Page 4903 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Firstly, though, I would like to thank the people of Yerrabi. It is an honour to represent all of you in this place, and I am so grateful to be your voice within government. Our area of Canberra is growing rapidly, and with this growth it is important that the needs of our community continue to be met. I am looking forward to working with all of you, and my colleagues in this place, to make our part of Canberra even better in 2019.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Clerk and his office for their always helpful advice. Thank you to the committee support office, in particular Brianna McGill, for your secretariat support on the environment, transport and city services committee. Thank you to the Assembly’s attendants for your daily support and welcoming smile every morning, and thank you to the staff in the Office of the Legislative Assembly.
I thank my fellow ACT Labor colleagues for their ongoing commitment to make Canberra a more progressive city. I also thank members of the opposition and the Greens for a year of robust and sometimes comedic debate.
To my office, thank you for all your hard work over this year. I would especially like to thank David Vanderwolf, who recently left us to be with his family in Melbourne. David, you were a valuable asset to the Orr office team. We will miss your dad jokes and appreciation of a good glass of red wine but we wish you all the best for the year ahead.
A lot has happened this year, both locally and nationally. While the federal parliament has been full of chaos and division, thanks to the Turnbull-Morrison coalition government, here in the ACT we have got on with the job of governing and making Canberra an even more progressive and inclusive city for everyone.
Just today we passed important legislation that will protect LGBTIQ+ Canberrans in our schools and education institutions. This builds on ACT Labor’s commitment to create an inclusive Canberra for the LGBTIQ+ community and our allies. In April we saw the delivery of Australia’s first pill testing trial. ACT Labor is committed to harm minimisation, and I look forward to this trial continuing at Groovin the Moo in 2019.
We delivered significant investments in Gungahlin schools, with 500 more places across Amaroo, Gold Creek and Neville Bonner schools, as well as the expansion of Franklin Early Childhood School. Construction progressed on north Gungahlin’s new school, now named Margaret Hendry School. I know that residents in Moncrieff and surrounding suburbs are excited that classes will start there in 2019.
With this being my last adjournment speech of the year, it would be completely out of character for me not to provide an update on my old home suburb of Giralang. For the benefit of the local community, I have been in contact with the developer to find out where things are up to. The developer has advised me that construction of the shops will be underway in February next year. It is expected to be a 14 to 18-month build. If things go according to plan, this means that by the middle of 2020 Giralang will have its shops back. This is great news for the community, who have been without their local centre for over a decade.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video