Page 448 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
forward to serving each and every one of my constituents and indeed the entire ACT community. I wish everyone in Canberra a merry Christmas, a safe and happy new year and a very enjoyable break. But to everyone here, merry Christmas, and we look forward to coming back in the new year refreshed and ready to go.
Valedictory
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (10.36): This has certainly been an interesting time for the four Greens, our first sitting week. It has been a great learning experience for many of us and also it has been great to be here with the other colleagues. We would like to again congratulate you on your election to the house. We have also had a very busy year. It was a big election for us, a historic win for the Greens in the ACT, which has very much changed the face of this local Assembly. I think I made a little bit of a mistake this afternoon when I wandered out to one of the side rooms not realising that they are actually allocated to different parties. So now I am wondering where is the Greens’ room. Maybe in the new year we will have a bit of a scout around and see where we might be able to also congregate.
Members interjecting—
MS HUNTER: Maybe we will just switch between the two. It has been a very busy year for everybody here. I know that we all acknowledge the people out there in the community who put in their time and their energy to allow us the privilege to represent them for the next four years. We are very privileged and lucky to bring over some ER staff who had been with the previous MLA, Dr Deb Foskey, whom I would also like to pay tribute to. She was in this house up until just before the election, and for the four years before that she did a magnificent job of representing the people of the ACT, and particularly the people of Molonglo.
I would like to thank very much, and I know all four of us thank, Roland, Indra, Sky, Andrew, Fiona, Tom, Brian, Tom and Anna, who have been fantastic over the last couple of weeks and particularly in this past week. We would like to express our best wishes and send happy holiday greetings and hope you have a good break to Mr Stanhope and the Labor team and also to Mr Seselja and the Liberal team. We are looking forward to working with you all in the new year. Like many of you, we are also going to be taking a couple of weeks off to recharge our batteries and probably also to become reacquainted with our families and friends for those few weeks. So our best wishes to everyone over that time and also we look forward to doing the best we can to represent our constituents in the new year.
Valedictory
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.39): I mirror the thoughts that the three leaders of the various parties have expressed. Welcome to all the new colleagues. Thank you to all the staff. Thank you to the Speaker and his staff and the Clerk for the job that they do.
I would just like to remind members to perhaps spare a thought for the volunteers who will work over the festive season, particularly given the amount of rain we have had and the amount of growth we have had—volunteers of the Rural Fire Service. I know
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .