Page 2969 - Week 08 - Thursday, 17 August 2017
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meeting underwater to show their very real future. I admit they held it for only 30 minutes but it was not just some stunt.
The 2007 IPCC reported that a sea level rise of only two metres would render the entirety of the Maldives uninhabitable. And what is the current IPCC prediction? At least one metre by 2100. In fact, more recent predictions have been a lot more disturbing, a lot higher than that. That is potentially 400,000 innocent people who built their lives on an island, worked on an island and lived on an island, either displaced or dead. In my last term in the Assembly I went to Kiribati and it is in the same situation. The average height above sea level is less than a metre. This is a real issue that we all need to act on.
The Maldives and the ACT are united in their resistance to climate change, and the big corporations and the governments of the world need to join us. Everyone needs to join us to preserve our environment for the future.
Go-karting
MS CODY (Murrumbidgee) (5.54): The other day I had the chance to meet and watch some amazing women go-karters. I attended a race meet at the Canberra Kart Racing Club to watch some of Canberra’s fastest young drivers take on the circuit. Although many of them are far too young to drive on our streets, they can really rip it up on the track, often reaching speeds of around 140 kilometres per hour.
It is really thrilling to watch these youngsters, some as young as seven, so passionately participate in what is traditionally a male-dominated sport. Unlike other sports, there is no gender separation on the track and competitors are separated only by age and by the type of kart they drive. Not only are these young girls enormously successful in Canberra race meets but many of them hold state and national championships and have dreams of racing professionally into the future.
I had the opportunity to race against some of these champion racers at Power Kart Raceway recently. As someone who finished 10 seconds and four laps behind the fastest competitor, believe me when I say they are extremely skilled and super-fast. They made established road users and motorbike riders like me look like L-platers. They are often asked why they do it. They told me it is the adrenaline rush; it is the friends they make; but, most of all, it is because they can beat the boys.
Like many women in sport, they are not without their challenges. It is harder to get sponsorship; they cannot get the right clothes in Australia; and when they do import them from overseas, it is boys’ stuff anyway. The advantage of a mixed competition on the track is that each competitor is totally equal, distinguishable only by their skill.
I congratulate the Canberra Kart Racing Club for supporting and empowering young women and girls in a traditionally male-dominated sport to reach their full potential. It is great to live in a city where young women are given more opportunities every year. So I encourage everyone in this chamber and in the broader community, as we head into the last few weeks of many sporting calendars, to rock up to a local football field,
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