Page 329 - Week 01 - Thursday, 29 November 2012

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video


Ms Siew Chin Scholar

Valedictory

MADAM SPEAKER: Before we proceed further with the adjournment debate I would like to advise members of the Assembly of the retirement next week of Siew Chin Scholar, the Assembly Librarian.

Siew Chin joined the then ACT Government and Assembly Library as the Acquisitions Librarian in November 1998 and moved into the Senior Reference Librarian position in 2000. On 1 July 2009, following the review commissioned by Mr Hargreaves, the former Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, management of the Assembly Library was transferred to the then Legislative Assembly Secretariat. Siew Chin played an important role in the transition arrangements and subsequently became the Assembly Librarian.

During her time in the library Siew Chin has fostered close working relationships and built a strong rapport with the library’s clients, ACT government staff, Assembly committees and support staff, and particularly members and their staff. She has worked hard to make the library collection relevant and useful by increasing online access to information, including replays of local radio and news services, and she has overseen a number of library projects, including a new library intranet and the digitisation of committee transcripts and media releases.

Siew Chin has been a proud advocate of the Assembly Library and has raised its profile at numerous meetings of the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia, including presenting a paper entitled How a small library can do nifty things: innovation and inspiration in the ACT Legislative Assembly Library.

Many of us have come to depend upon Siew Chin and all of the library staff and we value the service and ethos which she has helped to establish and maintain. I am sure all members will join with me in wishing Siew Chin well in her retirement and in her relocation to Adelaide.

Members, while we are on the subject of Christmas valedictories, I would like as Speaker to place on record my thanks to the Assembly staff. We all know the great work that Assembly staff do in making this place work, and as a new Speaker who has come into this role and has a large learning curve I assure you all it is easy to think you know how to be a Speaker but it is actually a lot harder when you actually have to do it.

To the Clerk and the Deputy Clerk and all his staff in Chamber Support, Strategy and Education, Corporate Services, Hansard and the Library, ICT, the Committee Office, and particularly to Rick and Sam who did most of the moving around this building, and at least did all of my moving, I thank them very much.

To members of the Assembly I would like to wish you a very happy Christmas. I know it does not quite feel like Christmas—there is not even any tinsel on the Clerk’s desk today because it is still November—but it is the last time we will meet formally


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video