Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4446 ..

These are commendable aims which can be open to easy and convenient interpretation if we so choose. On the other hand, these words can also be accepted responsibly and with commonsense, so that the interests and wishes of this Territory’s people are general interests and wishes of the average person and not the desires of noisy minorities.

I made these comments in my maiden speech in April 1992. I have tried to hold true to the same beliefs in the past 12 years—years which would have been very difficult without the assistance of, firstly, my adviser, Sue Whittaker, and, secondly, her successor, Joanna Woodbury, and years which would have been impossible without the unqualified constant support of a de facto member for Molonglo, my wife Margaret, who is in the gallery.

My sincere thanks go to those three indispensable women. Just pause and think: what on earth would the feminists at Tilley’s, the people who awarded the Gregs on my behalf, think of those comments? I repeat that my sincere thanks go to those three indispensable women. My thanks also go to all staff within this building and, indeed, within the ACT government itself. I have spent a great deal of time over the years getting to know these people. I do thank them sincerely for the assistance that they have given. I will miss them all.

Not the least, I will miss my Assembly colleagues, all of you. I thank you for your bipartisan friendship and comradeship over the years. We have, I know, disagreed politically quite vehemently. That does not mean to say that that personal friendship should change. My very best wishes to you all.

Valedictory

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (11.55): Mr Speaker, it is a pleasure to come after Mr Cornwell. I will reiterate a few of the achievements of Greg in his career. I suspect the high point in his career was to be the Speaker. I think that we all know that he loved being the Speaker. I suspect that being Speaker from 1995 to 2001 made him the longest serving Speaker in the history of the Assembly.

MR SPEAKER: I am in here every day!

MR SMYTH: I am sure that you do not want to break the record, Mr Speaker, and I am sure that one of my colleagues will get to break the record after October this year! In the role of Speaker, he was able to be involved in things like the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, of which he is a great advocate and supporter, the conference of presiding officers, and liaison with other parliaments, and to be involved with remarkable activities such as the visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh when Greg, as Speaker, was able to escort them around.

I suspect that the flip side of that, the low point, may well have been not winning a guernsey in the First Assembly. Having worked so hard to get self-government up, I suspect that to miss out then on doing so was probably a bitter blow, but it shows the character of the man that he was able to come back and serve in successive assemblies from thereon in.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .