Page 78 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 December 2016
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am today because it is about connection, a connection of our heart to our community, our sense of place in this world.
Canberra has a very proud history. Madam Assistant Speaker, I acknowledge the traditional custodians and our Indigenous people who have a connection with our land: the Ngunnawal, the Ngambri, the Ngarigu, the Ngambri-Guumaal people. I acknowledge their elders, past and present, and any Indigenous Australians we have joining us today. I acknowledge your history, your culture, and I thank you for your continuing contribution to Canberra.
Canberra was, is and, I hope, will be a leader in many ways. I am very proud to be part of the first majority female parliament in Australia. But this first is one of many for our parliament. Our first chief minister under self-government was a woman, Rosemary Follett. The first female head of a conservative government in Australia was another woman, a great mentor and friend to me, Kate Carnell. We can also claim the first territory female presiding officer in Roberta McRae, whom I am lucky to count as a former work colleague.
In taking this step here today, I am humbled to be the first Korean-Australian elected member of an Australian parliament and the first Asian Australian elected member of the ACT Legislative Assembly. Being the first of anything, no matter how small, is the hardest step. It is not a role that I sought nor is it a role that drove me, but is a role that I take on with a lot of responsibility and pride.
Our parliament is only as strong as the members in it and the people who vote to give us that privilege. Our parliament should reflect a cross-section of our diverse community. For too long Australian parliaments have lacked the diversity of our society and if I can play any small part in creating a clearer reflection, then I stand ready to do so.
Because it is about connection; a connection of leaders to our community and those they represent. When people look at me, there is little doubt about my ethnic or cultural background. I come from a culture of respect for our elders, a culture of strong family relationships, a culture of tradition, custom and core community values.
But I also come from a culture of values fostered by my parents from when I was young, that we all have a positive contribution to make to our community and we do it in different ways; that we must respect everyone’s views because we can never know what their journey was or is; that we take responsibility for our actions and our words because we are privileged to have the freedom to live the kind of life that others fight and die for, and we cannot take this for granted.
These values form an integral part of who I am and will shape the way in which I discharge my responsibilities as an elected representative for the people of Kurrajong and for the people of Canberra. Because it is about culture—a culture of freedom, responsibility and what we can contribute to our community.
I love Canberra. As the heart of our nation, it is fitting that Canberra is “the meeting place”, a city that was chosen to be the capital of Australia over 100 years ago; a
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