Page 313 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2008
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Union for over 25 years, a member of the branch committee of management for countless years and a delegate for Qantas for 10 years.
He was keenly involved with the scouts from a young age. He was awarded the Queen’s Scout badge—the highest achievable accreditation in the scouting movement. This badge is only awarded by a peer committee for the highest commitment to furthering achievements in leadership development, adventurous activities, personal growth and community involvement. He remained involved with the scouts throughout his life and became heavily involved with the Girl Guide movement as well.
Six-and-a-half years ago, Robbie Anderson was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died on 21 January this year. He held on for many things in those 6½ years. He saw two of his own wakes, but sadly did not make the third. He saw what he said was the best night of his life, the night of 24 November last year, when the Rudd Labor team took the federal election and Maxine McKew took Bennelong, the seat of the then Prime Minister, John Howard. Most importantly, he saw his eldest daughter, Jade, marry one week before he died. He was holding on especially for that.
Robbie worked for the TWU for five years during the 1980s, during which he saw some huge disputes in one of the most active periods in the recent history of the union movement. He fought for equality and justice for all. He fought for the rights of his fellow workers, for the rights of their families. He fought for a fair go not only in his work at the TWU but in everyday life. His funeral was attended by over 250 people. I am sure he would be proud to have seen those 250 people continue on to the Statesman Hotel for his third wake.
I would like to take a moment to pay my respects to the Anderson family, to Shannon and Jade, his daughters, and to all of his mates, especially Mick and Klaus, who are here today. Robbie Anderson was a great man, a great mate and a loving father, and will be forever remembered as one.
Croatian embassy exhibition
Multiculturalism
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (6.03): Yesterday I had the opportunity to open an exhibition at the Croatian embassy—a photo exhibition of world heritage sites in Croatia. It was quite an honour to be able to do that, given that my parents came to Australia from Croatia in the late sixties and early seventies.
The exhibition looks at the six world heritage sites in Croatia. They include the city of Dubrovnik, which is one of the real jewels of the Adriatic, as an example of the highest material emanation of the national spirit, and Split, as a dynamic coastal town, built in the late antiquity within the walls of Diocletian’s palace. They were both placed on the World Heritage List in 1979, as was the Plitvice Lakes national park. After independence in 1991, three more sites were added to the list: the historic nucleus of Trogir, Sibenik Cathedral, and the Euphrasian Basilica in Porec.
Trogir, whose name reflects its Greek origins, is a jewel of Croatian Romanesque architecture, the sculptural masterpiece of Master Radovan, while Sibenik Cathedral
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