Page 1442 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 3 May 2016
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Ms Honor LuckHurst, Mr Paul Livingston and Ms Helen McFadden; and the staff, director Mrs Janice Falsone; program manager Mrs Thea McGrath; administrator Kate Luke; and education officer Mr Robert Agostino.
I also congratulate the tutors at PhotoAccess: Mr Robert Agostino, Ms Laila Kazak, Mr Andrew Burke, Mr Andrew Morgan, Mr Joe Cali, Mr Bill Moseley, Mr Stephen Corey, Ms Belinda Pratten, Mr Sean Davey, Mr James Shapowloff, Ms Jane Duong, Det Voges, Mr Miguel Gallagher, Dr Les Walkling and their intern Emily Ianno.
Finally, it was also great to catch up on the night of the opening with Drisana Levitzke-Gray and reflect on her achievements. Many of you would know that Drisana was the Young Australian of the Year in 2015 and is continuing to make great inroads with her work in advocating for the human rights of deaf people, raising awareness about Auslan and the rights of deaf children in Australia to access Auslan from birth.
Drisana is the fifth generation in her family to be born deaf. She became the first deaf Auslan user to fulfil her civic duty as a juror. Drisana continues to encourage others to accept diversity and inspires the deaf community through her promotion and positive image of deafness, which says loudly and proudly that it is okay to be deaf.
There are many advocates here in the ACT deaf community as well. I would like to thank them for their ongoing tireless advocacy for greater communication access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and, as community advocates, encouraging people to understand what it is like to be deaf or to work with deaf people. Thank you, once again, to Kate Disher-Quill for her exhibition and to PhotoAccess.
John James Village
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.41): I rise to speak about the John James Village, which is now under construction at Garran. I met with Phil Greenwood the chief executive officer and Andrew Blencowe late last week to find out where it was at. They have kindly provided an update, which I said I would provide to the Assembly.
Members, you are going to get another bit of paper in your intrays. The John James Foundation has provided 17 sets of documents containing a complete update of the whole project. It is worth having because what they are doing is a great thing. I will read these words about John James village.
I am pleased to provide an update on progress with an outstanding development in Canberra that will be of great benefit to many Canberrans and those from surrounding districts as they face a very tough time in their lives The Leukaemia Foundation Australia has long provided a valuable service to people undergoing treatment for leukaemia and other blood disorders. They currently operate out of a rented house in Isaacs, with the staff using the garage as an office.
Due to increases in service demand, the Leukaemia Foundation needed more short-term accommodation for people undergoing treatment and their carers and families. They faced a long period of fundraising to get a new facility underway. The
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