As I was thinking about what to put in my report to you, I couldn’t get the most significant thing that’s happened recently in Tuggeranong out of my mind. I’m referring to the horrific murder of a young mother in Calwell a few days ago. I’m sure we were all shocked by this terrible event. But do we just have to accept that such crimes are a normal part of our society today and that we are powerless to do anything about it?
I’m not sure that we can do anything to prevent more of these crimes from happening but I am sure that we shouldn’t just shrug our shoulders and try to forget it happened. There are now three young children who will grow up without their mother. We can’t do anything to help her but perhaps we can do something to help the children.
I intend talking further to the Committee about this to see if they agree that the TCC should somehow get involved. If you have any thoughts about this, please let me or a Committee member know during the coffee break. We want all Tuggeranong residents to feel that they can live here safely and happily. I believe that after such a terrible event, our community would expect us to adopt a leadership role and that’s what I’d like to see us do.
On other more mundane matters, the Lake Tuggeranong Carer’s Group sponsored a successful lake tidy up on Sunday. I’ll let VP Glenys say more about this during her Sub-Committee report later.
As you know, we’ve been talking for some time now about trying to broaden the age demographic of our membership. We’ve been particularly keen on trying to involve younger people. To that end, Glenys and I met with last week with the Principal of Lake Tuggeranong College, Julie Murkins. It was a very fruitful meeting and I hope it will bear fruit in the next few months. We intend having a similar meeting with the Erindale College Principal.
Planning Minister Mick Gentleman is convening a planning workshop tomorrow afternoon to develop his Statement of Planning Intent. This will set out the key planning priorities for the Government for the next 3-5 years. Vice President, Wayne King will be representing the TCC at this workshop. Earlier today I circulated via email more information about the workshop. If you have any ideas that you would like Wayne to put forward, please let him know by midday tomorrow by email secretary@tuggcc.com.
Eric Traise