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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2714 ..

who will attend the next meeting of that association, write to that association and say that that should be an issue for debate at its next meeting. We know that this death will touch every single member of that association, every member of a Commonwealth parliament across the world.

Mr Speaker, I support the motion moved by the Chief Minister. With the sadness that comes from our community, we should send our thoughts to the people of the United Kingdom as well as to the family of the Princess of Wales.

MS HORODNY: Mr Speaker, like millions of people around the planet, of all ages, all classes and all races, I too have been quietly fascinated by, an4d at times interested in, Diana, Princess of Wales. On Sunday I found the news very shattering. I wondered why so many of our tragedies recently have occurred on a Sunday. I recall that the Martin Bryant incident at Port Arthur was on a Sunday, the Thredbo tragedy was on a Sunday, the hospital tragedy was on a Sunday, and now the Diana tragedy was also on a Sunday. I have no answers to why these things happen on a Sunday.

As for what she meant to me for all these years, the years since I watched this clumsy young woman marry a prince and go on to bare her life to the world, for me she was the human face of British royalty. Through her, we saw the cracks and the strains of a social order which was sitting uncomfortably in a modern society where old values, like rusty chains, I believe, for better or worse, have simply fallen away.

I was always able to identify with Diana's shyness, with her pain, with her sadness, with her marriage breakdown, with her desire to raise her children outside the stifling environment of the monarchy. I identified with her ability in recent years to develop a maturing confidence with public speaking, with the media, with articulating her frustrations and desires, with tackling the world on her own and finding a place for herself in that world.

Over the years, she has taken up many important issues, such as AIDS, leprosy and children's cancers. In recent months, her very serious work in Bosnia and her work on landmines have gained her a lot of international respect. I am sure that this Assembly speaks for all Canberrans when we say how sorry we are to hear of her death and how sad we feel for her two sons.

Question resolved in the affirmative, members standing in their places.

MR SPEAKER: I would like to recognise the presence in the gallery of pupils from Garran Primary School. Welcome to your Assembly.

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