Page 1354 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 2012
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particularly those that are disadvantaged. I will be very sorry to see Martin go, but I understand that he has a stellar career ahead of him, and I wish him all the best.
The situation is similar for Dr Jim Watterston, who joined the Education and Training Directorate in July 2009. He had a very strong background as an educational leader from Victoria and Western Australia. He has been integral in implementing a lot of change here in the school system, with greater sharing of expertise and excellence in improving teaching and learning, and has shown his commitment to the public school system here. Under his leadership, the ACT has remained an outstanding jurisdiction in educational performance, certainly in performance measures such as NAPLAN. The ACT has also experienced growth in the public school sector overall. There are a number of achievements that Jim has made in his short time as the leader of the Education and Training Directorate. He is returning to Victoria to take up a position there.
Often in the hurly-burly of politics we do not recognise enough the work and the commitment that go into performing at this level. To both Jim and Martin, I wish them very much and most genuinely the best in their careers ahead of them, and I thank them very much for the work that they have contributed for the ACT.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the director-general of the Health Directorate, Dr Peggy Brown. We are very lucky to have Peggy, one of Australia’s leading psychiatrists, heading up the Health Directorate here. I would like to acknowledge the role that she has played leading to the development of what is now Australia’s best psychiatric unit in the country. I think I could say that on either the public or the private level you will not see another facility like the one that opened last Friday at Canberra Hospital and that will be commissioned in early April. Peggy Brown very much has led that work. She was not able to be there on Friday as she was busy doing director-general work in another jurisdiction.
I just want to acknowledge the effort she made. I remember that she was the one who bravely came to government and said that the psychiatric unit, the adult mental health unit, should be separate from the secure unit. That was contrary to advice that had come to the government prior to that, but she was right in giving us that advice. Anyone who looked around the unit on Friday would have accepted that that advice was right, and it was very much Peggy who led that work.
She also has led a lot of the improvements in mental health services here in the ACT, and I would like to acknowledge that as well. I would also like to acknowledge other staff like Tina Bracher, the executive director, and Sally-Anne Kinghorne, the project manager for that project. It has been an outstanding effort by public servants working hard to deliver what is a really outstanding outcome. Thank you.
Ronald McDonald House charity ball
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (4.53): I rise tonight to talk about the inaugural Ronald McDonald House charity ball, which occurred in Canberra on Saturday, 24 March at the National Convention Centre. I would like also to acknowledge the presence at that event of Brendan Smyth, Vicki Dunne and her husband, Lyle, and Joy Burch. The
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