Page 5481 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 8 December 2009

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Ms Gallagher: Everyone is jumping.

MR SESELJA: All right. I will see how I time my finish. I might just slow down and then speed up again.

I want to speak about one other issue and just give a plug to White Ribbon Day. A number of us attended the White Ribbon Day breakfast on 25 November in Civic Square. It is a fantastic initiative. It is something that we should all get behind—that everyone in the community should get behind. In particular, it is a chance for men to get behind it and to speak out against violence against women. It is something that I am very pleased to lend my name to, and I know that many members of the Assembly have done so as well. There was a good attendance from members right across the political spectrum at the ACT White Ribbon Day event.

This is something that we should not take for granted. We would hope that this is something our community had left behind, but unfortunately it is not the case. We need to keep restating it. Events such as this allow us as a community, and as men in particular, to say: “This is not acceptable; this is completely unacceptable. We as men will speak out against it whenever we have the opportunity.”

To all those who helped organise White Ribbon Day, well done. It is a massive event now right around the world, I understand, and certainly very big in this nation. It draws political leaders from right across the spectrum, sporting leaders and other community leaders to lend their name to a worthy cause. Well done once again to those who put together White Ribbon Day.

Mr Mark Cormack

MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (3.47): I promise not to take my full five minutes just to let everyone calm down a bit. Thank you, Mr Seselja.

I just rise briefly, and it is with some regret, to inform the Assembly of the decision of the Chief Executive of ACT Health to take on a national role as the Chief Executive Officer of Health Workforce Australia.

This is a significant achievement for Mr Cormack. Whilst the government regrets the loss of Mark from a chief executive position here in the ACT, we do acknowledge that Mr Cormack’s skills and abilities will be a fantastic start for the new Health Workforce Australia. Members will know that Health Workforce Australia has been established by all the governments of Australia to support the planning and development of the health workforce across the country and is being funded significantly by all governments of Australia. It is a big promotion for Mr Cormack.

Mr Cormack started his career with ACT Health back in the early 1990s. He went off to New South Wales and worked for New South Wales Health, but he came back to ACT Health almost five years ago, in a deputy chief executive role, and then three years ago took over the chief executive position. When I reflect back on those three years when Mark was the chief executive, I realise that he has seen and overseen a


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