Page 920 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The research has already made a difference in my lifetime. Leukaemia is the number one childhood cancer and 20 years ago children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia had a 30 per cent chance of survival. I know that at school there were kids who were afflicted with this condition. Those I knew survived, but it was quite an achievement to do that. We are now seeing 80 per cent being likely to survive. When we get to 100 per cent, we will have achieved the ultimate, but we have certainly made considerable progress with young people. The results are not so encouraging for those who contract leukaemia in their adult years, but work is continuing and we hope that we will see better statistical outcomes.
I commend Peter Barclay and his staff at King O’Malley’s, Jason Croker from the Canberra Raiders and the various other sports men and women who participated this morning in the launch of this event, including Karen Sorenson, the Leukaemia Foundation’s support services coordinator.
Mr Speaker, I would encourage members, if they can, to accommodate this cause within their range of organisations to support and I hope that they will give special regard to making a contribution or at least encouraging those in their circle to contribute towards this foundation appeal and the events that are going to occur tomorrow afternoon in the city.
International Women’s Day
Ms Kate Leeming
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (5.44): International Women’s Day, celebrated on Tuesday, provides us with an excellent opportunity to consider, recognise and celebrate the achievements of women in our community and across the world. On Tuesday night, I attended the presentation by Ms MacDonald of the ACT International Women’s Day awards. The awards recognise the contribution to our community of individual women and community organisations. I congratulate the recipients and nominees of the awards.
I would particularly like to congratulate Beryl Women’s Refuge, which celebrated its 30th anniversary on International Women’s Day and was the recipient of the IWD community award for its contribution to the Canberra community. The nominees and recipients are involved in a huge diversity of activities, organising and movements. The diversity is reflective of the enormity of the contribution of so many women working at the grassroots in our community and elsewhere.
Tonight I want to make mention of one woman who has gone to extraordinary lengths to publicise, promote and educate us about the movement for change to which she is so passionately committed. Kate Leeming, a young woman from Western Australia, recently arrived in Canberra after cycling 27,000 kilometres around Australia. She was met at Parliament House by me, the member for Fraser, Bob McMullan, and a group of enthusiastic year 3 students from Campbell primary school.
Kate rode around Australia to promote the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The decade will be launched in April in Geneva. The aim is to promote a vision of a world where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from quality education
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .