Page 3649 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 22 November 2022
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Human Rights and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (4.52): At 8 am this past Saturday morning something occurred at Lake Ginninderra which was as unremarkable as it was remarkable. It was of course the Ginninderra, or Gindy, parkrun, which has been held almost every Saturday morning at 8 am, or 7.50 am to be precise, starting near the Townsend Place car park for more than a decade. A very common sight for many of us.
What was remarkable was that it was the 500th Ginninderra Parkrun. A day of celebration of a fun completely free community event that supports community participation, volunteering, exercise and inclusion every single time it is held. It is an event that welcomes all ages, all abilities, and insists on running for enjoyment, asking for nothing in return except to volunteer occasionally if you can.
The benefits are enormous and the statistics underline this. An average of 182.3 finishers per week at Ginninderra, almost 11,000 individuals who have finished the course with over 91,000 finishes in that time and 1,212 different volunteers. The course has changed four times, as I understand it, due to updated requirements of the overarching parkrun organisation with a view to improving safety each time. In the decade, or a bit over the decade, it has been interrupted by a hot air balloon landing and it has been cancelled one week due to flooding. The biggest interruptions of course were due to the pandemic, seven months in 2020 and three months in 2021.
Ginninderra parkrun was the original parkrun in Canberra. Ten months before Tuggeranong, which I know you participate in regularly, Mr Deputy Speaker, and one of the earliest in Australia—the sixth ever in Australia. To give context to that there are now 412. Among those 412 are Umbagong, Burley Griffin, Gungahlin, Mt Ainslie, Wagi Bridge, Coombs, Tuggeranong, Jerrabomberra and Queanbeyan.
Ginninderra parkrun has been a staple of my life having always coincided when I am taking my dog to the dog park. I want to warmly acknowledge the volunteers and participants who bring an injection of vitality to Saturday mornings, no matter the time of the year nor the weather.
Congratulations to the current event directors Lara and Sal, as well as the event directors who have come before them and the many, many, many run directors and volunteers. May Ginninderra parkrun long continue in its consistency and its consistent inspiration.
Youth—voting rights in New Zealand
MR DAVIS (Brindabella) (4.56): I rise to acknowledge big, big, news out of New Zealand overnight. A youth-led group in New Zealand, the Make It 16 New Zealand campaign, a group of young people took their government to court and won. The New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that maintaining a voting age of 18 was discriminatory and breached the human rights of young people. In response, the New Zealand Labour government has come out and said they will be drafting legislation to expand voting rights in New Zealand to include 16- and 17-year-olds.
What I find really interesting in this debate, Mr Deputy Speaker, is the amount of closet-expansion-of-voting-rights-supporters in the midst of the New Zealand Labour
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