Our first Guest Speaker for the calendar year was Christine Tonkin who came along to tell us about her 4 years as MLA for Churchlands. Christine described the Electorate as purple and contributors – people who don’t take things for granted but think things through. Christine’s own contribution has been impressive – prior to politics she specialised in public procurement reform, working in Queensland, working for the United Nations, and as an international consultant. Unfortunately, service to the community is waning, and although mental health issues have always existed, we are now talking about them publicly. This also applies to domestic violence issues. Clearly one of Christine’s virtues as a politician is that she listens to people from all walks of life, and she is obviously willing to take as much action as she can to help remedy the difficulties that people encounter.
Another issue that is a severe blight in the community is deafness, and one constituent complained that Christine’s office never answers the telephone – the reality being that the person couldn’t hear when the telephone was answered. A recent success for Christine is the Churchlands Primary road crossing method; crossing lights rather than wardens. It is very obvious that Christine’s primary aim is to serve the community; how about joining Rotary Christine? Our motto is Service Above Self!