Page 6170 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 2010
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Our Assembly staff, as has been mentioned, do a fantastic job. I commend Max and Janice for stepping up and for doing the job that you have done this year. It has been a well-done task. I thank all the staff in the Assembly who have been supporting us, particularly Peter, who is leaving—I was unaware of that, but good on you, Peter—and I make note of Sandra Lilburn who is the secretary for the committee that I sit on.
I give thanks to my family, to Fleur, to Robbie and to Will. We obviously all miss our families when we are either in this place or attending the many functions that we go to, and our families are of great support to us—not just mine but those of all of you. So have a great Christmas, stay safe and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year.
Valedictory
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (6.23): I would like to start off by thanking all my fellow MLAs—in particular my fellow Green MLAs but all of you. It is a pleasure, most of the time, to know all of you. I also thank the other people in the building: the attendants, the building managers, the clerks, Hansard and the people on the committees—in particular, soon-to-be-Dr Andrea Cullen; her thesis has been accepted, for anyone who did not know, which is very exciting.
Of course, I thank my staff and the other Greens’ staff. It is coming up to the end of my second year in the Assembly and I have now got used to the concept of actually admitting, when people ask me who I am, that I am a politician. I have to say that as a job it has been getting better. I tell people how much I enjoy it and how it really is a privilege, as I think we all would appreciate. It has got to be one of the most interesting jobs in the world, I would have to say. I met a senator a while ago who said that becoming a politician was like doing a PhD because you have got to learn about so many different things quickly, and I think he is right actually.
One of the other things that I have been intrigued and thinking about—not quite on the PhD level—is the role of the media in Assembly affairs. Sometimes there seems to be so much energy that we put into the media. It made me wonder: if a member announces a policy and the media did not report it, did it actually happen? One of the things I have found very intriguing in the media this year—and possibly other years but I did not notice it as much—was that all of us have been in the media in wistful poses.
The Chronicle, I think, really has a speciality of wistful poses: we stare off at the distance, at something we are concerned about, and they do give a bit of gravity to the issue. But also in my less serious moments I have realised the ideal one for the thought bubble: what were we really thinking of? What I am often thinking is: “did I remember to lock the door when I left”, or “will I come home and find it open and my partner will be cross with me”, or more mundane things like “are we going to be re-elected in 2012” or whatever.
I must admit there are so many of these wistful poses that people have suggested you can collect an entire set. There is someone I do know who is attempting to do this. He is having a few problems, however, with Mr Doszpot. I am afraid we have not got a wistful Doszpot yet. That would be my request, Mr Doszpot, for next year. We have
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