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

I thank all members who are present in the chamber and everyone who is listening to today’s debate. As the parliamentary year draws to a close, it is a time for us all to reflect on the year that has passed, the year that lies ahead and the season of rest and restoration which lies ahead for us over this coming summer. Also, in discussion and in reflections like this it is a time to rise above the hand-to-hand combat of the chamber and perhaps in recent days, in the case of the opposition, the hand-to-hand combat within the party room. It is a time also to reflect upon the period of rest and restoration ahead. It is a time to extend good wishes to all those in this chamber and beyond who contribute to the great institutions of our democracy and to wish them well for Christmas and the holiday season.

This has in many senses been a very long year—a historic year. Remember, at the beginning of this year we saw the inauguration of President Obama. That now seems such a long time ago, but what an extraordinary change in American political history did the election of President Obama bring about. The 44th President of the United States, the election of the first president of African-American origin was an event of significance not just to Americans but to America’s friends right around the world.

It was only a few short weeks later, on 7 February, that we experienced the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria—the worst bushfires of any time in our nation’s settled history. A total of 173 lives were lost in the firestorm that swept through towns like Callignee, Flowerdale, Humevale, Kinglake, Koornalla, Marysville, Narbethong, Strathewen, St Andrews, Steels Creek, Taggerty and Wandong. I know the Leader of the Opposition, other opposition members, including the honourable member for McMillan, who has just entered the chamber, and members on this side of the House have spent time with some of those communities during the course of 2009 seeking to do what practically can be done to support a very long process of recovery for them.

The nation came together in remarkable fashion in the days that followed Black Saturday with support services, welfare agencies, public servants, volunteers and donations pouring in from right across Australia, and right across the world. On behalf of the government, I would simply say to all those who rose to the occasion of responding to those in need in the Victorian bushfires how grateful I am for Australia having shown itself to be at its absolute best—at its absolute best. It made you proud to be an Australian, seeing the level of physical, practical and emotional support being delivered to people whose lives had literally been destroyed. I would also commend those honourable members who have been working hard to support fire affected communities within their constituencies. I know that has been a very long and arduous process, and a continuing process into the new year.

As Christmas approaches we reach out to all of those who have suffered the loss of family and friends at homes in those fires. We know that this will be a difficult, lonely and sorrowful time for many people. Our thoughts are with you at this time. It is worthy always of a moment’s reflection as we sit down around Christmas trees on Christmas Day on those for whom Christmas is a very sad occasion as they reflect on the recent absence of loved ones and particularly loved ones who have been taken from us in the most tragic and violent of circumstances.

I want to acknowledge the approximately 3,000 troops who are currently serving our nation abroad in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Sudan, the Middle East, the Solomons, Timor Leste and elsewhere. They do Australia proud. They are doing a remarkable job in our collective name. Just last weekend we formally welcomed back those 18,000 troops who have served during the six-year long Operation Catalyst in Iraq. We thank them and honour them for their service to the nation in response to the decision of the democratically elected government of Australia. There is no higher service to our country than that of our men and women of our armed forces. Many of those in our armed forces will be serving during the Christmas and holiday season and will not be spending Christmas and the new year with their families. They are making great sacrifices on behalf of us all and we remember them especially today. We also remember at this Christmas time those families who have lost loved ones serving in our armed forces during the past year. This again is a difficult season for them.

Christmas is a time of celebration and a time when we all reflect on the absolute importance of families. I would encourage all members of this place and members of the wider Australian family to take this opportunity to spend as much time as they can with their families and their loved ones. As we often reflect in this place during times of great difficulty, at the end of all things in this life our families remain the most important. Often it is only when we are confronted with the physicality of separation from families that we see in full stark reality their absolute importance to our everyday lives. I am sure that I speak on behalf of all members here as we affirm to our families, who endure our presence in this place, how much we love them and how much we value their continued support for our service in this parliament.

To the members and senators on the government and opposition benches and also on the cross-benches who engage in the great democratic debates and other parliamentary work that occurs in the House and the Senate, my best wishes for the time that you have for your families and loved ones this Christmas. The media may not always be sympathetic to politicians, but the truth is that political office comes at a great cost to personal and family lives, and of course our friends in the media also have to endure some of those pressures as well and the impact on their families. Being associated with national and political life is a tough and arduous business with very considerable personal impacts, and that extends to families. We bear all our families in mind as this season of Christmas reflection approaches.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Turnbull, and his wife, Lucy, and their family, that I wish them a very restful Christmas and a proper restoration for the holiday season. I also say to those other office bearers of the opposition—the deputy leader who is not here, the Leader of the National Party, and to other members of the frontbench of both the Liberal and the National parties and to all Liberal and National party members and Independent members, that they should receive from me and Therese the genuine compliments of the season and a hope and expectation that they find rest and restoration with their families and loved ones as well.

I want to acknowledge especially Harry Jenkins, who serves in the role of Speaker—and my notes here say—with ‘composure, good humour and even-handedness’. I am sure that all members would reflect here on a day such as this that being the Speaker of the House of Representatives, effectively since the days of the ‘long parliament’, has not been an entirely, shall we say, satisfactory career experience. But since the days of the long parliament and the short parliament, the business of being Speaker has been arduous—in days past it was more than arduous; it was physically challenging. Speaker Jenkins, we thank you for the work that you have done, occupying the position of Speaker in this parliament and seeking to bring order to what otherwise would be the chaos of our parliamentary deliberations.

Our thanks also to the Deputy Speaker, Anna Burke—where is Anna? I would invite Anna to come into the chamber. She also assists in keeping this House in order when the television cameras from time to time have lost interest and the parliament is going through the grinding hard work of its legislative program. I thank all other members of the Speaker’s panel including the member for Braddon, who was here just a minute ago and who was unceremoniously turfed from the chair.

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