Page 4137 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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Her colleagues advise me that her drive and determination were an inspiration. She was passionate about genetic counselling and worked her way up from administrative officer in the genetics department at Canberra Hospital to become an extremely valued and respected genetic counsellor. She was caring and diligent and always demonstrated wisdom and empathy well beyond her 26 years.
She was spoken of by her work unit as an inspirational woman who was remarkably organised, intelligent, clear-thinking and focused. Her approach to her life and her work will remain an inspiration to her colleagues and to those touched by her diligence and empathetic nature. She was considered the central pivot in the genetics team and was very well respected by all of her colleagues for this.
Sadly, Sam passed away while waiting for a lung transplant. We all know the importance of organ and tissue donation. Here in the Assembly, we discuss it from time to time. At any one given time there are about 1,500 people on the Australian organ transplant waiting list. In the first nine months of 2014, 290 Australian organ donors transformed the lives of 851 transplant recipients. This opportunity tonight to think of the work and the dedication of Sam Steele also provides us with the opportunity to remind people about how organ and tissue donation can transform the lives of others.
I never personally had the opportunity to meet Sam, but I know she is greatly missed in her workplace, in particular, for her passion, the skills she brought to work and the positive impact she made on so many lives—all of this despite her young age and the condition she lived with throughout her life.
Sam made a difference. She helped people. She loved people and was loved in return. Too often we hear stories of wonderful people, wonderful Canberrans, whose lives are cut short through illness or injury for which there is really nothing we can say that can ease the pain and the loss for those people left behind. But Sam Steele will be remembered. She was a valued colleague, and I know that, in time and if appropriate, there will be ways to formally remember her not just in the Hansard but as a valued member of ACT Health.
Women—prostitution and human trafficking
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (6.45): Yesterday I spoke about part of the journey that Mrs Jones and I made earlier this year, and I will continue that narrative today.
On 22 April, in that week beginning at that time, the group met with Kajsa Wahlberg, the national rapporteur on human trafficking. Superintendent Wahlberg is Sweden’s foremost and most authoritative expert on the implementation of Sweden’s prostitution laws, as she has held the same position since 1999. She asserted to us that the laws had been effective in curbing but not stopping prostitution. She strongly rejected the notion that the 1999 laws had driven prostitution “underground” because prostitution relies on customers being able to find prostitutes, and if customers can find them, the police can also find the purchasers.
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