Page 4233 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 21 September 2010
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ACT Policing—facilities
St Clare’s college
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.19): I want to talk about a couple of issues this evening. Mr Hanson, Ms Hunter and I recently had the opportunity afforded us by the Chief Police Officer, Roman Quaedvlieg, to visit a number of police facilities around the city. I would like to just put on record my thanks and the thanks of the opposition for the opportunity to do this. We went out on a Saturday night and had the opportunity to go to the Winchester centre and see some of the central operations and the CCTV cameras. We attended Woden police station and spoke to officers there, we visited an RBT on Athllon Drive, we went to the city watch-house and then we finished with a walk through the city in and around various nightspots. It certainly gave us a small appreciation of the outstanding work that is performed by our police service here in the ACT.
ACT Policing do a sensational job. I have been very impressed with the Chief Police Officer in the dealings I have had with him, both in committees and at a personal level, including on this evening when we toured the city with him. I was also impressed with the officers I got to speak to, and there were a number of officers we got to speak to about the operations of the RBT, the centralised call service and dispatch area and the CCTV.
I have got to say that, speaking to the people at the city watch-house and hearing about some of the terrible challenges they face on a Saturday night, I think it is one of the tougher jobs in the territory dealing with people under the influence, some violent people, who come into the city watch-house, and I take my hat off for the work that they do and the amazing contribution they make. I do not think there are many of us in Canberra who would like to swap places with them on a Saturday night when there are a lot of people in the watch-house. I think it is an outstanding service they provide to our community. So I would just like to thank ACT Policing and the Chief Police Officer, in particular, for that opportunity.
I would also like to pay tribute to St Clare’s Catholic college in Canberra. Last week I got the opportunity to witness about 900 St Clare’s students seeking to break the Guinness Book of Records record for the most people patting their heads and rubbing their stomachs simultaneously for one minute or more. This was something that was done by St Clare’s. Now there are some people who cannot do that very well, so it did take a bit of practice. Some people end up patting both or rubbing both.
There is a lighter side to it, but I was particularly impressed with a number of things: (1), it was a fundraiser for the victims of the Pakistan floods—I understand they raised a significant amount of money—(2), all these events are a great thing for a school community coming together and doing something together. Angela Winter, who organised it all, did an outstanding job in gathering the troops and ensuring everything was done.
There are strict conditions for Guinness world records. There were something like 48 adults supervising. There were a number of independent individuals there—one
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