Page 4428 - Week 14 - Thursday, 28 November 2013
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centenary year. There was a huge amount of participation over a range of sporting and cultural activities, including the sportenary program, which engaged local sport and recreation clubs, with over 100 community events on the centenary calendar. We have also had programs like portrait of a nation, which invited the community to research the history of where they live.
The centenary has also brought out one of the very best aspects of our community—the willingness of Canberrans to give their time volunteering. The centenary of Canberra recruited for and managed an extensive volunteer base throughout the year and it currently has 375 volunteers on its books. Many of these volunteers volunteered at several events throughout the year. To date, there have been 1,461 volunteer shifts at 72 centenary events for a total of almost 6½ thousand hours.
Centenary volunteers have also undertaken a wide variety of tasks, such as helping to inflate and deflate the Skywhale—there were many requests for that particular volunteering role; none from the Liberal Party, though—packing showbags for conferences, handing out thundersticks at centenary sport—
Mr Hanson: Did you participate?
MS GALLAGHER: I would have happily been involved as a Skywhale volunteer but there was not any room for me, apparently.
Mr Hanson: Wasn’t there?
MS GALLAGHER: No, it was so well subscribed by the volunteer program. 405 volunteers worked at the big birthday party around Lake Burley Griffin on 11 March. These volunteers did a range of tasks throughout the day, and I am sure many of us saw them wearing their T-shirts and hats, and we thank them very much for the work that they have done this year.
The centenary team also worked closely throughout 2013 with young people in our schools, across the multicultural community, within the Indigenous community and with our seniors. The centenary school coordinators group met regularly to discuss centenary projects of interest to the education sector and schools developed their own centenary activities as a result of these meetings.
There is no doubt that the centenary year has elicited a very good amount of city pride across the community. This has been borne out in some of the market research that has been done throughout the year. No doubt we can discuss all of that in annual reports, in the interests of time.
Pride and sense of ownership is one of the six highly aspirational goals of the centenary of Canberra when they were put in place many years ago, and these are being measured—specifically for Mr Smyth’s benefit, more than anybody’s. We look forward to going through them in detail in annual reports hearings next week. So it has been a very big year. It has been full of activities, from very small community activities to very big activities. Overwhelmingly, I am very pleased with how the year has gone and with the legacy that it will leave for our city.
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