Page 2308 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020

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I thank my colleagues, particularly Nicole; thank you for your advice, support and friendship. It is very much appreciated. I thank Andrew, Mark, James, Giulia, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Candice, Elizabeth, Vicki, and of course our late colleague Steve Doszpot.

I thank those in the wonderful committee office—in particular, Brian, Annemieke and Andréa. I thank the wonderful Clerk’s office, the wonderful attendants, who always give us such a warm greeting, the underrated library and Hansard team, education, IT, HR and all of the other areas. I thank the PCO, the unsung heroes of this place. I thank all of the cleaners, especially, of late, Femi, who is always so warm when he comes by.

To Yasmin, Angus and Annabel, thank you for putting up with me. I thank my parents and parents-in-law. It is a team effort; I am out a fair bit. It is wonderful knowing that they are just as motivated and dedicated as I am to this cause. It is not forever. Politics cannot be forever, but when you are in it, you play hard.

We have a wonderful opportunity in 50 days time. There is a clear path to victory for the Canberra Liberals. It is tough—it is always tough—but it is very achievable. We are pleased to have Josh and John in the party, and all of the wonderful branches, including Yerrabi, who support us. On 17 October, every vote matters—every vote in every electorate. We will be doing everything we can to hoover up every last one of them. Canberra needs us to do well. Canberra needs a change of government and we can make that happen.

MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (7.46): I first want to thank the residents of the Ginninderra electorate. Four years ago they made me their representative in this place and in doing so they gave me an implicit charge to make sure that their concerns, their hopes and their ideas would be heard. I was deeply honoured to be given this responsibility by the people of Belconnen, and my gratitude for their trust has only grown. My desire to live up to that trust has guided every word I have spoken, every motion I have moved, every petition I have tabled, every question I have asked and every letter I have written on their behalf.

I rise as well to thank my family. When I became a member of this Assembly, in many ways it turned our established routines upside down and sometimes inside out. My devoted husband has been my rock, and I am grateful for the individual sacrifices that each of my five children has made. I doubt they fully understood back in 2016 that helping mum deliver campaign flyers before school on frosty mornings would be just the beginning of their contributions.

I, likewise, thank the staff who keep this place running. I am grateful for the support provided to the committees I have served on, for the attendants, the librarians, those in the Hansard office, those in chamber support and so on. Their competence and cheerfulness have certainly made taking on this role much easier than it otherwise would have been.

I thank my own staff as well—Brett, Sylvia, Joe and Tahi. Their unwavering loyalty has strengthened me. Their collective talents have made the impossible somehow


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