Page 10 - Week 01 - Monday, 31 October 2016

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and that Canberra does not become entrenched as a two-paced society. We must make sure that government services are of a standard befitting the national capital of what is the best country in the world. We must make sure that people are not priced out of our community and we must make sure that Canberra is a place where people can genuinely seek opportunities and fulfil their potential.

Finally, I offer my congratulations to Mr Barr, Ms Berry and the Labor team for their election to government. I wish them well in the coming four years.

In conclusion, I thank my colleagues for the opportunity to lead the Canberra Liberals. I will do my best to represent the party, the Canberra Liberal MLAs and Canberra in this place.

Statement by member

MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong), by leave: I rise on behalf of the Greens today and I would like to begin by welcoming my colleague Caroline Le Couteur, a member for Murrumbidgee, back to the ACT Legislative Assembly. We are pleased to have doubled our representation, and it is great to have Caroline back as a both very experienced and committed MLA. I am proud of the things we achieved over the last term of the Assembly, and with two of us I believe we can achieve even more.

Madam Speaker, I congratulate you on your election to the position. It can be a very challenging role in this place at times and, with the two leaders even closer together, I am sure that there will be moments when you struggle to maintain control of the house. I wish you well in your role. I would like to thank Mrs Dunne for her service over the past four years as the Speaker of the Eighth Assembly.

I would like to congratulate and welcome all of the new MLAs who have been elected to this Assembly this term. The move to 25 gives this chamber a very different feel. I hope you all enjoy your time here. It is a privilege to be invited to serve our community in this way.

I would also like to acknowledge those members of the Eighth Assembly who have left us: Dr Bourke, Mr Hinder, Mr Corbell and Mr Jeffrey. I know that each of them made their own contribution to the Assembly. I wish them well in their next endeavours.

I would like to congratulate Mr Barr on his election as Chief Minister. The Greens have opted to support Mr Barr as Chief Minister for the term of the Ninth Assembly because we believe that, despite taking different policies to the election on a range of matters, we also have a great deal in common and we have been able to work together to deliver a shared agenda in the parliamentary agreement that delivers for the Canberra community.

Equally, we were not able to support the Canberra Liberals as the alternative government. We did make that clear during the election campaign and we did so because we could not condone or support the proposal to tear up the light rail contract. We did not believe that that was a position that the Greens would accept or could


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