Page 527 - Week 02 - Thursday, 11 February 2021

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The Australian Greens’ founding principles of peace and non-violence, social justice and grassroots democracy are all present in the work of ICAN. On 23 January, the ACT Greens, including me and many of my colleagues here, joined with ambassadors, activists, elected representatives and members of the community to celebrate the fact that the international treaty to ban nuclear weapons has come into force. It was a day of celebration. But, as Shane Rattenbury noted, it was also a day of mourning for those who have been impacted by nuclear weapons. First nations peoples in particular have been subject to horrifying health impacts and the decimation of country due to nuclear testing.

As some of you may remember, in September 2018 the Legislative Assembly passed a motion moved by the Deputy Chief Minister, Yvette Berry, calling on all members of the Assembly to sign the ICAN parliamentary pledge in support of the treaty. I am proud to say that all current Greens members of this Assembly have done so. In total, 13 members of the current Legislative Assembly have signed. I would like to put their names on the record, and I will read them as they are listed on the charter: Andrew Barr, Yvette Berry, Andrew Braddock, Tara Cheyne, Jo Clay, Emma Davidson, Johnathan Davis, Suzanne Orr, Michael Pettersson, Shane Rattenbury, Chris Steel, Rachel Stephen-Smith, and Rebecca Vassarotti. I expect that more members would like to sign the pledge, and I would encourage them to do so. It is not too late, and you can do it online.

The motion of 2018 also called on members of this Assembly to urge the Australian government to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Sadly, Australia has not yet done so. There is more work for us to do to encourage our federal government to embrace peace, not fear, and to do our part to make this world a safer place. I repeat the call for members in this chamber to work with their federal counterparts to ensure that Australia does sign up to and ratify this important treaty.

Women in the arts

MS ORR (Yerrabi) (6.05): This speech references Aboriginal people who are deceased.

I expect that by now all of us in this place will have noticed the new statue at Constitution Place. It has raised many important public discussions. Today I would like to speak about one of those: the representation of women in art.

At this point it is fair to say that, despite our city’s comparatively short life, Canberra has a rich tradition of investing in diverse and thought-provoking public art. We see diversity of style in the modern brutalist architecture which characterises many of our buildings; the contemporary abstract sculptures, such as the notable moth descending on Tuggeranong on Drakeford Drive, the playful owl on Belconnen Way, the noble bronze figures of John Curtin and Ben Chifley, which reflect this city’s beautiful, rich political history and, perhaps the most iconic of all, Patricia Piccinini’s notorious and delightful Skywhale and now Skywhalepapa.


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