Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 23 November 1994
Parliamentary Record 6
Debates for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997
1994-11-23
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
application/pdf
Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/281606
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/414128
DEBATES - Wednesday 23 November 1994 I have a Stihl chainsaw that was not working and I gave it to a friend to see if he could repair it. He said that he could. There were 2 little rings that needed repairing. In relating this, I will use the relevant names. He went to Bridge Autos but the people in the spare parts section did not want to sell him the 2 little rings. They wanted to sell him the 6 parts that made up a unit and would not sell the 2 little rings separately. They were happy to sell the 6 parts for $121, but he needed only the 2 little rings. Subsequently, he went to Stihl. The people there said that they would sell him those parts for $32. He thought that was still a little expensive and went then to the Mitre 10 hardware shop at Howard Springs. Mitre 10 was prepared to sell him one ring for $2.80 and the other for $1.60. That is a prime example of the local hardware shop being able to sell 2 parts - and those were the only 2 parts necessary to repair the chainsaw - for $4.60 as compared to the $121 that a distributor wanted to charge. That is only a small matter that I raise in passing, but it demonstrates that it does pay to shop around when you are looking for spare parts in Darwin. Dr LIM (Greatorex): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to relate some activities that I have undertaken with the playgroups, child-care centres and schools in the Greatorex electorate. I do not have any particular point to make except to report to the Assembly on the activities o f this member of the Assembly. After the last sittings of the Assembly, I was asked by the Minister for Health and Community Services to present grant-in-aid cheques to several playgroups in Alice Springs. When presenting the cheques to 2 o f the playgroups in Greatorex, I found the members strongly motivated to form a cohesive group. Members will be aware that families in the Alice Springs region are very much nuclear families. Many people move into Alice Springs from various centres around the eastern and southern seaboards, leaving their parents and friends behind. Some families will expend all their savings to come to Alice Springs. Once in Alice Springs, they are confronted suddenly with an awareness o f their isolation from their family and friends. They realise rapidly that they have no support base on which to rely. Therefore, it is comforting for the families with young children to know that there are very strong, healthy playgroups which they can attend for mutual support. Children make friends with other children very easily and, from there, the ice is broken for the parents to get to know each other. I met with the Bilbie Playgroup which is coordinated by Cecelia Freeman. It is a new group that was formed in January o f this year. Its establishment was sponsored by the Little Blessings Playgroup when it became too large. The Bilbies Playgroup meets at the Baptist Church Hall on Lindsay Avenue each Tuesday from 10 am. The Little Blessings Playgroup meets from 10 am on Fridays at the Christian Community Centre at 27 Cypress Crescent in Alice Springs. This playgroup has been going for some time. At one stage, it had a total o f 24 families which was why it decided to sponsor another group. The Little Blessings Playgroup is coordinated by Donna Anderson. The performance o f these 2 groups gives us an indication of the strong community motivation to self-help. I was most impressed by the families attending the groups. Mixing with the many mothers and their children in the playgroups were several men - men who have adopted the role o f the home parent while their spouses are out earning the family income. I went next to the Eastside Neighbourhood Centre to discuss the possibility o f the centre extending its hours o f operation to cater for the working parent or those who are 1863