Carter David: Adjournment — Sittings of the HouseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCarter David: Adjournment — Sittings of the House[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8740. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Mr SPEAKER: Honourable members this Chamber has sat for approximately 550 hours through 2015 and I know many of you have spent a considerable part of those 550 hours here. As I bring this debate to a conclusion I certainly have no intention of taking it through to 551 hours. Can I just note as some of you have noted that it has been a robust House this year. It is a political debating chamber; I expect nothing less. There have been political tensions through the year but I do want to acknowledge the comments—and I appreciated the comments—from the Leader of the Opposition that were given in a point of order at the start of question time.Can I just make a couple of comments about things that have occurred outside the House. In that regard I want to acknowledge the work of David Stevenson as the general manager of the Parliamentary Service. He is showing leadership and I think that under his guidance there has been a change within the Parliamentary Service whereby we are seeing it concentrate on servicing members of Parliament. There is still some work to be done but there has been tremendous progress in that area.I also want to acknowledge the seamless change of guard with the Clerk of the House. David Wilson you have been a pleasure to work with over the last 6 months. I congratulate you.I say to my fellow presiding officers the Deputy Speaker the Hon Chester Borrows; Lindsay Tisch; and the Hon Trevor Mallard that I think we are a creditable team. We work hard in this place to preside over some fairly difficult debates in a way that is truly unbiased. Thank you to that team for your help.One of the other things I wanted to note was the work of the Officers of Parliament Committee. Through this year we have made progress now with the appointment of Judge Peter Boshier. He starts tomorrow as the Chief Ombudsman. We were also involved in the appointment of the Deputy Auditor-General Greg Schollum who took up his position in September. I take this opportunity of thanking members who sat on that select committee for their work. I think we can be confident in the success of those two appointments.To my own office staff Lisa Kinloch Oliver Whitehead and of course Roland Todd I think we have a good office. There are times of tension in any office. The team helps me in a professional way with distinction and I extend my thanks to them.Also as many have mentioned in the debate I want to acknowledge all of the people who make our jobs possible as parliamentarians: the Serjeant-at-Arms Brent Smith messengers security staff telephonists cleaners receptionists travel office staff catering staff library staff VIP drivers and I have probably missed some. All of those people work in a very courteous way providing the best possible service to us as members of Parliament and I know we all extend to them our best wishes for a merry Christmas.Finally to honourable members can I take this opportunity of wishing you all a very merry and safe Christmas. I am looking forward to seeing you back early in the new year for the battle of 2016. But now it is whānau time. Let us go and enjoy it.Motion agreed to.