Page 603 - Week 02 - Thursday, 9 March 2006
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practical ideas which sometimes, no doubt, your colleagues have taken note of and other times they have not, probably to their peril. Maybe you could have done more, maybe you could not, but your contribution has been a very positive one and has been very beneficial to the people of the ACT.
You are no doubt aware, and you have probably said so a few times, of what personal highlights you have achieved in relation to your time here. I have appreciated working with and against you, especially on several matters. The first major thing we would have done together would have been with regard to community contributions by licensed clubs. I do not think our first cut was terribly good when we were in government. I certainly appreciated talking to you and also to Paul Osborne and Dave Rugendyke and what we all came up with, which we still have today. I think there is a very sensible regime there and I appreciate your common sense there.
Similarly with the gaming legislation. I know that we have yet to see how a few points there are going to pan out. There might have been a few little errors there and a few things that could have been done differently, but I think that the contribution and the discussions that you and I had in relation to that in a largely bipartisan approach have served that industry, and indeed the wider Canberra community, well, particularly around things such as class Bs for taverns. The issues around note acceptors might be a bit more tricky, but there were lots of other issues there which were resolved in a bipartisan manner and a commonsense manner and which obviously serve the industry well. I thank you for that.
I was very happy indeed when you got responsibility for sport, as I think I said at the time. Anticipating that perhaps we might not win the 2001 election, I made reference at Ainslie that if anyone else had to be the sports minister in the new government, my wish was that it would be you. I think you have done a pretty good job there, too, on the whole.
I think that probably the biggest legacy you will leave behind, the thing your colleagues will miss the most and we will miss the most, is your down-to-earth, commonsense approach. Good luck to you, Ted, to Margaret, and to your family. I am sure that we will catch up over a beer in the not-too-distant future. Thank you for your contribution.
Mr Ted Quinlan—retirement
Departure of Assembly personnel
Ms Kate Vaughan
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (6.18): Mr Speaker, today is a day for farewells. Lots of people have departed recently from this place or are about to depart. To Ted, good luck. I hope that you have better luck out there than you had with reining in the big spenders that you sit with. I will miss the witty epithets. I take your point about humour, Ted. I think it is most important. I am not sure that I ever want to see that gallery of cartoons; just keep it to yourself. Perhaps it will make a great Labor fundraiser one day.
I would like to thank you and your staff for the long and cordial relationship that I have had with you and them, both as a staffer and as a member. In addition to wishing good luck to you and Margaret, I wish good luck to Steve, Narelle and Jeff in particular. I
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