Page 4705 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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Julie-Ann Finney, who is calling for a royal commission into veteran suicide and not letting her son’s story be forgotten; those seeking fertility preservation; those who simply wish to enhance and improve their communities, like my friends in Scullin and Florey; and so many in between. To all, it is a privilege to work with you, support you, advocate for you, and get answers and resolutions for you.
Late this year I was honoured to be asked by the Chief Minister to serve as his special secretary with a focus on championing the issues for Canberrans where they are not getting a fair go. I am proud of the work we have done so far with lemon laws and restarting our campaign on territory rights. Trust me, there is more to come in all of these spaces.
It is important for me to note that this time last year I was remarking on grieving families as we tried to uncover just what had gone wrong at Norwood crematorium for them to have lost children’s ashes. What we learned this year is that Norwood’s processes and procedures were not good enough. While our efforts resulted in two of the children’s ashes being found, it remains my biggest personal regret this year that Timothy Mol’s ashes remains missing.
I am proud of the work that we have done in this place across committees, especially the select committees on end of life choices and fuel prices, where we worked together collegiately across party lines, exemplifying the very best of what a parliament can be. Of course one of my personal highlights is getting Mr Parton to stop clicking his pen incessantly.
As politicians, a lot of attention is placed on who we are and what we do. But as is well known among us, who we are and what we do is enabled by a huge number of people who support and drive us and believe in us.
To my staff, I cannot thank you enough. This year we farewelled Minuri Dharmasena and Annika Rees, and we wish them very well in their future endeavours. I have been very pleased to continue to be supported by dynamos Emma Kelly, Nicholas Argy and Jemma Cavanagh. This team does an extraordinary amount of work just with our day to day correspondence let alone the number of issues we have championed. I thank them for their responsiveness—or at least appeasement—when I walk into the door and say, “Hey, guys, I have an idea.”
I am so lucky to have a team who are altogether thoughtful, patient, considerate, kind, diligent and determined. The amount of work we produce and the number of people we help each day continues to astound me, and these three are the humble stars of the show.
I thank my Labor colleagues for their ongoing support, guidance and friendship. There is no better team as we march into 2020. I am proud to be by your side as we put our case forward in the election.
I continue to think that everyone in this place is, surprisingly, pretty sufferable. As I touched on before, we are at our best when we are collegiate. I think of some—not all—of those across the chamber somewhat fondly, and this year I will single out
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