Page 1151 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Speaker that my proposal was drawn to bring this to the attention of members of this Assembly. We all know how the Speaker makes a random choice from each day’s requests for an MPI, and I can only assume it was by the same random process that it was my name and perhaps not that of my younger colleague Mr Coe that was pulled out of the proverbial hat to present this discussion.
That said, in discussing the contribution of older Australians it really becomes a matter of perspective as to what constitutes that group known as “older Australians” or indeed “older Canberrans”. We do need to be careful as to how we define people and into what box we put them and where they themselves wish to be put. For example, when we were growing up we probably all thought of our parents as being old fogeys, when in truth they were probably only in their 30s or perhaps 40s. I know children in their pre and early teens routinely regard anyone over 20 as old and beyond understanding of anything modern. So what is the official definition of “older Australians”?
Mr Hanson: Not a hipster like you, though, Andrew.
Mr Barr: It’s all relative, Jeremy.
MR DOSZPOT: It depends where you look. It might come as somewhat of a surprise to fellow members of this Assembly that mature age Australians are classified as anyone, Mr Hanson, over 45 years of age.
One reason for such a high percentage of people in the older age bracket is that Australians enjoy one of the highest life expectations in the world, and we of course should all be grateful for that.
In moving to the essence of today’s debate, older Canberrans and their importance to the territory, we have some rich pickings indeed. One only has to read the Hansard of yesterday’s motion on the importance of family businesses to the economic prosperity of this territory to recognise the contribution of some important older Canberrans.
We have Canberra’s oldest business, Bink concrete, headed for over 50 years by John Bink, and Joe Giugni’s Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets. Both of them and their businesses are Canberra institutions, while not forgetting people like Rob de Castella, who has not only brought pride and fame to Canberra sport but is also a popular and successful small businessman. We also have the likes of Terry Snow, the head of the prominent Snow Foundation and Brindabella Business Park development; Bob Winnel of the Village Building Company; Ivan Domazet of the Doma Group; Jeff Konstantinou of the Konstantinou Group—all prominent Canberrans who have contributed and continue to contribute to Canberra’s growth and development.
From a political perspective, Greg Cornwell, Jon Stanhope, Lou Westende and Bill Wood are some of the names that come to mind and who are all former contributors to our Assembly and in that certain age group.
Our 2012 Australia Day ACT ambassador, Bryce Courtenay, is a mature age Australian and now Canberra resident. In fact I believe that Bryce Courtenay had
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video