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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 5047 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I would like to thank a few people. I really want to thank the people who work with us in the offices here. Natasha has been with us from the beginning. Jonathan is here tonight, and he was here at the beginning. We have had other people move through. We could not have achieved what we have without them and they have been fantastic. I also want to thank the Secretariat staff, chamber support, the attendants, Barry, Mardie, the Hansard people, the corporate staff, the library staff and the media. Even though the relationship with the media is an uneasy one sometimes, mostly they do work with us in very good spirit. I think that is the really lovely thing about working here, that mostly people are working together very well. Finally, I would like to thank my husband and my children because I am so grateful for the support they have given me over the last three years.

MR HIRD (11.06): Mr Speaker, I rise also to say thank you to the people who have supported me as the Government Whip. I took on the job just after the declaration of the polls, at the insistence of the Chief Minister who used a few descriptive adjectives about me and thrust the job upon me. I thought I would not be able to handle it and that it was a nonsense job in any case. However, that has been proven wrong. It is one of the important jobs in this chamber and in the parliament. It involves the working relationship, particularly in a minority government, with the Opposition and the crossbenches and it is a very important role. You are kept very busy. I apologise to the Chief Minister for the words that I uttered when she said, "Do not be stupid. You have the job. Take it". Well, I have to say she was right.

The road that we have travelled in the last three years has been an interesting one for me. You, Mr Speaker, Mr Kaine and I were the class of 1974 in the House of Assembly and we have met some characters along that journey. Certainly, in this chamber, the names may have changed but the characters are the same.

I am disappointed that Mr Berry is not here for me to remind him of the fact that when this Government came to office there was a deficit of $300m. That has been reduced. We found little pearls on the way through, another $52.5m. I will not talk about that because we are in the festive season. There was Harcourt Hill, international hospitality, VITAB and those sorts of things. When the Alliance Government went out they left $84m in the tin, in the bank. If you tally that all up it comes to $436m. That was when we came into office. We found that it was a mammoth task. Being a minority Government, with the help of the crossbenches, and sometimes, Mr Speaker, with the help of those opposite, the Opposition, we put our shoulders to the wheel on behalf of our constituents. We have done a magnificent job. I recall that in 1985, when I was deputy chair of the self-government committee, it was said that when self-government finally comes two things will happen. Self-government would not be given to us in the Territory because of politicians, it would be given because of the Treasury. Mr Osborne was talking about that in an earlier speech. Treasury gave us self-government. The other thing was that when self-government came it would take at least three parliaments for it to settle down. That has been proven, this being the third parliament.

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