Report on Our Annual Awards Dinner
A great night was had on Friday 21st August 2020 at The Tramsheds in Launceston, as our valuable Grower, Corporate, Associate and Supporter Members took a chance to network with many other key industry stakeholders.
Our annual awards dinner was a bit of a who's who this year, with local, State and Federal elected representatives from all three major political parties all showing their fantastic bipartisan support for hemp as a crop.
The events gracious and entertaining opening remarks were handled by the current Minister for Primary Industries and Water, Guy Barnett, a longtime supporter of the industrial hemp industry in Tasmania.
With one of our speakers being unable to attend due to illness, and our two other planned keynote speakers being prevented from flying from mainland Australia and New Zealand due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions, ANZ Bank's Regional Executive from Business Banking Tasmania Chris Sparks, our own Executive Officer Andi Lucas and Association President Tim Schmidt stepped up as pinch-hitters for the evening.
We could not have been able to host this event without the generous support of our sponsors and valued Corporate Members ANZ Bank, Ananda Food and ECS Botanics and are so grateful for their contribution to the evenings success.
From the Federal Government level we welcomed Senator Eric Abetz, Liberal Senator for Tasmania; Peter Whish-Wilson, Greens Senator for Tasmania; and representatives from the offices of the Australian Labor Party Minister Brian Mitchell and Senator Carol Brown.
From the State Government level we welcomed from the Tasmanian Liberal Party, Deputy Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Minister for Police Mark Shelton. And from the Tasmanian Labor Party, we welcomed Leader Rebecca White; Deputy Leader Michelle O'Byrne, and Shadow Minister for Health Sarah Lovell.
From the Launceston City Council we welcomed Mayor Albert van Zetten, Mayoress Lyndel van Zetten and Deputy Mayor Danny Gibson.
You can see many more photos from the event here and here. Photo credits to Bruce Moyle at Joffre Street Productions