Page 2298 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020

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To my staff throughout the term—Paddy, Josh, Sue, Anton, David, Dan, Brendan, Lauren, Albert and Tom—you believe in what we do every day and I could not do what I do each and every day without you. Thank you.

I go to my family. To my amazing parents, my sisters, Rosa and Sara, who have always had my back no matter what, thank you. To Nathan, I know it is not easy being by my side when much of my time, my energy and my duty does not belong to you. To my darling daughter, Mia, every day I am inspired to be a better representative, a better Canberran, a better person, because of you. Every day I am inspired to make Canberra a better place for you. Thank you for being the light of my life.

MR MILLIGAN (Yerrabi) (7.10): It is hard to believe that this term has come to an end. I came into this place with no agenda or pet issues. I pretty much came to this place based on a set of values I wanted to implement in this Assembly: common sense, personal responsibility, believing in the individual, support for families, and the contest of ideas.

I would like to start off by thanking my dear wife, Katrina, for all her support and commitment for my career. I also thank Blake, my son, for his energy and contribution to everything that I have done.

I have been fortunate enough to create a good team around me, a team that has the same ambition to develop policies that will better the whole community. Thank you to all the staff that I have had over the term: Ewan, Karin, Chris, Brandon, Ben, Cath, and Bella.

Ewan, also known as the old man, has been with me for the whole term. He may say it was against his will, but we all know that he loves his role and retirement is still a long way off for him. Ewan has played an integral role in the research and development of all our policies and initiatives.

Bella, also known as Bellstar, has brought a fresh viewpoint on issues and contributed to a high standard as to how we respond to constituents and also policy development.

Cath, also known as Mother Hen, as my senior adviser has managed me—a difficult task in itself—and in fact the whole office in such a professional way that we continue to build momentum as we tick-box our achievements. We also had a lot of fun and made a lot of noise. I would like to thank Cath and my current team for the hard work that they have done during this term. It has put us in a great position going forward.

Thank you also to my dedicated team of volunteers, many of whom have been with me for over 10 years. I would also like to thank the Assembly staff and the support team that help make this Assembly run.

We have done politics differently. We have held community barbecues and sporting days, produced videos promoting local businesses, and made efforts to engage with a full range of groups, no matter what their views. We have developed a suite of


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