Page 5497 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017
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order and calm and the best instinct about human beings I have ever come across; to Blair for his boundless enthusiasm and irrepressible efforts to work with our stakeholders and many MLAs across a very big portfolio; to Judy for joining us and bringing a very rich professional background and wisdom to our office, for taking this leap; and to Elliot for getting stuck into this busy world, working long hours, always being upbeat and ready to work, and being a good source of advice and great company. Welcome back, Claire. It is just so nice to have you back. I and many of us are in awe of you, and we hope Nicky can come in more often so that we can cluck over him. You have given me such sound advice and a good talking to over the past three years, always at just the right time. Hanna, thank you for joining us and for being upbeat, smart and impeccably well dressed—which just had to be said.
Charlotte, my first staff member, will leave in January, almost exactly three years after she joined me. She is awesome and has a very big future. Her story is a great one. She will go on to do big things and I really look forward to seeing those. She has more initiative and organisational skills in her little finger than most people have in their whole life. She is a great campaign manager. She is patient; I tried to count the number of mobile offices and doors we have knocked on but I could not keep up. We never run out of things to talk about. She makes sure she remembers to tell me that I am old; I am not sure if I will feel young when she goes. We will miss her.
And to my family, thank you very much.
Valedictory
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (7.11): As has been remarked upon, another year has gone by. I would like to start by thanking the staff in my office, those currently there, those who have left and those who are on maternity leave. To Ausilia, David, Deborah, Emily, Joe, Kate, Ramon, Sarah and Stuart, thank you very much for all that you have done to support me and to support the Assembly team.
To my colleagues, Andrew, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Giulia, James, Jeremy, Mark, Nicole and Vicki, I thank you very much for the work that you have done. I think we are a good team, I think we are a diverse team and a team that fairly and accurately represents Canberra and I think it is a team that will go well in the coming three years.
As I remarked last night at Elizabeth Lee’s event, the first year of a four-year term in opposition is hard work. I know that, based on 2009 and on 2013. You are in the shadow of one election and the next election seems a long way away. But I think it has been a good year of consolidation, of building systems, of getting to know each other and, of course, getting across our portfolios and getting a few wins along the way as well. I would really like to thank my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to lead the party that I love. I also want to thank and pay tribute to Steve, Jayson, Val and their families. They will be in my thoughts this Christmas.
There have been many issues that we have litigated over the last 12 months, things such as school contracts and education standards, care and protection issues, the funding of SHOUT, the prosecution of issues at the jail, issues with Indigenous policy, bikie laws, the casino and greyhound issues, the lease variation charge and the overall
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