Page 4206 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 24 October 2017
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While I have been recalling some of the lighter sides of Mr Doszpot’s time in this place, I also acknowledge that we do this today in the very sad context that he will soon be resigning from the Assembly. I wish to echo the comments of Mr Barr and Mr Coe about the incredible contribution that Steve has made to this Assembly and to Canberra as a whole. I acknowledge that this departure for Steve is not quite what he would have chosen for himself. The ACT Greens offer our support, thoughts and compassion to Mr Doszpot, his wife and his family and friends through the challenging and difficult time ahead.
Visitors
MADAM SPEAKER: Before I call Ms Lawder, I want to recognise in the gallery Greg Cornwell, Lou Westende and Zed Seselja. Welcome back to your Assembly, former members.
Valedictory
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (10.52), by leave: It is a privilege to rise today to speak briefly about my colleague Steve Doszpot. I actually knew about Steve before I had met him, when I worked with his son, Adam. Then I had a little to do with him during the 2012 campaign here in the ACT. I recall doorknocking in Calwell one late afternoon, early evening. I knocked on a particular door. A very lovely lady opened the door. She was very friendly. She was obviously a Liberal voter. She said, “Come on in,” and I did. It was Maureen. I had managed to doorknock the house of another Liberal candidate. The house was empty. They were moving to their new house in their new electorate.
Not only did I doorknock a fellow candidate and someone who was no longer registered in that electorate but also, of course, he was unlikely to vote 1 for me anyway because he would have put himself as number one. Anyway, it was a nice kind of interlude but a waste of my time as a doorknocker. But it did show that the selfless move to a different electorate that Steve undertook enabled the Liberals to win three seats in Brindabella in that election as part of the swap with Zed Seselja, who moved from Molonglo to Brindabella. Steve, as we have heard, is I think the only person who represented three different electorates in his time in the Assembly: Brindabella, Molonglo and Kurrajong. It is something that probably will not be repeated.
Early on, when I first joined the Assembly, I recall Steve’s campaign about Green Square and the re-greening of Green Square. It was one of the first sort of concerted campaigns that I saw an MLA undertake. It provided me with a lot of valuable lessons that these quite local community issues can energise and activate so many people and produce a good result for the community.
A couple of others in the long list of achievements that Steve has been able to do, despite being in opposition, that really resonated with me include—in fact, I think this was before my time here—the Shepherd Centre. Having worked previously in the deafness sector, I understood how important lobbying and advocacy was. I was very
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