Locals make Australia Day honours list

Des Hudson –

OAM for officer helping Ballarat kids

CONNECTION with and commitment to Ballarat’s youth runs deep and long with Des Hudson.

Mr Hudson received a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2019 honours list in recognition of his service to youth.

Mr Hudson, having joined Victoria Police in 1989, started his involvement with the youth of Ballarat in 1996 as a facilitator of the Police Schools Involvement Program.

He has been youth resource officer for the past 13 years while in 2007 he founded The Bus – Ballarat’s mobile youth entertainment vehicle.

“It’s a very humbling experience to think of being nominated for a prestigious and highly regarded award, OAM, when there are so many other worthy recipients,” he said.

The youngest of five children Mr Hudson grew up in Sebastopol with parents who were great role models as community volunteers.

Soccer was his sporting passion as a player in winter and cricket in the summer.

In his early 20s he began committee member involvement with soccer at association and club level.

There was a by-election for the Sebastopol ward of the city of Ballarat in 2002 and as a born and bred local he threw his hat in the ring.

He wasn’t successful due to the allocation of preferences, however 18 months later at full council elections he won and still holds a City of Ballarat council seat today, although he now represents South ward.

He has dedicated 22 years of his 30-year service as a member of the police force to working with local youth.

“Youth will often come into contact with police, [I see] this is an opportunity to turn them from the youth justice system and for them to thrive,” Mr Hudson said.

“Yes, we have an enforcement role for people who break the law and a need to investigate, apprehend and interview but we are also there to protect everyone and offer assistance.”

After all this time Mr Hudson still thoroughly enjoys talking at schools presenting an awareness and advocacy role on behalf of the police with the city’s youth.

“I know I’ve made an impact when I heard a mum recently at Mount Clear Primary School say to her pre-schooler daughter ‘there is Senior Des, he used to come along when I was in primary school,’” he said.

David Mac Phail – Asylum seeker supporter receives OAM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of people and community organisations who support those who come to Australia seeking sanctuary – is what the awarding of an Order of Australia Medal means to David Mac Phail.

Wendouree resident Mr Mac Phail said “I am very pleased [to receive the OAM] although I’m supposing it’s is not about me it is about the kind of work I do.”

He has been a casework volunteer with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray since 2010.

Mr Mac Phail is also a member of the Ballarat branch of Rural Australians for Refugees – a grassroots movement for compassionate treatment of Australia’s asylum seekers.

He volunteered as a member of the Ballarat branch of the Australia East Timor Association for eight years – a group he considers to be the most efficient effective community organisation he has worked with.

“This acknowledgement by the community suggests to me that the people I represent are important and that gives me hope,” he said.

Mr Mac Phail is devoted to working with asylums seekers because, “It is as near as I can get, with my small skills, history, ability and training to make the world the way I want it to be.”

Using his formal qualifications of working with people who have experienced trauma and homelessness, enables him to assist people, who have reached the point where they are almost entirely without formal support and solely dependent on the community.

“I am doing what I like to do,” he said.

His social conscience and a life-long active interest in the plight of others in need developed in primary school with the social justice teachings from Sisters of Mercy.

Mr Mac Phail empathises with the circumstances and feelings of refugees and asylum seekers knowing they have no resources, no agency over their lives, no capacity to get by without charity let alone attempting to support their family back in their home land.

“Most of the time these people say I’m going ok and put on a brave face,” he said.

People are thrown on the rocks in some ways by policy that he believes doesn’t represent the Australian people very well.

This year the ASRC operates on a $15 million budget without any state or federal government financial contribution.

As the funding of the budget comes from the broader community Mr Mac Phail suggests there is support for the cause.

He hopes being on the Australia Day 2019 honours list will assist in building an awareness and promote advocacy for the people and the convictions he so compassionately upholds.

Peter Reid – Ballarat greenie engineer awarded OAM

PETER Reid received a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2019 honours list for service to the community.

Mr Reid said “I feel very privileged to receive the award – it is for all the hard work other people have done.”

He has served as a volunteer across a broad base of organisations – environment, education, soccer, unionism and community.

Mr Reid describes his motivation for community involvement as coming from his family.

“I was bought up as a Catholic so it is part of the social justice, social equity you have if you are a good Christian,” he said.

“We have been lucky enough to be well off, so you have to give back to the community.”

He does a nominal three to five years volunteering in any one group.

However, he was a member for 10 years on both Ballarat Begonia Festival Committee and Representative for the Council of Academic Staff Association at University of Ballarat and is a life member of Ballarat and District Soccer Association.

Mr Reid never serves on more than three committees at any one time and always looks at the social benefit of the organisation first.

“Due to the workload, if you are going to commit – you commit,” he said.

“I tend not to spend too long in any one organisation, I believe if you spend too long you tend to dominate it, I put in a good effort and leave so people can come in with new ideas.”

Mr Reid, now retired, was a communications engineer by profession working his way from the defunct Post Master Generals department through Telstra in all its previous iterations.

After leaving Telstra in 1985 he lectured at what is now Federation University Australia before moving into a consulting role.

“I like volunteering, that’s my hobby,” he said.

Mr Reid would often serve as treasurer on many of his volunteer committees.

“I tend to end up doing the money stuff because it’s easy,” he said.

“The classic definition of engineering is the management of men and materials, you had to know where the money was and where the people were so that’s why engineers tend to end up in lots of different jobs because that is what we are trained to do.

“You can’t do anything without other people and you can’t do anything without finance.”

According to Mr Reid most engineering projects have a life of minimum 20 to 50 years so the big issue for engineers has always been environment.

“I’ve been a greenie engineer for ever,” he said.

He is aligned with the cause and effects of climate change which is supported and advocated by Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions, an organisation he joined in 2014.

“I think we need to do something about it and that is why I am involved with BREAZE.”