Page 4119 - Week 13 - Thursday, 6 December 2007
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To the members of the Assembly—firstly to the Liberal team and also to our Labor and Green colleagues—I wish you and your families a particularly happy new year. It is going to be a big new year next year with the election in October. It has not been a slack one this year either. Dr Foskey alluded to a new federal government; we will see how that goes. Thank God we probably still have a Liberal majority in the Senate. At any rate, to all the members of the Assembly, to your families and to your own individual staff—my very best wishes for the festive season. I hope that everyone has a chance to recharge the batteries and have a bit of a break before next year actually starts.
I also thank my own staff, and my family, for their support. I am not the easiest person to deal with at times, but their unstinting support, especially that of my family, I greatly appreciate. I thank them for putting up with me over the last 12 months. I wish you all a merry Christmas. I will see you back here bright eyed and bushy tailed next year for what promises to be a very interesting year.
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) (6.03): I thank the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Stefaniak, for his best wishes. I join with him in similarly extending mine to all members of the Assembly and all members of the government—indeed, Mr Stefaniak, to you and your colleagues in the opposition. Politics is a tough business. It is appropriate that we reflect on our human side and take this opportunity—in short, that we take the time to acknowledge the job that we do with all of its permutations and in all its respects.
Mr Speaker, I most certainly wish the staff of the Assembly all the best for Christmas and the season. I thank them for their attention and their diligence and the support which they provide to each of us. I thank my personal staff and all the members of my team and their staff. Similarly, I wish members of the Liberal Party and the Greens all the best for the Christmas season and for the holiday.
I support and endorse exactly and precisely what Mr Stefaniak has just said about we politicians taking the time to reflect on our lifestyles, taking the opportunity presented by this holiday season, this Christmas season, to take a rest break. As a result of the nature of our work and our public exposure, there is a temptation to not be as kind to ourselves and our families as perhaps we should be. It is important that we all take time out and try and restore something of a life-work balance. We politicians are as guilty as anybody in society in not getting, or not working hard enough to get, the balance right. I endorse entirely what Mr Stefaniak just had to say on that subject as well.
So happy Christmas, Mr Speaker; happy Christmas to everybody in the place—and a peaceful and safe holiday season. I look forward to seeing you all again next year.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (6.05): I too rise to thank colleagues. I will start by thanking my staff—Kate Davis, Sarah Mellor, Brett Chant—and young Johnno, who has been volunteering in my office. I thank my MLA colleagues. We are all having a
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