Page 3299 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 17 September 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
highly commended. The Westpac Agribusiness Innovative Young Landcare Leader Award went to Karina Paloma Bontes Forward from the Dirty Beanstalk ANU Food Co-op.
The ACT government sponsored two awards, these being the Quiet Achiever Award and the Environmental Community Support Award. The Quiet Achiever Award was jointly awarded to Ken Hodgkinson of the North Belconnen Landcare Group and John Fitzgerald from Friends of Grasslands. The Environment Community Support Award went to Glenys Patulny, the chair of the Southern ACT Catchment Group; Stephen Skinner, the Molonglo Waterwatch Coordinator, was highly commended.
I would like to congratulate these hardworking volunteers, as well as other volunteers associated with Landcare ACT, and also to thank Minister Corbell for making those awards on the day. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the hard work of Joslyn van der Moolen, the ACT Regional Landcare Facilitator, for her organisation of the event. Thank you.
Cafe Ink
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (5.09): I recently had the opportunity to attend the re-opening of Cafe Ink at the Woden library. There were many other supporters at the opening that I would like to recognise in this place tonight, and they were Mr Pe Thein Zar, Mrs Nyo Nyo Win, Annette Rennie from Libraries ACT, Lisa Higginson from CatholicCare, Dinpla Hongsa from the Mon Association, Vesna Golic from Companion House, Mr Layehtew Suvannabhum, president of the Mon Association, Mr Tin Aye, Vice-President of the Mon Association, Mon Sine Min from the Mon community, and Emma Walter from Woden Community Services.
I am sure that there have been many speeches in this place about the previous successes of this social enterprise. After its recent brief closure it was great to see it reopen under the leadership of a member of Canberra’s thriving Mon community, Loka Chanmi.
Loka is an amazing example of the contribution refugees who have settled here in Canberra make to our community. Loka came to Canberra from a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. With the support of the Canberra Mon community, which is the largest Mon community in Australia, and the wonderful migrant and refugee support services, Loka and his family have been able to make a really positive contribution to this city. He has also been an excellent example of the fantastic work the Canberra Institute of Technology does in helping people, who arrive in Australia with English as a second language, settle into our community both through language skills and vocational training.
Loka began his study at CIT in adult English as a second language classes. He finished his study five years later when he graduated with a diploma of commercial cookery in 2006. During and after the training, Mr Chanmi worked across Canberra in many local restaurants and eateries. In fact, he has worked in so many establishments I would not be surprised if most of us have eaten a meal that he has had a hand in preparing.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video