Page 4353 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
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She was the first Park Carer and rallied to that cause many others who now make that body of people so significant in the ACT. She was successful in gaining grant money during the bicentennial year to develop a trail and a leaflet to encourage people to visit the Remembrance Nature Park. Let me, as Minister for the Environment, acknowledge the work she did in that area. But the Park Care work she initiated is happening not just at Remembrance Park but all over Canberra.
Madam Speaker, I join Mr Moore in expressing sorrow, grief and sympathy to the family; but, in supporting this motion, let me finish with an acknowledgment of joy for the celebration - and that is what it is - of a long and fruitful life.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition): Honor Thwaites certainly had a long involvement in all sorts of issues, whether they be moral, human or environmental issues. In fact, her involvement started very early, when in the 1930s she became involved in the Oxford Movement, which of course became the Moral Rearmament Movement. I understand that one of her sons is still involved in that movement in Sydney.
Honor Thwaites has been described to me by many people, among them some of the tenants at the Campbell shops, as having a very direct manner and always being straight to the point. I think all of us here in the Assembly whom Honor approached on various things from time to time would back that up. She has been described as firm and upright, with a strong commitment to whatever she did. I think we would all like to be remembered in that way. She was certainly admired by everybody who knew her.
Her expertise was not confined to the sorts of issues that have been mentioned but extended to the academic arena as well. She helped compile the Australian Hymn Book, which I understand acknowledges her contribution, especially in the area of translating German hymns into English. With her husband, Michael - who is in the gallery, as Mr Moore said - she wrote the beautiful hymn "For Australia", which was sung as the bicentennial hymn in the 1988 Australia Day ceremony in Sydney and, I understand, at the new Parliament House. I think her commitment to the environment and to people generally can be seen in the first verse of that hymn, which I would like to quote:
Lord of earth and all creation,
let your love possess our land;
wealth, and freedom, far horizons,
mountain, forest, shining sand:
may we share, in faith and friendship,
gifts unmeasured from your hand.
That is a wonderful verse, and the rest of the hymn is as nice. I think everybody should read it at some stage. Mr Moore and Mr Wood have already spoken about Honor's commitment to Remembrance Nature Park on the slopes of Mount Ainslie. All Canberrans would share their sentiments on that. Honor Thwaites will be sadly missed, I am sure, by her husband, Michael, and their children, one of whom, I understand, is the High Commissioner to Zimbabwe. She certainly left a lot for Canberra and for her family. The Liberal Party and I endorse the comments of Mr Wood and Mr Moore.
Question resolved in the affirmative, members standing in their places.
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