Page 1604 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 31 March 2009
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highest level of service provision across all jurisdictions. The taxation effort of the ACT in 2007-08 was 107.5 per cent. That is the equation: 21 per cent above the average services and only 7.5 per cent above average taxation. The ACT total own-source revenue effort is also assessed at 121 per cent. The ACT’s above average level of government service delivery is assessed as being in balance with its total own-service revenue efforts.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): Order! The time for the matter of public importance has expired.
Adjournment
Motion (by Ms Gallagher) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Relay for life
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.07): I will speak briefly about the relay for life, which I had the opportunity to participate in over the weekend. It is a fantastic event put on by the Cancer Council and it gets bigger and better every year. This was the 10th year of the relay for life and I understand that, on the Friday before the relay, $135,000 had been raised at that point and they were hoping to—and this was also reported in the Canberra Times—raise over $200,000, which is a big improvement on previous years. They had 2,000 participants in the relay for life.
For those who are not familiar with it, it is a 24-hour relay at the AIS, around the track, and teams make sure they have someone on the track throughout those 24 hours. I was able to participate for only about an hour and a half, unfortunately. It was enjoyable, nonetheless. The team that we had was there for the entire 24 hours. It is a fantastic event; it is really good fun. I am hoping next year that I can do the overnight session and get a bit of the extra Christmas pounds off and just enjoy it and raise money for cancer research.
I would like to congratulate all of those participants, the over 2,000 Canberrans who participated, the Cancer Council volunteers and the employed staff who put it together. It is a sensational event. It is genuinely a lot of fun and it will continue to grow. In fact, they actually had to turn people away this year because there was a shortage of space and they are looking at ways they can get around that for future years. Perhaps there is a challenge there for government to assist.
But it is a great event. I would like to give it a great plug. We look forward to it going on for many years and raising more and more money for cancer research. I congratulate volunteers and all those who participated in the event.
Harvest festival
Narrabundah community festival
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.09): I would like to rise briefly to speak about two events that I attended over the weekend, on Saturday. Coincidentally, they were
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