Page 348 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 February 2013
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your way with no support really from government. With respect to the decisions that we make here that might seem a bit trivial or inconsequential, when they flow down to the man or woman that is trying to run that small business, they can have a big impact on those businesses.
It is important to acknowledge the staff who support us. There will be continuity in our staff because they are very good staff. Their job is to make us look good. They have done that for a while now, and hopefully they will continue to do that. I would like to acknowledge our tremendously capable and hardworking staff.
While I am doing that, I would like to recognise your staff, Madam Speaker, the staff of the Assembly, the Clerk and all of your staff. I look forward to working with you all. You have been a great asset to the opposition and to the government, to all members in this place, and I look forward to maintaining our close working relationship.
There will be no dramatic change for the Liberal Party. What was good under Zed Seselja, good for the Liberal team, will remain. There will be a change in leadership style and approach with myself and Mr Coe. I will let others commentate on that, but the values that we have remain intact; the agenda that we have remains intact. It will change over time, but people should not see this change of leadership as a change in direction or approach for the Liberal Party. We need to do what we do best, which is to hold this government to account. The people of Canberra need us to do this, because let there be no doubt that this is not a good government. As it gets older and as it gets more tired, it will be further exposed to the people of Canberra, who are ultimately the people who are missing out.
At the last election it was a very close result. In fact the Liberal Party got more votes than the Labor Party. But what many people were surprised by, after the election, whether they voted Liberal or Labor, was that the Greens member of the government said he was going to make this the most green, the most progressive—that is, left-leaning—government in Australia. And Katy Gallagher said she wants that also, as a badge of honour.
The many people that voted Liberal or Labor—perhaps I exclude the Greens from this—did not want to wake up, with the election result decided, to having the most extreme government in Australia. What they want is a government that represents them, that is focused on their issues, that wants the emergency departments to be the focus of the government, not an agenda to put needles and syringes in the jail; that wants things like plastic bags for when they go shopping rather than public art going up; and that wants us to focus on their cost of living rather than on things like putting up the renewable energy targets—eight times the national targets.
We will be holding this government to account. We will be working hard, and it is my intent that my deputy, Alistair Coe, and I will be working every day to earn the trust and respect of our team. We will be working hard to earn the trust and respect of the Canberra community, because this town needs change, and we will be working hard over the next four years to earn that trust and respect so that we will effect that change in 2016.
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