Page 2443 - Week 08 - Thursday, 6 June 2013

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I would like to put on the record that Zed has suffered many small and large attacks during his tenure in the Assembly; none seemed more ridiculous than an attack for mispronunciation of a name. As a migrant boy who no doubt had a tough time at school, I would like to record that Zed’s full name is Zdenko Seselja and he would never, ever purposefully victimise anyone regarding their name. If the measure of your success is the zeal of your detractors then you have succeeded indeed.

I have seen how Zed has brought the party along with him, building up our courage and our strength, and offering hope to Liberals all over Canberra. The Canberra Liberals and the Liberal supporters in our community are prouder and stronger because of Zed’s leadership and the leadership of those he has brought alongside.

Zed has achieved two very significant feats. He has remained true to our traditional Liberal values without compromise, thus strengthening rather than confusing our voter base. This has led to stronger candidates, stronger campaigning and stronger electoral results. He has also promoted the strength of the Assembly party room, bringing unity to a Hare-Clark elected team, allowing those around him to reach their potential without being threatened by their strengths. This is a most unusual method in a political arena usually marked by a much more callous approach.

I congratulate Zed and Ros on their beautiful family and the way in which they place their children at the centre of their lives, and especially Zed’s commitment to carving out time for family so that his children will know how central they are to him.

Whilst I personally will greatly miss Zed Seselja in this chamber, I congratulate him on his decision to continue to serve the citizens of the ACT in another forum and I am confident that he will continue to champion the same traditional Liberal values there which he strongly represented here in the Assembly.

Up on the hill, the halls may be longer and the committee rooms may be bigger, but the fight is the same—that Canberrans be allowed to live their lives in freedom, succeed at building families, getting ahead, and that governments keep to their core business alone.

Once I was describing to Tony Abbott the achievements of Zed in uniting the Canberra Liberals over the last few years, and he said to me a Latin phrase which I will not try and pronounce, but it means “but for a few good men, the world would not be so well”.

Thank you for your service to the party as a good man, and I am sure you will serve Canberra well in his team.

Planning—west Belconnen land release

MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (5.04): Tonight I rise to speak on a topical issue of importance to my friends and neighbours in west Belconnen. Yesterday Minister Barr announced a large greenfields development in western Belconnen that is going to see


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