House debates

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Statements by Members

McCaffery, Mayor Genia

1:45 pm

Photo of Joe HockeyJoe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

I want to pay tribute to Genia McCaffery, who is retiring as the Mayor of North Sydney after having served four terms and also having served as President of the Local Government Association of New South Wales and President of the Australian Local Government Association. Genia is a very decent person, and she has been an outstanding Mayor of North Sydney. She has been a community fighter. She is someone who has stood up for our local community in the face of very challenging circumstances.

I took great pleasure in campaigning with her to try and obtain Graythwaite as an accessible site for the people of North Sydney. We failed in that endeavour, but she was incredibly successful in having the coal loader preserved as a community facility on Sydney Harbour.

Genia has always put the interests of the people of North Sydney first. She has dedicated herself full time to what is an important job and a challenging job. It is a diverse community in North Sydney. From commercial interests to residential interests, the community has been served extremely well by Genia. I thank her for her service and wish her well for the future.