Page 3 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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Thank you to ACT Labor, our members and unions, and the Labor staff in this building. And thank you especially to my Labor caucus colleagues for your warm welcome and good advice. With our shared values and diverse backgrounds, we are a team that is greater than the sum of our parts. A special thank you to the Chief Minister for his mentoring and friendship over the years, most recently as my boss. Your love of this city and all its possibilities and the energy and ideas you bring to your job are inspiring. You have showed me not only how to advocate a vision but also how to achieve it. And, while you are still my boss, I have about 104,000 more now as well.
Thank you to my supporters, and especially my 2012 campaign team—my campaign manager Jules Zanetti, Caitlin Delbridge and Andrew Wade. Also part of my team are Natasha Shahidullah, Mark Nelson, Gabrielle Blair and Alys Gagnon. Together with Dan Hughes, Bernard Philbrick and Michael Cooney, they are good friends who have been a big part of my Labor life. And to everyone who volunteered, especially the indomitable Gerry Lloyd, thank you for all your efforts. To Dan Gaul, Rebecca Ciavattone, Syed Jaffry and Michelle Hoare, Gungahlin locals who went on the record for me, a special thank you.
One person who is not here today is Kurt Steel. Kurt, your loss is still deeply felt, but your infectious optimism that Labor values will be delivered in our community lives on in many of us. Thank you to Jane for coming today.
To Charlotte Barclay and James Koval, it is great to have you with me to start this journey. To all our good friends—Melissa, Kim, Sue and Pete, and especially to Sam and Kate, thank you, Kate, for coming to Canberra today.
Thank you to my family. First of all, my in-laws, Werner and Olga Huetter, sadly are no longer with us. They lived childhoods in Europe during World War II, both born into good families but terrible times. They came to Australia as young adults, met and built a life from scratch, investing their common values in their two children. They worked hard for them to have a better life. They made personal sacrifices, especially Werner, but in Carla and Pierre they did very good and I know they were proud. And most of all I wish they were here today to see their three Aussie grandkids.
The migrant story is, and will continue to be, a major part of what makes Australia great. Olga and Werner’s story is humble and ordinary but no less important because of that—and it is not one ever told in an Australian parliament. It is my privilege to put it on the record today.
To my own family, my sister, Kate, her husband, Jason, and my nieces Hazel and Keita, you set an example for how to tread lightly in this world but still make a huge contribution. This makes our family even luckier.
To my mum and dad—Robyn and Paul—thank you for always encouraging us to take the opportunities that your generation did not have. Mum gave me the values of compassion and hard work, and the value of being organised, although I am still working on the latter. Dad showed me what it means to keep an open mind and seize
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