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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4716 ..

MR PRATT (5.47): Mr Speaker, I just rise briefly to support Mr Hargreaves' motion and to congratulate him for bringing on a very, very important issue. The international law, human rights and humanitarian aspects of this subject under debate here today have been well and truly covered, and I don't need to go over those again.

But I would in passing make a comment that, while I agree with Ms Dundas on matters regarding the UN, you also need to make sure that the UN gets reformed so that it is far more effective in dealing with all of the challenges that face us around the world. Let me also congratulate Mrs Cross for her eloquent delivery and passion for this subject. We on this side of the house recognise that, Mrs Cross.

But primarily, Mr Speaker, I want to get up and wish the Greek Cypriot peoples in the world all the best in their quest for unification and independence.

I would like to acknowledge the presence here today of members of the Canberran Greek-Cypriot community, to the president of that community, Mrs Alexandrou, Mr Alexandrou and others. I wish you all the best in your lobbying and funding role which is so important in this particularly important exercise. John Kalokerinos, I wish you all the best as well in those particular functions. We can only hope that a long-standing sore issue is brought to a resolution as soon as possible.

Amendment agreed to.

MR HARGREAVES (5.49): I thank members for their unanimous support for this motion. There occasionally come issues which are greater than ourselves, greater than our jurisdiction and greater than our power to fix. I am reminded of a quote that somebody once said in my hearing that if one person shouts into the wind nobody hears them; but if a thousand people whisper into the wind everybody hears them. What we are seeing here and what we are talking about is this: if all Canberrans join all Australians, we will have a thousand people whispering into the wind, and then everybody will hear them. So that is why we want to add our weight to this cause.

I was also neglecting my duty to advise the Assembly, of course, that there are people who were born under the occupation and have lived their entire lives under that occupation, and they don't know what it is like to pick up a handful of sand and say that it is their handful of sand. I think our hearts need to go out to those people. I would also like to say, Mr Speaker, that I would hope and pray that compassion actually rises forth here and conquers the human rights abusers. I think, if enough people in the world get on the right side of this, then we can conquer that.

Mr Speaker, I too want to thank the members of the Cypriot community who came here to support this motion today; I appreciate it very, very much. I apologise to the president for revealing her age in public. However, can I say I thank the Leader of the Opposition for drawing it to the world's attention and not just mine. But also can I say that she looks considerably better for the experience, Mr Speaker.

Finally, I would just like to say, Mr Speaker, that this Assembly will join with the Cypriot community, which is part of our Canberra community, and entreat the powers

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