Betty Kiernan
Speech by Betty Kiernan MEMBER FOR MOUNT ISA Hansard Tuesday, 31 October 2006 MAIDEN SPEECH Mrs KIERNAN (Mount Isa—ALP) (2.50 pm): I am pleased, proud and most of all very privileged to speak for the first time in this House as the member for Mount Isa. On behalf of the people of my electorate, I extend our sincere congratulations on the election of the Hon. Mike Reynolds as Speaker of this parliament. As members representing people in electorates north of the Tropic of Capricorn and, in my case, west of the Great Divide, it is indeed a pleasure to keep the esteemed position of Speaker in the north. It is of great personal pride for me to stand here today as the representative for the seat of Mount Isa while I join this 52nd Parliament in a historic fourth term for the Labor Party. I am delighted and somewhat humbled at my good fortune. I believe I am making personal history today by being the first woman to be elected and, indeed, the first born member for the seat. My father, James, and my mother, Mary, travelled to Mount Isa in the early 1950s by train from Grafton, where my brothers and sisters, Ian, Francis, David and Pamela, were born. I was the last child and the only Queenslander of the family. My father moved to Mount Isa to work initially in the mine as an electrician. He left the mine to work for the Cloncurry Shire Council, the then administrator of Mount Isa, to manage the town power supply.
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