Page 2532 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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I speak of the Australia India Business Council today because I had the opportunity last month to attend an event at the invitation of Deepak Raj-Gupta, the president of the ACT branch of the council. The event was hosted by Yellow Edge, an Australian consulting company based in Canberra. They provided the opportunity for Canberra individuals and businesses to network and better understand the business opportunities which both India and Australia present. The event was very well attended, was very informative and included an address by the member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the ACT branch of the council. The council is run by volunteers and comprises the president, Deepak Raj-Gupta, who also doubles as the national director of the council; the vice-president, Mithun Alexander; the secretary, Kiren Chitkara; the treasurer, Bik Ray; and committee members Sukhvinder Saggu and Gagandeep Singh.
The ACT branch of the council works within a national organisation. I would like to congratulate their national team—the national chair, Dipen Rughani; the national vice-chair, Sheba NandKeolyar; the national treasurer, Con Livissianis; the national secretary, John Cox; and the directors, Ravi Bhatia, Randeep Agarval, Adrian Vicary and Omesh Motiwalla.
Finally, I would like to thank Andrew Simon and everyone else at Yellow Edge for facilitating and promoting the event. For further information about the Australia India Business Council, including information on upcoming events or to sign up to their newsletter, I encourage members to visit their website at ww.aibc.org.au.
Mr Peter Sculthorpe
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Racing and Gaming, Minister for Women and Minister for the Arts) (6.52): I rise today to comment on the passing of Peter Sculthorpe. Peter Sculthorpe, one of Australia’s most significant contemporary composers, died last week in Sydney. I would like to take a short time to pay tribute to this wonderful artist and to acknowledge my respect and that of this Assembly for his contribution to the definition and development of a modern Australian culture.
He was a remarkable man of superb talent with an enormous gift of vision and foresight. He was a generous artist who interpreted, through music, the landscape of Australia, in the same way that Sidney Nolan and Russell Drysdale did in paint and Judith Wright and Patrick White did in literature.
Peter Sculthorpe will have a lasting impact on Canberra, a city he first visited in 1956 and returned to over many decades. His most recent visits included commissions from the Canberra International Music Festival. Peter Sculthorpe has left his papers and manuscripts to the people of Australia through a generous gift to the National Library of Australia, allowing scholars and composers to research and to rediscover his music and observations.
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