Page 4139 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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One of the things that was quite startling was that, contrary to the hope expressed by Ms Ostergren in Stockholm, research undertaken by the all-party group indicated that British purchasers of sex did not care about or bother to discover whether women were trafficked or coerced. This view has been supported by recent material that Mrs Jones spoke about today as well.
The clear message from what we saw in Sweden, England and France is that all countries need a coordinated approach to tackling the problems of violence against women through trafficking and prostitution. Australia as a federation has a clear problem in that the commonwealth is responsible for trafficking and the states and territories are responsible for prostitution. This division of responsibilities could militate against a coordinated approach, especially when it comes to trafficking and dealing with the fundamental issues of violence against women.
I commend the more fulsome report that Mrs Jones and I have prepared on this matter, which is on the Assembly website. I hope that it will be useful reading for others.
Macgregor Primary School—40th anniversary
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (6.50): On Saturday, 22 November Macgregor Primary School hosted its first fete in eight years to celebrate the school’s 40th anniversary, with an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people joining in the day’s activities and supporting their local school. It was a great afternoon of fun for the whole community. There were market stalls galore, a white elephant stall, book stall, food stalls, pony rides, live entertainment from all the students, a monster raffle and many more stalls and entertainment than I could mention in the five minutes that I have tonight.
Macgregor Primary School is a school of considerable baking prowess and there was, of course, the all-important cake stall. This happens to be my favourite stall because baking cakes is not a strength of mine and I was happy to volunteer to sell the super-tasty treats, as well as purchase a few for myself.
It was a wonderful event and I want to make sure that those people who worked so hard to make the day such a success are acknowledged. The whole school community worked together to support the fete, including the preschool; Lana Read, the school principal; the deputy principal, Chris Shaddock; all of the teachers and supporting staff; the out of school hours care team; the students and their parents; the P&C; the school canteen; as well as many people from the broader community of Canberra who donated items and their time leading up to the event and on the stalls on the day.
There were many volunteers. More than 60 people helped out on the day as well as an amazing and dedicated core group on the organising committee that I would like to acknowledge: Belinda Clear, Lauren Cornish, Rebecca Moroney, Beck Adams, Alexandra Hunter, Erin Swinsburg, Lyndal Keen, Alison Elliott and Tenai Luttrell. One of the committee members, Beck Adams, said to me that this event was more than a fete; it was a community establishing itself as a strong, dynamic and diverse neighbourhood that can achieve anything when it works together, and I could not agree more with this statement.
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