Page 4226 - Week 13 - Thursday, 14 December 2006
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but cannot yet reach the same perch as the pelican. He is not happy at all about the pigeon reaching the second rung on the bird ladder before him.
Mary, of course, is the dusky wood swallow. Similar to the chuff, she wants to look after everyone’s children as well. The butcher bird is, of course, Vicky. You have heard the name; just do not get in her way. Back over here we have Johnno the black currawong. Pity help any library user that has not returned their books on time.
I feel looked upon as the superb parrot, often seen preening his feathers after diving into the birdbath, fighting with the currawong to rescue a sparrow with an ACTION buses uniform on. The shiftwork is quite onerous and sometimes weighs the poor sparrows down. You will note that, while many species are associated, I did not once mention a galah.
Valedictory
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.56): Christmas is the time for putting our differences aside. I think—Dr Foskey made the point—it shows that what goes on in this place is not personal. It is about the ideas and it is about the cut and thrust of representing the people.
I thank the people of Ginninderra, whom I am proud to serve for yet another year. I want to express my pride in the plucky people of Canberra and the great satisfaction I have in dealing with them on a daily basis. Particularly in the last six months, in difficult times, they have been an inspiration to me.
In this place I would like to thank all the support staff who make this Assembly tick over—the Clerk’s office; the Committee Office; the attendants who run at our beck and call and refill the photocopiers and the glasses of water; Hansard; the technical staff; the computing staff; the library; and the education office, which is the window of the territory into this place. My thanks go to them and to all the people in the corporate area who look after us.
We had an experience earlier this year when we all trooped off to Government House and had dinner together, which was a novelty. I think there was a bit of trepidation: would we all behave? Would we put all our political differences aside?
DR FOSKEY: Which fork do we use?
MRS DUNNE: Which fork to use et cetera. I thought that, as that venture was so successful, we should have a sort of reconciliatory Christmas dinner for the Assembly members and that everyone should make a contribution. It is a bit of a problem for Ms MacDonald, because she belongs to a group that is not big on Christmas. I thought she could perhaps bring Hogmanay haggis for later on and for Mr Speaker, something cool and aloof—a Berry fool.
Mr Corbell is pretty good at a joke, so we thought he should bring the Christmas crackers. For Mr Stanhope I thought for a while about what I could bring, but when I was talking to someone the other day about the arboretum I asked him what it was for. They said it was for nuts. Perhaps it is nuts for Mr Stanhope. Mr Hargreaves gets to
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