Page 4005 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 December 2021
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I also thank the clerks, attendants and all of those who make this building and our democracy work. That includes the committee staff, security, the cleaners, and all of the admin, IT and other support staff who work behind the scenes to keep this place running. We could not do what we do without you, and I thank you for your work and support. I say particularly to David and Dina that there were so many long days, working well into the night during lockdown, when you were the only human beings I spoke to in person, and I have no words for the difference you made.
In closing, I wish everyone a safe and happy summer. None of us can predict the future, but what is coming will come, and we will meet it when it does.
Valedictory
MR DAVIS (Brindabella) (5.15): Around this time last year I was thanking the 70,484 good burghers of Tuggeranong for electing me and, a year on, I would like to thank them for allowing me to be of service. I am a born and raised Tuggeranong boy and it has been a true privilege to represent my community, my friends, my neighbours, people who share my progressive Greens’ values and, if my inbox is anything to go by, even those who do not. It has been an absolute joy.
I have had it put to me by some that this job is a bit like a four-year arts degree without the HECS debt and, if what I have come to learn over the last year is anything to go by, that has certainly proven true, which means my first thanks really need to go to everyone who has made contact with me as their local member in my community, and to all the stakeholders in all the spokesperson roles that I hold for the Greens, who have been frank and fearless with me over the last 12 months about their hopes and aspirations for government policy, who praise me when they think I am getting it right and for the healthy criticism when they think I am getting it wrong. That ongoing and sustained activism from the community and from my constituents will make me better at this job.
Each day that I come up from the car park and I see the three flags and walk in through the members entrance, I try to remind myself to commit myself to be better today than I was yesterday. And I hope I am honouring that commitment to the community.
It has been a really big year from back here on the boondocks, on the crossbench. I am proud that, in spite of the fact that I do not sit in cabinet or sign the cheques, I have still been able to achieve so many tangible progressive policy outcomes for people in my community and people right across Canberra. I have got a bit of a list because, Lord knows, I would not be able to remember them all. One is being the first MLA in the history of this Assembly to open an electorate office every Friday, 9 to 12, at Jindebah Coffee in Greenway, where my constituents are prone to find me with a flat white and hold me to account. I appreciate it.
We passed a motion to move the big banks out of public schools. We passed a motion calling for a long-term strategic plan for community sport, including a full audit of facilities, a forward-thinking facilities management plan, a peak body to represent the
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