Page 1622 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
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Now flowing in the country’s heart
The pea flower tells
Of dead who lie and cry goes up
First nation’s blood soaks and grieves our soil
Fiery memory lost to shame.
Bravely now with trembling hands
We must pluck the poppy with the pea
Whose battle song line
Must needs be resurrected from lost to love
Uncover, uncover with the red
The bloody truth of our dead
In Australian fields.
Looking at the second day, I note the reconciliation movement has its roots in the 1967 referendum when more than 90 per cent of Australian voters chose yes to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the census and give the Australian government the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Finally, I would like to share with the Assembly words from the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in the year 2000. They said:
… all Australians can take heart from the positive outcomes so far. Nevertheless, a decade was a short time to address the legacies of 200 years of history, and much remains to be done. Reconciliation is hard work—it’s a long, winding and corrugated road, not a broad, paved highway. Determination and effort at all levels of government and in all sections of the community will be essential to make reconciliation a reality.
I am looking forward to Australia’s first official Reconciliation Day public holiday and Reconciliation Week. I hope that we can have more discussions about important issues such as these during this time.
Ronald McDonald House fundraising ball
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (5.30): On 24 March this year I, along with my Assembly colleagues Mr Coe and Mr Steel, attended the Ronald McDonald House Canberra annual fundraising ball, which this year was entitled “To the Moon and Back”. What a great night it was. The venue, the National Convention Centre, was decorated beautifully, the food was outstanding, the entertainment was sensational and, best of all, the event raised an astonishing just over $500,000 to support sick children and their families who use Ronald McDonald House Canberra.
Ronald McDonald House Canberra is located at the Canberra Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. While sick children are in the hospital it provides a home away from home for their families. The families have to live more than 100 kilometres away from Canberra. But Ronald McDonald House at the hospital also run other services in our region, including the family room at the hospital, which any family member can go into—it looks like a lounge room or a family room—at the paediatric wing and sit down and have a cup of tea or coffee, have a bit of a chat and escape the stresses of being on the ward with their sick child for just a short period of time.
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