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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 11 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3183 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Recently I had the pleasure of playing with Laurie Fisher's two brothers-his older one and his younger one. It is always dangerous being a fifth grade coach at university when your side is short of players. However, I must admit I had never played at Berridale before.

I also congratulate Laurie Fisher on joining the Brumbies staff. Certainly the flogging which the Vikings gave to their opponents in the grand final in Brisbane is testament to his coaching skills and the skills of the team. It is crucially important that we have this intermediate level of rugby between club and Super 12.

Whilst on things rugby, might I again congratulate my old mate Geoff Stokes on getting Wests first grade, a team in my electorate, into the grand final yet again. They started off incredibly slowly this year and came home with a wet sail. The sad thing is they are playing my old team, Royals, and I have some dual loyalties there, I suppose. I will probably be going for my old club, which I played many seasons with. If they win I think it will be the first grand final they have won in first grade since 1991.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the winners in that other code of football, Australian Rules. It was absolutely fantastic to see the Belconnen Magpies win their first ever premiership after many years of trying. They have been in four of the last five grand finals. They won most convincingly, being about 20 points ahead at quarter-time and then extending that a bit at half-time, and really putting it on in the third and fourth quarters. It was an excellent day.

I joined the team for a few drinks at the club afterwards. I think they were still celebrating on Wednesday. So, a brilliant effort and a well deserved win which was a long time in coming. It was great to see the Magpies first grade Aussie Rules team from Belconnen win the first grade premiership for the first time ever.

National youth event

MS DUNDAS (4.10): I rise to talk not about football but about the national youth event held by Guides Australia over the weekend down the Cotter Road at Camp Cottermouth. On Friday I had the pleasure of attending this conference and meeting some of the young women at the camp. I was able to talk to them about their lives and their experience, and about opportunities for leadership. While I spoke about the participation of young women in public life and the opportunities for leadership, I was struck by not only the optimism of these young women at the camp but also what they have achieved and what they plan to achieve.

The theme of the weekend was "Leadership in the outdoors" and the event brought together young women aged 13 to 16 and their peer mentors from all around Australia. These young women had in some way already shown themselves to be community leaders and, hopefully after the weekend, we will be seeing a lot more of them. Although they are not yet old enough to vote, they are, of course, old enough to pay taxes-a point not lost on these young women who are community leaders and are active in their everyday lives.

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