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

I also want to thank the cabinet, the ministry and the parliamentary secretaries. I am proud to lead a united and disciplined and diligent team that has worked with a singular focus to implement a challenging and wide-ranging reform program. I am fortunate to work with such a strong team with such extraordinary depth of talent—talent that is evident when you work with the team every day. I am very proud of their contribution to the cabinet, as a ministry, as an executive. The Leader of the House, Albo—where is Albo?—for me is absolutely indispensable, not least because of his sense of humour when things are going right and things are going wrong. He brings also a sense of order to the House and manages to do so notwithstanding the fact that he has a daily collaboration with the member for Sturt. I thank him for his work. He brings a great sense of parliamentary humour to this place, I believe in the great traditions of former parliamentarians such as Fred Daly and Jim Killen. This is good for the overall operation of this place.

The government’s Senate team leadership, Chris Evans and Steve Conroy, have the enormous challenge of getting every piece of legislation through a sometimes unruly and sometimes unpredictable Senate chamber and we appreciate their terrific work. I turn to the Chief Government Whip, Roger Price. Where is Roger? He is absent as well. He is obviously out whipping somebody! He is very much pastor-in-chief when it comes to individual members of parliament who may for one reason or other be going through a difficult time, or who are dealing with challenging circumstances, and his role is also to make sure that the part relates to the whole in the operations of a governing party. Roger, I just place on record my great appreciation for your great work as Chief Government Whip. It is hard to accurately reflect on Roger’s precise role in this place but I suppose he would be a combination of sage, a sensitive source of wisdom, advice and support for so many, and a very, very good cook at a barbecue.

To each of the government’s members of parliament and each senator serving in the government go my thanks. To all those who are members of parliament and who work as backbenchers, can I say how much I appreciate what you do in your constituencies and what you do in the day-to-day work of this place. The member for Lilley and I were elected 10 years or so ago and we know full well the challenges from our own experience of working hard as a constituency member of parliament. We honour the work that each of you do in your communities. This is really important ground-level pastoral work in dealing with community life and the challenges that are faced by our local communities—often by people in acute individual need. For the day-to-day work that you have done—each of you in ways which will never ever be known on the national stage or covered in any reporting in the newspaper—in trying to make individual lives better, I really do thank you and salute the work that you have done. Your work in parliamentary committees, I also acknowledge, is very important in keeping this great institution of the parliament working.

I also acknowledge the work of opposition members as they seek to service the needs of their constituents as well. Most of this occurs invisibly but it is a very important function that we perform. So many people in the community have no idea about how to work their way through the myriad confusion that represents the system of government for them and they need help in negotiating their way through it. I salute the valuable role that all members of parliament play in helping meet the very practical needs of individual members of the community who would otherwise be friendless in getting the help that they need.

I also thank the Australian Labor Party national organisation. To the whole team at the ALP national secretariat—and the secretariat faces a very busy year ahead with the federal election—we wish them a very good break over Christmas; may they enjoy their three days off. To the staff of each of the members and senators in the Labor Party, whether they are our electorate staff, staff who act as ministerial advisers or others, I thank them for their extraordinary work. Our staff in this place, and I am sure I also reflect the view of other members from other parties, become very much part of our official family. They become more than that; they become part of our wider family and without their work and support, frankly it would not be possible for us to act effectively in this place.

Can I especially thank our electorate officers on all sides of politics for the very difficult job that they do in dealing with people in distress. This is really important. I know full well from my own electoral staff in Brisbane the range of tasks that they are asked to perform. I also say to the public service, which services diligently and faithfully the democratically elected government of the day, how much I appreciate their work in the year that has just passed. My own department, Prime Minister and Cabinet, in particular to the secretary of the department, Terry Moran, and the entire Australian Public Service, you have handled an enormous workload during the course of the last year. Public servants in departments and agencies have done an exceptional job managing challenges such as bushfires, the global recession, the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, the response to the challenges of the G20, the substantial reform programs that the government is implementing in education, infrastructure, financial services, health and hospitals, and partnership with the Council of Australian Governments.

The government has been implementing a formidable legislative and reform program. The Australian Public Service from time to time has been straining under the weight of it but I would use this opportunity to reflect again how much we appreciate the work that they have done diligently, independently, in working for the government of the day.

To my own staff: I thank them for the extraordinary work that they put in working for an exceptionally demanding boss—that is, yours truly. Without fail, my own staff rise to the occasion. I thank them for it. My Chief of Staff, Alister Jordan, who has now been with me for a long, long time—

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