Page 578 - Week 02 - Thursday, 18 February 2016
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There is also another team. Without that team none of us could do our job here. I refer to the attendants, the committee office, the clerks, IT, Hansard, maintenance, library and corporate. It has been a tough few months for them all with the refurb, and there is more to come. However, through it all they keep smiling. And thanks for the lollies: who thought of that yesterday? I let it slip that I had not eaten since 6 o’clock when it was about 4 o’clock or 4.30 in the afternoon. So someone delivered me a few lollies. I am sorry to tell you, Madam Speaker, they were delivered in the Speaker’s chair. I was very discreet.
MADAM SPEAKER: I will speak to someone about it.
MS PORTER: I also pay special acknowledgement to the IT assistants around here because I am really not an IT person and they have to keep smiling frequently with me.
A big thank you to my greatest supporter, my husband. I am so pleased that he is here today with me. He pushes and shoves and he gets me there in the end. As most people know, he is the cook and the shopper and he does practically everything at home. I thank my extended family, mostly interstate, who constantly keep in touch, sending their encouragement and support, which of course they did this morning. I am sure they will be glad to have more of my time and attention, especially the tribe of grandchildren and our great-granddaughter.
I would like to recognise some friends. I would like to recognise Paul Moran who is with us today in the visitors gallery. He has travelled here from Adelaide, as he did for my investment at Government House. Paul and his wife Chrissie have been long-term supporters—oh God, I am going to start now—who have supported me so much. In the same way, Jan Squires and her husband Geoff have been here for me through all the significant events for many years. They cannot be here today but I know they are here in spirit. Many people have sent their good wishes and I thank them for that. There are a lot of constituents and a lot of people who are friends and party members.
I thank posthumously the man who influenced my life the most in my formative years, my father, a man who was so proud of what his daughters achieved. That is what he had dreamt of. My mother and my grandmother, a dour Scottish woman, were very dear to me, though long since dead. Both these women were, in one way or another, my role models. Like my father, they taught me to believe in compassion, fairness and one’s ability to make a difference in society.
They taught me about learning and believing in my own capacity and above all the importance of positive relationships. There were three children in the small housing block where we lived in the waterworks cottages in Purley. There were not many children but we three girls hung out together. You can imagine that three girls is not a good mix; two perhaps or four, but not three. I would go to my mother and say, “Eileen and Pam have done this,” or whatever. She would say, “Not my problem. Go and sort it out.” I learnt that from a very, very young age.
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