Page 821 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 21 March 2017
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There is a report available on the your say website, but it is dated May 2016. Given that the community panel met four times between July and October and the report was presented to the minister in December, I do not believe that that is the report that the minister should be referring to. I seek clarification from the minister under standing order 118A. I ask also: if it is a different report that has not been made available, under standing order 213A can the Assembly order the document that the minister is referring to to be tabled in the Assembly?
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Urban Renewal) (4.31): I take that request and I will come back to the Assembly on that tomorrow.
Adjournment
Motion (by Mr Gentleman) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Dr Stanley “Bryan” Furnass AM
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.31): I rise to talk about Dr Bryan Furnass AM. Dr Furnass was born in Manchester, England, in 1927 and died in Canberra earlier this month. Dr Furnass migrated to Australia in 1960. After a brief time in private practice he became, from 1966, the foundation director of the ANU health service. I think I first came into contact with him then, as I was a uni student while he was director of the health practice.
He retired from ANU in 1991. Before that, but even more so after that, he was a major contributor to public life in the areas of population health, climate change and sustainability. He also mentioned gardening as one of his hobbies, although I think his contribution there was possibly not as significant.
Back in 1977 he published, along with Mark Diesendorf, “Adaptation, ancient and modern, in impact of the environment and lifestyle on human health”. It was about the impact of the environment on human lifestyle. That is where he started as a doctor, and he moved on in his interests. Towards the end of his life he would have qualified as a fairly full-time climate change and sustainability campaigner, and he was quite widely published in that regard.
I say “towards the end of his life”. He was born, as I said, in 1927, so he was an older gentleman. When I came into contact with him, particularly in the latter years of his life, he was a big supporter of and enthusiast for natural burials, which of course I also was a supporter of. In the last few years of his life that was one of the things that he campaigned for. He organised at the ANU an emeritus faculty event, “A case for easier deaths and natural burials”, which combined his interest in the environment with his interest in human health.
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