Page 773 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 17 March 2015
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say, a bit of healthy competition. The players were playing as hard as they could to win those matches.
Ms Fitzharris was also at the Punjabi Traditional Sports Festival, which I attended at Deakin oval on Saturday, 7 March. That was a busy weekend. I would like to particularly acknowledge Harjinder Singh Dhindsa, President of the Canberra Punjabi Sports and Cultural Association. That was a particularly terrific event to see the Punjabi community coming together to organise very traditional sports being played on Deakin oval right next to Adelaide Avenue.
I think most people driving past would not have realised what was going on, but it was for me a fascinating occasion. I have never been to a Punjabi sports festival. There were some particularly impressive performances at that event. This is the first year that the event has been held. I have great confidence that it will continue to grow over coming years.
Finally, I would like to mention the family fun and sports day which took place at Woden Park at the new athletics track on Saturday, 14 March for the Canberra Malayalees Association, representing a particular Indian community here in Canberra. Again, many hundreds of families turned out for this event. They actually had a whole range of athletics events on the track there. It was great to see the track being used not just for the more serious athletes who are out there competing all the time but for a community association using this wonderful new facility constructed by the ACT government for a community day like this. I would also like to acknowledge the community who put together that wonderful event. I note that Mr Coe was there as well. I was pleased to chat with him at that event.
I simply wanted to acknowledge some of these events and to reflect to the Assembly the enormous range of things that are going on in our community. I think that all of us know this, but I particularly thank the organisers for their effort in putting these events together, because they take some considerable planning and conduct. Each of them brought a great deal of joy to those who turned up to participate.
HerCanberra
MS FITZHARRIS (Molonglo) (5.46): I rise today to talk about HerCanberra, a popular website started by local Canberran Amanda Whitley in January 2011. HerCanberra was designed to connect Canberrans, particularly women, with their city and with each other. Last week I was honoured to attend an exciting launch of their free hard-copy magazine called Magazine. The event attracted around 150 people, and it was a celebration not only of HerCanberra’s expansion from online to hard-copy media but also of Canberra and the contribution of women to our city.
It was also a significant milestone for HerCanberra and a demonstration of the strength of our economy that such successful local businesses can flourish. My hope is that Amanda’s example will encourage more Canberrans to follow their passion in a uniquely Canberra way.
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