Page 3998 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 29 November 2022

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give people a safe place and a support system. I know that the last three years have presented challenges and complexities that we have never known before, and I want to thank all of these services for their ongoing work.

I want to turn now to sport and recreation. I acknowledge the work of Transport Canberra and City Services, as well as the sport and rec team. This year, in addition to COVID, there has been an inundation of wet weather and it has made it really difficult to keep our sports fields open, to keep our sports teams fit and active throughout the year, and particularly during this La Niña event. I want to thank them all, because they have continued to engage with our sports communities. Our sports communities have acknowledged that this has been a difficult time for them to be able to complete their work and keep the fields open. Nonetheless, to all of our sports communities and the teams at TCCS and sport and rec, thank you all for keeping our Canberra community active and moving.

The work by the CSD team and Housing ACT, and their continued passion and care for people who live in housing or are seeking housing, has continued, despite what appear to have been some never-ending barriers which have been really difficult to chip away at, while continuing with this long tail of COVID. I want to thank all of them for all of the work that they do for Canberrans needing support. I know that they will continue to do that, as they have been over the last couple of years.

I particularly want to acknowledge, thank and congratulate the team at the SLA on the opening of the Whitlam display village. Whitlam is the first suburb that the Suburban Land Agency has had full planning and control over since becoming the Suburban Land Agency. I know that the display village was a significant milestone for all of the team. I look forward to working with them to build great suburbs where people
want to live. I also acknowledge the team at Ginninderry for their continued community work.

I want to thank all of my advisory councils, the MACW and the YAC. Connor, I still owe you a drive, to get your driving hours up. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of our conversations and the advice from both of my ministerial advisory councils.

I want to thank everybody in this place, in the Assembly. Again, a big thankyou goes to the cleaners. It has been a real delight to chat with them throughout the day, as they keep our offices clean. Thank you to the attendants for replacing my pass, again. I will do my very best not to lose it in 2023. Let’s see how long I can keep hold of it. I want also to acknowledge my children, my dogs, my family, my chickens and my friends, who keep me on a level playing field and keep me sane when I am not doing this busy work. Finally, I acknowledge everybody in this place, and you, Madam Speaker, and all of the officers in the Legislative Assembly team. I wish you all a safe and happy festive season.

I do need to acknowledge my own team, Team Berry, all of the department liaison officers and all of the staff in our directorates that work with us. I thank you all again for your tireless work, particularly Amber and Brooke, for keeping my diary in some kind of order. I want to thank Yersheena for helping us out in my office. It has been great fun. I want to thank Yersheena for her time with us.


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