Page 4266 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011
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going towards maintaining Lifeline Canberra services such as the 24-hour crisis hotline.
Aside from commending this much-loved event, let me pay tribute to the hundreds of volunteers that make this happen. On the weekend you will see and meet some 150 volunteers who do the real work. They work behind the scenes. Each book fair takes some six months of planning and delivery and thousands of hours of volunteer time.
Until very recently, the likes of Cedric Bear spent up to 40 hours a week attending the warehouse as the full-time yet volunteer warehouse manager. He is ably supported by a book fair advisory committee of Grahame Clark, Penny Bailey, Chelsey Engrem, Ilze Groves, Penny Kellett, Hilary Moody, Joanne Rush, Irene McHugh and Barbara Gillies. These individuals are just a small representative body of the people that make the Lifeline Canberra book fairs the institutions they have become.
The book fair has the support of a number of sponsors. They include EPIC and the Canberra Times. The corporate partners are Prime7 and Clear Complexions. The suppliers are Toll, Elect Printing, 104.7 and Chris Canham Photography.
I would also like to mention the Lifeline Canberra board who, again as volunteers, commit to steer the strategic direction of the organisation and yet receive little or no acknowledgement. They are Robyn Clough as president, PJ Gould, Joanna Houghton, Pauline Thorneloe, Ayesha Razzaq, Jeff Harmer, Athol Opas and Steve Fielding.
I also acknowledge the great work being done by Mike Zissler, who commenced as CEO in January 2010. Mike’s experience at the top of government agencies and in the community places him well to tackle the many challenges and opportunities that the organisation faces.
Lifeline punches above its weight and continues to play a vital role in our community. Lifeline Canberra is an organisation of volunteers and, while they have a small and committed staff, the real return is what they give back to the community. Colleagues, I commend the Lifeline book fair to you and hope to see you all there sometime this weekend.
Superannuation
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (8.47): Did you know that Canberrans are owed more than $240 million in unclaimed superannuation? According to a national survey, people living in my electorate in the suburbs covered by the 2615 postcode are owed more than $45 million. As one woman in Charnwood said to me last Saturday when I told her of this amount, “I’ll take it!” The Australian Taxation Office says that Australians have around $19 billion in lost superannuation accounts. More than 46 per cent of Australians are missing part of their superannuation. On average there is one lost super account for every two working Australians.
Many people suspect that they may have unclaimed super but they do not know how to act on it. Lost superannuation accounts arise when people change jobs and forget to update their superannuation accounts, or take a career break. When money is spread
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