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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 1 Hansard (19 March) . . Page.. 6 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

and Liberal do not have a monopoly on political power. If I were elected Chief Minister today I would be delighted to take on the challenge and form a government containing the most talented and capable members drawn from Labor and Liberal and the crossbenches. In any event, over the next three years and eight months I will continue to work constructively with all members of the Assembly and to vote on each issue on its merits, so that I can help create the best possible outcomes for the people and the environment of the ACT, both for now and for the future.

MR SPEAKER: Would either of the other candidates like to make a statement?

MS CARNELL: No; thank you.

MR STANHOPE: No; thank you, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: There being more than one candidate proposed, the election of a Chief Minister will proceed by ballot. Pursuant to standing order 3(f), the bells will now be rung and a ballot taken.

A ballot having been taken -

MR SPEAKER: The result of the ballot is: Ms Carnell, nine votes; Mr Stanhope, six votes; and Ms Tucker, two votes. Therefore, Ms Carnell, the candidate with the majority of votes of members present and voting, is declared elected as Chief Minister. Congratulations.

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister): Thank you very much. I seek leave to make a statement.

Leave granted.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I would like, first, to thank the majority of members for their support. It really is a tremendous honour to be elected as Chief Minister, and I suppose to be re-elected for a second term is an even greater honour. I acknowledge the trust that has been placed in me and I can guarantee to the Assembly that I will continue to work as hard as I have in the past in the interests of the ACT. I would like also to congratulate each of my Assembly colleagues who were re-elected to the Assembly and were sworn in before. It really is a great honour for all of us, but there is a huge job ahead of us all as well. To Brendan Smyth, Dave Rugendyke, Jon Stanhope, Ted Quinlan and John Hargreaves: Welcome to the Assembly. To those members - and there are a few of them here today - of the Third Assembly who were not elected or, alternatively, decided not to stand, namely, Louise Littlewood, Lucy Horodny, Roberta McRae, Andrew Whitecross and Marion Reilly: Thank you for the huge commitment that you gave to the people of the ACT. We will miss all of you from the Assembly.

Mr Speaker, I do not view my re-election as Chief Minister as an endorsement of the status quo or simply a licence to keep on doing things exactly as we did in the past. I see our re-election - I have to say, against the odds - as an endorsement of the general direction that we took over the last three years but also as an endorsement of the

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