Page 3701 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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Banking. The aim was for participants to post bail by gathering a minimum of $1,000 in donations, hopefully within the space of an hour.
I had the dubious honour of being one of the first to be locked up at the bright and early hour of 6.30 am on Friday, during Scotty and Nige’s breakfast show. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow inmates—Eoghan O’Byrne from Canberra FM, Peter Carlin from SERVICE ONE, Associate Professor Zsuzsoka Kecskes and Nathan Hayes from Gerald Slaven—for all their fundraising efforts. I have to give a little bit of a ribbon to Eoghan who was slow off the mark in gathering his bail, but he did end up coming good in the final hour of the cause.
Also, a big congratulations to the other bosses who were locked up on the day. They included Steve Waltmann, Michael Linke, Rosa Suraci, Graeme Andrews, Agatha Villano, Julie Heinze, Michael Holyland, Tony Commisso, Jackie McKeowan, Myles Cronin, Brendan Lockton, Rebecca Cormack, Jack Taylor, Peter Carroll, Craig Honeybrook, Michelle Ludeman, Sonja Butcher, Steven Bunday, Tony Watt, Aaron Alexander, Andrew Pike, Kylie Matesa, Alan Reid, Robert Matheson, Albert Dabas, Karen Gilmore and Duncan Sligar. Special mention must also go to Julie Phillips, from Outback Jacks in Belconnen, who spent a good part of the day—on close to five hours, I believe—locked up and managed to up the ante by raising $5,790. But she was pipped at the post by Michael Houston from the Canberra Motorcycle Centre, who put in a stellar effort, raising $7,630.
Well done to the team at FM104.7 for a great community initiative that is supporting Lifeline. Also, again, thanks to SERVICE ONE for the support that they offered in managing all the finances. And a big thank you to the sponsors that helped me raise my funds—just over $1,500—for Lifeline and allowed me to get out early on Friday morning and continue on for a busy day.
Children’s Week
MR DOSZPOT (Molonglo) (4.36): Around Australia last week we celebrated Children’s Week. Since it was first established in 1996, the fourth week in October each year has been set aside to celebrate children. Some parents might well argue that every week and every day is children’s week, but for every child that lives in a loving, safe, environment, there are millions around the world that do not. Children’s Week celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood. It is also a time for children to demonstrate their talents, skills and abilities. Its ongoing permanent theme—a caring world shares—is appropriate because the week also celebrated Carers Week.
As Ms Lawder mentioned in her motion last week on Carers Week, there are many children who have forfeited their childhood; they have been forced to become adults as they become carers for their parents or older or younger siblings. We would all wish that this were not so, but the reality is that, even in affluent Australia, many children do not have a happy, secure, fun-filled childhood.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child lists 54 particular rights, from a child’s right to play and rest to far more detailed and serious issues. Canberra is often
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