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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 2100 ..

for a week. We are hoping to get it on Monday. The delay has been because the commissioner has been sick.

Radio for the print handicapped

MRS DUNNE (1.31 am): I had not planned to speak in the adjournment debate as there is still business before the house. I propose that, once we have resolved the question as to whether or not the house does adjourn, the business should be brought back on. This is the speech I intended to give in the adjournment debate.

Last week marked the 25th anniversary of an organisation that I am very close to—Radio for the Print Handicapped. It used to be 1PPP but was way off the dial and you could hardly get it. Now it is 1RPH—1125 on your AM dial, where we turn print into sound. Radio for the Print Handicapped is a fabulous organisation of volunteers who read print for people who otherwise would not have access to the printed word. They have been beavering away in their studios in Gungahlin, which have been extended over time, for most of the 25 years. I would like to pay tribute to the hundreds of volunteers who give thousands of hours every year so that people who—for whatever reason—have vision impairment, failing health, lack of strength or poor literacy can have access to the printed word.

Radio for the Print Handicapped is now bringing its programs into regional towns like Cootamundra and Wagga and is doing a fantastic job for the region. I feel privileged to be part of an organisation that allows me to indulge my interest in radio, but I am constantly in awe of the great work that people do for no reward—except to know that they are providing a service for people. I pay tribute to all those associated with Radio for the Print Handicapped. Go the Brumbies!

The Parthenon marbles

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Environment and Minister for Community Affairs) (1.33 am): Today I call on the Australian government to publicly declare its support for the return by Britain of the Parthenon marbles to their rightful home in Athens and for this Assembly to acknowledge that.

The Parthenon marbles are a collection of antiquities, mainly sculptures and a frieze, removed from the Parthenon in Greece in 1801 by the then British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, who intended them as ornaments for his estate garden in Scotland. The Parthenon is one of the most significant buildings of Western civilisation. It has a number of remarkable architectural and geometric characteristics in that each of its parts was individually designed to contribute to the visual appeal of the overall structure. It is a great work of art as well as a great feat of engineering.

The three sets of sculptures created to adorn the Parthenon when it was built between 447 and 432 BC consisted of individual sculptural reliefs of battles, centaurs and Olympian gods; a 160-metre frieze of a temple procession; and pediment statues of gods. Lord Elgin had only been granted permission to take casts of the various works of art adorning monuments in Athens, yet he removed the precious antiquities and transported them back to the British Isles. He was condemned by the British parliament for the theft

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