Page179 - Week 01 - Thursday, 3 December 2020
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We have many opportunities in Gungahlin to leverage the light rail, integrating walking and cycling so as to reduce our car dependency. This is the key to creating a healthier, more livable and more convenient city. Duplicating roads is akin to loosening your belt to cure obesity. As a middle-aged man with a spreading waist, I can assure you that this is not a winning strategy.
As the final packages of land in Gungahlin start to build out, their importance increases. It is the gaps in the painting that can bring the greatest potential to a piece of art. The process of filling those remaining gaps will be of great interest to me. The community has already expressed its views on this in many ways—in YourSay surveys; via the Gungahlin Community Council, of which I have the privilege of being on the executive; and to me directly, during multiple campaigns.
People have called for the prioritisation of green and community spaces, a diverse range of services, and opportunities for employment, so as to enable Gungahlin to maximise its potential as a community in which to work, live and play. I will diligently represent these views in the chamber. During the campaign, I stated very clearly that I would be an alternative voice for Yerrabi. That is exactly what I will do in this Assembly.
I am here to serve my local community: to represent their views authentically; be frank and honest in all dealings; take long-term views; develop nuanced approaches based on evidence; call out what needs to be called out; and work constructively with all parts of community. Having actively made the choice to live here, I am here to serve with quiet humility, dignity, respect and hard work, so as to carve out a future for all of us. I am not here to play politics. I will work with anyone here who wants to have a constructive conversation. With self-deprecating humour, willingness to listen, and understated style, I will work to serve.
For those who wish to work with me, I must admit that, despite many roles over the course of my professional life, I still possess an engineer’s brain. The practical, tangible, on-the-ground outcomes to create a better future for our community will resonate with this simple MLA. To those in the chamber today, I apologise in advance, but I will challenge the status quo, the conventions, the way we have always done things. I will not change my behaviour, but I feel better for having warned you and apologised in advance. I always have that urge to figure out a better way of doing things.
In a final nod to tradition, I would like to pay tribute to the family, friends and fellow Greens travellers who helped me get to this esteemed place. I thank my wife, Deb, who, for the past five years, had to endure this crazy dream. I still recall that night when I had to come clean, explaining to an exhausted mother of two-year-old twins why I had just joined the Greens—because I wanted to run as a candidate, of course. Why? In order to work here in the Legislative Assembly, of course. Why? To help save the world. Deb, I thank you for not leaving me that night.
To everyone in my family who helped me become who I am and get here today, I say thank you. In particular, I thank my mother, who gave me the critical nudges needed
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