Page 4123 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
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and still failed to win, despite the fact that they themselves were some of the answers to the questions!
I want to mention Annie, a grandmother who knits and sits and makes art for the climate. Annie has this amazing ability to support women across generations. There is a lot of pain in the climate movement, and it is mostly borne and led by 16-year-old girls. Annie just swoops in and picks them up whenever they need it. I also want to mention Nick, another climate warrior. He is a grandfather. He recently got locked up for his beliefs. He entertained us all with tales of prison life. Apparently the food is quite good. I want to mention John, who is one of my favourite guerrilla gardeners and rewilders. He is slightly reformed now. He has finally set up a proper Landcare group, but he is still wild at heart.
Thank you to all the volunteers and the staff for advocacy groups who speak up for others, speak up for their cause and make Canberra a better place. They do so tirelessly with no prospect of success and with no pay. I was going to list the groups and the people I have met and volunteered with this year, but the list was too long, so I will just say thank you. You know who you are.
One of the privileges of this job is meeting regular people who have fantastic stories to tell. Most of those people would rather stay anonymous, but I will mention one who was a speaker at a weekend event. Mary was out at Ginninderry, and she told us all about how she rides her e-bike. She rides out and back along the Federal Highway. She made friends with all the cops during COVID because they all got to recognise her. She rides to the shops. She rides on holidays. It is a fairly new purchase and she has clocked up over 10,000 kilometres. Mary is 81 years old. She told us her top downhill speed. As the road safety spokesperson, it would be highly irresponsible for me to read it into Hansard, but it was pretty close to her age. I really want to be Mary when I grow up.
I also meet a lot of young people in this job. Kids and young adults have had a really tough year, but they are so enterprising. I spoke to a lot of students during lockdown, because some bright spark worked out that you can get credit on assignments if you Zoom your local MLA! I want to give particular congratulations to one group, the year 4 animal rights group at Radford. They gave me a grilling unlike anything I have ever seen in here in question time, and it was all before little lunch. I am pretty sure that the quality of our crossbench is going to improve in about 10 years.
My deepest thanks go to my partner, Rob, and our daughter. I used to run companies from home, which meant that I was pretty much always there. I did drop off; I cooked; I was there for every mealtime; I was always there for a chat. I am pretty much never there now, and they have just adapted. They have gone through this massive lifestyle shift. There are some benefits. My daughter told me earlier that she has built a stronger relationship with her daddy. I cannot really think of a better thing to come out of 2021. I would love to sing Rob’s praises, but our party room was under strict instructions that there would be no singing in here. Instead, I will quote the song that sums him up: “What a man. What a man. What a man. What a mighty good man.” Yes, he is.
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