Page 2212 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 2 August 2022

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Borders reopening

Families reunited

Airport smiles, hugs and tears of joy

Reflection of what is really important…

Social interaction once again

Thank you. I would like to thank Audrey for her beautiful poem and for allowing me the opportunity to read that in the Assembly.

Arts—Rebus

MR BRADDOCK (Yerrabi) (5.32): I just wanted to draw attention to Rebus and their Cultural Diversity in Canberra Arts workshops, which just wrapped up over the weekend.

This project, which was funded by the ACT government’s 2021-22 participation in multicultural grants program, was a project that was a huge success, with over 20 participants from a wide range of cultural and artistic practices and backgrounds. They came together and shared stories and discussed the challenges of practising art as a migrant or as culturally and linguistically diverse artists in Canberra and Australia. There were artists from Latin America, which included El Salvador, Mexico and Colombia, as well as France, Fiji, India, China, Indonesia, Iran and Palestine—ranging from writers to actors, visual artists, photographers, cinematographers, painters, musicians and much more.

The process was led by Rebus associate artist Anaïs Maro, who led participants through a series of story-sharing and brainstorming activities. The group found many points of common ground and developed plans to continue working together to advocate for increased cultural diversity in the artistic landscape that is Canberra and Australia as a whole.

I would just like to give my congratulations to Rebus and their director Robin Davidson for what was a fantastic program. Thank you.

Federal government—territory rights

MS CHEYNE

(Ginninderra—Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Business and Better Regulation, Minister for Human Rights and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (5.34): I have lost count of the number of times I have spoken in this place about territory rights, but tonight, I hope sincerely, is the last.

For decades we have been hamstrung. We have had our democratic rights restricted by a federal parliament which has behaved in a way that is, at best, paternalistic and, at worst, crushing. The persistence of the Andrews bill, passed 25 years ago, withdrew the ability of the ACT and Northern Territory residents to participate in a crucial democratic process on an issue that is so important to so many Canberrans. This is hard to fathom in and of itself, especially that this situation still persists today in 2022.


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