Page 3664 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (6.50): I would like to start by paying tribute to Lainie and wishing her all the best. She has been a wonderful part of the team here in the Assembly. I would like to extend my warmest wishes to her for everything she does in the future. She is a wonderful person.
I would like to particularly thank the people of Molonglo. I have had the great honour for the last eight years of representing the people of Molonglo and it has been a great privilege. I will not be representing the people of Molonglo in the future. I am hoping very much to have the opportunity to represent the people of Brindabella. I take nothing for granted, Mr Speaker, but I will be working very hard to convince people in Tuggeranong and south Woden to make me their representative for the next four years. I look forward hopefully to that opportunity.
I have always been someone who has a particular affinity, I think, with the outer suburbs, having grown up in Tuggeranong. In representing the people of Molonglo I did focus a lot on issues for people in Gungahlin in particular, not to the exclusion of any of the other parts of Molonglo but because I know that because of the issues in the outer suburbs they need their government to step up often. That is what we need to do in places like Gungahlin, in places like Belconnen and in places like Tuggeranong in particular, but all over Canberra, to serve the families and the individuals in our city.
I would like briefly to thank my family. I did not get to acknowledge them yesterday when they were here in the gallery. Ros was here with Michael, Tommy, William and Olivia. It was wonderful to have them here and I am just so grateful for their wonderful support and their love. I wish I could see them more. I look forward, after the election, whatever the result, to having more time to spend with them.
I would like to pay tribute to my team here—both the MLAs and the staff in the Liberal Party here in the opposition. I think it has been an extraordinary four years. I think that the team of MLAs in the Liberal Party in the Assembly have, individually and collectively, done an outstanding job.
I could not be better served with a deputy than Brendan Smyth. Brendan has been loyal and hardworking; he has brought his experience and talent. He is a wonderful representative of the people of Brindabella, but, more broadly, a wonderful representative of all Canberrans. He has been one of the mainstays of this Assembly and I pay tribute to the work that he has done.
I say to each one of my team, to Jeremy and to Vicki, to Steve and to Alistair, I think collectively we have done an outstanding job. I think we have been a very effective opposition and I think we are ready to govern. That is what the last four years have been about and I am just so pleased with the progress.
We have fought hard for people who cannot fight for themselves. We have fought hard for the real needs of Canberrans. Whether it is their cost pressures, whether it is their local services, whether it is their health system or their education system, we have fought hard. What we would like to do is have that opportunity in government to really deliver for them in a different way, and that is what we will be asking the community over the next few weeks.
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