Page 914 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 2 April 2008
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Tobacco Amendment Bill 2008—Copies of correspondence from tobacco retailers to the Minister for Health.
Cricket competition
Schools—Lyons primary
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (6.24): I would like to take this opportunity to join with Mr Hargreaves in commending all who were involved in Sunday’s cricket match. It was a tremendous opportunity for an array of sporting talent to be displayed.
I would particularly like to thank all of the media participants for their good humour. Some very cutting remarks were made at various points during the game. I would also particularly like to thank young Callum Solly. When we looked at the teams we were one short of the media team and so young Callum took to the field on the Assembly side against his old man and did very well. In fact, he was one of the few members of the Assembly team who could hold most of the catches that went his way. He was fresh from being part of the St Edmund’s under-14 grand final winning team on the very same ground earlier in the day.
I would also like to thank all of the Assembly colleagues and members of staff who went to some great personal pain at times. Ryan Hamilton from my office took a quick single and fell off the edge of the pitch and rolled his ankle, which was unfortunate for Ryan, but he took it in very good humour. I also thank the Leader of the Opposition for his fine glove work in achieving a stumping to get the Canberra Times out. That was very good work.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, in the time that remains to me in this adjournment debate, I call for some calm on the issue of Lyons primary school. Given the correspondence that I have been able to share with the Assembly in the last 24 hours from both the president of the P&C and from the school board chair, it would be appropriate for politics to be kept out of their discussions with the education department tomorrow evening.
I was unable to read the full letter during question time without being interrupted, but I remind the Assembly that Lisa Renshaw, the president of the Lyons P&C committee, did make quite clear the disappointment of the P&C committee that a parent in the community had used her child to score a point for her political career and to reiterate that, as far as the P&C are concerned, Mrs Dunne is not qualified to speak for the school community as a whole. She does not hold a position on the school board and she does not attend P&C meetings. Mrs Dunne is perfectly entitled to speak for herself, but I think that it was made very clear by both the P&C and the board chair that they would prefer that she not speak on their behalf.
The best outcome will be for tomorrow night’s meeting of the school board and representatives from the Department of Education and Training to go ahead without political interference and for the school community to have the discussions that they
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