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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 900 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mr Prowse then went on to deal with a controversy going on at the time as to whether the executive deputies of Mr Kaine - and members should recall that he appointed those executive deputies - should be able to take questions or not. Just as Mr Duncan landed in the Assembly in a time of controversy, it seems that he is going to depart for a short while in a time of controversy. No doubt when he returns to us, there will be some controversy as well. Thanks, Tom, for all the help that you have given us over the years.

MR WOOD (10.52): I join with members in wishing Tom the best. He has been a great asset to the Assembly and has helped to keep us on the straight and narrow. He is going to a much quieter chamber than this one.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Porkies are out of order.

MR WOOD: Well, he will experience something different. It may not be quieter, I acknowledge that. We wish him well for the period that he is away.

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (10.53): I would also like to wish Tom well. Today has been a great day for the Government. We have got a piece of legislation through which we have been wanting for a long time. Today is our fifth anniversary. I would like to thank all of my colleagues for five great years in government. It is a day which also sees Tom leaving to spend 12 months in the New South Wales Parliament. I am sure he will come back knowing we are not that bad after all.

MR KAINE (10.54): I would like briefly to add my good wishes to Tom. Tom has been around for quite a while now, almost as long as you and me, Mr Speaker. He, along with other members of the Secretariat, has to be commended for the way he goes about his job. The tasks of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk are as numerous as the days in the year multiplied by the number of members in this place. I am quite sure that every day Tom is inundated with requests and demands on his time. He always responds cheerfully, and the results have always been good as far as I am concerned.

I am sorry to see Tom go. I know that he will experience new things in Sydney, both inside the Parliament and out. It is an experience which I think he will find most valuable. I would like to think that he was coming back later in the year, but I know that he is then planning to take more time off and enjoy more experiences in a broader world. I think that is a wonderful thing to do. I wish him well. I hope that some time in the future, before the next election, he might come back and visit us, if not to come back permanently.

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