Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

With the redistribution that has just been handed down by the Australian Electoral Commission, it is with a great deal of sadness that I say goodbye to my constituents in the LGAs of Dungog, Great Lakes, the northern parts of Maitland and Port Stephens. It has been an honour to serve you, on and off since 1996.

The new areas that I inherit are going back to the future, where I gained most of the whole of the Maitland LGA and parts of the Cessnock LGA. I look forward to connecting, engaging and meeting with those constituents and listening to their concerns so that I can represent them in this parliament.

There are many issues, of course, that I am not aware of, because I have not represented those people before, particularly those in the Cessnock LGA. But, as we work together and find out the issues that are really burning for them, I will seek to represent those people here on the floor of this parliament to the best of my ability.

Over the years, the redistributions have been very unkind in Paterson, it having lost the Gloucester LGA, and the saddest part is: the people who you really connect to and make strong and lasting friendships with, you are no longer able to represent; yet you still maintain the friendships. I would like to thank them for their support, which has been there through thick and thin—through the tough challenges—and together, in the past, we have delivered many, many projects for the region. I now hand these areas over to the member for Lyne.

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