Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thought for a moment the Speaker thought it might have been Con Brio from the Comedy Company in the 1990s and wondered whether we were going to ask a question about his well-known wife, Maria Brio, from that program. When we turn our minds back to it, there is of course another character from the Comedy CompanyKylie Mole, who bears a close resemblance to one of the members of the government on the other side. In fact, she has just turned up. The Deputy Prime Minister came in on cue—old Kylie Mole from the Comedy Companyand no doubt she will have some things to say herself on the valedictory.

I would also like to acknowledge the Leader of the House, Anthony Albanese, who obviously has to work with me relatively closely on a daily basis to make this place work. While most people outside this House think that we are constantly at loggerheads, of course it would not work if there were not the capacity—often behind the Speaker’s chair or even across the chamber—to make arrangements so that this great democracy of ours and this representation of our democracy, the House of Representatives, can actually function.

Anthony fancies himself as a snooker player. The tragedy of this year’s parliamentary snooker competition is that he beat me in the semi-finals. It was very close—it was decided on the black ball. The Leader of the House fluked the pink ball—he would admit, I am sure, that it was a fluke—and that kept me out of the game. It was a twist of fate that the Leader of the House and the Manager of Opposition Business were facing each other in the snooker competition, and it was good fun. He, of course, is a willing adversary. Anthony and I have many things in common, and we have many things that separate us. One of the things we have in common is that we have never run from a fight. I have been fighting a lot of people over my political career both within the Liberal Party and outside it, and in the Labor Party. I will not name them because most of them are not around any longer. I lasted a bit longer than most of them. I share with Mr Albanese a love of debate, a love of the parliament, and a willingness to have a good row about policy, about politics and about trying to represent our two great parties—the two great parties of Australian history since our Federation—the Labor Party and the Liberal Party.

I would also particularly like to thank Ian Harris and Bernard Wright. Ian Harris is leaving us on 4 December. He came here in 1972 and has been the Clerk of the House since 1997, which virtually mirrors my time in this place—I got here in 1993. As everyone has said and as everyone will say, he is a person who with his team keeps us all looking as reasonably good—if you could claim it that way—as we sometimes do in this place. We very rarely make procedural mistakes and that is only because whenever we are not sure—which is most of the time—we have a quiet word to Ian or Bernard, or whoever is at the clerks’ table, and they make sure that we stay on track. We wish Ian all the best in the future, having retired from this place. He will be missed but his ample shoes will be well filled by Bernard Wright, who I have also known for 17 years. Bernard will do a sensational job as the new Clerk of the House. It is, of course, the most important role in administering this place. It has a very successful history, a very quiet history where they are not pushed to the front like we are. They just simply do their job and they do it extremely well.

I also mention the leader of the party Malcolm Turnbull, deputy leader Julie Bishop, our leadership team in Eric Abetz and Nick Minchin in the Senate—of course that is around the other way; I do not think anything has happened in the last 12 hours that I am not aware of—and Luke Hartsuyker, the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House. Malcolm Turnbull is a terrific future Prime Minister of Australia; a terrific Leader of the Opposition. He is clever, he is experienced, he is articulate, he is intelligent, he is incredibly hard working, he is inclusive, he is humble, and he is also tough. I do not think anybody in the Labor Party would want to underestimate him. I am sure that people who come up against Malcolm over the years would not underestimate just how tough Malcolm Turnbull is. He has taken over the leadership of the opposition at a very difficult time. Everyone knows that in this period, straight after an election defeat, that term is always extremely hard. He has taken on the job; he is doing the job—there will always be bumps in the road. It requires enormous resilience and Malcolm Turnbull has resilience by the bucket load.

Julie Bishop, his deputy: nobody could ask for a more loyal and better deputy than Malcolm has in Julie Bishop. Julie is a veteran of the House in terms of years and also in capacity as a cabinet minister in the Howard government. She rose quickly because of her immense talent. She is also terrific company. She sits very close to me in the chamber. As most people would admit, opposition can be a dismal affair. Julie and I keep ourselves having a good laugh, usually at the expense of the government—sometimes not—throughout question time and she is a terrific person to have around in the team. As the deputy, she has done a marvellous job for both Brendan Nelson and now Malcolm Turnbull.

Warren Truss is a kind of figure who you would not necessarily think was great fun, but actually he is great fun. He is very wise, he is very calm and he is very considered. He is a safe pair of hands and whenever I am not absolutely sure what the tactics should be in the question time or in the parliament Warren is one of the very first people I talk to because he always gives extremely sage advice. I would also like to thank the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House, Luke Hartsuyker, who has served under both Joe and me. He is a very steady hand. We can easily leave matters in Luke’s hands and he always does a very good job. He is very supportive of whatever decisions we make and gives advice on a constant basis about the sorts of questions we should be asking and the themes of the day and the MPIs. He really is making a great contribution here in parliament.

There are other people that I should thank, too—a few people who are not in this place. Nick Minchin and Eric Abetz, our Senate leader and deputy leader, who I see every morning at our leadership team meeting, are doing a great job in the Senate, a fantastic job under difficult circumstances. It is not always easy, of course, in opposition—the two houses often have different views about how we should manage things and the politics of things. Nick and Eric run an extraordinarily good show in the Senate, and will continue to do so in the future.

Lastly, for people from my own side of the House, I would like to acknowledge Joe Hockey, the shadow Treasurer. He plays an extremely important role, and is the person I took over from as Manager of Opposition Business. He is always ready with advice, always welcome advice, and he is also terrific company. He keeps us all in a good frame of mind and a good temper. He is also holding the government to account over their reckless spending, their debt and their deficit. With an election year next year, I have a feeling that we might hear a lot more about debt and deficit, interest rates and inflation, unemployment and the government’s economic management, and I am sure Joe Hockey will shine the closer we get to the election and the more those kinds of issues come to the fore.

There are other people I should thank. The people who keep the House operating have all been thanked before, and that is because they are usually behind the scenes quietly doing their job. I thank Cheryl Lane, who heads up the House attendants. They are a marvellously patient group of people. I could name them all, but I do not want to embarrass them. They have been looking after me since I came here at the age of 25. They are a sensational group of people who often go unthanked—and I thank Luch, who is in the chamber.

I thank the Chamber Research Office. They keep things bubbling away in this place and they provide invaluable service to members of parliament. I thank the Department of Parliamentary Services, headed by Alan Thompson, and his team of people. They keep the legislation and the amendments flowing and they provide us advice about the schedule et cetera.

I thank the Hansard staff. Trevor Fowler and Rachel Croome head up the Hansard staff. Things have changed a little bit over the years. The Hansard staff do not have to write everything down in shorthand as they used to. They do a marvellous job. I do not think I have ever corrected a Hansard record of a speech. The only time I have ever made any alterations was when they did not know the spelling of a school or a suburb that I was referring to. I have never corrected a Hansard speech because they have never made a mistake with a speech of mine. That is because they are probably the best Hansard reporting service in the world—and they train most of the others, so that suggests that they are the best.

I thank all the Comcar drivers, security staff and cleaning staff who go about their business unheralded in this place. The Comcar drivers get us all home. Without the Comcar drivers I am not sure any of us would go home all the time. Our drivers are always there to get us back to our places of accommodation at night and back to work again the next morning. They are always pleasant and happy. They always know where they are going. They are a terrific part of this organisation.

I thank the Chief Opposition Whip, Alex Somlyay, and his team of whips—Michael Johnson, Nola Marino, Kay Hull and Paul Neville. The whips are a vitally important part of operations on both sides of the House. Alex Somlyay leads a great team of staff and other members who help members of parliament to do their job well and to know what they are supposed to be doing. The whips make sure that members’ leave arrangements are being looked after. The whips play a very important role as a safety valve in this place—and they might sometimes regard themselves as a counselling service. The Chief Opposition Whip is the person you tell almost everything to because he needs to know in order to manage 150 people in this place and another 70-odd people in the Senate.

I thank the Chief Government Whip, Roger Price. I have known Roger for a very long time. I have sat on committees with him. I know that he has very firm views about procedures and other parts of the way this place operates. He is a very important part of the Labor Party’s armoury in this place.

I thank my own staff, led by my Chief of Staff, Adam Howard. We had a lot more staff when we were in government—as I am sure the government would know because many of them were in opposition. In government we had about 18 or 19 staff, but we now have about seven staff, and they have to do a tremendous amount of work. My staff do a great job, as do the staff of all members of parliament, members of the frontbench and members of the government. They do not get much credit, but the credit is usually due to the staff’s great work. I wish all my staff a great Christmas and New Year. It is going to be a tougher year next year, but every year in politics is interesting and exciting; otherwise we would not be in it.

I thank my wife, Carolyn, and my four children. My wife and I have nine-year-old twins, Barnaby and Eleanor; a seven-year-old son, Felix; and a 20-month-old daughter, Aurelia. Aurelia is not as successful at Skype as the other three—she likes to get nice and close to it and pushes it off the top! My children are a wonderful light in my life, as is my wife. They, of course, have to put up with all the misery of having a father who spends so much time away from home. We all know the story: it is a wrench for those of us with wives and children to be here, but it is twice as bad for those we leave behind. Often it is our families who bear the brunt of the criticisms made of their partners. That is very tough. My family did not choose to be born into a family whose father spends a lot of his time away in Canberra, yet they have to live with it. Politics is a very tough and selfish lifestyle—there is no doubt about that—and the families are the ones who bear the burden.

I wish everybody a happy Christmas, and I wish for a very successful New Year for the opposition. We return in February and we intend to hold the government to account. We look forward to the government picking up our proposals for reform in the areas of relevance in answers to questions and, of course, time limits on answers to questions. I am sure I speak for everyone in the House—except perhaps some of the ministers—in saying I am sure that shorter answers would make everyone in this place a lot happier. Finally, let us all try and get along as well as we can next year. I keep telling Mr Albanese that he should just try and get along as well with me as I do with the Deputy Prime Minister and everything would be terrific.

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