Page 3992 - Week 10 - Thursday, 28 August 2008
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I want to thank my family. Without them this would not be possible. To Lyle, who is the constant adviser; to Olivia who keeps an interest in what is going on here even though she is in Sapporo; to Tom and Julia, who are just constant; and Isabella and Conor, who make life an unalloyed joy, thank you.
I pay tribute to those who are going. I think that from time to time Dr Foskey, Deb, is something between shocked, surprised and pleased to think that there are members of the Liberal Party who agree with her on a great range of things. I hope that it has messed with her mind a bit and that it has managed to do something about the stereotype divide between the Greens and the Liberals.
To Karin and her husband Brendan, I wish you luck. I hope that family life is rewarding.
The day before yesterday, when I was in the chair, the Clerk gave me a list of people who had been ejected from the chamber and the reasons why. It is true that Wayne Berry has the record and it will be very hard for any of us to emulate that record. Not even Mr Pratt comes close. It is interesting to note that the first vote in this place was, in fact, a vote of no confidence in Mr Berry over the VITAB affair. Less hardy people probably would have thought, “Blow this for a game of soldiers,” and given up. But we have now seen many more years of service to people of the ACT. There are very few things that Wayne and I agree on, but there is always a grudging admiration for his tenacity, if nothing else.
To Bill Stefaniak—what can you say about Bill? First of all, we will not be subjected to those dreadful Rugby ties anymore, and the sartorial standards of the members of Ginninderra will be instantly improved because no-one else will have the audacity to go around in public in trackie daks with holes in them. From time to time you would have to take him aside and say, “Bill, don’t come out here dressed like that.” I know that whoever replaces him as a member for Ginninderra will know how to dress better than that.
We expect Bill to be one of the blokes. The challenge was put to me last night that I had to make it my personal task to hoover up all the Rugby votes that were now looking for a place to go. Once upon a time Mr Stefaniak complimented what he called my Maori sidestep. I confess that I did not know a great deal about Rugby at the time and I had to take him aside and ask what that was.
Mr Barr: You will be in the rucks and mauls, Vicki, I am sure.
MRS DUNNE: I thought it was a reasonable testament to the tenacity that we all have in this place.
Mr Barr: That is extraordinary!
MRS DUNNE: Look, I am a girl. I do not know that much about Rugby, but my challenge is to hoover up the sports vote. Bill has always been a great patron of the sports and I am looking out for a sporting organisation that wants a patron. After the
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