Page 221 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 2018

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those improvements will come on board, because stage 1 has certainly opened that area up, made a great improvement, and stage 2 will as well.

Another great investment down south has been at Caroline Chisholm School. This year, from term 1, the students of Caroline Chisholm and the students from the broader Tuggeranong network will have access to our science, technology, engineering and maths centre, the STEM centre. That was a $5.9 million investment. I was there in April of last year turning the sod, and it is great to see that the construction fences are down and that the STEM centre is open for the students. It is great to see that investment in Tuggeranong schools, making sure that our students get access to great training that sets them up for the future and the jobs of the future.

There are other commitments that will come on line. I have talked about Ashley Drive. The next conversation is focusing on the duplication of Tharwa Drive. There is also the commitment to the Lake Tuggeranong Rowing Club, and of course we are all looking to see the further planning and development phase of the ice sport centre. We who live in Canberra may not appreciate the interest of a broad community from Canberra and the region in ice sports in the area. As we are coming almost to the end of summer, we will very soon be watching our ice hockey teams and how they go through the years to come.

It is good to see these developments go on in Tuggeranong as I am out and about. I have already started the year with my regular monthly mobile offices. Many folk come up with little matters; it does not matter how large a concern is for our community members. As local members we are there to do what we can to provide an ear to listen and to work with them and work with members across the government to make sure that we continue to have the best city in the world to live in.

Women’s march

MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (6.26): “Women’s rights are human rights.” “Fight like a girl.” “Girls just want to have fun-damental rights.” “Stand up, fight back.” These were the words floating through the city on Sunday, 4 February at the women’s march, held high by women who were determined, proud and strong. Their message was clear: we are here and we are not going away.

The Canberra event was part of a coordinated worldwide women’s march which happened throughout January and February. I was honoured to be one of the millions of women—and men—around the world who took to the streets in 96 cities to demand respect and equality for women. The international message was “Look back, march forward”, marking the one-year anniversary of both President Trump’s inauguration and last year’s international women’s march, the US’s largest protest in history.

We have a lot to look back on, not only to our foremothers who fought so hard for basic recognition and rights, not only to the efforts of more recent decades when the internet revolutionised efforts to spread information and women en masse fought their way up corporate ladders for the first time, but also just to the last year.


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