Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2526 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Continuing Education, where he tried with never-ending patience to teach public servants plain English. But it was not only plain English that Dr Stern taught. As only a truly gifted teacher can, he filled his somewhat lugubrious students with a passion for English and a passion for writing well at work. Indeed, a student who had just completed the course used his new-found skills with great success to write to Parking Operations to get out of a parking fine.

Whilst I never attended one of Dr Stern's courses, I have heard much of them. In an indirect way I am a beneficiary of Dr Stern's work, as one of my staff attended a course and uses the skills acquired to this very day. On behalf of the many hundreds-perhaps thousands-of Dr Stern's students, I would like to pass on my sympathies to Dr Stern's family and pay my respect to one of Canberra's truly fine academics.

On a more joyous issue, the ACT has just taken out first, second and third place in the New South Wales Suntory Cup cocktail competition. I will read from the press release that was issued from In Blue Bar and Nightclub. It reads:

It was a pivotal moment for the ACT hospitality industry yesterday-

That would have been 16 June-

when bartenders from two ACT establishments took the top three places in the Suntory Cup NSW Final. Mark Stephens from Hippo Bar in Civic won first place in the competition, with Matthew Lanham and Laurence Kain from In Blue Bar and Nightclub taking second and third places respectively. The NSW Final was held at the Lightning Ridge Bar in Sydney's Star City Casino on Monday June 16, 2003.

The Suntory Cup is Australia's premier cocktail competition in which bartenders from across Australia are invited to submit their own original recipes for adjudication. Entries were due on May 31, with the top 20 entrants from each state announced a week later. Of the 20 NSW finalists, a phenomenal nine entrants represented Canberra establishments.

At that time, Canberra did not have its own competition.

Furthermore In Blue Bar and Nightclub in Civic had four finalists; the most from any single establishment in NSW or the ACT. There were also three finalists from Mortis, and one finalist each from Hippo Bar and Trinity Bar. The winner proceeds through to the National Final, which will be held in Sydney in July.

According to Michael Trenerry, ACT/NSW Off Premise Manager for Suntory, over 135 entries were received from NSW and ACT. "We allocated one day to process the entries and it took us over three days to make up the final 20. This year's competition had proved already to be bigger and better than any year previous,"he said. These comments reinforce the ACT's newly found prominence.

State finalists made their cocktails for a panel of judges, and were marked on aroma, taste and presentation. And after a long deliberation process-

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .