Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 5049 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I thank very much the people of my electorate of Brindabella who bestowed their trust on me. I hope they believe that I have exercised that trust well. I am certainly looking forward to seeking their endorsement to return to this place after the election and again work for their interests. Of course, that is what we are elected to do.

Mr Speaker, I would also like to thank the many people who have worked for me in my office over the last three years. I do not propose to name them all because there are quite a number, but I will just say this: I think being a member of a politician's political staff is one of the hardest jobs imaginable. You have to work just as hard as the elected member; you have to think just as smartly as the elected member; you have the same long hours and you probably have a higher risk of vulnerability in terms of your employment than an elected member; and yet at the end of the day you do not have that much control. You can work as hard as you like, but in the end the elected member goes out. They either mash what you have done or they do it well. You just do not have that control over the outcomes. I think being a staffer can be a very demoralising experience, and sometimes a very exhilarating one. I think the people who do it have very unique qualities of courage, fortitude, and determination to go on with the business of supporting an elected member.

I am constantly honoured and in awe of the people who have worked for me, for the faith they have shown in me, for the way they have worked to further my interests and the interests of the Labor Party and the interests of the people of Canberra. Whether they are my staff or other people's staff, they deserve our utmost respect for the dedication that they show to public service without any of the recognition that elected members in this place get. So, Mr Speaker, I would like to put on the record my very sincere thanks and my very sincere admiration for all those people. (Extension of time granted)

Mr Speaker, I would like to thank my partner, my wife, Lisa Foreman, who has been with me through the last three years - the high times and the low times that I have experienced in the last three years - and has been a strong supporter and a strong and wise adviser to me over that time. As some other members have said, it is no easy task being the partner of a politician. You lose a great deal of privacy and you lose some of the attention of your partner. I think that it requires, once again, unique character to endure the experience of being a partner of a politician. I want to place on record my thanks to Lisa for putting up with the experience of being the wife of a politician. It has been all the harder for her because she has suffered personally in her professional life as a result of being my partner. She had a very significant setback in her own career as a result of being my partner. She lost her job and endured a great period of uncertainty about her career future. That was a very difficult experience for her to endure, and a very unfair one in my view. She suffered specifically because she was my partner. That is a pain that I will always carry with me - that she suffered in that way for being my partner. It is a source of great admiration to me that she has borne that pain and has stood by me in spite of it.

Finally, Mr Speaker, as it is Christmas time, we should remember the importance of the ideals that are always talked about at Christmas time, peace and goodwill. It is my belief, as a person of the Christian faith, that Christmas is a special time. It is a time when those of us who are of that faith remember what I believe are key tenets of the Christian faith -

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .