Page 4286 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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The Australian Breastfeeding Association ACT provides support and encouragement and on so much more than breastfeeding. The only regret I have is not becoming a member earlier, whilst internally debating time and again whether to persevere or end my breastfeeding journey.
On 1 October members, former members and volunteers gathered at the Canberra Southern Cross Club to celebrate 50 years of the ABA providing this support to mums across Canberra and the region. We were joined by special guest, Mary Paton, on her birthday, no less, whom tens of thousands of Australian mums have to thank for achieving amazing milestones like making workplaces more breastfeeding friendly, symbolised by the iconic Breastfeeding Welcome Here stickers, one that we have right here in the Assembly; being instrumental in making it illegal for employers to discriminate against breastfeeding mothers; and normalising breastfeeding so that it is not something that must be kept hushed up or done behind closed doors.
My colleagues, Nicole Lawder and Caroline Le Couteur, were also there. The ABA ACT expressed their thanks to the Assembly, in particular acknowledging Mrs Jones and Ms Cheyne, on our work in making it a breastfeeding-friendly workplace. For the mums who had their heart set on breastfeeding but, for whatever reason, were unable to do so, for the mums who have chosen not to breastfeed because it is not the right choice for them or their baby, for the mums who choose to breastfeed on demand where and when their baby needs and are shamed for doing so: thank you for the amazing work you do in nurturing and raising our next generation.
Press freedom
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (6.36): Today I would like to talk about our democracy and the freedoms that our democracy is supposed to guarantee us. On Monday this week newspapers across Australia blacked out their front pages as part of a movement for freedom of information in the press. This was launched by Australia’s Right to Know Coalition in response to the ongoing deterioration of media freedom and the ability to hold the power to account. This movement has unfortunately been a necessary reaction to the government’s increasing attacks on freedoms of expression, the press and even active citizenship.
There are numerous cases where individuals who have exposed the misconduct of governments and other powerful institutions have been prosecuted for providing the truth to the public. For example, in 2018 prosecutions against former ASIS spy, Witness K, and his attorney, Bernard Collaery, who is a former Attorney-General of this place, began. The charges brought against them were for breaching the Intelligence Services Act in a so-called conspiracy to reveal information to the public about ASIS’s unlawful spy operations during the 2004 Timor-Leste maritime boundary negotiations.
In the same year former tax office debt collection officer Richard Boyle revealed that the ATO had been conducting improper debt collection practices. His home was subsequently raided by the ATO and the AFP and he now faces up to 161 years in prison for going to the media. In June this year there were two AFP raids on
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