Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—On behalf of the Greens I would like to join Senator Abetz and Senator Wong in wishing everybody a very happy and very safe Christmas when we leave this place to go home to finally spend time with our families. It has been a big year—I agree with Senator Wong. For some of us it is not quite finished. There is unfinished Senate business still to be done in Western Australia, so it does not quite seem like we are finished. I hope all of us will take the opportunity to join our families, enjoy some festive time and reflect on what we are actually doing this for and why we spend time away from them.

I wish to join the President, Senator Abetz and Senator Wong in extending thanks to the people who really make this place function. I would also particularly like to mention Rosemary Laing for her support and the procedures clerk, who is always there to help us when we are doing fiddly amendments and say: 'We have changed our mind. We can't do that. We have to do this.' They are always accommodating and ready to help, same with the Table Office. I thank you very much.

I have been asked by Senator Milne to particularly mention Comcar—although I was going to—and to make a suggestion to you, Mr President. That is, sometimes the Comcar drivers might be invited in to look around the House, because we are told that some Comcar drivers have never seen the gardens. Given the beautiful work that the gardeners do—and a big shout-out to the gardeners—it seems a shame that people who are outside our doors, every day that we are here, have not seen the beauty of those gardens. It is a suggestion to the President that they be invited in to see what we see every day.

I would like to extend thanks to the Greens staff, who have worked so extraordinarily hard in this place. They do go above and beyond the call. In particular, a shout-out to Emma Bull, who is now our chief of staff and was whips clerk and has been the manager of parliamentary business for us. She is a most extraordinarily talented person who keeps us on the straight and narrow—and it means that she has a mention in Hansard for the fourth time in a row, so I will mention that. I would also like to particularly say thank you to my staff: Jess McColl, who is the best policy officer you could imagine; Rose Newbury-Freeman, who keeps my office shipshape; Chris Redman, who is my media officer and who does the most amazing work; and obviously Nick, who works on campaigns and community campaigns for me. They are a fantastic team. I know we all have fantastic teams and we do not get to mention them often enough. I want to give credit where it is due: we all could not stand here unless our staff were there, 100 per cent on deck. When you come from Western Australia, you ask a lot of your staff to be away from their loved ones—I see Western Australians and other people who travel long distances nodding their heads. You ask a lot from them to be away from home for so long. So thank you. Please, everybody, have a safe, happy Christmas and New Year; and get lots of rest, because this team is certainly going to be taking it up to all of you in the New Year.