Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

Some tips for the government whip? From that day on we have both learnt to respect our whips. That is very wise. It is even more important when you are the Leader of the House or the Manager of Opposition Business. I really do want to place on record my enormous gratitude to Alex Somlyay, the Chief Opposition Whip. He is a man of great integrity. He is someone who has been able to manage all the emotions associated with going from government to opposition, of which there are many. Very few people in our ranks have been elated at going into opposition. Alex Somlyay, being such an impressive man with great values, has been able to manage in very difficult circumstances. I wish Alex and Jenny all the very best for Christmas. I recognise that he is both a former minister and a long-serving member of parliament. We could not be served by a better person as Chief Opposition Whip.

I also place on record my deep appreciation for the member for Ryan, who is also a whip, and the member for Forrest, Nola Marino, who replaced Geoff Prosser. As a new member it must be quite a challenge becoming a whip. I also thank Kay Hull, the member for Riverina, who is a stoic person with great fortitude, and the member for Hinkler, Paul Neville, who is a wonderful guy. He represents Bundaberg and the Bundy Bear. He has held the seat of Hinkler during some very challenging times.

I also take this opportunity to thank the Chief Government Whip and his two assistants, the member for Shortland and the member for Werriwa, for their very agreeable attitude towards the place and for their cooperation. A lot is done that keeps the place functioning but also keeps the humanity in the building. The whips do that, and it is a wonderful thing that they do and I really appreciate it. I appreciate the great touch footy skills of the member for Werriwa and I hope he recovers from his injury soon and takes a good rest.

Even though I have dealt with the whips first I really want to place on record my appreciation to you, Mr Speaker. I do not know how effusive I should be lest it create some level of controversy. I do not always agree with Alan Ramsey but I think on this occasion I just might. Even though it can be enormously frustrating to you, as it is for us, to deal with the different challenges in the chair, I really appreciate the fact that you are engaging and consultative and that you also know, through your vast experience, when it is the right moment to take a tough stand and also when it is the right moment to just let things flow a bit. An umpire can always make the situation worse and you are able to read people and I really admire you for that. I admire you more for the fact that you did the hard yards of opposition. You were very respected as a Deputy Speaker in opposition and you have not changed as Speaker. That is what impresses me the most, Mr Speaker.

I also take this opportunity to thank the deputy speakers—Anna Burke and Bruce Scott—and all the members of the Speaker’s panel. I particularly thank the clerks, Ian Harris and Bernard Wright. They are wonderful men who are very focused on the interests of the parliament and the people of Australia. I thank the clerks at the table, Robyn McClelland and Robyn Webber, and the Sergeant-at-Arms, David Elder, and the Deputy and Assistant Sergeant.

In particular I also thank my deputy, the member for Cowper. He is a really decent guy. He is so unlike his predecessor—not because his predecessor was not a decent guy but his predecessor was, as a deputy speaker, ruthless. You were never left in any doubt about his views, but I really liked him as well. I am very pleased with the fact that the people of Cowper are very well served by decent representatives and decent men. There is no doubt that Luke Hartsuyker is a very decent man.

I also take this opportunity to thank the many people working within the framework of the House—all the House attendants and the Chamber Research Office. I totally agree with the Leader of the House about Lupco—what a great man! You know what, Lupco? I really hope you have a great Christmas with your beautiful family. There is his happy smile and his engagement every morning. I have finally got my word right with ‘dobro’. We are all learning a little bit. I grew up knowing Arabic swear words rather than ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’ greetings in another language. That was part of growing up.

I would like to thank the Department of Parliamentary Services: the Secretary, Alan Thompson; the Deputy Secretary, David Kenny; the Parliamentary Librarian, Roxanne Missingham—the Parliamentary Library is an invaluable resource in opposition, as so many have said; all the Hansard staff, who do a great job and work incredible hours; very importantly, the Comcar drivers; the security staff, who are always very happy, particularly first thing in the morning; and all the attendants and cleaners, who are genuinely wonderful people and who work incredibly hard during the night, many of them working numerous jobs. We are blessed to have good people around us in this building just to remind us of why we are here.

Within the framework of the department I also thank my own staff: in particular, James Newbury, who is here, and who is the man who manages to hold us all together for question time and various other parts of the day; and my chief of staff, Andrew Kirk, who has a brain the size of Texas—and a history too; he knows where every skeleton is buried—and is a very good man whom I really appreciate. I say to all my staff and my team: I really appreciate your work.

It has been a hell of a year, and it has been a challenging year. I want to save my greatest tribute of the year to my mate, my flatmate and probably the most decent person I have sat in this chamber with, and that is Brendan Nelson. He is a man of great personal integrity. He took us through a very difficult time. The member for Bradfield is one of those people who, quite properly, carries his emotions with him—and thank God he does, because that makes him the human being that he is. It was a torturous year for some of us in many ways. I cannot think of anything that is more torturous than going through leadership battles. As my colleagues in the Labor Party know—and I have spoken to many of them about it—it is a terrible thing to have to do. There are a whole lot of reasons why I think that Brendan is a very decent and good man. I say on this public recording in this chamber as well as everywhere I go that I feel very blessed to call him a mate. I wish Brendan and all of his family, friends and staff all the very best for Christmas and for the days ahead.

I was very proud to serve as Brendan’s Manager of Opposition Business. There was the celebrated moment when you displayed great patience, Mr Speaker, and that was the moment of Cardboard Kev. I can now disclose publicly for the very first time that the idea for Cardboard Kev came from the member for Bradfield. He said to me, ‘How about this to close down the Friday sittings?’ I said, ‘That is beautiful.’ I do not think that when he suggested it he thought that I would continue with it. I had to firstly get a smiling photo of the Prime Minister and then it went through the whole process. It saved us from Friday sittings for a whole lot of reasons. When I showed Cardboard Kev to the member for Bradfield, he said, ‘Oh, mate’—as he does—‘that’s fantastic; if it works it’s my idea and if it doesn’t it’s yours.’ Sometimes visuals are far more powerful than words, and that is what we underestimate in a chamber that has a great history. That followed with: ‘How am I going to get the message on alcopops?’ Well, I will put some grog on the dispatch box, and that will focus people’s minds. Mr Speaker, I appreciate your tolerance during those moments when we were trying to get across a very important message, which we managed to do.

I also take the opportunity to thank my very good mate and longstanding friend Malcolm Turnbull, who has taken over as the Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition. He is a hugely impressive person, but he also has a longstanding belief in the quality of human beings, which I admire, and which I have always admired, and that is why I have supported his work throughout his entire political career. I really enjoy working with him. He challenges you and he prods you—but do you know what? He is a really decent guy. Do you know what I admire most, Mr Speaker? I love the thought that people are prepared to make personal sacrifices to come to this place. It does not matter whether you are a person of limited means or a person of great means; anyone who comes into this place prepared to make a sacrifice to get here is someone who deserves to be here. Ted Mack once said to me: ‘When you look around the chamber you might think to yourself, “How on earth did they get there?” but never underestimate anyone who stands in this place.’ It was good advice because I do not underestimate anyone who comes into this place and makes great sacrifices to get here. I really appreciate that.

I very much appreciate the contribution and hard work of the member for Curtin, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who is someone who is incredibly determined to make a difference. I thoroughly enjoy working with her. I am glad that no-one is lip-reading over there about a whole range of different things during question time. Finally, I turn to the Leader of the National Party. Few people would recall that my first job in politics was working for a National Party member of parliament, George Souros, in the New South Wales parliament, who was minister for sport. He was also Minister Assisting the Premier, and that is where I first got involved in the sale of banks. It is ironic that today we were talking about the government owning a new bank, and I was once selling them. In fact, governments around the world are buying banks, so there is always a post-politics career in selling them again. The worm turns, doesn’t it? You start your legal career selling banks and then you end up coming into government and you might end up buying them again, and then you can retire selling them. It is unbelievable.

It has been an extraordinary year. The global financial crisis is going to change our lives forever. Whilst there was no joy on my part earlier in the year predicting that we could be heading into recession, and I was maligned by the government for it—I have to speak from the heart—I could see it. There was a whole lot of reasons why. The pain really hurts today. A number of friends of mine in Sydney rang me today and said they had been made redundant. They have young families. They are in their late 30s, early 40s and they are thinking to themselves, ‘How am I going to pay my bills? How can I pay the mortgage?’ It is that human side of it. In this place we can debate the logical issues, we can debate the macro issues, we can even debate some of the micro issues; but it is the impact of our words and the impact of our decisions on the lives of others that comes home to roost when you see individuals in pain and you have this immense desire to do something about it.

I believe that everyone in this place genuinely wants to make a positive difference for others. There is no doubt in my mind about that. Everyone in this place, everyone in this chamber, and everyone in the Senate wants to make a positive difference for others. We have different routes that we believe should be taken, but what impresses me most is that we resolve these issues in this chamber and then we move on. I am immensely proud to be a member of parliament. I feel honoured to be given a role as Manager of Opposition Business and I feel privileged to serve with everyone else in this chamber. To all of you, I wish you a very merry Christmas, a wonderful Christmas, and a happy New Year. It gives us an opportunity to rest and, as the member for Batman said quite rightly today, to recharge not only our physical batteries but also our mental batteries. People do not take enough care of their mental health.

Christmas is also a spiritual time. It is a time for family and friends and it is a time for all of us to remind ourselves of what is important in life. I am looking forward to spending time this Christmas with my three-year-old son, who for the first time only yesterday said, ‘Santa is coming,’ and with my two-year-old daughter—time I never had as a minister. I barely had time to have them as a minister. I am a very late dad, but it is a great moment. Mr Speaker, thank so very much for your tolerance, your efforts and your contribution.

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