Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I rise today to laud the contribution of Christina Ryan, the general manager of Advocacy for Inclusion, which is based in Pearce in my electorate. I understand that Christina, when she ran for the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2001, was the first woman who uses a wheelchair to run for any Australian parliament. She is a strong, vocal and tireless advocate on social housing, disability rights and gender equity. Her particular passion is women with a disability and she is a tenacious advocate on the local, national and international stage.

Last year, Christina was the only Australian woman with a disability to attend the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, in New York. Christina represented Women with Disabilities Australia, a group of committed, frighteningly intelligent and savvy women who have alerted me to the individual, systemic and societal discrimination suffered by many women with a disability—and some of their stories are chilling. In March this year, she was also a member of the official Australian delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Christina has sat on many community boards and is the ACT board member of the Disability Advocacy Network Australia. Canberra is blessed to have Christina Ryan advocating for those with a disability and human and women ' s rights. On behalf of the people of Canberra, I congratulate and thank her for the work she has done, and is doing, at the local, national and international level to raise awareness and to advocate for the rights of the disabled, particularly women.

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