirribilli resident Judith Skinner was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to medicine and to medical research, particularly in the field of cancer genetics. Judith is the director of the familial cancer service at Westmead Hospital and a board member of the Breast Cancer Advisory Group at Cancer Australia. Pascale Helyar-Moray was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her significant contribution to business and women's affairs, particularly in relation to the work she does as the founder of Super‑Rewards. If members do not know it, they need to look into it. It is a service designed to improve the gender superannuation gap.

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Neutral Bay local Yvonne Hazell was recognised for her service as a radio presenter for 2RPH and the work she has done for Mosman Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Mosman. Christopher Pash from Neutral Bay was also awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the media and communications sector. He was a chair of the Australian Society of Authors and a director of the Pacific Area Newspaper Publisher's Association. In 1995 he founded Asia Pulse and served as the editor of since 2019. I congratulate all of those recipients. In the challenging geopolitical times across the globe, I hope that we can all reflect on how fortunate we are to live in Australia and call this wonderful country home, and to be blessed by all of the volunteers and unrecognised individuals throughout our community who have now been recognised for what they give to all of us.