Page 2837 - Week 08 - Thursday, 11 August 2016
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To all my staff, once again, thank you and thank you too to all the staff along the corridor who support all of the MLAs so well. I am sure that is the case on the other side as well. To all of the members, all of the staff here, I wish you all the very best and I look forward to seeing you after the election in November.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (8.44): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Mrs Dunne: Is it going to be a song?
MS LAWDER: No poems this year.
Mrs Dunne: It is not Christmas.
MS LAWDER: It is not Christmas, that is right. It is a Christmas present. I want to reflect briefly on my past three years or so here in this Assembly. I take some pride in the fact that I was the only MLA appointed during the Centenary of Canberra, the only centenary MLA.
Something that very much sticks in my mind during my time in this place was the PAC inquiry into the Mr Fluffy legislation. I think it demonstrated that it was one of those issues that was above politics. There was a bipartisan approach to the inquiry. It was done in quite a quick manner. It was flexible; it was nimble; it was evidence-based; it was thorough; and it was compassionate. The effects, the ongoing legacy, of the Mr Fluffy saga, if you like, will reverberate throughout our community for many years to come.
I would like to thank very much the staff of the Assembly who have given me a lot of assistance over my time here: the attendants, Hansard, the technical staff, the library. I do not mean to leave anyone out but I want to thank everyone generally. The committee staff have also been enormously helpful to me in my role on committees.
I thank my colleagues on this side of the chamber who are always good for a few laughs here or there. I appreciate their support and their mentoring of me when I came in to fill the casual vacancy back in 2013, and my colleagues across the chamber as well.
I would like to thank my own staff currently, Nikkie, Lucinda, Chloe and Alex who provide enormous support to me and help to keep me on track. And I thank my past staff, two of whom have gone on to work for senators. I am not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing but I wish them all the best. I thank my volunteers, who are out there on weekends and on weekdays letter-boxing and helping me out. I cannot overstate the importance of and my appreciation for what you do for me.
I value very much my friends with whom it is very important to take a bit of time out and have that bit of a normal life where you are not having to talk politics and talk to a constituent or a stakeholder all the time. You need to try to maintain some of that normal life.
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