Page 695 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 1 May 2007
Next page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
MR SPEAKER (Mr Berry) took the chair at 10.30 am, made a formal recognition that the Assembly was meeting on the lands of the traditional owners, and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.
Ms Audrey Fagan, APM
Motion of condolence
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts): I move:
That this Assembly expresses its deep regret at the death of Audrey Fagan, APM, Chief Police Officer of the ACT, a dedicated, popular and experienced police officer of the highest calibre who contributed greatly to the development of ACT Policing and the AFP and was a great role model for women within the organisation, and tenders its heartfelt sympathy to Audrey’s family, friends and colleagues in their bereavement.
It is with immense sadness and regret that I rise to record my memories of Audrey Fagan and to convey to her family and her colleagues in ACT Policing and the Australian Federal Police the condolences of the government. Audrey Fagan was a police officer for more than half of her too-short life. People often wondered aloud how an individual like Audrey Fagan, a woman so gentle, so compassionate, so empathetic, could have made it so far in a tough and still male-dominated profession. That she did rise so far was a credit to both the Australian Federal Police generally and to Commissioner Mick Keelty more specifically.
Over many years the qualities that made Audrey Fagan the remarkable individual she was were noticed, nurtured and rewarded by the organisation she served and by the man who was her mentor and who, of all her colleagues perhaps, knew her best and longest. I can recall the excitement when Audrey Fagan was announced the ACT’s Chief Police Officer a little under two years ago. There was the thrill that a woman had made it to the helm of ACT Policing and there was a deep pleasure that such a significant achievement belonged to a woman so respected, so admired and so approachable, with such an evident passion for community policing.
Many of us who had had something to do with the law in this town over recent decades already knew Audrey Fagan personally. I first met her in 1995 when I worked for the then federal Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch, and Audrey Fagan was the AFP liaison officer attached to the office of the then justice minister, Duncan Kerr. It says a lot about her capacity and the quality of her advice and counsel that she served three successive federal ministers in that role, contributing to the development of major pieces of policy, including the national illicit drug strategy.
As an organisation, the AFP offers its finest and its brightest members opportunities unequalled in any other police force in the country. Audrey Fagan was offered those
Next page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .