Page 5216 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 29 November 2017
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Belconnen high to modernise their campus. All of that is to say nothing of the playground, road and infrastructure upgrades that have happened around the electorate through the whole year, as well as the continuous maintenance efforts that have kept our electorate looking beautiful. I am proud of everything this government has achieved in my electorate this year and I am conscious that the same efforts have been replicated across every electorate in our city.
Not only is our government showing great vision in supporting the growth and development of Canberra but we have shown true leadership in standing up for vulnerable and minority groups in our community, especially over the course of this past year. It is well known that we have stood up for the LGBTIQ community during an incredibly punishing period. While the federal Liberal Party threw the LGBTIQ community under a bus and then pretended it was all about democratic process, we used our buses to send a message of acceptance and celebration. Our rainbow buses travelled around the city, sending a clear message that people in our community belong, no matter their sex or sexual orientation. The number of people who tell me how excited they get when they see a rainbow bus is testament to that. We have funded the office for LGBTIQ affairs to support LGBTIQ people and we have provided $500,000 in funding to A Gender Agenda.
I stood in front of ABS House with a few dozen other Canberrans on 15 November when the announcement of the survey result was made. While we were outside, there was a real symbolism to the moment. As strangers we stood, united, crowded around a mobile phone, watching the results with arms around each other. The elation and the united feeling of that moment will be etched in my memory forever. The Canberra result in particular is something I will always be proud of, and so many members in this place and throughout this community worked hard for that. My laptop, I am happy to say, again wears my rainbow CBR sticker in this place with pride, no longer hidden away.
Madam Assistant Speaker, we have stood up for women. We have embraced International Women’s Day, supporting and promoting a range of events around this city. As you know, we are currently in the middle of 16 days of activism, strongly saying we never accept gendered violence. We have supported a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health choices, reiterating our support for the decriminalisation of abortion which occurred, thanks to Wayne Berry, 15 years ago. We also announced recently that we are looking into ways to make it more accessible so that there is true choice available for women.
Sadly, it is now 120 days since the Leader of the Opposition conceded that his party has no policy position on women’s reproductive health. We are still waiting for any sign whatsoever that they might have actually thought about this and come up with a position, since it deeply impacts the lives of more than half the population. We have heard nothing. The Canberra Liberals continue to lecture us about how representative of the ACT community they are and how they stand up for all Canberrans. I fail to see, and I challenge them to explain, how this is the case when they do not have a policy for more than 50 per cent of the population. Mrs Kikkert talks about weaknesses in policy and the rot they create. I think she should turn a mirror on her own party’s weaknesses because this is a glaring one.
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