Page 2951 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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This was quite a large group of people and they were uninvited. My concern is similar to that of the Chief Minister—whilst members in this place can, of course, have in their offices whoever they choose, to take the liberty of access in this place to escort that group around, it would appear, not just to my office but to multiple ministers’ offices this evening, on the pretext of presenting a petition but then conducting other activities, is, I think, a breach of the liberties that members have in this place. Mr Assistant Speaker, I ask if you could raise this matter with Madam Speaker and see if she is able to make inquiries as to what occurred this evening in this place.
Whilst I have no issue with being lobbied and I have no issue with meeting with people, I do have issue with members abusing liberties they have and simply fronting up uninvited on people’s doorsteps with large delegations, purporting to do one thing and then promptly starting to do something else. I think it is inappropriate, and I would be grateful if the Speaker’s office could look into that.
Tuggeranong football club
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (9.32): I want to speak a bit about some recent activities of the Tuggeranong football club. Recently I was pleased to attend the opening of the Tuggeranong football club’s new clubhouse at Greenway oval, which was officially opened on 11 July. It is worth noting that the new clubhouse was an election promise from the government, which they have now fulfilled. It was matched by the Canberra Liberals as well.
The clubhouse is a much-needed facility for that ground down there at Greenway. There are three different clubs that use and benefit from this new facility and the grandstand at Greenway oval. There is the Tuggeranong Hawks Australian Rules football club; the ACT Gridiron association, which includes the Tuggeranong Tornadoes; and the Tuggeranong Bushrangers Rugby League team. One of the stalwarts of the club, the ex-president, John Glenn, coordinated a user group of the three clubs that use the new clubhouse to progress the project. It has been many years in the making.
Let me turn to some other things that the club has been doing. Recently they had training on stopping domestic violence against women from the Domestic Violence Crisis Service. It was a great initiative by the football club to have their players undertake that training.
Another, less serious, thing that the club recently undertook was to put forward an application on behalf of Chief Wanganeen to play in the EJ Whitten Legends game, reported in the Canberra Times of 27 June this year. Chief ran out on the field at Etihad Stadium. He was one of two local footballers who were selected from hundreds of applicants from all over Australia, so he was a local footballer rather than an ex-AFL footballer. He ran out onto the ground with the likes of Michael O’Loughlin and Billy Brownless. Chief started playing as a junior in the under 7s in 1983 and has been involved with the Tuggeranong Hawks ever since. He is quite a big unit; I would not like to come up against him in a football game or otherwise.
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