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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 3517 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

For you, Mr Speaker, I thought a big black Rolls Royce with a chauffeur would be appropriate for the office that you hold. Then I thought about myself. My expectations over the next 10 years will be explained by my choice for myself, a Holden Statesman. In conclusion, Mr Speaker, all I can say is this: May Santa Claus - I mean, the Chief Minister - fill your Christmas stockings generously. May everybody have a happy Christmas.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (5.47): I do not wish to delay the adjournment too long. I join with others in this place in wishing other members a good festive season or a merry Christmas, depending on which they prefer. I would like to repeat some of the thanks that my colleague Mr Berry expressed to those of our constituents who have supported us. To all my colleagues in the Labor Party, those members of my caucus who have worked with me this year, and all the staff in the Assembly, I wish all the best and thank them individually for their continuing help and assistance. I would also like to pay a tribute to the media who work in this place and visit the place regularly for their continuing courtesy and the work that they do as part of the political process.

I thank members of the Government for the joust and for the debate and for the fact that we are still each standing here. I think most of us are still speaking to each other. I thank my staff. All of my staff have worked extremely hard, carrying an incredibly heavy workload this year. I think they have held us in good stead. I would also like to thank my family. I have recognised this year, as a new politician, the enormous strains that this life does impose on families. I particularly thank my wife, Robyn, and my four children for their continuing support of this quite difficult role that we all play.

As well as wishing everybody here in this place and with whom we are associated a good Christmas and a good festive season, it is appropriate that we in this place reflect on the fact that there are many people in this community that I dare say will not enjoy the same sort of Christmas that each of us here will enjoy. There are significant numbers of Canberrans struggling, the sick, the elderly, the lonely, the impoverished, the disadvantaged, and as their representatives it is appropriate that we reflect on the sort of Christmas that those people will have and on the responsibility which we each enjoy to seek to improve their lives and assist them in meeting their aspirations.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General, Minister for Justice and Community Safety and Minister Assisting the Treasurer) (5.50), in reply: Mr Speaker, since Mr Kaine has gone onto the crossbenches, we do not seem to speak on the same wavelength anymore. That was my assumption until, as I was perusing my speech about what cars I would give members of the Assembly this year, I discovered that I had been pre-empted by Mr Kaine. I realised that perhaps we do not think on such a different wavelength after all.

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