Page 5766 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
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I would also like to thank the people of Brindabella who voted me into this building, and I thank them for their support and their kind words over the most recent weeks. I am committed to keeping in touch with them through my mobile community office and my community radio program.
Can I say that there are many in this room that have made this last 12 months and, indeed, the last 40-plus days an interesting time. I am, can I say, looking forward to question time in 2010. I have an offer of a Mars bar to the member of the opposition who can crack the century and give me the 100th question early in the new year.
Mr Hanson: It will not take long.
MS BURCH: No, it will not. At the rate you are going, I reckon by the end of February we will be there. Thank you very much. Let me finish by wishing everyone here and your families a great Christmas. I hope that you and your families have a happy, safe and relaxing new year. I look forward to meeting you all again in the new year.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (6.52): First off, I want to thank my fellow Greens MLAs. I think we made it through the year with no actual bruises. But we have got through the year. It has been great having you all here, going through that together. Obviously, thanks to all of the staff of all our offices, but particularly my staff: the wonderful Kate Taylor, who has stepped into the role of senior adviser with absolute aplomb, and Patrick Moody, for being thrown into the deep end. I think the first day he started we put some workplace health and safety legislation on his desk and said, “There you go. Have fun with that.” Obviously with all the harmonisation stuff coming through, he will be very busy next year. Thank you to Bianca “Bam Bam” Elmir, just for being herself and for the security that she offers us at the door, with her boxing credentials; to Roland Manderson for the months that he was with my office and not just with my office but across our offices. His knowledge was invaluable, and I thank him for that.
I would like to thank also the Greens party, in particular, Graeme Jensen and Ebony Bennett, who both served in the role of convener this year. Ebony has gone on to be the national campaign manager. Graeme stepped into the role this year. I thank the volunteers for their support throughout the campaign. Volunteers for all parties in this place are invaluable but particularly so for the Greens. We do not have a huge budget when it comes to our campaigns; so we do very much rely on our volunteers and they performed outstandingly through the election.
Thank you to all the staff in the Assembly, in particular the attendants and the committee secretariat staff. I will again mention Sandra Lilburn, our secretary of the education committee. Her support has been really invaluable this year in my role as chair of the committee, and I thank her very much. Thank you to all the other members and their staff.
As others have said, things can be pretty adversarial, but we are all here to serve the same purpose and perform the same role. Despite all that goes on, at the end of the day we do end up speaking to each other, which is good, and working with each other where we can.
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