Page 6279 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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Valedictory
MR DUBY (7.44): Mr Speaker, as usual, Ellnor Grassby is a very hard act to follow. But, when it is an Ellnor Grassby-Lionel Murphy double act, it is very, very hard to follow. Like Mrs Grassby, I also take off my hat to the memory of Justice Murphy - a great Australian.
This is the last opportunity that I shall have - and we all will have, I guess - to speak in the Assembly, in this year at least. Some of us, of course, are not going to be here next year and some will. I guess that that is in the lap of the gods. I would like to join other members in thinking back on the good times that we have all had in this Assembly. I think, when we look back at tonight's final debate, in effect, we will see that it was an example of some of the animated and heated discussions that we can enter into in this Assembly, and have done since May 1989.
On behalf of other members, I would like to thank you for the way that you have handled yourself in the position of Speaker during the life of this First Assembly. I guess it says something that, as governments have come and gone, Mr Prowse the Speaker has remained. I guess that whoever occupies that chair in future times will have a tradition to follow that, I am sure, will be hard to maintain. To the other members of the Assembly on all sides, I would like to say thank you for, in effect, putting up with all of us, I guess. It has been quite a learning experience from May 1989, but I think we have all learned the lessons pretty well by now.
To my colleagues who were with me in the Alliance Government, thank you very much indeed for providing me with the opportunity to be involved in some planning and decisions which really have affected, and will affect for many years, the future of many, many citizens in the ACT. That has been, indeed, a rare privilege, as has just being a member of this Assembly. I would also like to give particular thanks to my colleague Carmel Maher. Carmel has been of great assistance to me personally throughout the 2 years that we have been in this Assembly. It has always been nice to know that I can usually count on at least one additional vote in the Assembly.
Ms Follett: Not always.
MR DUBY: Not always, I have noticed recently, and I am starting to get a bit worried. But thank you very much, Carmel; I do appreciate that very, very much. For all of the members who are facing the electorate in February, good luck, I guess. As the Speaker has said, in a lot of ways the future of many of us is in the lap of the gods; but I am sure that, whatever the outcome, the First Assembly is an experience that none of us will ever forget, whether we are returned in the Second Assembly or not. Thank you very much, merry Christmas and God bless all.
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