Page 798 - Week 02 - Thursday, 10 March 2011
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become your football team when you have been here long enough. That was meant to be a compliment, by the way. I have just taken out my family membership for both the Raiders and the Brumbies. I will be there on Sunday.
Before Bianca leaves, I would also like to offer my congratulations. I believe it was in 2003 that her soccer coach told her that she needed to take up a sport where she could hit someone. And she has done that with so much success that, after she hung up her soccer boots, she took out her first Australian boxing title, I believe, in 2008. Congratulations now on her current title, the flyweight boxing title, that she has taken out. I saw her this morning and she told me she is on track for the 2012 London Olympic Games and I congratulate her and wish her all the best in her pursuit of becoming an Olympian.
On Mr Barr’s comment about World Plumbing Day, I think it is in fact a very important reminder to us all of the great work that plumbers are performing in Queensland and New Zealand in particular as they assist people now and will continue to do so over the next many months to give people back the essential services that these hard-hit areas in particular require—services that we all take for granted. So I totally agree with Mr Barr’s point on that.
I would also like to mention that I was one of around 200 people who attended the official farewell of Maureen Cane from Communities@Work on Tuesday evening. After 10 years at the helm of Communities@Work, Chief Executive Officer Maureen Cane has decided to pursue other opportunities. We joined Maureen’s colleagues and friends to celebrate her outstanding achievements at Communities@Work at a special function in the balcony room of the Tuggeranong community function centre. It was a very interesting function and one that obviously paid great credit to Maureen’s service to the community and to Communities@Work.
Maureen Cane has been the chief executive of Communities@Work for 10 years. She holds a Master of Arts degree from Oxford University and a graduate certificate in public health from the Flinders University of South Australia. Maureen’s career includes 15 years in senior management positions in the Australian public service and the ACT public service, including chief executive of the Department of Public Administration and as the first Commissioner for Public Administration in the ACT. She has 11 years experience in senior management positions in the community sector.
Perhaps it can be said that her departure also marks a pivotal point in the growth of Communities@Work. It highlights her long contribution to the community as she has managed the process to amalgamate Galilee Inc, a community sector organisation that supports disadvantaged children and youth, and Communities@Work. When the amalgamation was announced a few months ago, Maureen Cane said she warmly welcomed the amalgamation which would utilise a wider group of staff and staff expertise to provide high quality family support and youth services.
At that time she also announced she was leaving and said what a wonderful privilege it was to work for such an innovative and dynamic organisation with dedicated professional staff and a supportive board of directors, and she was delighted at that stage to say that she was leaving Communities@Work in excellent hands and with bright prospects for the future.
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