Page 5261 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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I also had the opportunity to attend Miles Franklin school. Unlike Mr Seselja, I do not go back to my old school; I go back to my children’s old schools. Miles Franklin primary school in Evatt is where some of my younger children attended for many years. It is a wonderful school. It now has a much better car park than it did, thanks to the work of people like Mr Pratt in the previous Assembly.
Again, I pay tribute to the hardworking school communities that run a fantastic fete year in, year out. On the theme of fetes, I always have a great time at the book stalls. I had to extract my husband, as usual, from the book stalls this year with a huge supply of books which were knocked down. We got a vast number of books, including a collection of old dictionaries which are going to the dictionary for Timor project, all knocked down and which were taken away in a re-usable shopping bag. We had to stop them giving us change for $5 for a substantial number of books which will be of great benefit to our children and to us for our holiday reading.
On Sunday I went to another book fair which was associated with the ArtSound radiothon. I pay particular tribute to ArtSound. It is a fantastic organisation in the ACT community. Ms Le Couteur, the Chief Minister and I did promotions for the ArtSound radiothon. I want to report to the community that, as a result of the ArtSound radiothon, they have managed to raise in excess of $31,500. They hope to get it to $32,000. This is a fantastic effort by the ACT community and a fantastic effort by the ArtSound community. I pay particular tribute to Clinton White, who people know as my senior staff member, who on Sunday during the book fair and open day was on air from seven in the morning till six at night. Even at 6 o’clock at night he still sounded fantastic. He is indefatigable and a great asset to ArtSound and to the Canberra community more generally.
Transgender and intersex exhibition
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (6.40): I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the excellent transgender-intersex exhibition that is currently displaying in the exhibition room in the Assembly. Most members have probably walked through this mini-exhibition on the race down to the chamber. If not, I urge you to do so. Those of you who have seen this very colourful photo exhibition I think will be in agreement that this is a great showcase, although just a snapshot of the many faces of the transgender community. It provides an opportunity for talented artists to display their personal and challenging insights into this community.
One of the most creative photo line-ups that stood out to me personally is labelled “Jessica”—a collection of photos of Jessica. The artist, through these photos of Jessica, effectively causes the viewer to question their innate assumptions on gender sexuality. There are also very intimate photos of families. As the artist explains, these photos attempt to explore that “family” is an emotive word, no less so to people in the queer community. To have a family is a human right and by presenting some of these families that exist in Australia we can attempt to challenge the conventional definition of the word “family”.
In light of the Civil Partnerships Amendment Bill that was passed in the Assembly last week and in light of this creative exhibition on show, I think it is timely that we
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