Page 3633 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 25 August 2009
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The workshops were held in Melbourne, Bendigo, Gippsland, Christchurch and Canberra. The Canberra workshops were organised. The first was hosted by the Canberra Institute of Technology and the second was hosted by the University of Canberra. I note that the Canberra Institute of Technology is leading the way in its training of allied health assistants, which goes to the broader health service team. I commend them on that work.
The first workshop catered for the needs of clinicians and the second was focused at health academics. It went through enhancing participants’ knowledge of interprofessional learning, increasing participants’ awareness of skills needed to practice interprofessional learning and agreeing on a philosophical direction for interprofessional learning across collaborative organisations and institutions.
There was no doubt that the workshops provided a valuable opportunity for reflective practice and a fertile forum for innovation in interprofessional learning. Madam Deputy Speaker, I appreciate your health background. You too would recognise that this really is the way of the future.
Interprofessional learning continues with the interprofessional learning community now gearing up for an international interprofessional conference to be held in Sydney in 2010. International bodies—there is an Australian, Australasian and New Zealand group—are looking to this, and I wish them well on their work. I also note the great work that is done in interprofessional learning and interprofessional practice in ACT Health. Not only do they recognise allied health assistance by creating a role for them in the health service but also they are facilitating this with an interprofessional learning unit within ACT Health.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Parker
ACT Ethnic Schools Association
Dr Brendan Nelson
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (5.35): I would just like to take a brief moment to pay tribute to the work that Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker is doing with the University of Canberra at the moment. I think he has been a breath of fresh air since taking on the role. I have had a number of meetings and discussions with him. In fact, recently my colleague Mr Doszpot and I were hosted by the vice-chancellor and some of his senior staff at the university to talk through some of what is going on there, particularly with the master planning process. There is a lot of good work being done. Some hard work has had to be done. They had to turn around a financial situation which was less than ideal. They are now focusing on growing and expanding the university and on changing the physical landscape of the university. There is some exciting work being done there.
The university has a real potential to grow in the coming years, to take advantage of some of the reforms that are going on around the nation and to ensure that Canberra continues to be at the forefront of education in Australia. Whilst we have a wonderful institution in the Australian National University in Canberra, I think the University of Canberra is an underrated institution. It is a growing institution and, as Mr Hargreaves points out, it is our university. It is one of which we can be very proud. We look
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