Page 2469 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2022
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Lisa might clip me over the ears—because it might make us all sound older than we are, but when I was a little bit younger and I was a student at the Lake Tuggeranong College, I was not a great student, if I am being entirely honest. Madam Speaker, you would know that there was a nasty old, rotted gazebo there in the middle of the Laneways Project, and I was definitely one of those teenagers that spent way too many of my lunchbreaks there.
I got to know Lisa then, as a student. Then later as the federal Greens candidate for Bean, and subsequent to my coming to this office, and trying to jump through the processes and rigmarole of this place—the Clerk can you some advice on the conversations we have had—we were able to come up with this great electorate office solution inside their very own cafe. It is great, because it means when you come down and have a chat with me you do not have to worry about some nasty old teabag and a kettle that I would have to bring in myself. You actually get a really, really, good coffee and a breakfast. So it is a good two for one.
I get up and speak about this only to really thank my constituents for the generosity that they have offered in that space over what is now a long period of time—250 hours; the milestone. I thank them for making me better at this job because of what they have shared with me. I thank them for the informed contributions I have been able to make to party room discussions, to legislative debates, to committee work and to question time because of the representations they have made to me at that electorate office.
It is very easy, particularly during sitting weeks, for my relatively small team to consume ourselves with the number of different policy challenges we are looking at contributing to at any given time. And it is wonderful every Friday morning, at 9 am, to return back to what is actually the most important thing about my job—the reason that I am here—and indeed remind myself of the reason why I joined a political party and ran in the first place. And that is because I love Tuggeranong; I love living in Tuggeranong; I love Tuggeranong people; and I love that, when I am not in this building, I am in Tuggeranong with my constituents, learning better how to
serve them in this place. So, 250 hours—I will come back to you when we clock up
an even 500!
Development—Hawker tennis centre
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra—Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Business and Better Regulation, Minister for Human Rights and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (6.18): I had the most bemusing experience in the chamber yesterday. I could not quite believe what I was hearing. In fact, I so distrusted my ears that I waited to review the proof transcript. And can I please just give a shout out to the excellent Hansard team in doing so, given they stay as late as we do—and I am sorry for extending that tonight by a few minutes!
What I heard was of course Mr Cain’s adjournment speech; his lament on the ACT budget and what it does not deliver for Belconnen. Having now reviewed it—and I was here and heard it—there were several extraordinary elements to it which I cannot leave untouched. I was not mishearing.
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