Page 3665 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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I think we are privileged to live in such a wonderful place as Canberra. It is, I believe, the best city in the world. It is an honour to represent it, but we need to work hard to make sure it continues to be a great place. We want to see affordable housing, we want to see a health system we can all be proud of, we want to continue to improve on our education system and have genuine choice for families in our education system. We want to support those who cannot support themselves, our most vulnerable. We want to have better roads and infrastructure. Importantly, we believe we have a really important role to deliver better local services and lower costs for families and individuals in Canberra.
It is a great privilege. It has been a great privilege for the last few years. I say to each of my colleagues that I am quietly confident, although we take nothing for granted, that each of you will be returned after the election. I am quietly confident that there will be more Liberals who will be joining you in our team. We look forward to the opportunity of representing the people and doing our best, and we look forward to the next couple of months as we battle it out for the future of this wonderful city.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (6.55): It seems like only yesterday that the four Greens found themselves elected to this Assembly. What a wonderful privilege it has been. It has been a privilege to represent the people of Ginninderra, a privilege to represent the many views and interests of people right across the territory. I have been so proud of the team of MLAs that I have worked with—Shane, Caroline and Amanda; we have made a great team.
I think that we have made a real difference in four years. The amount of legislation, discussion papers and the motions that we have put up have all made a real difference in so many areas. I think that many people see the Greens as only focusing on the environment. That is one part of our work, and an important part of our work, but the legislation, motions and issues that we have campaigned and pushed for while we have been in go right across the spectrum. I do not know what the last count was, but we have had many pieces of legislation passed.
That goes also to the hard work of our team. We have had about 13 staff members between us. I would like to thank each and every one of them for their fantastic effort—the skills they bring and the commitment and energy. I would like to thank my staff—Mel Greenhalgh, Tom Warne-Smith, Jarrah Robbins, Tom Burmester and Fiona Walls. Thank you for your support of me. I would not have been able to do what I have achieved without that over the last four years.
Of course, I would also like to go to the many staff in this Assembly. It has been a pleasure to have worked with people right across the Office of the Legislative Assembly—those in HR through to the committee office and even through to maintenance of the building—thanks Rick; the shelf in my kitchen is much appreciated—Hansard and the Library.
As to the final bill that we debated today, I have to say I am not quite sure how I got to be the one that was on debating the two most complicated bills in this Assembly, but it certainly has been a fantastic way to learn about amendments on amendments
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