Page 80 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 December 2016
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Because it is about Lisa of Narrabundah who wants to know what we can do to tackle the spiralling domestic violence we see every day, the scourge in our society that for too long has been kept hushed behind closed doors. Because it is about Geoff of Hackett who is concerned about the proposed development in Dickson and why the Canberrans who live so close are not consulted and how this will impact on his day-to-day life.
Because it is about Elizabeth of Griffith who worries about the future of her children’s education with growing classroom numbers and reports of Australian schools going backward and what she can do to give them the best start in life. Because it is about Gay of Ainslie who stays awake at night wondering how her children will afford to buy their own home, whether their children will get the chance to run through a sprinkler in the backyard on a summer evening or know the joys of being mortgage free.
Madam Assistant Speaker, I do not profess to have the solutions to these concerns. I do, however, make mention of them because these are the concerns of our forgotten Canberrans, the Canberrans whose voices have not been heard in a long time. As Australian poet and politician Adam Lindsay Gordon once said:
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
I may not have all the solutions to the issues facing our forgotten Canberrans but what I do have—what I am privileged to have—are the skills and experiences to give voice to these issues. More importantly, what I have is heart to realise that these issues matter. They matter to Mary, Lisa, Geoff, Elizabeth and Gay and they matter to the thousands of Canberrans like them who work hard and contribute to our great city. Because it is about Canberra.
The life that my parents started in 1986 has led me to where I am today. Going to law school, honing my skills as a lawyer in government, private practice and in academia, joining the Liberal Party and putting myself up for pre-selection, campaigning through three cold Canberra winters, facing heartbreak twice before being elected a member of the Ninth Legislative Assembly. That is the journey that I took and I now stand before you at the start of a new one.
Embarking on this new life is not something that can be done alone. It took the blood, sweat and tears of a lot of people. My ever hard-working campaign team, led by my campaign manager and senior adviser Paddy; you know Canberra better than anyone I know. Your never-ending energy and selfless willingness to give all not only to my campaign but to the entire party is extraordinary. Kacey, my co-campaign manager, has invested more than four years into making this day a reality.
To all the candidates who contested the ACT election but who are not sitting in this chamber today, I know the sacrifices that you have made and how hard you worked.
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