Page 3669 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
To my friends, whom I do not see enough of, Christmas will be here after the election. Maybe we will see each other then. To my family, Dad and Elizabeth, his wife, thanks for all your support, Dad. It is great to have you there. He is 86 this year and he is going strong, and that is great. To all my brothers and sisters, whom I will not name because there is not enough time, and to my kids, particularly Amy and Lorena, who now live in Sydney but are always on the phone to say hello and to see that Facebook and Twitter work, that is great.
To little Dave—little Dave is having a great time the last couple of years. He is six now. He thinks he would like a job here somewhere in this building. He is most intrigued by the fact that if you work here you can have a government car. It is great when you pull up in the queue at Holy Family to drop him off or pick him, he winds down his window and he looks at his friends and says, “This is my dad’s government car.” So for the government car, I thank you very much. For Dave, the humour, the laughter, the fun, he is just great. He loves coming in and watching what is going on.
To Robyn, my wife, the goddess, she is just fantastic, and to all our spouses—I think John said it most eloquently, although I do have an objection to Jenny and her influence on having kept him here for so long; I will be talking to her about that later—to all our spouses, our partners, our loved ones, we cannot do the job without them. I suspect most of us do the job because of them and because we want to make a better place for them. Goddess, I want to make this a better place for you.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (7.11): As we move towards the election I would like to pay my respects to the electors of Molonglo who put me here, and I look forward to their decision on 20 October, whatever it may be. I am privileged to be part of the Green team, which has made a real green difference to the ACT, as Ms Hunter has said. I will not go through all of that, but I will talk a little bit about some of the things I have been privileged to deal with in my portfolio areas as the ACT Greens spokesperson for planning, TAMS, business and economic development, and arts and heritage.
I went out on a limb first on trees. I was very pleased that my motion in 2009 led to an investigation into urban tree management in the ACT. The Greens will continue to pursue good outcomes in this neck of the woods, and community support shows that we are not barking up the wrong tree.
As TAMS spokesperson I have followed my path with pedestrians and cyclists, although sometimes it was a bit cracked or crooked or even a dead end. I have kept up the pressure on the government as it has “pedalled” its wares, but now we see it dropping gears. We need to pick up the pace to avoid a less than pedestrian effort on active transport.
And one can never waste enough words on waste. Although I find myself recycling ideas over and over again, I look forward to the government to stop refusing and start recycling.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video