Page 718 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 March 2016
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I also bring my experiences over the past eight years producing bank profits with the community bank into the Assembly. Bendigo is not your ordinary bank. It is a unique model where the bank belongs to its community and the profits stay in that community. Many years ago I, with 400 other Canberrans, chose to do something about rampant bank closures. Instead of complaining about it and accepting it, we instead decided to put our money where our mouths were and invest in securing control of banking services within our community.
Since then we have done it several more times and now we are the largest community bank group in New South Wales and the ACT and amongst the largest in the country. It is this different way of finding solutions and a dogged refusal to accept the unacceptable that I trust will serve me well in ensuring better outcomes in this place for the people of Belconnen, Gungahlin and the territory.
The bank profits that result from Bendigo’s banking operations have allowed me the privilege of engaging with over 200 local charities and community groups. I have overseen the contribution of over $1 million of profits to them resulting in enhanced outcomes and services for thousands of Canberrans. That is $1 million that the territory treasury has not had to find or $1 million worth of social capital that would not exist were it not for the bank model and the tireless work of my board of directors.
But I want to put that in a context: there is a human face to that $1 million. Be it keeping SnowyHydro’s chopper in the air for the past five years or the $100,000 we contributed to the national health co-op in Ms Burch’s electorate at Chisholm, which has resulted in a $400,000 bulk-billing clinic for local residents. There is, too, the eight years of watching the thrill on the faces of successive groups of athletes travelling overseas to the Special Olympics to represent Canberra and their country; or the knowledge that when life for residents is at its bleakest, the contribution we have made to Clare Holland House over the past nine years through ACT Veterans Rugby will make that time for them at least that little bit easier.
The sense of achievement to create over $1 million in profit and then to be able to pour that back into worthwhile local organisations and charities is, for me, Madam Speaker, a privilege and a reward in itself. The experience and understanding of so many community groups over many years has equipped me with a knowledge about what services and outcomes are vital to ensure continuing positive improvements and outcomes. Further, it has fostered an understanding and appreciation in me of the invaluable and often thankless work performed day and night by thousands of volunteers right across the territory.
During my time in this place I will be particularly interested in pursuing the opportunities an integrated transport system offers to motorcyclists and commuters. Specifically, I hope to sponsor trialling free motorcycle sidewalk parking, similar to successful trials in Melbourne and Brisbane, together with a review of fees and charges for small capacity motorcycles and, if appropriate, a reduction in registration fees to encourage their use. By doing so, it is my view that inner city congestion can be avoided or reduced, with similar reductions in demands on other forms of transport.
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