Page 5762 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
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would agree that the work we do is demanding, seemingly endless and certainly complex. Without the support of people around us and the professionalism of those that work in this place, it would not be possible for us to meet these challenges.
I would like to thank the Clerk, who will be sorely missed in this place next year. I would also like to thank Max Kiermaier and Janice Rafferty for their work which has, yet again, been exceptional and who will step up in their roles in the Clerk’s absence. Thanks to all the Chamber Support staff; to all of those that work in Corporate Services under Ian Duckworth; to Val Barrett and the staff at Hansard, as well as the fabulous Library staff.
Members in this place are constantly on their way somewhere, returning or running between offices and requiring the assistance of the attendants on a multitude of occasions. It is always good to be greeted with a smile by the attendants. It is a fleeting respite from our hectic schedules. Of course I must thank Dr Sandra Lilburn and all the committee secretariat staff, particularly my standing committee secretary, Nicola Derigo.
As we have already heard, people would like special thanks paid to Rick Hart. We all realise that Rick does a very important job, even though he is someone who is very quiet in the way he goes about his work. We would really miss him if he was not here. He often reminds me, because of the way he dresses, of the man from Snowy River.
I want to thank all the advisers of the three parties and wish them all a merry Christmas. While I am not familiar with the inner workings of all the other offices, I know that, if they work as hard as the advisers in our offices, then they work jolly hard. Particularly I would like to thank all the advisers on our Labor team. Certainly I would not be able to do my work if there was not help from so many advisers, so many staff from the Labor team.
Last but not least, in thanking members of this place, I would like to thank my fellow members, the colleagues that we work with on a daily basis. Despite the adversarial context of how we work, which has been referred to a number of times, you all have my respect and my thanks for the way that we are able to conduct ourselves in this place most of the time.
There are comical elements to what happens here occasionally and mirth that allow one to envisage our fellow members as various caricatures. We have been talking about that. In the spirit of Christmas, I did try to find some. I began with the government frontbench and, in wishing a merry Christmas to the government frontbench, I saw the Chief Minister as Santa Claus, and the deputy as Mrs Claus. I hope you realise that she was appropriately dressed in red today. They are the deliverers of gifts to the people of the ACT.
Where would Santa be without his little helpers? I refer to the rest of us, all of us little helpers. I would like to thank all Santa’s little helpers, my esteemed colleagues in the government, with whom I spend a considerable amount of time beavering away in the service of the people of Canberra.
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