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Canberra Today 16°/19° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Canberra Confidential / A Face for forgotten children

NATALIE Hargreaves, of Dunlop, is a national finalist for the ACT in The Face of Confidence Australia 2015 pageant.

Face of Confidence aspirant Natalie Hargreaves… wants to make a difference in children’s lives.
Face of Confidence aspirant Natalie Hargreaves… wants to make a difference in children’s lives.
She put her hand (and her face) up because, she says, she wants to make a difference in children’s lives. She’s organising a fundraising high tea to raise money for Autism Australia.

“It’s close to my heart as my youngest son is autistic and I know how often these children are not understood or completely forgotten in the community,” she says.

“I want to change this, so if I can raise money to help them, then that’s a great start.”

The high tea’s at the Raiders Club, Belconnen, 2pm-4pm, Saturday, July 18. Tickets by emailing her at nattyfotga15@outlook.com

The Face of Confidence is an Australia-wide pageant “for all ages, sizes and races” with the aim of bringing awareness to domestic violence and learning difficulties. The finals are on the Gold Coast in September.

We love our roads

OUR thoughtful government is purring with satisfaction at the municipal love we have for them and all they do for us ungrateful plebs.

They have surveys, you see, of delighted ratepayers who have, a recent telephone poll of 1000 people says, rated satisfaction with the overall management of the ACT’s road network at 90 per cent.

And despite the recent Budget mauling on parking costs, the ACT was ranked first in the nation for traffic and parking management.

“Canberra has long been renowned for the state of our transport infrastructure, and we have been able to uphold this position due to the major investment in the integrated transport network,” enthused Roads and Parking Poobah Mick Gentleman.

If it’s so good and so popular, Minister, makes you wonder why we need a tram.

We love our TAMS

AND that magical 90 per cent number recurs in Shane Rattenbury’s annual telephone survey of another  1000 harassed townsfolk who clearly rate TAMS as the bee’s knees.

It has emboldened the Green One to conclude that: “While we always aim to improve our work, this survey shows that the community is happy with our local services.”

Buses also got a leg up with ACTION satisfying 76 per cent of its passengers, up from last year’s 65 per cent. Disappointingly, despite having the nation’s best-paid drivers, it could only rank higher than 67 per cent of other public transport providers across Australia.

The top five highest satisfaction areas are: the National Arboretum, library services, recycling services, waste collection, and access to walking and cycling paths.

We love not exercising!

AND while we’re banging on about research, Medibank says they’ve got some that says while half of us regularly view health and fitness posts on social media, 70 per cent of Canberra isn’t regularly exercising enough to break into a sweat.

The research shows 90 per cent (there’s that number again) of ACT residents believe being healthy is more than just food and exercise – it is also about achieving day-to-day happiness.

Seen sawing

THE cold weather brings out the need to keep warm and with it the annual warning to stop filching wood from public land. The latest finger wag is from Queanbeyan City Council reminding residents that trees on public land are not to be chopped down for firewood, though the $220 fine wouldn’t get you trembling with fear.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Bungendore, nearby cockies and landowners have been on a town chat site grumbling about thieves coming on to unattended private land and knocking down entire trees. One enterprising land owner has set up discreet digital cameras to keep any eye on their tree stock.

Win a flight to Canberra!

DEFENCE is paying a Melbourne PR company to send cheery emails to “CityNews” inviting us to draw attention to the Ultimate ADFA Open Day Experience competition that will give its three winners “return flights to Canberra, overnight accommodation, a merchandise pack and will take part in a range of exclusive activities, which aren’t on offer to the general public at the ADFA Open Day.” Imagine that, return flights to Canberra.

You have to be between 16 and 22 and entries to defencejobs.gov.au/ADFAOpenDay before July 20.

 

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Ian Meikle, editor

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