Page 2856 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 16 August 2017
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I would like to thank the organisers of the event for all the hard work they put in to ensuring that the event went smoothly. There were: the TNA Turns Pink organising committee; the Tuggeranong Netball Association, including Jonathan Toze, the president of the TNA; David Sibley, as I mentioned, the media and marketing coordinator of TNA for his continued interaction with us, keeping us informed, making sure we attended training sessions et cetera; Netball ACT and the many different netball associations and teams that came along and played on the day; a shout out to the umpires who gave their time on the day to umpire all the games; Jo Pivac; Canberra Giants member Georgia Claydon; the TNA Emeralds captain, Breanna Toze; Carly Symons and Emily Toze from the South Canberra Netball Association for taking the time out of their day to help us train; and the Vikings Group and Icon Water for sponsoring the event.
Despite the physical toll that the day took—on me at least—I had a fantastic time, and I am sure my colleagues agree. I hope you all consider taking part next time the TNA have one of these charity events.
National Science Week
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (6.28): It is National Science Week. While I cannot name all the scientists in the ACT, I wanted to put on the record a number of people in the Canberra community I have got to know over the last little while who are making extraordinary contributions in quite different ways.
The first is Stuart Harris, whom I have spoken about in this chamber before. Stuart is a Belconnen local. He is a citizen scientist whose discovery of a new species of spider, the Maratus harrisi, at Booroomba Rocks is well documented in the outstanding and award-winning short film Maratus. Maratus is available for free viewing for a short time on ABC iview to coincide with National Science Week. I encourage everyone to check out his amazing story. Stuart has since discovered many more species of spider.
I would also like to acknowledge Michael Sidonio, a name well known to many of us here for the excellent support he provides to all members. Michael, too, I think could be described as a citizen scientist. Recently, Michael took a very nice photograph of a large, famous galaxy called, I believe, NGC 253. In doing so his photo inadvertently had in it a small smudge. That small smudge turned out to be a previously undiscovered galaxy. It is quite amazing that we have someone walking among us every day who discovered a galaxy.
Francesca Maclean is a name well-known to many of us. She is someone else I have spoken about here before. Francesca is the co-founder of ANU Fifty50 and is the 2017 ACT Young Woman of the Year. Last week Francesca and her team hosted a Fifty50 big ideas breakfast focusing on what governments, businesses and universities need to do to reach gender equity in STEM by 2025. The breakfast had participants commit to action items in 20 hours, 20 days, 20 weeks and by 2020, and the organisers will be holding all of the participants to account. I look forward to the results.
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