Page 1560 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 June 2022
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with a “mung-bean, soy-latte-sipping vision of a Utopian society where inner city yuppies can catch a tram to work”!
Nevertheless Mrs Jones’s voice will be remembered in this Assembly as being filled with conviction. The opportunity to come into this place and stand up for those issues that you feel strongly about is indeed a privilege, and one that I am sure that Mrs Jones will miss, even if the things that pull her away are, rightly, the things she must attend to instead.
We wish Mrs Jones and her family the best for the future, without the time and work pressures that being an elected representative of our community can bring.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Education and Youth Affairs, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (11.03), by leave: I am very happy to talk about Mrs Jones today and the contributions that she has made to this place, as well as about our friendship that has developed over the last 10 years. I feel that we have wasted a lot of that time, and we could have known a lot more about each other if it had not been for the artificial barriers that this place sometimes creates to learning more about people and finding the things that you have in common. I think we found that probably in the last couple of years.
We were elected here at the same time, from very different sides of the block, with Mrs Jones being quite conservative, and very committed to her faith and her family, and me as a single mum from west Belconnen. We definitely brought a different perspective into this place. Somehow we found a camaraderie, even during some of the most difficult times.
One of my favourite memories of working with Mrs Jones was when we were new to this place, working on committees with Mr Doszpot, and what I can only describe as the bickering that would occur between Mr Doszpot and Mrs Jones. Mr Doszpot would get particularly upset when I was defending vulnerable people and the working class, and Mrs Jones would say, “Don’t worry about it, Doszie; don’t worry about it. That’s just who Yvette is. Just move on.”
One of the things with Mrs Jones was that you knew where she was. She wore her politics on her sleeve—very pragmatic, and no shifting or shadow work there. We all know what you stand for and who you are. I have always appreciated that honesty coming from you.
More recently we have confided to each other about private matters within our own lives and our professional lives, and that has helped us to form an even closer relationship. Particularly, I feel that I know your family even more. Even though I have not seen them in person very much, it is lovely to see them in person here today.
It has been quite a journey for both of us at various times, and we have been able to speak honestly to each other about some of the challenges that this place and our families have brought to us. Having that on different sides of politics has been really refreshing, Mrs Jones, so thank you for that.
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