Page 3988 - Week 10 - Thursday, 28 August 2008
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to go forward. I thank you for your years of service. I hope that you are all very proud of what you have done. I do not always agree with it, but you are entitled to feel satisfied with what you have done.
To Tom and all his staff, thank you for the last four years. It has been tremendous. The level of professionalism has been high and I trust it will remain high in the next Assembly.
To my colleagues, thank you for all that you have put in over the last four years. It has been an interesting ride. Congratulations to Zed on taking leadership in December, and congratulations for what you have done since that time. You are an asset to Canberra. I look forward to seeing you all on the other side after 18 October.
As this is the end of the term, I thank the people of Brindabella for the honour that they bestow on me. It is amazingly gratifying and certainly very humbling on election night to think that there are enough people out there who think you are worthy of this job, and I thank you for it.
To my staff, particularly Amy, Tim, and Ian, thanks for all you do for us. To anybody who thinks that MLAs do it is fooling themselves. There is no way that you could do it without the officers that you have.
I thank my family, my wife Robyn and my daughters Amy and Lorena and my son David. When I get home at 6 o’clock David now says, “Go back to work, Daddy.” That is kind of sad, really. Perhaps we will have to fix that. But we have made up for that by having lots of Thomas the Tank Engine games at 5.30 in the morning and Wiggles at six. If you are up at 6 o’clock on most mornings, come around to my house. The videos are on with Dave.
To all of you, I wish you well. I am sure the next seven weeks will be exciting. To those of us who get back, congratulations. To those of us who move on, may you find something as satisfying and as fulfilling as this job is.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (7:12): In the vein of Mr Hargreaves’s remarks, I think it is most appropriate on this last sitting day of the Sixth Legislative Assembly, when we are looking for words of guidance, to look to the words St Thomas More, the patron saint of politicians, for some relevant observations and guidance. He is also the patron saint of statesmen, but I think we are pretty safe on that issue. Whilst a number of members may not share adherence to the Christian faith, many in this place do. In Utopia, on public service, St Thomas More wrote:
You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds … what you cannot turn to good you must at least make as little bad as you can.
The past four years have been, to put it mildly, an enlightening experience. I came into this place to do certain things and I have remained determined to do those things despite the number of obstacles that have been placed in my path. Most members have acknowledged, sometimes reluctantly, my keen interest in the management of the economy of this territory and the importance of prudent and conservative economic policies in order to best protect the long-term interests of residents and businesses in our community.
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