Page 6159 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 2010
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people with iPhones: bad luck. Mr Speaker, when we present the staff here in the Assembly with problems, they are very good at finding solutions.
I would like to send good wishes particularly to those who have been affected by the floods that are currently affecting the region. I hope everything dries out and all is well for Christmas for you. It is interesting how this year, probably for the first time in 10 or 15 years, I suspect most of the Rural Fire Service brigades will not be standing up for fire duty. It will be the turn of the SES brigades to stand up. Given what we know about January now being very much a month of various climatic events, I am sure the SES chaps and women are looking forward to a big break.
To the police, the SES, the firies, the Rural Fire Service, the ambos, the nurses and all the hospital staff, those who serve us over the holiday break, who never stop, who never get away from their jobs, whose jobs continue: we do think of you and wish you well and hope that you get some Christmas respite as well.
I would just like to say thankyou to my family. Treasurer, you will be pleased to know the Smyth family are going to do their bit this year to help the economy. They are all coming home. There are 10 brothers and sisters, something like 27 grandkids, three great-grandkids and assorted in-laws and friends, boyfriends and partners. So the economy will have a boost from the Smyth family. I have to say I am very much looking forward to seeing them all in one place at one time. It is a great event when you can get home and just have your family around you.
To my wife, Robyn, who accidentally, or perhaps she planned it this way, has a birthday today: well done to you, goddess. To Amy and Lorena, who are coming home, and David: I look forward to spending time with you over the Christmas break and I thank you for all that you give up each and every day by allowing me to do what I love to do. Thanks very much.
Valedictory
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella) (5.47): I thought some formality was called for. Mr Speaker, it is that time of year when all the work is done, all the arguments are over and we look towards the future with much anticipation. When I look across the chamber, I often think, “If the Christmas fairy granted them just one wish, what would it be?” So I thought I would see if I could get it right.
Mr Doszpot would ask that the Labor Party reconsider its rejection of his membership application, because he is really a closet Labor right winger. Mr Coe would ask for a longer adjournment debate so he could put all of his diary entries onto the record. Mr Hanson would ask for his own Brasso factory so that he could keep the baton in his knapsack brightly polished there for everybody to see it. Mrs Dunne would want a ship’s master’s licence so she could captain an anti-whaling vessel for Greenpeace. Mr Smyth would ask for a personalised call-in power—you’re going to like this, Brendan—so that he could rezone the houses on either side of his place and build the whisky distillery of his dreams there.
But Mr Seselja would ask the fairy to give him all of the Liberals’ wishes, because he is the leader and they are not allowed to do anything without his permission. He
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