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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4454 ..

awareness of and passion for those who suffer social disadvantage—I think together we have been able to do great good in addressing social disadvantage; to Andrew Blake, a more recent member of my staff, who has campaigned tirelessly and has a good touch of reality and is able to bring me back to earth; and to Geoffrey Rutledge and Mary Andrews, who have also served with me. I have thanked them many times before for the work they have contributed.

As tonight is a night to recognise our families, I pay great tribute to my parents, who are always supportive of me; to my brother, who is not so supportive, but always understanding; and, again, to my urban family. As members know, I have a different living arrangement from many in this place. I live, at the moment, with five other people, and they are fantastic people whom I could not live without at this stage.

I want to thank Erica. Her journey over the past three years has been an amazing one as well. She has taken on some amazing jobs and kept the feminist candle burning in what have been some quite hard times for women in Australia. I pay tribute to Amanda, who has been my ongoing fashion adviser and gossip guru and who brings light into every room she walks into. I pay tribute to Jason, who has achieved so many of the goals he set himself four years ago in relation to the Australian Democrats, for the work that he has done in keeping the Democrats going as a force, both on a local level and a federal one.

Rachel and Andrew, the new additions to my urban family, you always bring a fresh and very grounded perspective to the debates that keep going at our kitchen table late into the night—funnily enough, I do not get enough of the debates here; I continue the debates at home. Of course, I pay my thanks to a recent addition to my world, who understands the pressure of this job and is quite understanding about the late hours. What more could one ask from a partner on the journey?

Politics is hard but we all play a very important part in moving our community forward. Our community is always, as many have said, on a journey. Where that journey goes is very much shaped by the work that we do here in the Assembly. As the Speaker has already alluded to, it is a very long and ongoing journey. It has been 15 years so far for the ACT and there will be many years to come. I thank each and every member of this place for the contribution that they have made to this very important journey. I hope we can all see the important work that we have done, and I hope the community recognises the important work that we have done for them and with them.

Valedictory

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (12.25 am): Mr Speaker, I rise briefly to first of all place on the record my thanks to my Labor colleagues in this place for their support over the past three years. I have greatly enjoyed being a member of the first Stanhope government, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue, if that is the outcome of the next election.

I would particularly like to place on record my acknowledgement of the people who are leaving this place—first of all, my ministerial colleague, Mr Wood. It has been a pleasure to have battled with him, in budget cabinet, on housing budget matters and in return have had his support on public transport and a range of other issues. Mr Wood,

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