Page 89 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 December 2016
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community. Every member of this Assembly has a duty to protect the protectors, be they fire, rescue or our other first responders.
I have always been a very active person. I remember my mum driving me from one sport to the next, getting changed in and out of uniforms in the back seat. Growing up in Kambah, I was the only girl who played soccer for Tuggeranong United FC. I played ice hockey at Phillip, in both the women’s and the men’s teams. I have found a new passion, competing in triathlons with the Vikings Triathlon Club. This club is not just about sport; it is an inclusive, supportive group, the sort of group that makes our community stronger.
I know that sport is not just about fun or for physical health. The payback comes in the form of improved mental health, a harmonious society, and respect for self and others. Canberra has some amazing local parks and sporting facilities. Murrumbidgee has some of the best, parks like the adventure playground in Kambah, enjoyed by families every day. When we decide on the budget for park maintenance, when we discuss city services, we are not just deciding on a bureaucratic instrument. No. In providing places for sport like the Stromlo Forest Park, in making them accessible and in maintaining them to a high standard, we are deciding on the health of our citizens and our community.
I grew up in this city. I grew up in my electorate. I rode horses through what was bushland in south Canberra. There was no Lake Tuggeranong. Wanniassa was the last suburb in the Tuggeranong valley. Gleneagles was where I kept my horses. I loved the bush. I loved the horses and the sense of community we had then.
My sons are now entering adulthood, and I know this is a very different Canberra from the one I grew up in. Canberra is a planned city, a city planned to be egalitarian. By maintaining and improving our green spaces, we continue the socialist vision of King O’Malley. Canberra was planned with every suburb including public housing, a place without slums or inclusive enclaves for the rich. Equality was set into the foundations of our city. As an advocate for the families of our new suburbs in the Molonglo Valley, I am listening closely to their concerns. I will be fighting hard to ensure they get the same opportunities as the families of Yarralumla and Gungahlin.
Some people campaigned against Canberra continuing to grow, as if, with federal control of immigration, an ACT government could shrink us into the country town of the past. We cannot rewind the clock and be a country town, but we can, and we will, be a great city. We have international flights, fantastic restaurants, and a wonderful multicultural community. Canberra, at the start of its second century, has grown from a town into a vibrant city, and it is time for infrastructure to catch up. We live in low-density suburbs built for cars. Our future has higher density and a light rail network stretching from the far north to the far south. It is going to take years to build, and I congratulate the visionaries who got this project underway.
This city was built by people who work with their hands. They keep the power on, the food prepared, the hair cut, the roads paved, the garbage collected and the dogs walked. It is them, not us, who make the modern world possible. The Labor Party was founded on the idea of shaping this nation into a workers’ paradise. I intend to use
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