Page 4181 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 December 2022

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To the OLA team—those who we see every day and those that do all the work behind the scenes—I want to thank you, because, as has been expressed here before, you make us look clever and coordinated, and make things go seamlessly. So we thank you, indeed. To MLAs, I say: enjoy the break, come back rested—but perhaps not that rested, for me as Speaker!—and enjoy the time with family and friends over the New Year break.

To my Labor caucus colleagues I say that it has been an interesting year but always a good year to have a caucus that is forever thinking about the next way that we can make our community even better and stronger. That is why I joined the Labor Party and why I will be forever grateful and thankful for the caucus colleagues that I have.

I send a big thank you to the people of Brindabella. I will be back again with my A-frame at the local shops every second Thursday and Friday, and every fourth Thursday and Friday. I do not call it a mobile office but effectively it is—not that Jonathan is here. So, again, I thank the people of Brindabella.

Take this as my annual update on my grandchildren. I put a call out to the grandchildren’s family to give me their favourite foods, words or what they are up to. For members who are very excited about this, I can say that Loup’s favourite play time is to pretend. He can pretend to be Spiderman, or he can pretend to be one of his newly acquired chickens. Apparently, it is always quite entertaining. His word is “no way”—very loudly—but he is 2½ years, so it is probably within the character of a 2½-year-old. Cheese is his favourite food. That is a constant for him, but I am sure his French mother has an influence on his food tastes. He particularly likes his cheese with chocolate, I am told.

The older grandson, Hunter, has hit double digits. He is turning into a pre-teen, apparently with lots of eye-rolling in his household, but he is enjoying his passion for music. He is playing cello now on a daily basis, so that is good. Kade starts off every statement with, “Did you know …”. He likes sports and will try everything and anything. He just enjoys running around. He is proving to be quite a speaker himself, and he will take any opportunity at school to take the lead in talking or presenting.

Young Fletcher is five. He is a feisty little fellow. He wants to prove himself an equal to his older brothers and do as much as them, but he has to be reminded that he is five. He loves dogs and can list at least every dog that is in the local park for playtime with all the dogs there. But to Cam, Kain, Tom and Lloyd: you make my world go around and I simply could not do it without you. With that, members, I wish you all a very restful and safe New Year.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

The Assembly adjourned at 4.59 pm until Tuesday, 7 February 2023 at 10.00 am.


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