Good morning delegates and thankyou for that most warm welcome.

I would like to begin by acknowledging Canberra’s first people, the Ngunnawal people, for the important contribution they continue to make to our community.

I would also like to acknowledge all delegates here today - you and the party members you represent are the heart and soul of the labour movement.

Thankyou for representing them here today.

I would like to make special mention of our elected representatives here today, to acknowledge the work they do - day in and day out - representing constituents and furthering the labor cause.

• Kate Lundy
• Gai Brotmann
• Andrew Leigh

To my ACT Assembly colleagues a big and special thankyou for the tremendous support you have given me over the past 8 weeks throughout the transition to the new leadership team and the new labor caucus. The focus, energy and unity of our Assembly caucus is clear for all to see and is an enormous source of support to me as leader.

Many have commented on how smooth the leadership change has been and can I say it has been a huge team effort – so can I thank: my deputy Andrew Barr; Simon Corbell; Joy Burch; John Hargreaves; Mary Porter and of course our newest member – Dr Chris Bourke – who has already hit the ground running and is a very talented addition to the Labor caucus and a fantastic new member for Ginninderra.

One man that has laboured tirelessly and expertly to further the Labor cause in the ACT and beyond is former Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, He has been a wonderful supporter of me personally but the Labor cause most specifically – I am very proud to have had the opportunity to work with him and learn from him. And I am absolutely delighted that later today he will be awarded with life membership to ACT Labor.

Friends, I cannot remember how many ACT ALP conferences I’ve come to but it would be somewhere in the order of 14. I first attended as a conference delegate as part of a union delegation, then, later, as a sub-branch delegate, then, later still, as a parliamentary delegate and today I stand before you as the Leader of ACT Labor’s parliamentary arm.

The Australian Labor Party is a party of ideals and ideas and annual conference is a day where we all come together, as equals, to improve our party. To debate and discuss big ideas and small ideas, the controversial and the non-controversial; the local, the national and the international. And we do all this in the most open and democratic forum provided by any political party in Australia.

Can I say it is with enormous humility that I stand before you today to give my inaugural address as Chief Minister and can I say (to almost use a corny term…) it’s almost like a dream come true – I say almost because the shy young woman who joined the ALP back in the mid-nineties never imagined that one day I would be a leader within this great party of ours.

I, like so many other members, joined this party because I loved this city and I wanted to be a part of its future. I didn’t at that stage know how I could contribute, just that I wanted too...

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