Alistair Coe MLA

Speech in the Legislative Assembly

19 October 2011

On Sunday, 25 September I was pleased to attend and participate in the Mount Rogers Explorer Day.

The Mount Rogers Explorer Day was developed as an information day for residents who live in the area surrounding Mount Rogers to draw attention to the benefits of having such a wonderful asset in their backyard.

The Mount Rogers Landcare group, under the guidance of coordinator Rosemary Blemings, organised displays and giveaways on the day. The event was well attended, with up to 60 people attending at some stage throughout the day.

Ginninderra Catchment Group provided a barbecue lunch and information about other Landcare groups within the catchment, while Mount Rogers Landcare group organised a guided walk and provided games, including a horseshoe toss and an egg and spoon race.

The Mount Rogers Landcare Group undertakes activities to improve the biodiversity of the Mount Rogers reserve. Its activities involve weed management, planting native vegetation, erosion control and community awareness and education. Working beestake place twice each month. Since 1999, the group has contributed $100 worth of plants as a lucky door prize and is always keen to encourage participation and new membership.

The Ginninderra Catchment Group is an incorporated umbrella group of community volunteers working in the water catchment of the Ginninderra. There are a number of separate Landcare groups operating under the GCG, operating across the catchment,including the Dunlop Environment Volunteers, Friends of Aranda Bushland, Friends of Mount Painter, Macgregor Landcare Group, Mount Rogers Landcare Group, North Belconnen Landcare Group, Umbagong Landcare Group, Friends of the Pinnacle, Giralang Pond Landcare Group and Holt Community Parkcarers.

Speech in the Legislative Assembly

18 October 2011

On 12 October last week I was pleased to attend the launch of MusicACT, an organisation whose aim is the promotion and advocacy of music in the ACT. According to their website, the goal of this new peak body for the music industry in the ACT is to advocate and promote Canberra’s music culture.

MusicACT provides access to all aspects of the music industry, including legal advice, assistance to launch outside of the ACT or advance a music-related concept as well as political advocacy.

MusicACT, initially called the ACT Live Music Association, formed in the face of a number of government reviews, including the review of arts in the ACT, the interdepartmental committee on barriers to live music, live music stakeholder forum facilitated by Arts ACT as well as the Legislative Assembly review into live music in the ACT undertaken by the Planning, Public Works and Territory and Municipal Services Committee.

Prior to the formation of this board, the ACT was the only jurisdiction in Australia without a peak body for music and representation from the Australian music industry network. MusicACT will now fill this void. The board is seeking a broad membership which will hopefully include musicians, DJs, producers, venues, music label organisations, educators, retailers, businesses and professionals.

Music for the launch event was, of course, provided by home grown musicians—the Goji Berry Jam fusion band, which comprised local jazz musicians and electronic producers, as well as local funk pop rock trio, Fun Machine.

The president of MusicACT is Gil Miller, who is well known to Canberra as a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and who is also on the board of the ACT branch of the AHA. Gil has gathered likeminded individuals with a personal interest in the future of music in the ACT—they include Peter Bayliss, Julia Winterflood, David Caffery, Jacq Rolfe and Sari Nurmi—as fellow MusicACT board members. I look forward to supporting the organisation in the future in their pursuit of promoting the ACT music industry.

Speech in the Legislative Assembly

22 September 2011

On Saturday, 17 September, I had the pleasure of attending a dinner hosted by Brian Medway at Grace Canberra for members of the Australian Friends of Iranian Democracy. Brian has had an association with the group for some time and has been a strong advocate for their cause both in Australia and abroad. The dinner was held to honour the visit to Canberra by Mr Mohammed Sadeghpur, the leader of the Australian Friends of Democracy, and his wife Sayesheh.

The dinner paid tribute to the group in their ongoing work with Iranian refugees who currently live in a portion of land that lies 100 kilometres north of Baghdad in Iraq, known as Camp Ashraf or Ashraf City. Camp Ashraf is home to 3,400 members of Iran‘s principal opposition movement, the People‘s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, who have resided in this area of Iraq for 25 years. Iraqi government forces have renewed attacks on this group of refugees in recent years, despite them being recognised as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Supporters in Australia of the residents of Camp Ashraf are urging the Australian federal government to support the European parliament plan for the transfer of Ashraf residents to other countries and to join international condemnation of the current Iranian regime‘s plan to relocate Ashraf‘s residents inside Iraq, allowing for further and more sinister persecution.

I commend the Australian Friends of Iranian Democracy and the work they are doing to bring international pressure to bear in support of the plight of Ashraf City refugees.

Speech in the ACT Legislative Assembly

22 September 2011

I would like to take this opportunity to place on the record my congratulations to the Canberra Chronicle and its entire staff, past and present, for 30 years of service to the Canberra community.

While we all in this place have a love-hate relationship with most of the media outlets in the region, I think it is appropriate to pay tribute to the Chronicle this evening and to acknowledge the role it plays in the Canberra community.

Whilst I sometimes agree and at other times disagree with the paper, it serves a very important role. The publication has maintained its original charter to provide balanced, reliable, local news to all Canberrans, free, in their letterbox on a weekly basis. The first Chronicle was published on 16 September 1981 and, I am pleased to note, featured a former capital territory minister, the Liberal Michael Hodgman, on the front page—a person that I have spoken about in this place before.

My thanks and congratulations go to the current staff: Andrew Benson, Tracey Murray, Helen Olijynk, Adam Stanworth, Victoria Kane, Sarah Walker, Ian Kinghorn, Paul Dove, Sarah Ruzic, Graham Spencer, Joanna Baker, Hannah Jonkers, Peter Reynolds, Naomi Fallon, Joni Scanlon and a couple of people that I deal with reasonably regularly, Meredith Clisby and Elese Lee.

Best wishes for the following 30 years.

Speech in the Legislative Assembly

21 September 2011

Early this coming Friday morning, Exhibition Park in Canberra will once again be overflowing with eager booklovers queuing to attend the much-loved Lifeline Canberra spring book fair. Hailed as one of the biggest and best second-hand book sales in Australia, the book fair is expecting to attract over 13,000 buyers, both local and interstate, sharing a common love of books.

The book fair offers around 200,000 donated items for sale, including a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books. I am told that Lifeline Canberra is again seeking to break the record it set earlier this year and raise over $500,000, with all money raised going towards maintaining Lifeline Canberra services such as the 24-hour crisis hotline.

Aside from commending this much-loved event, let me pay tribute to the hundreds of volunteers that make this happen. On the weekend you will see and meet some 150 volunteers who do the real work. They work behind the scenes. Each book fair takes some six months of planning and delivery and thousands of hours of volunteer time.
Until very recently, the likes of Cedric Bear spent up to 40 hours a week attending the warehouse as the full-time yet volunteer warehouse manager. He is ably supported by a book fair advisory committee of Grahame Clark, Penny Bailey, Chelsey Engrem, Ilze Groves, Penny Kellett, Hilary Moody, Joanne Rush, Irene McHugh and Barbara Gillies. These individuals are just a small representative body of the people that make the Lifeline Canberra book fairs the institutions they have become.

The book fair has the support of a number of sponsors. They include EPIC and the Canberra Times. The corporate partners are Prime7 and Clear Complexions. The suppliers are Toll, Elect Printing, 104.7 and Chris Canham Photography.

I would also like to mention the Lifeline Canberra board who, again as volunteers, commit to steer the strategic direction of the organisation and yet receive little or no acknowledgement. They are Robyn Clough as president, PJ Gould, Joanna Houghton, Pauline Thorneloe, Ayesha Razzaq, Jeff Harmer, Athol Opas and Steve Fielding.
I also acknowledge the great work being done by Mike Zissler, who commenced as CEO in January 2010. Mike’s experience at the top of government agencies and in the community places him well to tackle the many challenges and opportunities that the organisation faces.

Lifeline punches above its weight and continues to play a vital role in our community. Lifeline Canberra is an organisation of volunteers and, while they have a small and committed staff, the real return is what they give back to the community. Colleagues, I commend the Lifeline book fair to you and hope to see you all there sometime this weekend.