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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 4370 ..

MRS BURKE (continuing):

public record and to refresh Mr Wood's memory as to what he said, I would like to table the following documents: my media release of 8 October, which I alluded to; a text copy of the minister's media release dated 8 October, following my media release; and a letter from-

MR SPEAKER: You will need leave to table that.

Mr Wood: I recall a recent incident when documents that were tabled had in them some severe criticisms of a member. If they are media releases that have been in the public domain, Mr Speaker, I think I would support leave.

Leave granted.

MRS BURKE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Yes, these are documents that have been in the public domain. They are media releases that have been out, including Mr Wood's. They are my media release, Mr Wood's media release and a letter from Mr Wood returning correspondence of mine of 8 October. Thank you.

Anti-smoking legislation

MRS CROSS (6.24): Mr Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to thank some people that I did not thank when the anti-smoking bill was voted on earlier. I learned after the bill went through that there were a number of people in the department of health that had done some extensive work for some time for the government, especially for the health minister, relating to the smoking issue. In particular, I wanted to acknowledge senior tobacco policy officer Margo Goodin and her team.

I actually met Margo only this afternoon after the whole thing was finished, and it would have been nice if the minister had been a little bit more open about the whole process a long time ago. We perhaps could have got this bill through in a conciliatory way with a unanimous vote.

I also wanted to pay a special thanks to my staff. Helen Moore was extremely helpful and supportive through this whole process, even though the bill was on the table and had been in the pipeline before she started with me. I want to thank Helen Moore and Andrea Kelly.

I also wanted to pay special thanks to Brendan Smyth for being extremely helpful and cooperative in this process. It was a very good opportunity to work closely with him, and also with Ms Tucker and her office, who were extremely helpful and cooperative, and very positive and supportive. That was very encouraging to me. I also thank Ms Dundas.

I look forward to working on future bills, with everybody in this place, in a more conciliatory way. I hope that, if we do all have good ideas to put on the table, we will work together, rather than in an adversarial way, in doing things that are good for the community.

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