MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (5.00pm): I would like to speak about Bravehearts, a not-for-profit organisation, whose purpose is to educate, empower and protect Australian children from sexual assault, with an overall mission to stop child sexual assault in our society. Bravehearts was founded during Child Protection Week in 1997 and has focused on moving a once-taboo subject out of the shadows. Partly as a consequence of this organisation but together with a number of organisations, the commonwealth government and its COAG partners created the national framework for the protection of Australia's children, a major achievement.

The reason I raise this important organisation today is that currently Centori 777 is happening. This is a challenge which raises funds for Bravehearts. The challenge requires participants to raise money and run seven full marathons, in seven days, in seven states. That is 294 kilometres over seven days in seven different locations across Australia. The participants started in Perth on Sunday. Then they went to Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart. Today is Sydney, and tomorrow is their run in Canberra, before heading to Brisbane for the final marathon on Saturday.

Canberra resident and owner of the Tuggeranong Kumon centre in Calwell, Jane Hiatt, is participating in this challenge. There are participants from each state and territory in Australia. However, my understanding is that Jane is the only ACT participant. Having raised around $12,000, Jane is inspirational. We have been watching Jane train for months to be able to achieve her goal and raise this money. She now "only"has two marathons to go. And I say "only"in inverted commas as I would be very hard pressed to do one marathon, let alone seven in seven days in a row.

Tomorrow, here in Canberra, the participants will begin at Queen Elizabeth Terrace, near Reconciliation Place, at 6 am and will do two laps of the lake past Yarralumla Bay, the zoo and aquarium and Black Mountain Peninsula. They will finish back at Queen Elizabeth Terrace around 11.30 am.

I speak on this topic today to encourage anyone who can to go down to a point on the track tomorrow morning and cheer on these inspiring runners or perhaps donate some money to their cause, hopefully through Jane Hiatt's fundraising or get in and run a piece of the course with them to keep them company. So my congratulations to Jane Hiatt and her support team, including Pioneer Training and Anna Dakar. I know Jane is having trouble with bad blisters but I hope she can keep going for the last two marathons in the same positive manner she has shown so far.