Page 92 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 2019
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he joined me this morning at the Indigenous Marathon Foundation’s closing the gap fun run. The event is organised by marathon runner extraordinaire Mr Rob de Castella. I am sure that anyone who has lived in Canberra for any length of time will know Mr de Castella’s long history with Canberra, his long history with marathons and marathon running. I do not know how many world records he still holds today; he has competed for Australia in marathons.
Mr de Castella decided, with the help of a range of other people, that he wanted to help our young Indigenous people to bridge the gap, and running was a way that he thought would be appropriate. The Indigenous Marathon Foundation, for those that do not know, was established in 2009. In 2010 four young Indigenous Australians created history as the very first to run in the world’s biggest marathon, the New York City marathon, as part of the Indigenous marathon project.
The IMP, as it is more commonly known, has grown significantly, with 75 graduates finishing a major international marathon, including the New York, Boston, Tokyo, London, Paris and Berlin marathons. They also complete an education component, with a certificate III in fitness, which is delivered by AFL SportsReady.
The continual growth and expansion of the IMP led to the establishment of the IMF in 2015, which covers four core programs—the Indigenous marathon project, Indigenous Communities for Activity and Nutrition, or I-CAN, FrontRunners, which is a graduate-specific program; and Deadly Running Australia. Part of the idea of the IMP is that running and physical activity underpin and provide commitment to social inclusion and also provide a fun environment for people to adopt active and healthy lifestyles.
As I said, this morning I put on my runners again, after running on Saturday, and did a 5k run around our wonderful Lake Burley Griffin. There were hundreds of people there this morning to support the closing the gap fun run-walk, which happens every year. I would encourage members or anyone in the community to get along and support both the IMF and the IMP and any of the deadly runners we see. There were many out at the proximity event on the weekend, also competing, and they did a wonderful job, as did we all.
It has been a very active few days for me, and I hope to continue that. As Mr Parton noted in his speech, I have my own triathlon coming up in about 10 days, so bring on the more active, healthy and wonderful lifestyle that Canberra gives us the opportunity to have.
Mental health—patient follow-up
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.35): I want to put on the record a few comments in response to Mr Rattenbury’s comments after question time. The case that I raised in question time was a case that I raised with Mr Rattenbury last year. It is true that there was correspondence between Mr Rattenbury’s office and mine and it is true that Mr Rattenbury’s staff were (a) shocked and (b) helpful in trying to get the bottom of the issue. But it is also true that the person concerned, whilst not admitted to the
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