Page 4136 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
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I am proud of the achievements that we have delivered across our portfolio, but I will take Mr Hanson’s advice and I will not dwell on all of the amazing things that we have delivered this year; I will simply continue my thankyous and my reflections on the year.
As a member for Kurrajong, I am sorry that lockdowns have meant that I have not been able to get out into the community as much this year—or at least in the second half of this year—as I would have liked. But I am really pleased that, as well as the usual questions, comments, calls for support and detailed information across a range of portfolios and areas of ACT government responsibility that we all receive in this place as MLAs, so many Kurrajong residents have reached out to me with messages of support for me and my team and, of course, particularly for the government’s hardworking frontline staff. I look forward to getting back out to the local shops next year to talk to people in the community face to face once again.
I want to thank my staff and the directorate liaison officers who worked in my office this year. Madam Speaker, as you would be aware, there was a mini baby boom in my office this year, so the list is a bit longer than usual due to all of the staff that came in to cover maternity and paternity leave, and also some changes in staff.
I want to thank Ash and Tim, who were in my office at the beginning of the year, but have now gone on to bigger and better things. I want to thank my current staff: Cath, Martin, Jonny, Ben, Meg, Caitlin—who is on maternity leave at the moment—and Amy, who has just started and has lasted this far, so we have not scared her off yet! Thank you, Amy, for your faith in us to date. I want to thank Ella and John, who supported us through the parental leave period this year. I want to thank James, who stepped into the media role in the middle of the outbreak, and who has worked incredibly hard. He will be leaving ACT Labor’s staff ranks shortly. I want to acknowledge James’s incredibly hard work through this outbreak and thank him very much for his service to the government.
I say to our DLOs—Jenna, Andrew, Angie, Kerrin, Jess, Jen, Morgan, Kathy, Isabella, Lauren, Dee, and the fabulous Chadia—thank you all for the varying times that you have spent in my office and supporting us. A special mention goes to Chris, who I forgot to mention last year, but who has stayed with us in spirit, despite not being a directorate liaison officer with us this year.
With respect to all of the ACT Labor staff across the Chief Minister’s office and other ministers’ offices, we really are a team right across the ministry, so I extend that to the Greens’ staff as well. Everyone works really hard to ensure that we not only respond to the pandemic but we get all of the other incredible work of government done.
To the unions, our community partners, consumer representatives and other stakeholders that I have worked with throughout the year, thank you very much. Government is a collaborative effort. As the Chief Minister said, individual MLAs and ministers cannot do it by ourselves, but government cannot do it by ourselves, either, and we need to work right across the community.
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