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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (12 March) . . Page.. 968 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

I would like to share with members some of my favourite things about the city. I have mentioned Tuggeranong. Why? If you sit on top of the hill on Erindale Drive and look off, you will see the four seasons unfold before your eyes. You will see the beautiful colours of autumn, the freezing snow of winter, the beautiful vista of the mountains and firewood smoke wafting gently across the valley. What you are actually seeing, though, is the spirit of Canberra.

We have the Tuggeranong festival every November, rain, hail or shine-or all of them in the same afternoon-and we have people showcasing what Tuggeranong and Canberra generally are all about. We have people coming from as far away as Wollongong and Albury. I can recall talking to people from those areas who were wanting to come here when I was the media officer for it. Recently-in fact, last year-we had an incredibly impressive event which attracted thousands of people, with 3,000 or 4,000 people being at a major free concert.

The committee awarded life membership to the person who provides the rides every year, Kerry Flaherty, who actually comes from out Captains Flat way, because he has been a stalwart of the festival for a length of time. The Tuggeranong festival shows off just so much. It is a snapshot of Canberra, but we do not acknowledge it enough.

I mentioned before all the places I have lived in Canberra. One of the really wonderful things that I am sure all the members here share is in being part of a growing city. When I got here in 1968, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Mawson telephone exchange was as far south as you could go. I lived in Garran, your own fair suburb or former suburb, and I can remember going out to the tip upon which the lovely suburb of Isaacs was built. There is an archaeologist's dream in the making out there that the good burghers of Canberra will be delivering to the school of archaeology in a couple of hundred years time by way of the pine forest, or remnants of it, and the tip-don't forget the Isaacs tip!

Then I saw Canberra expand. I went out to Holt when there was one tree in Belconnen, a huge tree now protected by the tree legislation It was over 12 metres tall and it was in my backyard. I had the only tree in west Belconnen, in the suburb of Holt. I got a guvvie house and raised my kids there.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Cornwell): Is that the one that is going to be chopped down?

MR HARGREAVES: No, it is not allowed to be chopped down, Mr Deputy Speaker, because it is more than two axe handles across. In fact, it is only one chainsaw across, but it is two axe handles across. I moved on then, as we all do, and was delighted to see Tuggeranong grow.

There is a lot to be proud of in this city. We do have some problems, however. We have still got poverty to alleviate. We have still got homelessness and unemployment. In my view, we do not yet have total universal access to quality education and health services, although the government is addressing it. We have to stamp out child abuse, which is existent in our community. We need to tackle more strongly youth suicide and attempts thereof. We need to achieve legal equality for our gay and lesbian citizens. Some action

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