Page 3806 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 18 October 2005
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I will do the daily job of sprinkling a bit of this stuff called Bokashi onto it, which starts the process. The material in the bucket does not decompose while it is in there; instead the Bokashi ferments or pickles it. So things do not change shape, they just change composition. It is a bit like a pickled onion. A pickled onion does not taste like an onion, it tastes like a pickled onion. I am not suggesting that you try the ingredients in the Bokashi bucket, although no doubt they are very wholesome. This is just to let you know that you can now dispose of your green waste with a clear conscience.
At this stage I would like to negotiate with the Assembly that the resultant compost be used here. We could pop a pot plant next to it just to show the very direct connection between the Bokashi bucket and the growth of plants. Perhaps I will do that. That bit is yet to be fully thought out but at this stage I will take responsibility for the waste. If you have any complaints, please see my office. Please use this new facility offered here at the Assembly, which makes us perhaps the greenest Assembly in the land. We should check that out.
Canberra sporting teams
MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra) (6.16): I rise to speak about a couple of fairly unpleasant events over the weekend involving two excellent Canberra teams and clubs that were denied re-entry into the Sydney competition. The first was the Blue Devils. In its wisdom, the New South Wales premier soccer league decided to have a 10-team comp. That surprised everyone, given that everyone was expecting a 12-team comp. The matter is certainly not over. I think a couple of the Sydney clubs concerned are taking some legal action. Certainly all the clubs concerned are writing and saying, “Please explain.”
Six clubs were given the heave ho: Bonnyrigg, St George, Penrith, Central Coast, the Blacktown City Suns and, of course, our very own Blue Devils. It was a 16-team comp. I find that utterly amazing for a league that states that it prides itself on a regional basis in respect of the teams that play in this competition. Competition usually starts towards the end of the year and goes until about May. I think next year it is starting in January and going towards May. The winter comp happens after that. It is a very important competition since we lost the Cosmos, when the Cosmos effectively did not continue.
The Blue Devils team has been the main stepping stone for talented young soccer players to play in a world-class competition. The New South Wales Premier League is the best competition going at that time of year. I think there is now an eight-team comp, which includes New Zealand, in a national league. Until that occurred, this was the best comp going. It is still obviously an excellent competition. The Blue Devils are amazed that they did not get in. They have a state-of-the-art ground, which was the result of a lot of hard work over 20 years by the Belconnen United Soccer Club at McKellar. It is a world-class facility and certainly as good as any of the grounds I have seen in the competition. I think I have been to every ground except Wollongong, which got in.
I find it amazing that both Canberra teams and the Central Coast and Penrith teams were tossed out of the competition, especially because it is meant to be regionally based. The Blue Devils have already approached me and Bob McMullen. They will be approaching Ted Quinlan, and other federal parliamentarians, to see what assistance parliamentarians
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