Page 2901 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018
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We are blessed to have Mark Ransome running the Reclink ship here in Canberra. He is awesome. He goes above and beyond every day trying to make the lives of so many much better. It is my pleasure through this fundraising event to be assisting his work. I have seen firsthand the benefits that he brings to so many members of the community.
The Reclink Community Cup pits two teams of non-footballers against each other in a game of very friendly AFL. This is, very loosely speaking, the media versus musos, following the concept that was originally established in Melbourne a decade or so ago. The musos are known as the Limestones and the media are known as the Noise.
It was an honour for me to play in the inaugural Reclink Community Cup last year. I was given honorary playing rights with the Noise after my 33 years in the media. We did get rolled by the Limestones, but only just, and we are back to beat them this year. I must also mention my Greens colleague Mr Rattenbury who umpired on the day in a relatively unbiased fashion.
Training has been going now for three weeks in the lead-up to this game. I am pleased to say that the playing ranks of the Noise have been bolstered by my colleague the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Coe, who kicks the ball like Billy Brownless and runs like Peter Riccardi. Yes, he is a Geelong man.
On the media side we do have a lot of Canberra Times journalists, which probably excludes Mr Barr from participating. There are a number of political media advisers and some radio people from Capital Radio at Mitchell, but at this point there have been no participants from Hit104.7, which disappoints me greatly. I feel there is a need to call out the breakfast duo from Hit104.7, Ned and Josh. Madam Speaker, you may not think that Ned and Josh really care about what goes on in this chamber, but I am telling you they are actually serious political nerds. I am pretty confident that they would be tuned into this broadcast.
Ned and Josh, I know you are watching. I say to you, “AFL Reclink Community Cup, 16 September.” My message to Ned and Josh would be, “Are you men or are you boys? You talk the talk locked up safely in your little studio there with cushions on the walls and the ceiling, but are you man enough to come out and have a kick of the footy for a good cause?” I am counting on you.
Appropriation Bill 2018-2019—mental health
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.45): I will speak briefly. During some comments, I think on the education line, Mr Rattenbury asked for some clarification of a figure that both Mrs Kikkert and I used in our remarks on mental health. I refer Mr Rattenbury to the Independent external review of mental health inpatient services within ACT Health, dated 22-23 May this year. On pages 16 and 17, the reviewers talk about the service context. I will read a little from this review because it is important to put this in context:
The reviewers noted a chronic skills shortage across all craft groups but most notably in nursing and medicine. These shortages are 4.2% for medical,
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