Mr BEVIS (9:52 AM) —Yesterday at St Finbarr's Catholic Church at Ashgrove a service was conducted to remember the wonderful life of Allan Kropp, who died last Thursday having lived a very full life to 91 years of age. Allan was a life member of the Australian Labor Party. He was a life member of the RSL, and was one of the few to have received the 50-year membership award from the RSL. He was a very active worker on behalf of a range of community organisations, having spent decades tirelessly working for Legacy, the Milne Bay association, his beloved RSL and his beloved Australian Labor Party.

His life virtually spans the history of our nation. Throughout the greater part of the 20th century, Allan's involvement in the Australian Labor Party and his involvement in the services of Australia—and subsequently the Returned Services League—made an enormous contribution to the people around him. He will be sorely missed in many places. His characteristic, trademark red beanie, often seen as he strolled around Ashgrove, will be missed. The badge he wore everywhere which said `recycled teenager' will be missed. In his 80s he was one of the people who would go to hospitals to look after the young blokes who were war veterans. He would often comment as he was going out to the old repat hospital, or subsequently to the various hospitals where returned service men and women were in care, about how he was going to look after the young blokes who had come back from the war—virtually all of them were 10, 15 or 20 years younger than him, and he thought nothing of it.

At Allan's funeral yesterday, one of his old comrades commented how in the 1950s he was keen to get involved in the work of the RSL and one Mother's Day rang him up to say, `Let's go and deliver some flowers to the mums in hospital. It's Mothers Day,' and he did that. Allan worked for Meals on Wheels for many years, delivering food to people 20 years younger than him, and thought nothing of it. He was a person who contributed an enormous amount to our community in so many facets. He leaves a loving family, he leaves a very large group of warm friends from particularly the broader service community and the Australian Labor Party, whom he gave so much to, whom he worked so tirelessly for and whom he loved dearly. Allan was a great human being who made a great contribution.