Page 5000 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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reasons why I have limited the place names included in my motion for urgent review to Haig Park and William Slim Drive. Neither is anybody’s address. They are also by far the most frequently raised issues.
We need to do more to bring this city and this country together to have a more harmonious future. I did not run for politics because I believe in people being victims. I ran because I want us to work together to make our country and our city better. Whether it be the past covering up of paedophiles or the stolen generations, the best way for our city to come together and keep making our community stronger is to tell the truth.
Australian governments have been issuing a lot of apologies in the past few years. It is time we made our deeds match our words. Opening the door to a review of how we tell our history through place names is one way we can do that. If we can, we should.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (4.52): Madam Deputy Speaker, where to start? I drew the short straw in the party room on this one. I genuinely wish I was not standing up here and speaking to this motion. I had high hopes that it would never be debated.
Like most in this place, I watched the storm of comments that filled the public space when Ms Cody initially flagged her intention to bring it forward. I watched that storm, and I had this belief that common sense would prevail. I had this belief that Ms Cody would skulk off into the shadows and go looking for some other virtue-signalling outrage. I thought she would go scouring the restrooms of RSL clubs around the country to find something else. But I was wrong.
Ms Cody has certainly watered down what she originally signalled a month ago. I do not know that it has become more extensive; I think it has been watered down. My understanding is that Ms Cody’s colleagues have forced her to water it down, but it is very clear that this motion still misses the mark. And I am not the only one saying that. This is what Derrick Johns from Florey had to say about the motion in a letter to the editor of the Canberra Times:
Presumably the ACT Place Names Committee was established precisely to address such issues. Why then does one MLA need to be expending such time and effort on this matter? It would appear that Bec Cody is far more concerned about the names of streets than the fact that we have too many homeless people actually living on those streets and that’s just one example of a far more pressing issue. If this is the best the Labor Party can offer then they really don’t deserve to be in government.
So said Derrick Johns from Florey. Personally, I am relatively happy with the ACT Place Names Committee, and I cannot help but wonder why Ms Cody is not, and also I wonder if her vision of an expansion of the membership of the Place Names Committee to be representative of diversity would include a place at the table for the union movement. I can only assume that that would be the case.
Ms Cody: Wouldn’t that be awesome.
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