Page 3679 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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I would like to pay particular mention of my colleague Steve Doszpot. Steve has taken a gamble. It is no small thing to move electorates—as he has done, from Brindabella to Molonglo. He has done it for the right reasons and I acknowledge that. I really look forward to campaigning hard with you, Steve, and I look forward to rejoining you in this place later in October.
We have some great staff in the Liberal Party; they are smart, dedicated and hardworking. I would like to mention a few of them. Steve Doyle, I think, is probably one of the best political minds in Australia across a whole range of facets. He is very clever, very dedicated and a magnificent asset to this party. Tio Faulkner has been through hell this year. He has been put through hell, and we all understand why that was, but he has risen to the challenge. There was a stage there when he was getting more media than I, which you can imagine was a problem for me. But I would like to say to Tio: well done on riding out the storm that you did.
To Ian Hagan, who is our creative genius, well done on the work that you do in supporting us. To Hannah Passfield in particular, her enthusiasm is spectacular. But there are a lot of other staff that work in the central area for all of the other MLAs; and well done to them.
I would like now to turn to my staff. Jessica gets through a mountain of work. I said I would take them out to lunch at a place of their choosing when she got through 1,000 letters and, unfortunately, I had to do that pretty early this year. The amount of work that Jessica does is enormous. I only hear the most positive feedback about her from constituents.
I was thinking about what words I could use to describe Brigitte Morten. I came up with a range of words that were quite extensive and I have decided on just one. She is awesome.
Finally, to my family, we all miss our families, but this is a sacrifice that they make to allow us the privilege of serving in this place. So to Fleur, to Robbie and to Will, I love you very much and I look forward to spending more time with you at some stage.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (7.48): Being the Speaker, of course, I do not often get to participate in the adjournment debate, so members will have to bear with me as I have some catching up to do tonight. It has been suggested to me that I seek to congratulate once again some Canberrans who have made it into print this year.
Members interjecting—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): You are warned, Mr Speaker.
Mr Coe: I haven’t even tried the Yellow Pages. That’s next term.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: But I will unwarn you if you stick to the White Pages only.
MR RATTENBURY: Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker, for your kindness. On a more serious note, of course, as we come to the end of the term it is a point where I
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