Page 3674 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012

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Saving the best to last, as the song goes, thanks to my partner—my husband, Ian—who says he has a hard time keeping up with me. However, without him and his constant support and patience I would not be able to do what I do. I must not forget that the rest of my family deserve thanks, too, as they certainly do not get as much of my time and attention as they could reasonably expect. I thank them for their forbearance and their faith in me, as it is very important. Thank you.

MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (7.28): First off—hopefully my voice will hold out—I thank my colleagues, Meredith Hunter, Shane Rattenbury and Caroline Le Couteur. It has been an absolute honour to be here in the Assembly with all of you. We all came in here together as first-time members and we have worked wonderfully together as a team. It has been a real privilege to be here with you. I thank the entire Greens team, in particular my staff: Kate Taylor, Matt Georgeson, Will Macleod and a special mention to Bianca Elmir, whose strength of character I greatly admire. A special mention goes to Larry O’Loughlin, who I suspect was behind Ms Le Couteur’s speech. Mrs Dunne, you are correct: he is the champion of the dad joke and has had a very bad influence on all the Greens staff. Dad jokes come out all the time now in various meetings and the like.

I thank each and every one of the staff of the Assembly across all offices, from the Clerk’s office, the Committee Office, HR, to everyone. Your help while we have been here I can truly say has been invaluable. I thank you for never saying to me that any of my questions were silly, because I know I have asked some silly questions over the time. It has been wonderful to have you there to assist at any time. As Mr Seselja said, I also send best wishes to Lainie, who is just a lovely person. It has been wonderful to get to know her and I wish her all the best.

I thank all the community groups I and all the Greens officers have worked with over the last four years. You are the people at the forefront and you provide us with invaluable feedback in the work we do. It has been an honour to represent the Brindabella electorate. I echo Mr Hargreaves’s words earlier today and those of others that it is a privileged position to be able to represent the community as an elected representative. I hope to be representing the Brindabella electorate in the next Assembly.

I am happy we are finishing early tonight as I get to go home and watch my Broncos as they battle to stay in the eight tonight. Of course, they are playing Manly, so a special message goes to Rod Campbell who is, unfortunately, a staunch Manly supporter. I would have enjoyed catching the game with him tonight. We had planned to catch glimpses of the game if we were sitting late, but I have no doubt that we will talk about it on Monday, whatever the result is. That is, of course, unless Rod hides from me like he did after the state of origin when Queensland won seven series in a row. So we will see what happens on Monday.

I also thank the ACT Greens. Our party is based on the strength of our volunteers, and they are already out there working hard as a part of the election. A special thanks to the ACT Greens convener, Simon Copland, and all the office bearers of the party. I particularly thank Chris Le Mesurier who is providing me with invaluable help for the


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