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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (23 May) . . Page.. 1618 ..

I will miss also another very good friend, Joan Tompsett. Joan was diagnosed only in recent weeks as suffering from cancer and died at the hospice last Saturday.

Life was not always easy for Joan. Joan's mother died when she was three and it was a loss she felt keenly ever afterwards. Her father later remarried and she saw little of her mother's family. In 1993, she wrote of the pain of this separation and of a feeling of not belonging. In later years she raised her family of David, Ian and Ann on her own.

Joan's father was a successful Commonwealth public servant and for many years was permanent head of the then Commonwealth Department of Territories. Joan moved with her family from Sydney to Canberra in 1949. She made her home here. She started work, married and raised her family here.

In the 1980s, Joan returned to the paid work force and in 1982 began to work for Bob McMullan in his role then of secretary of the ALP in the national secretariat. She continued to work for Bob when he entered parliament and until she retired in 1996.

Joan was an active member of the Labor Party. It was in this role that I met her. It was also in this time that I grew to know Joan and developed an enduring and lasting friendship.

In a public notice, her workmates in Bob McMullan's office have spoken of her as "a true friend and professional". They spoke also of her other qualities: her loyalty, her companionship, her commitment and her energy. These are all comments that I will repeat. I will add another quality-her generosity.

By the time I came into this place, Joan had been long enjoying a relaxing retirement, yet she had no hesitation in responding to my call for help in the early days of establishing my office here in the Assembly. Members may remember that Joan worked for me for the first two months that I was Leader of the Opposition. She returned gratefully to retirement after that effort, but was always available to help me and so many other people in the party and outside it.

I express sympathy on my own behalf and on behalf of all members of the ALP to Joan's children, David, Ian and Anne, and to her son-in-law, John, and assure them of the respect and affection that I and all other members of the Labor Party had for her.

MR CORBELL (5.11): Mr Speaker, I fully endorse the comments of Mr Stanhope on the sad passing of two very valued members of the Australian Labor Party in the ACT, David Green and Joan Tompsett. I knew David Green better than I knew Joan Tompsett, although I certainly spoke to Joan on many occasions. The reason I rise this evening is more to do with David Green.

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