Page 1137 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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I also acknowledge the work of Brigadier Alison Creagh CFC (Retired) and Mr Gerard Pratt, the chair and deputy chair of the Ministerial Advisory Council for Veterans and their Families, respectively, as well as all members of the council, past and present. The council provides advice to the ACT government on policies and initiatives which help to better support outcomes for Canberra’s veterans. I also thank and congratulate the public servants who continue to develop, to embed and to evaluate this strategy.
Finally, I thank the veterans and their families who have participated in the program or have provided feedback to help us improve the program. This national recognition confirms that we are well on track. The breadth of veterans working across the ACT public service will grow as we continue to implement and improve our strategy. When we launched the strategy at the end of 2017 we had 35 people identify as veterans in the public service. We now have 189. I have said before that I believe the ACT public service can and should be a national leader in the employment of veterans, and I want us to model the employment and retention of veterans to businesses and to companies across the ACT and the region. The award demonstrates that we are indeed well positioned to provide the right support and recognise the value of our veterans and of their families.
Mr Jack Mundey—tribute
MS CODY (Murrumbidgee) (6.08): I rise tonight, in my partisan shirt, as a proud union member, to pay tribute to a giant of the union movement, Mr Jack Mundey, who died on 10 May 2020. There are possibly only a few members of this place who know to whom I am referring. I, however, have been lucky enough to have heard about Jack for most of my life.
Jack Mundey was probably best known for his role as leader of the green bans in Sydney. But I knew him as my dad’s mate Jack, leader of the New South Wales Builders Labourers Federation—the BLF, as they are better known. My dad met Jack during their time opposing conscription to the Vietnam War. They bonded over their strong views in promoting Aboriginal rights, workers rights and fair and equal rights.
In 1970, well before I was born, Jack became the elected secretary of the New South Wales BLF. Luckily for us, and for Jack, it was the 1970s: today, the fights that Jack took forward would be banned, and he would probably be arrested, prosecuted and jailed.
As I have already said, Jack was best known for the green bans. However, in the early days of Jack’s leadership there were many other bans that he led. A few of the more notable bans were the fight to keep a women’s studies course at the University of Sydney; the fight to reinstate a gay activist at Macquarie University; and protesting against a land developer in Redfern, which resulted in the Redfern Aboriginal community housing scheme.
Some of Jack’s other fights are still being fought by the CFMEU and other unions today. One in particular is the right of women to work in the construction industry and
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