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An agenda for families . . Page.. 497 ..

While families vary in composition and characteristics, the essential tasks of families have not changed ... Our most basic values, beliefs and traditions are taught within the family from one generation to the next. This is why families are the fundamental building block of our society. We know that healthy families make a strong society.

I would like to commend these extracts from An agenda for families to members of the Legislative Assembly and to the people of Canberra.

I would like to add that an integral part of family caring is for members to honour one another. The opportunity is there for each of us in the ACT this coming Sunday, being Mother's Day, to give honour to all mothers. For the vast majority of us, our mothers have nurtured us since conception; and they continue to do so in many ways. I believe that it was well said by the noted writer Ellen Key that, “The mother is the most precious possession of the nation”. I encourage all members of the Assembly and all people in the ACT to honour and love, and to give the honour and love due to, our mothers and wives this coming Sunday.

Families

MR MOORE (4.58): Mr Speaker, I think Mr Osborne has very neatly set the tone of the adjournment debate, particularly as we approach Mother's Day. Certainly, most of us would like to share some of the sentiments that he has raised. He painted a very rosy picture of families and one to which no doubt we would aspire. I must say that my own experience of family life is that it goes up and down a great deal. Whilst we all aspire to and hope to achieve the sorts of things that Mr Osborne has raised, one of the things that have actually been helpful to me over the last few years is that somebody once gave me the definition of the normal family, and that definition is: Someone else’s.

Sometimes it does help us to remember that life, by its nature, goes up and down. We are all aware of some of the social problems that come out of families that are not working in the way that we would like to see them work. I think it is appropriate for us to recall also that there are always situations which we have to take responsibility for where families are not working. What Mr Osborne raises is an ideal; it is an ideal for which we should strive. It has been an important issue to raise in this Assembly and an ideal one to raise just before Mother's Day. I would like to join with him in celebrating the joy of having our mothers as part and parcel of forming the way that we think and the way that we live.

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