Page 2304 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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I will, in the remaining time, pay tribute to Vicki. I first got to know Vicki not as Mrs Dunne or a member of the Assembly but just as Tom’s mum. Tom, her eldest son, and I were in the same year at school together. Tom and I were on the ski team and when Vicki got elected I just knew that Tom’s mum had run for some election and, big deal, life went on. But as I got into the workforce, joined the party and then got to know Vicki, she has gone from being Tom’s mum to a great friend and someone whom I consider a great mentor. She is going to be dearly missed by all of us, particularly me. She has provided unwavering guidance to me as whip, with her uncanny knowledge of our standing orders.
Likewise, thank you to Caroline. We have not had a great deal to do with each other this term but the occasional conversations have been valued and you will be missed.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Children, Youth and Families and Minister for Health) (7.30): I start this end of term speech with an acknowledgement of Mrs Dunne and Ms Le Couteur. Like the Chief Minister, there are a lot of things that Mrs Dunne and I are going to disagree on, but she has indeed stood firm and strong in representing her views and her beliefs throughout her time in the Assembly. There is indeed, as everyone has said, no doubt what Mrs Dunne stands for. I also acknowledge that she has represented the people of her electorate strongly as well. She has been a real advocate for individuals in her electorate, as well as on the issues that are being raised with her.
Ms Le Couteur reminds me of my mum, who was a Greens councillor on the Huon Valley Council in Tasmania. She is a little older than Ms Le Couteur, but when Ms Le Couteur spoke so movingly of the passing of Deb Foskey I was absolutely reminded of the commitment of women in our community who want to make a difference in the world, who care about the environment and care about their local community and sit down and listen to what people on the ground are experiencing and then come in and, with no filter sometimes, speak from the heart about the change that they want to see in the world. And that is Ms Le Couteur. You will be missed. Again, we do not agree on everything, but I know that every time that you open your mouth you are trying to make a positive difference for your community. I thank you for that.
While I had the honour of going straight into the ministry when I was elected in 2016 and I have not sat on committees with other members of the Assembly, I have had the opportunity of seeing both Mrs Dunne and Ms Le Couteur on the health and community services committee, not only in public hearings but in private, in-camera, hearings, where there are some very difficult conversations about very difficult issues. Everyone is human in those conversations and everybody shares the same objective of making life in Canberra better for some of the most vulnerable people in our community. I have seen that in both Mrs Dunne and Ms Le Couteur in those opportunities.
More broadly, I thank everybody in the chamber. I reflect on Ms Le Couteur’s comments about the state of the world. Sometimes I, too, despair about the state of the wider world. But that is why local politics is so good—not the politics part but the
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