Page 1403 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 May 2017

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Madam Speaker, whilst we in this place will undoubtedly miss Jayson, the people who suffer most at this difficult time are his family and his close friends. Our thoughts and sympathies are with them during this period of bereavement. We are honoured that many of them are able to be with us today as we pay tribute to Jayson.

MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (10.09): Madam Speaker, I too rise to pay tribute to Jayson Hinder. I pass on my condolences and those of my colleagues to Lisa, Madeleine, Nigel and Oliver, as well as to other family and friends. All members knew Jayson pretty well through his community work, the campaign trail and, of course, his time in the ACT Legislative Assembly. He will be missed by those on this side of the chamber too.

Be it the Bendigo Bank, sporting clubs, the Gungahlin Community Council, the Labor Party, the Motor Trades Association or numerous other organisations, active community participation was central to who Jayson was. His tall stature, often supplemented with a motorcycle jacket and helmet in hand—that image would have the potential to be quite imposing. However, that was not the case. Jayson was a gentle and considerate person. He was firm and deliberate, but always respectful and measured.

His journey of working hard as a mechanic, raising kids, studying at night, running businesses, setting up his own legal practice, chairing a community bank and being elected to parliament is surely an Australian story worth celebrating.

Jayson was very well known in Canberra’s tight-knit legal fraternity. His Kippax-based law firm was well established and had a broad reach into the Belconnen community and beyond.

Madam Speaker, as you would well know, Jayson was great for a conversation. He could chat sincerely with anyone, from any walk of life. Perhaps because of the diverse range of people he had met doing a wide range of jobs over the years, he had experienced so much and was therefore able to communicate easily with people from all walks of life.

On many occasions I stood alongside Jayson during the 2012 and 2016 election campaigns. In particular, we spent many hours together at Kaleen Plaza and Gungahlin Marketplace. We would often chat about the external side of politics, as well as having a few cryptic chats about the internal side of politics, which we all know too well. Jayson was also very much a hands-on campaigner, and this is something that I very much admired. I would regularly see Jayson driving his truck around with what was, quite literally, a larger than life Jayson on the side. We know that he was very enterprising when it came to bus advertising as well. Jayson was a hands-on person; he was a doer.

I simply could not deliver these remarks without commenting on his love of rugby. His passion for rugby has been remarked on by the Chief Minister. I imagine there are many stories that could be shared by team mates. My favourite rugby story is actually


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