Page 3569 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 12 September 2017
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cause social and emotional health issues. And the various men’s sheds right around the country are doing whatever they can to stop that.
I want to make special mention of the Tuggeranong men’s shed on their recent 10th anniversary. Thanks to Frank Vrins and Keith Gilby for inviting me along to that 10th anniversary lunch at the Burns Club. I have paid tribute in this place to the Speaker, Ms Burch, for her huge role in assisting the Tuggeranong men’s shed to secure their current location. I know that my colleague Ms Lawder also has a very, very strong connection to the Tuggeranong shed.
We also had a bunch of representatives from various men’s sheds join us here in the Assembly yesterday. I had a long chat with Neil Sperring from the South Canberra Veterans shed, based on the shores of Lake Tuggeranong. I heard about the grand vision that they have of expanding and offering so much more. I know that that will happen. I also met Ian from Isabella Gardens shed. I got to meet Brian Blackburn from Weston Creek yesterday. I must mention also Alan Boyd from the Hall and district men’s shed. Congrats to all those who are involved in this very, very important part of the community.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Community Services and Social Inclusion, Minister for Disability, Children and Youth, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations) (4.20): I am very pleased to recognise the important contribution of men’s sheds to the wellbeing and inclusion of many men in our community. As we have heard, men’s sheds are accessible to all men and provide a safe, friendly and healing environment where men are able to work on meaningful projects at their own pace, in their own time and, importantly, in the company of other men.
A major objective of the movement is to advance the wellbeing and health of male members of the men’s shed and to encourage social inclusion. As I have said, men’s sheds allow men of all ages to come together to work in a safe, supportive environment, to do volunteer work and to seek fellowship with like-minded people. I have been reminded in preparing for this debate of two men’s sheds that I heard about last year and one that I visited.
Ms Lawder’s comment about the tripartite support for this motion reminded me that on federal election day last year I drew the short straw to travel to Nimmitabel to deliver some election campaign material. As members would be aware, in July it is very cold in Nimmitabel. But I received a warm reception, not only from the Labor booth captain but also from the Liberal Party booth captain.
I learned from both of them that they were respectively also the president and secretary of the local men’s shed in Nimmitabel. They told me about the work that they had been doing to restore and preserve the Nimmitabel railway station and yard. Both of them shared with me their enthusiasm for the men’s shed movement more generally and the opportunities that they had had to get together with other men’s sheds to talk about the different ways that men’s sheds conduct their business. Minister Rattenbury reflected on the variety of opportunities that men’s sheds provide.
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