Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition joins in thanking and congratulating Anne Dowd for her work over the years. In praising and describing her work, I will avoid the acronym in case it gets cut into an ad, but the work of the parliamentary liaison officer is extraordinary work. Many on our side will remember Anne's work within the department during the time that we were in minority government in particular, when a whole lot of procedures had to be changed and different ordering of work had to be organised quite differently to what had happened previously. Her skills then became helpful again for the other side of politics during the latter part of the last term.

The work of the parliamentary liaison officer effectively makes whoever's in government look more organised than they would otherwise look. So you can only imagine what we would be at different points without the parliamentary liaison officer. For Anne, the term 'public servant' is a noble one and the words, when you consider what they say, say it all about the work that Anne has done, and we wish her well.

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