Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief because the motion that I read basically says it all. There were a couple of points I did want to make. I brought this motion forward willingly because I truly believe that, as elected representatives, we have to follow the guidelines. This is just putting it on paper and putting the motion together, but we have to follow it because we should believe in it. We have to be able to come to work every morning, treat our colleagues with
respect, treat them with integrity and some may wonder about that sometimes with some of the stuff that goes on in this Assembly, but we need to be able to go home in the evening, look ourselves in the mirror and have no problem with that reflection looking back at us because we’ve done what we set out to do. I believe in this motion. I try to abide by it. It’s not just the motion that I try to abide by it, it’s the honestly and the integrity. I think that’s something we need to bring to this Assembly. I think it’s something, in my couple of weeks here getting to know everybody, I think everybody here will agree to the same thing. We have to go about our work with integrity. We have to be honest. We’ve had issues in the past, but that’s where they should be left. They should be left in the past and we should go forward from here.
This is a motion that I truly believe in. It’s a motion that I willingly brought forward and I wanted to be the mover of this motion. I believe in all the principles that it says in this motion. It’s a very broad motion. It shouldn’t be just a play on words. We shouldn’t just throw these words around loosely; accountability, integrity, honesty. These are words that we should believe in and we should bring them to this institution. I believe in this institution. We should bring them here and this is something we have to believe in, otherwise, if you don’t believe in all these principles, we may as well just stay home because we won’t be serving anybody any good if we come down here and we have the wrong attitude and we don’t believe in the principles of integrity and honour.
So it’s an honour, Mr. Speaker, for me to bring this motion forward because it’s something that I truly believe in and it’s just not a play on words for myself. Thank you.
---Applause