Page 5750 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
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I wish also to express my thanks to the Clerk and Deputy Clerk and the Secretariat for their important work in supporting me as manager of government business. In particular, I would like to thank Janice for her work—always unflappable and precise with the detail of procedures. So thank you.
I also extend my thanks to all of my personal staff for what has been a busy year. They often reflect on the fact that I do not mention them at the end of the year. I have told them that this is not an academy awards ceremony and that this is not what it is about, but I feel that it would be particularly remiss of me if I did not do so this year. So I would like to thank my personal staff, past and present, for their support throughout the year.
To my Labor colleagues, this government continues as a strong and united team. We should be proud of our achievements this year and I look forward to working with you all over the next three.
I extend my best wishes for Christmas to all members in this place. It is an opportunity for us to take a break, to recharge our batteries and to reflect on what we want to try and achieve over the coming year. I hope that you all enjoy the period approaching with your families and loved ones.
Finally, Mr Speaker, I would simply acknowledge that there will be many people in the ACT government service who will be continuing to provide very important services to our community over the Christmas period, most notably, from my perspective as Minister for Police and Emergency Services, our police and emergency service personnel: our police, our Fire Brigade officers, Rural Fire Service officers, SES officers and ambulance officers. They continue to make themselves available throughout the Christmas period without fail, and it will often be a very busy period for them. So I would like to express to the police and to our emergency service personnel my gratitude for their ongoing dedication to their task and note that they will be certainly in my thoughts over the Christmas period. Thank you.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (5.56): I would like to start by saying on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition, Zed Seselja, that unfortunately he cannot be here this afternoon—he has other commitments—and he would like me to send his regards to all here that have been of assistance to him throughout the year. He wishes you and all your families very well for the year.
Mr Speaker, on behalf of the Liberal Party I would like to thank all of your staff, and I will start with the Committee Office. The committees do a tremendous amount of work and the reports that they put out are valuable documents. They have a very tight budget and tight resources and with those constraints they do a very good job, so to Sandra and all her staff: thank you for the assistance that you give us.
I have always loved the library, and to the library staff, particularly now that it is our library—and we should be very proud of that achievement—I look forward over the coming years to seeing the library become what it truly could be. So to all the library staff: thank you for your assistance.
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