Page 1577 - Week 05 - Thursday, 7 April 2005

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paper. We had Sally Reynolds helping out a number of our older people. According to the Canberra Times yesterday World War II nurse Betty Stone, who participated in the wreath-laying ceremony, said that, for her, the day brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad, and was a great opportunity to reflect on her past service. Mrs Stone had spent four years in Borneo, where her duties included treating prisoners from the infamous Changi prisoner of war camp. The article reads:

“It’s a time to remember my mates and the days we had nursing the sick and trying to get them back to Australia as quickly as possible”, the 87-year-old said.

The young winner of the Simpson prize for essay writing, Sally Reynolds, read the famous John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields as part of that ceremony. Sally Stone said that she was deeply touched to be involved in that experience. The paper then talks about a young female army officer cadet from Duntroon and another from ADFA, who were also participating. Young cadet Hoe said that it was a great privilege for her to be involved in the ceremony, and that she intended to go on representing and carrying on with the Anzac tradition.

I was reminded of my son and his five mates who last year, at great expense—and they do not have much money; I probably had to pay for it myself in the long run—traipsed their way through the Flanders Fields to pursue a little piece of Australian history. My son is treading in the footsteps of his great-granddad.

Despite the pressures against youth in recent years to not necessarily embrace the Anzac spirit, I am proud to say that our youth have simply shrugged that off. They have come back to that old spirit; they are driven to learn more about the Anzac tradition in a curious, calm, but respectful way. I think it is something we should be quite proud of.

Finally, I would like to salute Betty Stone, all of our remaining veterans and the widows of others who have given so much to this country. By the way, those people have a great deal to teach—by example, discussion and story telling—our younger people, who seem to be finding again an interest and driving a resurgence in learning much more about the Anzac spirit.

Kootara Well promotion
Ms Dianne Bradford

MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (6.16): I would like to inform the Assembly of the launch today of the Kootara Well promotion for 2005.

Kootara Well is a health and wellbeing project which was launched by the Chief Minister in April 2002 and is now entering its fourth successful year at Narrabundah primary school. Within Narrabundah primary school a clinic room and a health promotion room have been specially set up to provide a variety of free health and support services to students, their families and the local community.

As well as being vital to the physical health and wellbeing of the local community, the co-location of services at the school has helped to forge stronger ties between the school


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