Page 2265 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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Belinda, Katie, George, Chris and Tio, who always aimed big. I am proud that for the most part staff stayed for a long time, and in the time that they were with me they were able to develop skills and attributes that took them to better places. Words cannot express the gratitude I have for the service and collaboration of these fine people.
My especial thanks go to my present staff. Maria worked on the corridor for almost 13 years as assistant to two leaders before she was promoted to the Speaker’s office. Keith, the other FOI legend, is a Liberal Party institution, cutting his teeth on the Hare-Clark campaign before coming to work for Kate Carnell a couple of weeks before I began working for Gary Humphries, in the previous century. Assuredly, Madam Assistant Speaker, Keith and I do know where the bodies are buried!
Clinton is also in his second decade on the Liberal corridor and is about to clock up 12 years as my senior adviser. Clinton, who is also retiring at this election, has been a stellar worker for me and the party. Frankly, Madam Assistant Speaker, you get less for murder in the ACT! Clinton is held in high regard, not just in my office but along the Liberal corridor and way beyond, for his compassion, empathy, eye for detail and analytical skills. For an accountant and actuary, he makes a fine drafter and interpreter of legislation. His eye for detail and his insistence on doing things right stood him and me in good stead when we occupied the Speaker’s office, especially as we bedded in innovations like budget protocols and officers of the Assembly. It is true to say that Clinton hardly spoke to me in the days after the 2016 election when I told him that I had asked to be the shadow minister for health. I think that the only thing that stopped him packing his bags on that day was that I said I had also asked for arts. However, he has warmed to the role.
Overall, my three part-time staffers have risen to the occasion and have given subsequent health ministers, their staff and officials a fair run for their money. I have noticed that the current minister has got into the habit of saying things like, “If Mrs Dunne were across her portfolio.” I remind members once again that what she achieves with a myriad of advisers and bureaucrats, whom she has on speed-dial during question time, I do with three part-time staffers and a shared media adviser.
I thank other staff who have not worked directly for me but who have been so influential in all that I have done. I need to point out our small but perfectly formed media team that has included Deb, Emily, Joe, Jodie, Hannah, Adam and Dinah over the years. Over that time our finance gurus have included Daniel, Nick, Juliet and David. I want also to reflect on the fact that, just because they are finance gurus, they are not colourless people. Juliet in particular used to confound people in treasury because such a tiny, diminutive woman was a formidable opponent.
I also remember the controversy over the gas-fired power station. I was thinking about this, and I think there is hardly anyone left except Zed and me who remembers that. We found mention in some papers about another possible site for a gas-fired power station in Parkwood, in my electorate. Daniel, the extremely sartorial finance guru, and I took off to Parkwood with a camera to get some snaps of what turned out to be an empty paddock. It was not easy to get into that empty paddock but we did want the photographs. In the process Daniel, the extremely sartorial finance guru, ripped a
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