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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DEBATES - Wednesday 27 November 2002 about life after politics. I think we should have encouraged Maurice Rioli to give a bit of a talk about life after politics because he is doing a fantastic job at Milikapiti where he is now the Community Services Manager for Milikapiti Council. He is looking well, he is feeling well and he is back home. It is always good to get out to Milikapiti and touch base with Maurice and the community. I move on to Maningrida. David Bond and all Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation management council and staff who do a fantastic job; Lyn Hollow, the principal of Maningrida CEC, and Helen Bond- Sharp. Sitting down and talking to Lyn and Helen, there are some positive and exciting plans for secondary education at Maningrida. All the staff have worked well all year and unfortunately there are some teachers leaving at the end of the year and moving to other communities or into Darwin as they have been there for some time and are seeking a change. I will be seeing all those teachers on my visit to Maningrida next week on the 5th and 6th to thank them personally for their commitment to improving the Maningrida childrens education. Maningrida Council president Morris Geinbaraba and Council members; John Horgan and staff at the Council; Bill Young, Council and staff of the Maningrida Progress Association, Gordon Machbirrbirr and Council members of the Maningrida Health Board. One of the great things that is happening at Maningrida at the moment - for years that community has had a number of problems with levels of politics - it has been really good in the last six months where finally the community is coming together to address issues of governance and that is working with the traditional owners, whom I think over time have become disempowered and pushed out of the community. So, all the agencies are finally all talking about how they can now empower the traditional owners and get things happening at Maningrida to lay the foundations for a better future. Anyone who knows Maningrida - and I am sure the member for Johnston and I certainly share mutual colleagues and friends there - can say that that is certainly a huge step forward of working with that community and getting them to come together and getting the agencies to work together. Jabiluka Association Council in Jabiru, CEO Liam Maher and all the staff at Jabiluka; Gunbalanya, Esther and Joe Singh. Esther is the principal of Gunbalanya School and also the co-chair of the Learning Lessons committee. There is one teacher in particular who I would like to single out at the Jabiru Area School and that is Jo Vandermark. Jo works very hard to strive for better outcomes for indigenous students in Kakadu, has worked in many communities around the Top End but has been in at Jabiru Area School for some years. She has put a lot of her spare time, when she is not teaching in the classroom, setting up the centre inside the school to work intensively with indigenous children to try to lift the benchmarks with both their literacy and numeracy. She puts a lot of time and energy into providing these children with the support and mentoring that they need. I thank the Legislative Assembly staff for all their support during the year. I know there are constant phone calls and e-mails from my office because there is a whole lot of confusion and just sorting out bills and different things, so I thank all the staff for their patience and helping us to sort that out. To Lyle, my new electorate officer, who, whilst it gets very serious and full on, can make you laugh and smile, and he just makes it all the better. It is certainly funny watching some of the countrymen when they come into the office. The minute Lyle opens his mouth, you see them slowly retreat - and not because they do not like him, but because of his antics that he shows. Certainly, they love him and he has been good in that office. Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, it is always a pleasure to stand in the House and report on some of the very good things that are happen in my electorate. St Philips College is a college that strives for excellence amongst the students, not just academically, but also in the area of sport. They are very delighted that two volleyball teams from St Philips will head to Melbourne on Saturday. They will be the first Alice Springs team ever to compete in the Australian Schools Volleyball Championships. This particular competition will have 3000 students from all around Australia, for a week of competition. The St Philips girls and boys teams will play in division one, the open section for players aged under 20, and play a minimum of eight games each. They have worked very hard to get to this level of competition. They leave by bus, and it is a long way from Alice Springs to Melbourne by bus. They leave at 4 am in the morning and they arrive on the Sunday morning. Then four hours later they will be there for their first training session. They have worked hard, and they take this competition very seriously. The girls team is the St Philips team which won the Northern Territory Schools Volleyball Championships this year. They were invited to play in the Masters Games competition in October, which was an opportunity for them to get some strong, outstanding competition, and from which they learned a great deal. Their coach is Alex Pollitt. 3118