Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence, for the benefit of all members and particularly those who have served in the previous government, they may be familiar with Ms Barbara Belcher, who worked in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. I would like to make some remarks about Barbara, as she is retiring from the Australian Public Service. Barbara Belcher will be retiring on 8 April 2009 after a career in the APS spanning nearly 44 years, most of it in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Wouldn’t she have seen a thing or two!

There are not many members who have served in this place since it opened in May 1988. Those of you who have will doubtless remember Barbara. Among the various positions she has held, she was the parliamentary liaison officer in the House of Representatives between January 1988 and May 1990, and worked closely with the then Leader of the House, Kim Beazley, and the then Manager of Opposition Business, Wal Fife. She was, incidentally, the first woman to have held that position. Mr Beazley commented that everyone in the parliament knew who the real leader of the house was and therefore had all their conversations with Barbara, which made for more pleasant and more effective discussions than would otherwise have been the case.

In 1999 Barbara was appointed first assistant secretary of the government division of PM&C. In the 10 years that she has been in that position she has developed a reputation for common sense, probity and sound judgment that is, on most assessments, unsurpassed in the Australian Public Service. Prime ministers, ministers and senior officials have sought her views on a range of parliamentary and ethical questions confident in the knowledge that her advice would be well-founded and utterly reliable.

I first met Barbara on the day after the 2007 election when she arrived in Brisbane with the then Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Peter Shergold, to present me with the incoming government briefs. Without her efforts, the transition to government would have been much more arduous. I knew at that time that I had met an individual who was in many ways the epitome of the professional Public Servant that I was hoping to find: dedicated, apolitical, knowledgeable, discreet and ready to offer constructive advice. I am sure that my predecessor also held similar views.

Barbara, you are here in the advisers box with us. Can I say to Barbara on behalf of all members of the government, and I believe all members of the opposition, that this has been a Public Service career which is exemplary—exemplary in its professionalism and in the length of service you have provided the Commonwealth of Australia. For that, the parliament and the government thank you.

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