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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4450 ..

“We’ll see you around.” Canberra is a small place but, Greg, you have got to come back off holiday.

Mr Speaker, I appreciated your words, “highest quality work expected from us”. It is something that stood out to me, and I cannot add to your words, sir. To do so would take away from the spirit and the intent of those eloquent words. So I will just say thank you to everyone. Thank you to my staff: Eleanor Fraser, Dean Logan and Paula Ewing. It has been a little bit up and down, stop and start, and I have tried to make up ground in the short time I have been in the Assembly again. But, hey, I have just said to Rod Quinn sitting in the gallery there, “Nine months first time, 18 months this time. I am going for the full term next time.” I want to thank all the Assembly staff—all of them. I know that this has been said, so I am not going to go there. I want to thank the departmental liaison officers, particularly Pat Madigan and Ashley King in Mr Wood’s office and Colleen Dankers in Ms Gallagher’s office.

Last but not least, I have to thank the family, and I think many members have said that. I could not do this job on my own. I give thanks to God for the strength that I get from my faith. I also thank my husband, my best friend, my tower, my strength, without whom I could not do this job. He makes it possible. I want to wish everyone well for the forthcoming election. If I see you on the hustings, let’s smile, let’s share the stand and let’s make this a good, fair fight.

Valedictory

MR HARGREAVES (12.08 am): Comrade Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the service of three of our members. Interestingly, the three members represent each of the three segments of the Assembly. I have served with Bill Wood since coming here in 1998 as an opposition colleague and during his tenure as a minister in the Stanhope government. It has been my privilege to serve with Bill, and I would like to acknowledge publicly the debt that I owe him.

His wisdom, his experience and his quiet demeanour—although this last week might have been a bit of an exception to that—have all contributed significantly to the quality of our team. His service to the people of the ACT over the five assemblies has been outstanding. He has been a minister twice in the formative years of political maturity in this town, and his contribution to the maturing of the politics of local and territory governance in this town cannot be overstated. He will be very sorely missed.

I learnt some of the tricks of the trade from Mr Cornwell. I acknowledge his service as Speaker of this chamber, and I can honestly say that I learnt much of my knowledge of matters procedural from him. Our service on the Standing Committee on Community Services and Social Equity has been most enjoyable, as we were able to attack issues from different perspectives: I want to let’em go and he wants to lock’em up! He tackled it in a mostly bipartisan fashion, and I enjoyed his company very much.

Comrade Speaker, Kerrie Tucker has become in my mind an institution within this Assembly, and who, I ask, would want to be committed to an institution? I have admired her tenacity on issues. I told her once that I was her number one fan, and I still am. I hope you get elected to the Senate, Kerrie. I really do. It will get you out of here.

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