Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was great to have members of our local business community here in Canberra to showcase some of the Territory's capabilities in terms of delivering major projects. I would like to place on record my thanks to David Malone from the Master Builders Association, Steve Margetic from Sitzler, Mike Cull from the Halikos Group, Chris Giannikoruis, also from Halikos Construction, and Mike Rinaudo from Laing O'Rourke. I would like to thank them for coming to help me sell the Territory's extensive local capabilities in terms of building major infrastructure projects. It is really important that we have locals involved in building our future infrastructure, and the bureaucrats here in Canberra are now under no illusion about the Territory's capabilities in terms of skills, experience and capability in delivering on major projects.

While I am talking about infrastructure, I would like to talk about the Capital Grants Program, which provides funding for non-government school communities to assist non-government primary and secondary schools to improve capital infrastructure where they otherwise may not have had access to sufficient capital resources. Just before Christmas I was fortunate enough to be able to ring St Johns Principal Lindsay Luck to advise that the federal government was going to contribute $47,060 to their proposed project of $72,400 to replace the roof and purlins in an undercover area and also the wellbeing adviser's office. I also phoned Loretta Graham, who is the principal of McKillop Catholic College in Palmerston, and advised her that we would be funding $52,650 of her proposed $81,000 project to build a covered walkway from block A to block C at the college.

On 19 February each year, Darwin stops to remember the 1942 bombings of our beautiful city. These events changed Darwin, and indeed the Top End, forever. We pause to pay our respects and to acknowledge our resilience and our tenacity as Territorians. It is expected that thousands of Territorians will again attend these commemorations to honour those who were killed and injured during these events. I would also like to place on record my thanks to the Darwin City Council, and in particular to Lord Mayor, Katrina Fong Lim, and her team, who each year host these important commemoration activities. This year the event will once again be held at the Darwin cenotaph; it starts at 9.30 am sharp. I am proud of the fact that, through my work in this place, I was able to get 19 February recognised nationally and that our story is finally being recognised as a crucial piece of Australian history.