Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

Like all members of the House, I am looking forward to a Christmas spent with family, particularly with my father, John; my mother, Moira; my sister, Alison; and my niece and nephew, Jenna and Tom. My mother and father, in particular, managed to become television personalities this year, including in recent days on the media in Adelaide, but we are looking forward to a quieter Christmas than perhaps the year has been.

I acknowledge at the start the work of Kim Beazley over a long period of time as a Labor leader and a member of this parliament. I echo the sentiments of the Leader of the Opposition and, indeed, the Deputy Prime Minister, who has just spoken, and the Prime Minister. Obviously this has been a very difficult week for Mr Beazley and our thoughts are with him. Of course Kim was a Labor legend when I came to this parliament in 1998. He was already a man of huge reputation in the Labor Party and beyond, having served so successfully as a long-term minister in the Hawke and Keating governments and having led Labor so ably in the 1996 to 1998 period. It was only when I came here in 1998 that I got to know Kim personally. It has been terrific to be able to work with him. He is a man of huge generosity of spirit. I am sure that we are all looking forward to seeing him back here next year, having got through these very difficult times and very difficult circumstances particularly for his family.

I also specifically acknowledge the work of Jenny Macklin, the member for Jagajaga, in her capacity as Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Jenny and I have known each other for a long period of time. I have been trying to reflect on how long, but every time I do so it makes me reflect on how much we have both aged, so I have stopped trying to do that! It has to be at least 20 years and possibly a little longer than that.

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