Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to, at least in part, support the sentiments of the Prime Minister. Could I, in particular, support her remarks about our military personnel in Afghanistan. I should note that, as well as the tragic loss of 10 service personnel this year, we lost a service dog, Sapper Herbie. Also, we had 60 soldiers who were wounded in Afghanistan this year.

I should acknowledge that the Prime Minister has been a ferocious competitor this year, and I should congratulate her on her success. She may not have won the election handsomely but she certainly won the negotiation, and that takes a considerable skill. As a party politician, it is my job to hold the light up to, or to let the sunlight in on, the faults and flaws of the Prime Minister and the government. But as an Australian I want the best possible government for our country and as an Australian I am always willing the government to succeed and to flourish, even as I doubt its capacity to do so, because it is important for our people and their prosperity that we have the best possible government in our country.

Mr Speaker, I should support and adopt the compendious thankyous that were provided by the Prime Minister to you and your team. It is a difficult job to maintain order and decorum in this parliament. I think you maintain your own dignity well, and I think you help us to maintain some shreds of dignity ourselves. So thank you for that. To Bernard Wright and his team, the true custodians of the traditions of this House, thank you. And to all of the people here in the parliament—the Parliamentary Research Office, the Parliamentary Library, the serjeants, the attendants and the Comcar drivers—I thank you.

To do our jobs, we all depend on so many people. As senior politicians we are in the spotlight. Our egos are well and truly massaged by the applause we get. Many others make it possible. They do not get the applause that they deserve and it is appropriate that we should thank them at this time of the year because, if we do much, it is because many people are sustaining us in that task.

I should particularly thank my deputy, the member for Curtin. I could not ask for a better deputy. I also thank the Leader of the National Party; I could not ask for a better coalition colleague. I thank my staff, led by Peta Credlin. What a tremendous office they have been. I thank the whips, the Manager of Opposition Business—thank you for everything you have done.

For a few minutes I would like to dwell on some of my colleagues who are no longer with us. There was not the chance, pre-election, to talk about retiring colleagues and I would like to briefly mention them. Fran Bailey, the former member for McEwen—I doubt that the House has heard a more eloquent speech than her heartfelt address to us in the wake of the Black Saturday bushfires. Pat Farmer, my friend and the former member for Macarthur, was the fittest member of this House. I may lay claim to that in his absence, although I think I have some rivals in the member for Blair, perhaps the member for Flinders and perhaps some of my younger colleagues on this side. Pat is one of those people who are always looking for a new challenge and I am sure all of his former colleagues wish him well in his attempt to organise and complete a pole-to-pole run, an almost incomprehensible feat of physical endurance. If anyone can do it, it is Pat. I hope the attempt is blessed with success. David Hawker, the former member for Wannon, was an exemplary Speaker and a model of decency. Chris Pearce, the former member for Aston, is one of the quiet achievers of our country, first in local government and then in the parliament and in business. Petro Georgiou, the former member for Kooyong, was, in many respects, the conscience of the Liberal Party. I am not suggesting that the rest of us lack conscience but, certainly, Petro was always eloquent in defence of what he saw as the best instincts of liberalism, and he will be missed. Danna Vale, the former member for Hughes, turned a safe Labor seat into what was for much of the term of the Howard government a pretty safe coalition seat, because of her decency and hard work. Peter Lindsay, the former member for Herbert—I commend every retiring member to observe the conduct of Peter Lindsay in organising a succession plan and working with his successor. Margaret May, the former member for McPherson, is, I think, as responsible as any member of this House for the pension increase that pensioners have enjoyed in the last three years. It was her urging that persuaded Brendan Nelson, the former Leader of the Opposition, to adopt this cause. I think that his adoption of the cause did have some impact on the government, and I congratulate the government on the actions it ultimately took. Finally, I should mention Michael Johnson, the former member, who may have lost his way at the end, but certainly he took a seat off the ALP and helped to boost Australia’s links with Asians and to make Asian Australians feel at home in the coalition parties.

I should also mention two of my former colleagues who were defeated at the recent election—first, that remarkable political character, the former member for O’Connor, Wilson Tuckey. Wilson was always colourful, sometimes irascible—

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