Page 2735 - Week 08 - Thursday, 11 August 2016
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myself, since I came to this place with the Greens in 2008, the portfolio responsibilities I have held have regularly overlapped with those that Simon has held, particularly Attorney-General, environment, climate change, energy and water. It is fair to say that we have had a close alignment on a range of issues. That has inevitably meant that we have argued fiercely on some things but shared a great common purpose at the same time. Those arguments have been very much about how to get somewhere rather than where we were seeking to get to.
I want to acknowledge the very significant progress that has been made in the areas that we have shared a great passion on. I reflect particularly on renewable energy. Since we in this place set a climate change greenhouse gas reduction target, Simon has taken that platform and used it to deliver great change for this territory. A recent article appeared in the renewable energy press outlining the benefit the ACT will derive over the next 20 years from the locked-in renewable energy contracts that have been signed under Simon’s tenure. That is a testament to the work he and his officials have done to deliver for this city and for this city to do its part in being a global citizen in attacking those areas of policy.
Over the past year or so Simon has held the Health portfolio, and we have seen enormous progress in that space. For a portfolio that has been held for a short amount of time we have seen real progress there. I have played a role as a minister this term and you start to see things from some different perspectives. I have seen all the press releases Simon has put out talking about the progress that has been made in the health space—the reductions in waiting times and the reductions in the elective surgery waiting lists—through a program he and the new director-general have put in place. But I did not read them in the press; I read them because I am on his press release list. One of the great challenges is that with many things you work on the good news does not get so often reported. So I want to take the opportunity to particularly acknowledge that work today in what is a portfolio that touches the lives of Canberrans on a daily basis.
Perhaps the area in which we have worked together the most has been the justice and Attorney-General portfolios. I want to acknowledge Simon’s genuine passion for this space. I was interested in his remarks earlier about never expecting to be Attorney-General. Nonetheless, he has taken it on with great passion. I have particularly welcomed the fact that, in an environment in which it is easy to do, he has resisted the tendency for law and order responses to difficult issues.
At times when the debates have been fierce, Simon has stuck to his principles around issues such as mandatory sentencing and the like. He has sought to walk a progressive path in areas requiring a genuine justice response to deal with issues of terrorism and the like. This government has sought to walk a pathway that balances the progressive human rights jurisdiction we want to be with the necessity of dealing with the fact that some people in our society do the wrong thing and have bad intent.
We could talk about many more policy issues, but they were the ones I wanted to reflect on where Simon and I have particularly interacted and I have had the closest look at, but I know he has worked on many other areas on.
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