Page 1478 - Week 04 - Thursday, 26 March 2009
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“There is no doubt about it, Mary does get out there in the community, probably more than any other Member of the Legislative Assembly ever, and that’s a testament to her.” Given that that statement was made one month out from the last election—
Mr Coe: So you keep telling us. So you keep telling us. Perhaps if you put more time into doing motions and less time telling us how hard you work, you might get more done.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Members! Mr Coe!
MS PORTER: Given that statement was made one month out from the last election, you will probably think it was made by a member of my campaign team.
Members interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Please stop the clock, Clerk. Restart.
MS PORTER: Given the timing of the statement, you would at least think that it came from a member of the Labor Party. But no; these words of high praise in fact came from my fellow member of Ginninderra Mrs Vicki Dunne. Contrast this if you will with what I heard yesterday. I heard her say that I turned up every now and again from my mobile office, I would stand there for a little while and then I would leave. I have been conducting my mobile offices since September 2004 and I have now done in excess of 300 of them on Friday nights and weekends, at several shopping centres across my electorate.
I even recall seeing at Nicholls shops one afternoon that Mrs Dunne was there. It was during the election campaign. I also saw Mrs Dunne a couple of times at the Belconnen markets. That was during the election campaign. I remember those occasions distinctly, as many people came up to say to me, “Isn’t it funny that when there is an election all those other politicians suddenly come out of the woodwork. Yet you are there day after day. Why do you think that is, Mary?”
For the record, Madam Assistant Speaker, it may be instructive for the Assembly to look at the number of matters that Liberal members in the last Assembly took up on behalf of their constituents. Mr Seselja made 115 representations, closely followed by his deputy, Mr Smyth, with 118, and then Mrs Dunne, with 135. Based on those numbers, Mrs Dunne averaged less that three constituency matters per month during the whole term of the last Assembly.
Three days after I was sworn in again as a member of this place, I was out there again doing my mobile offices. I shall continue to do them for as long as I am a member for Ginninderra, despite the derision they attract from those opposite. It is a very sad reflection on those opposite to hear them deride another member for representing their constituents. I just wonder what they do with concerns that are brought to them. I do not know what those opposite are doing with their constituency matters. I believe that one’s role is to represent the people of Ginninderra.
Talking about numbers, for the record, perhaps we should also look at the record of votes that Mrs Dunne received in 2008. It was 4,237. Compare this, if you will, to the
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