Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 27 November 2002
Parliamentary Record 9
Debates for 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005
2002-11-27
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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DEBATES - Wednesday 27 November 2002 I also attended a very different kind of a function for the government which was a Safe Sex campaign launch at which I represented the Minister for Health and Community Services. This campaign launch is titled Put it on so we can get it on. Essentially, it is targeted young women aged from 18 to 30 years and it is really saying to them that they are in control of their own body and their own health and that they have to start to make sure that they are taking the steps to protect themselves from at risk behavior. We are concerned about the increase in the HIV/Aids cases being detected particularly amongst young women in the Territory. The government has put in $60 000 into a campaign. I congratulate Discovery; I congratulate Hot 100 for the effort that they are making. Hot 100 is giving a lot of free air time in Darwin to the campaign and it really is a very funky new way of getting the message out to the 18 to 30-something women. I was told that I looked as though I was representing the demographic which I said was a compliment given that I was indeed closer to 40 than 30 these days. Dr Burns: I would have thought you were closer to 30. Ms LAWRIE: Thank you, member for Johnston, for that. I also congratulate students at Manunda Terrace Primary School who took part in the Australian Mathematics Competition. Sita Rogers achieved a Special Achievement Award for the schools Best Standardised Score and a Certificate of Merit. Andrew Staib achieved a Certificate of Credit, as did Katie Barr and Minas Kassiou. The following students received Certificates of Participation: John Nguyen, Carlo Tran, Melinda Fegan, Brian Evans and Reinel Jionco. I congratulate all these students. It is quite daunting to enter an Australian Mathematics Competition and it is to their credit that they participated in it and excelled in their participation. I also congratulate their parents who are obviously encouraging their children to leam and to apply themselves to their schooling, and to their teachers and the other staff at the school for making the huge effort that I know Manunda Terrace makes; it is a wonderful school in my community. I also had the opportunity to sponsor a couple of students from my electorate to participate in the North Queensland Championships for Athletics in early October. The Northern Territory team of some 37 athletes from the Moil Athletics Club attended and participated. The team brought home two gold, 17 silver and 20 bronze medals. I congratulate Narelle Long. I made a contribution towards her cost to attend; she won the bronze medal for high jump and was part of a gold medal team in the under 14 girls relay that broke the Townsville meet record for the 100 m with a time of 13.67 seconds. Congratulations to Narelle Long. She obviously has a wonderful athletics career ahead of her. And I congratulate Jacob Andrea who won a silver medal in the time of 54.82 seconds in the mens 400 m and was fifth in the 100 m which he ran in 12.02 seconds. M r WOOD (Nelson): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I would just like to speak on two issues tonight. The first issue is a little girl called Jessie Bartolo. Jessie was bom in August 1998, a happy and loving little girl. In June 2000, geneticists from Sydneys Childrens Hospital tentatively diagnosed her with Cardiofaciocutaneous Syndrome, called CFC for short. CFC is an extremely rare genetic disorder and there are around 75 families worldwide registered with the CFC family network. The exact number of these cases throughout the world is not known, however, there are estimated to be less than 300 cases worldwide. There are only five registered Australian cases. Next year, there is going to be an international conference on CFC to be held in Maryland, USA. Jessie Bartolo is the much loved daughter of Rocky and Judy Bartolo who work at the Wildlife Park For quite a while they believed they were on their own until they found out there were other people in the world who had this particular disease. I should mention what this rare genetic condition is: you have a distinctive facial appearance; sparse, brittle, woolly, curly hair; skin abnormalities; heart malformations that may be present at birth or develop later; varying degrees of mental retardation; psycho-motor retardation; and other medical complications and issues such as feeding difficulties which may affect particular individuals. Having met this young lady, I can tell you it would not matter; she is just a lovable person, has the most beautiful smile and she is just like one of those great little cuddly kids. She is a terrific little girl and her parents love her. They have other children, but they are certainly anxious to do the best they can. Earlier this year, there was a quiz night at the Wildlife Park. I was honoured to be asked to MC and they raised $4500. It was a great evening; you could not get a better setting than the Wildlife Park. People like Tracy Stephens and Michelle Nuske worked tirelessly to get this thing off the ground. We had some really generous sponsors; Qantas gave a double return ticket to Perth and also the Wildlife Park worked extremely hard to get the place set up so that we could have a wonderful quiz night. About 150 people attended. 3114