Page 6009 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011
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I would also like to express my thanks to Sarah Bourne, who was with me as my Territory and Municipal Services liaison officer and who is now with the Chief Minister’s office. Thank you, Sarah, for dealing with all those trees, potholes and bus services.
Finally, I express best wishes to my Labor colleagues. Thank you for a very busy and stimulating year. I look forward to an even better one next year.
Valedictory
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health and Minister for Territory and Municipal Services) (5.27): The end of the sitting year gives us the opportunity to spend over half an hour being nice to each other in this chamber, which is a lovely way to end the year—
Mr Hanson: Go on. I dare you.
MS GALLAGHER: It remains to be seen, actually. It does remain to be seen but let us try and be nice. I would like to start by acknowledging the ACT public service. In my job as Chief Minister, I have the privilege of working with many extremely professional and dedicated staff right across the public service. I say to the over 18,000 employees who turn up to work every day to deliver services to the people of the ACT, I am constantly impressed by your professionalism and your commitment to making Canberra a better place to be.
To all the directors-general, from the head of service right across each directorate, I thank you for your leadership and your preparedness to work with us as we have gone through a period of some change, not just in leadership but in the structure of the ACT public service. I acknowledge all of your efforts. They often go beyond the call of duty.
To staff within the Legislative Assembly—whether it be the attendants, the Clerk and the Clerk’s staff, the Committee Office, Hansard, communications, maintenance, the education office, the library—I say thank you for everything you do to make this ship sail well through the year. It must be quite difficult at times to put up with the 17 MLAs in this place, but in my time in this place you have always been exemplary representatives of the Assembly which we all serve. Mr Speaker, you should be exceptionally proud of the team that you lead in that way.
To the staff in my office, I will not do what my colleague Simon Corbell did—name you all individually—but everyone knows that I speak to all of you when I say thank you very much, particularly for stepping up in May when I moved into the Chief Minister’s office. I thank the additions to the team and those who left. Thank you very much for helping and supporting me in my transition to the new role.
To the DLOs, it is a difficult job, but all of you perform exceptionally well in a high pressure environment and manage to keep your responsibilities as public servants very clear. I acknowledge that that must be a difficult job at times.
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