Page 2295 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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To the people of my electorate of Ginninderra, that beautiful, varied and vibrant part of the ACT that I have been delighted to call home for over 20 years, I say thank you for your trust in me. Thank you for sharing the values of community inclusion, and thank you for giving me the privilege of allowing me to represent you.
I say to my wonderful family, who have been so patient and have staunchly supported me throughout this time in the ups and the downs of politics—because there are occasional downs in there as well—to Lyndelle, Joel, Justine and JJ, I love you very much.
The next government will have the opportunity to continue to show the type of leadership that is so needed to achieve transformational change, to understand and respond to our most vulnerable people and to play a role in restoring fractured community systems, and I would be honoured to have the privilege again.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (7.00): I am very pleased to stand tonight and finish off my term in the Ninth Assembly. I would like to start by acknowledging the contribution of my staff, past and present, who have been an enormous asset to me. I would very much like to thank them for putting up with my high blood pressure moments, when I need something done urgently, right now, immediately, if not earlier, and they usually come through for me. Thank you so much.
I would also like to put on the record my thanks and best wishes to my colleague Vicki Dunne, as she leaves the Assembly after a long and stellar career as a local MLA. I have a lot of respect for Vicki. She is, as we have talked about today, a conviction politician. It may not be a surprise that Vicki and I do not always agree on some issues within our basic liberal values that we all share. There are some issues on which we do have different views, but I have the utmost respect for her views because she can put her argument well, she will listen to other people’s arguments and we generally get a good decision at the end of that. I would like to thank her for all of her advice to me, including when I was an Assistant Speaker in this place in the last term. She was very helpful to me. She is a genuinely lovely person—lovely to know, nice to be around, friendly, approachable and with a great sense of humour. She will be missed in this place.
Over the past few years it has been my honour to take on the mantle of some of the work previously started by Steve Doszpot, who, sadly, passed away early in this term. In that regard I have taken on some of the portfolios that Steve previously had. I am pleased to have continued some of his work, including that relating to dangerous dogs, and advocating for better local services, including women’s safety through better lighting.
I have been pleased to represent, talk with and advocate on behalf of the seniors community. Most importantly, I have been pleased to represent my community of Tuggeranong. Thank you so much to the voters of Tuggeranong for entrusting me to be their member during the Ninth Assembly.
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