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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 629 ..
MR KAINE (continuing):
across the Public Service. The booth was designed and constructed at a cost of only about $6,000. It is quite clear that many of the other individual exhibitors spent money far in excess of that, and I think that is testimony to just how innovative our public servants are and to the ingenuity of the staff involved in the development of this display. On behalf of the entire Assembly, I would like to congratulate everyone who has been involved in that display at the Innovations Expo.
MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (7.08): Mr Speaker, in question time Mr Osborne asked me a question about Mr De Domenico, and I think it is appropriate that I say something. I will miss Tony very much. I remember a number of things about him; just sitting here during the adjournment debate has brought a few things to mind. On a serious note, showing the serious and very effective side of Tony De Domenico as a lobbyist, in the First Assembly, when we had the fluoride debacle, I can remember the very effective job of lobbying Tony did after the initial vote, when fluoride went out of the water, to convince people that it should go back in. Within about a month that occurred, and I remember his very persuasive arguments and the amount of work he did as a lobbyist. He was a long-time member of the Liberal Party, and I suppose I first became aware of him at around that time. Tony then successfully stood for the Second Assembly.
I have been in a big bin twice, Mr Speaker, once back in 1990 with the late Dr Hector Kinloch - a lovely man who was my former history lecturer and who got in here at No. 4 on the Residents Rally ticket. Poor old Hector, unfortunately, is now deceased. Then again, when the Labor Party had their policy launch or something, we managed to get them off the front page with an interesting little picture of Tony De Domenico wheeling me around in a big bin. Most people think I was wheeling him around in a big bin, which would be pretty easy - it would be rather hard to see Tony over the top of the bin - but, in fact, it was me in the big bin and Tony was wheeling me around to show just how easy it was for anyone to wheel around something in a big bin, even something that weighed a hell of a lot and took up a hell of a lot of space, as I did. Tony was known to go in for quite a few clever stunts like that. He would push things in which he believed passionately, such as the right of people to see circuses, for example. Someone mentioned Mr Lamont in passing. Mr Lamont managed to stop a number of circuses and certain types of acts in Canberra. I can remember quite clearly Tony getting into a lion's cage, Tony riding on an elephant, and those sorts of things, to push his point of view.
He was generous, he was gregarious, he was a real live character, and I for one am sad to see him go. I do not think he is necessarily going to go away. He has indicated that he will be around Canberra and pushing the ACT, and I will be very surprised if we see him go. Recently, although he was out of the Assembly, he was commentating and giving out thousands of awards for the Sri Chimnoy peace triathlon. I would like to pay tribute to the work he did and also comment that over the years, apart from being a very good and effective member of this Government, he was a lot of fun as well.
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