Page 545 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 15 February 2017

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welcome the public hearing that will be held as part of that process. I imagine that it will be well attended. At the centre of this process, however, there must be the people who live close to the facility. Their concerns must be addressed and adequately satisfied before any development goes ahead.

I am not saying that the development does not have merit, but the concerns raised with me clearly must be addressed. I have raised these concerns with the relevant minister. Whilst I am supportive of initiatives that increase the incidence of recycling and, indeed, reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, in this instance, this initiative needs to demonstrate broad community support and also must be very clear and considered in addressing ways to mitigate any environmental impacts.

This is a proposal where real questions exist over the impact this facility will have on the quality of life of residents in my electorate. Maintaining a healthy environment for our constituents, I believe, is central to all the MLAs in this place. I ask that community concerns are addressed and I look forward to the process of the community consultative process and the public hearing that will come from the establishment of the expert panel. I look forward to their advice and the minister’s report back to the local community and to me.

Hare-Clark anniversary

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (6.38): Today marks the 25th anniversary since the people of the ACT voted in a referendum to install Hare-Clark as their electoral system. I thought as someone who was involved in that campaign—I know that my grey hair would not belie such a long time in politics—I should pay tribute to the sterling group of people who were the backbone of the Hare-Clark campaign committee, which was the coming together of every political party in the ACT, except the Labor Party, and a large number of community groups. I want to pay tribute to Mr Bogey Musidlak, who is, after all, Mr Proportional Representation for the ACT; Mr Graeme Evans from the Democrats; Mr Miko Kirschbaum from the Greens; Mr John Gagg, who was also from the Democrats; and my two closest collaborators, Mr Keith Old, who is still a member of my staff, and Mr Lyle Dunne.

Together this group of people put together a range of stunts and a campaign of wonder and awe on the princely sum of $10,000. They turned ACT opinion around from 25 per cent of people being in favour of Hare-Clark when the campaign began to 74 per cent of people actually voting in the referendum to install Hare-Clark. This was all done through stunts, homemade board games and chocolate wheels. We did have an office in Petrie Plaza that was donated to us, so we probably did actually spend more than $10,000. Our greatest prop was a very large pink teddy bear, a giant teddy bear which the Dunne children had grown tired of; or that I had grown tired of because it had split open and was losing its stuffing. We put it in the corner of the shopfront window with a new sign every couple of days with a new message about the importance of Hare-Clark. The big pink teddy, whose name I now cannot remember, was an important part of the scheme as well.

One of the highlights was during the Multicultural Festival in February 1992 when


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