Page 676 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video


commitment and continued contribution to all of these amateur sporting clubs. I also would like to highly commend their president Dave Paul, directors Ray Sweeny and John McGrath, who administer this program, club manager Danny Munk, and sports and community coordinator Martyn O’Brien.

On Sunday I had the pleasure of attending with Mr Smyth a Clean Up Australia Day campaign down at Armytage Circuit in Kambah. We were there from 10.30 to 12 o’clock and we were assisted by a couple of very enthusiastic members of our support group, Angela Laine and Chris Inglis, who brochure-dropped the area and as a result we had some 15 members of the local community turn up to assist us with cleaning up the area near Tuggeranong pond, around Armytage Circuit, Crozier Circuit and Coombs Place, and that was obviously as an assistance to Ian Kiernan’s fine Clean Up Australia Day campaign.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Canberra Grammar School opening of their new primary school, library and classrooms and it was a very interesting ceremony, as usual, and very well conducted by Canberra Grammar. The welcome was given by two Canberra Grammar students, Christopher Seidl and Irwin Ip, and after the Australian national anthem the new head of Canberra Grammar, Dr Justin Garrick, gave a very inspiring speech and thanks for the opportunity for the opening of these new buildings in the school.

The official opening was conducted by Ms Gai Brodtmann MP, the member for Canberra, and there was a very inspiring performance by the chorale choir conducted by Mrs Heather Percy. The choir sang For the Beauty of the Earth. Acknowledgements were given on the day by Mrs Rosalie Reeves, the head of primary school, and the blessings were conducted by the Rt Rev Stuart Robinson, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn. The final hymn was May the Lord Bless You and Keep You by the chorale choir once again. It was a compliment again to the work put in by Mr Mark Baker, the chair of the board, and his fellow board members and the teachers. It was also good to meet the beneficiaries of the new library, the teacher librarians Janine Hudson and Alison Kesby and assistant librarian Fiona Rayns.

Melbourne bicycle share scheme

MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (6.42): I rise today to inform members and, fortunately, even some members of the public about the Melbourne bike share scheme. I recently visited Melbourne and had the great fun of actually trying it out. Members may have heard of it or may not, but it began last year. There are 50 bike stations throughout the city of Melbourne. They have bikes. The bikes are blue, the colour of the helmet I have here. They are a bit clunky, but they are quite wonderful. They have integrated lights and integrated brakes and they are very easy to use. They cost $2.50 a day or you can buy a year-long ticket for $50. For that it is free as long as you return the bike within 30 minutes.

When they started it off, they did not have a big success rate. In June, when it first went live, there were only 1,141 trips taken. They realised that the problem was helmets. You can now buy helmets. I have here my souvenir from Melbourne, and this cost me the grand sum of $5. All 7-Eleven shops in the centre of Melbourne are


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video