Page 1774 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
When we arrived we were warmly greeted by library staff and offered a tour of the facility, which was wonderful. I put on record my thanks to the manager of the Heritage Library, Antoinette Buchanan, who very kindly accommodated us without any prior knowledge. She is passionate, knowledgeable and dedicated to the work there. She is so enthusiastic, and we really enjoyed the tour of the facility.
It is a treasure trove of local information and history. It includes items such as plans and government documents. It has newspapers and maps. It has artworks and novels; local journals and books; and all sorts of trinkets, knick-knacks and ephemera, some of which relate to elections in the ACT, for example. It is advertised as “helping to tell the stories of Canberra and its people” and that is very true.
Yet it provides so much more. It provides the assistance and facilitation of easy access to historical data for researchers who go there and use the facilities. There is the preservation aspect, where information and historical items are secured, organised and catalogued. It is a very safe area. They engage with the community and promote history with other libraries. They encourage local groups with an interest in the history of Canberra to use the space for meetings and for their research purposes.
We saw some wonderful items in the collection, including some of the early Floriade posters; some contracts for farming land in the parliamentary triangle; collections of decades of political material; local academic journals on cacti, for example; souvenir medallions with the territory logo; and much, much more.
It is a great asset for the community, perhaps not well known. I really enjoyed my visit there on two fronts: to learn more about not only the Heritage Library and view its new facilities in Fyshwick but also the space exhibition running as part of the Heritage Festival. I believe it is running for a while longer at the Heritage Library. If you are interested in space, I encourage you to go out there and have a look. I am sure you will learn more about what is in the Heritage Library as well.
Thank you so much to Antoinette and her team for accommodating us when we went to visit and for offering us a tour. Thank you for all the work that they do towards preserving, curating and maintaining those important links with Canberra’s history.
Environment—textiles industry
MS ORR (Yerrabi) (6.16): I rise tonight to call for greater action on containing the harmful impacts on our natural environment as a result of the textiles industry. I especially want to draw your attention to the widespread social and environmental consequences of fast fashion. Fast fashion is a relatively new phenomenon where big name fashion retailers copy looks from the catwalk and mass produce garments at a low cost with a high turnover. Due to the convenience and affordability of these items, the fast fashion movement has generated poor consumer habits.
People would rather spend $50 on a new pair of jeans than pay for them to be repaired. Clothing is now sold in supermarkets and is considered disposable. The temptation to impulsively shop for unnecessary items simply because they are cheap has become
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video