Cooktown heritage praised in Canberra

LEICHHARDT MP Warren Entsch has recognised the efforts of the Cooktown Re-enactment Association in Parliament ahead of yet another exciting Cooktown Discovery Festival this weekend. Mr Entsch outlined the history of Cook’s voyage north with his crew on the HMB Endeavour and the subsequent foundering on the Great Barrier Reef late in the evening of…

Don’t be shy on bowel cancer screening

FEDERAL Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch has told parliament that bowel cancer screening needs to become a “sexier” issue if we’re to reduce the rate of the disease in Australia. Mr Entsch’s comments come at the beginning of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. He says the disease is the second most common type of newly diagnosed…

Federal grant to help record Bama stories

THE ancient stories and traditions of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji will be preserved for future generations thanks to an $11,000 federal grant awarded to the Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation. Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch said the project – Eastern Kuku Yalanji Bama Bloomfield Track Cultural Heritage Stories – received the funding through the Australian…

Cooktown Re-enactment Festival

**Watch this speech on YouTube** Madam Deputy Speaker, let me take you back to 1770 when Cook's crew first set foot upon the rugged and exotic shores of Australia. We all know the story of Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay, but less well known is what happened after he left and sailed north. In a mariner's…

Appropriations Bills 2015-16

They say a week is a long time in politics. That must be why it is hard to envisage just how far we have come since a year ago. On coming into government, we inherited $123 billion of deficit from our friends from the Labor Party. We saw how this resulted in a decline in…

90 second statement – SilkAir lands in Cairns

**Watch this speech on YouTube** Last weekend a silk road started operating between Cairns, Australia's Gateway to the Reef, and the lion city of Asia. SilkAir is the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, and their Boeing 737-800 touched-down in Cairns just after 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. It was the first of a three-times-a-week service between…

An update on the World Heritage Listing of the Great Barrier Reef

**Watch this speech on YouTube** Mr ENTSCH: My question is to the outstanding Minister for the Environment. Will the minister update the House on the World Heritage listing— Opposition members interjecting— Mr ENTSCH: Can I ask that question again, Madam Speaker? The SPEAKER: There will be silence—and that includes the member for Chifley. The member…

Green Army on hand to drive local disaster clean-up

FEDERAL Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch is encouraging organisations in the Far North to apply for Federal Government funding to help clean-up and rehabilitate the environment. It comes after flooding and severe weather events earlier this year affected a number of local government areas in Leichhardt – Aurukun, Cook, Douglas, Hope Vale, Lockhart River, Mapoon,…

Adjournment – Bowel Cancer Awareness Month

**Watch this speech on YouTube** I rise this evening to take the opportunity to highlight that next month is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. This annual initiative, running through the month of June, aims to raise public awareness of a disease that claims the lives of 77 Australians every week.  Bowel cancer is the second most common type…