Page 574 - Week 02 - Thursday, 18 February 2016
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My life in the territory taught me many things. It taught me that people working together using their individual skills and ideas can achieve much for their community. It gave me the opportunity to do just that. It taught me that if you want to know your community, you need to work with your community. It was a good training ground for the work I took on on arrival in the ACT: to establish what is now known as Communities@Work, formerly Tuggeranong community service, and to establish and build Volunteering ACT, the peak body for the volunteering profession. Both those organisations are now highly respected and acknowledged leaders in their field.
These examples are about the power of people to make a great deal of difference when supported and resourced. It takes very little in the way of financial resources to achieve a great deal. Who could have anticipated five or six people, all with families, mortgages and part-time paid jobs, could band together and form the genesis of what are now thriving community services?
This is how those two organisations were formed. It was with the will of these women working together. It is all about people joining together, taking an idea, working together and making it a reality for the benefit of all. Since then in the same way I have joined with others to bring into being the former west Belconnen health co-op, now with several sites across the ACT. Also, Pets and Positive Ageing, PAPA, enables older members of our community to age at home with their pets, or take their pets with them into retirement villages. I acknowledge people from PAPA who are with us today and thank them for being here.
I am proud to have joined with Karralika to work towards the establishment of an Older Wiser Living organisation in the ACT. This will be similar to OWL in Victoria, which individually identifies and supports older people in danger of adverse health events, including falls, as a result of their use of prescription medication and their daily intake of alcohol.
In this place last week I talked about my passion for restorative justice and how I have championed this practice for many years, including as an MLA. I have been fortunate to have the support of my colleagues in this. I again acknowledge Attorney-General, Simon Corbell, for his commitment to and his vision for a restorative city.
I will continue to work outside this place in my new community and across Australia for restorative justice. I have been fortunate to be able to follow another passion, that of the arts in all its forms, particularly through being patron of the CAT awards, the Canberra Area Theatre awards. I have enjoyed supporting and promoting many amateur theatre groups in the ACT and region, most members of CAT.
My professional development scholarship, which is now in its fourth year, is another way I have encouraged young people who have gained recognition through the CAT awards, and I am happy to continue this. I look forward to the day when the CAT awards will receive the recognition that they deserve as one of the primary means of assisting our young outstanding talent to gain recognition and opportunity in many fields of live theatre.
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