I thank the people of Blacktown for electing me for the third time to represent them in the New South Wales Parliament, Australia's oldest Parliament. I wish to let each and every constituent know that never a moment goes by when I am not focusing on the important task of ensuring that the views of my constituency are strongly represented in the Parliament. To be elected requires enormous support and help from many people. I highlight some of the campaign team but I apologise to anyone who I miss. No doubt they will be mentioned in future speeches. Rebel Hanlon was my campaign director and Rachael Hanlon is the Blacktown Labor State electoral committee secretary. They are fabulous partners in life and have endless energy for their community volunteering and involvement in the labour movement. I sincerely appreciate the many years of support that they have provided to me and to the community.

Many people helped out at pre-poll, handing out at railway stations and through to election day. Huge thanks go to Maria Car, who helped out for the whole week at pre-poll. I thank those who have provided immense help to me through many elections. They include councillors Carol Israel and Kathie Collins; Emmanuel Tolentino; Adrian and Julie Michaels; Satish Kumar; Chris Pilao; Jenni and Stuart McKinder; Geoff and Cherie Harrison; Tony Jansson; Balraj Sangha and his family; Michele, Jim and Julie Facchin; Carmen Portelli; Frank Mossfield; Jack Miller; Jim Kelly; and Martha Lynch, a life member of the Labor Party.

An army of approximately 140 volunteers came to hand out on the day—too many to list, but I will have a go. I give a special mention to Ian Burr; Seema Balasubramanian; Jay Hosur; Adel Nakhla; Sarat and Anjula Singh; Julie Jones-Webb and Raelene; Keith McMahon; Gus Garcia; Sajana Nand; Parma Ram; Isaac Kisimba; Barry O'Donnell; Bernadette Hartmann; Titilia Brown; Max Pondal; Jade Cadelina; Vijay Singh; Zulfi Khan; Atoy and Tess Sayas; Fiona Scully; Elizabeth Dunlop; Christine Nalzaro; Ahlya Rentala; Marival D'jamirze; Edward Dong; Maya Uluc; Yildiz Zeynel; Sudhir Lodh; Bilvika Abburi; and Misha D'jamirze. I thank each and every one of them for their personal support in the campaign.

I give a huge shout-out to all the then shadows, now Ministers, who popped out to Blacktown and the surrounding electorates. I particularly recognise Peter Primrose, MLC, who spent a number of days on pre‑poll supporting both the Blacktown and Winston Hills electorates. One of the key reasons that I was re-elected as member for Blacktown is the hard work and dedication of my electorate staff. They go beyond expectations in assisting constituents. They also put many hours of their personal time into supporting my election campaign. The team is led by Elizabeth Banks, who supports and mentors the staff and is a great source of support for me and my family. I thank Elizabeth for all she does. The remaining jobs are job-shared between Wendy Chen, Kim Campbell, Ebony O'Connor and Justine Ndayi.

Casual staff include John Costelloe, Rameez Parkar and Nicholas Nikolaidis. During the last term, Angela Humphries stood in as the senior electoral officer when Liz was on maternity leave. My family is always a wonderful source of help and inspiration. My sweet bride, Anne, and son, Stephen Junior, were involved in every part of the campaign. Unfortunately, bragging rights in the pre-polling booth results go to my wife, Anne, supported by Maria, my son and the team at the Doonside pre-poll. I was based at the Blacktown pre-poll with Peter Primrose, MLC. While a similar number of votes were cast at both booths, Anne and her team scored 500—or approximately 15 per cent—more first preference votes than me. Maybe I should not be at the polling booths. I thank each and every member of the team. As everyone in this Chamber knows, having the support of the family and all the volunteers goes a long way towards us being here.