Page 4127 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006
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Without going into the detail of her condition she is travelling pretty damn roughly. In some ways she never quite recovered from being sacked from my party in 2002. I and a number of other members had a role to play in that. At times the rough and tumble of this place is quite extraordinary. Helen, Vicki and I were cohorts in the 2001 election intake as we were all new to the place. Helen would be the first to admit that she brought about a number of those problems but, unfortunately, because of the way in which parties work, she also became the target of some pretty rough stuff.
As I said earlier, I was one of her colleagues who participated in extracting her from the party. I have become wiser about the way in which things work and I have begun to understand that things move in mysterious ways, so I am a little regretful about those events. Recent shenanigans in my party have probably only served to remind Helen of all those bad memories. However, I have said enough about all that. For all her complexities I believe Helen Cross is a very good-hearted person. She played a pretty effective role at the last multicultural festival. She has marketing skills, she is bigger than life, she is pretty colourful and, as I said earlier, she is good-hearted. Consequently, I wish her well and all the best for the future. I hope that she recovers.
Dr Paul Grimes
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra–Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts) (6.21): Tonight I take the opportunity to acknowledge the contribution to the territory of Dr Paul Grimes, one of our finest public servants, during his tenure as Under Treasurer to the ACT Treasury. From time to time we gild the lily on occasions such as this when acknowledging the role and skills of particular individuals, but I have to say that I have not worked with a more competent or professional official than Dr Grimes.
It has been a pleasure for me to have as Under Treasurer of the ACT Treasury a person of Dr Grimes’s absolute professionalism. I have never met or worked with a more professional public servant than Dr Grimes. On every occasion that I have had dealings with him he has been professional, enormously competent and an absolute adornment of the ACT public service. He was indispensable during a year of incredible change and through the most difficult and confronting budget that any ACT government has ever brought down. Dr Grimes’s professionalism, expertise, experience, intellect and capacity were very much a part of that period of change and the delivery of a significant budget.
Dr Grimes looked to his future, as all career public servants should. He has been approached by the commonwealth and offered a very significant promotion as deputy secretary to the commonwealth Department of Finance and Administration. I applaud any career-oriented public servant who maintains a healthy interest in advancing his or her career. In my early days in the public service it was put to me by one of my supervising officers that every public servant should always aspire to advancement and promotion—something I have encouraged all public servants and officers to do. I certainly encourage all those who work in the ACT public service to do so.
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