Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

He is very much a National Party senator, as the member for Higgins reminds me. 'Bossie' has given this place his life, and certainly he will be greatly missed. There are some characters in this place. If you look at the prime ministers that we have had and some of the great speeches that we have heard, it is a tremendous place.

The longest serving member for Riverina was Noel Hicks. He also was actually the National Party member for Riverina-Darling, because the electorate had a slight name change when they added the name Darling between 1984 and 1993. He came into this place when it opened in 1988. He had been serving in the old place. He said that the new Parliament House was well overdue at the time but that this place took some getting used to. He has very many fond memories of the traditions of the sitting nights in the old place. He said that the old parliament was perhaps a little bit more bipartisan. In 1988, 3,000 people were crammed into a building designed for just 300. There were shared offices, and the House of Representatives chamber was too small to fit the number of members elected to it. You could not help but get along with members on the other side, he told me. The parliamentary bar, Mr Hicks said, was where most of the governing actually happened. He said that there was a real sense of camaraderie and civility between members and senators and the parliamentary bar was where this conviviality was really on display in the old House. While the facilities that we have in this place are undoubtedly first class, it is the camaraderie Mr Hicks speaks of and which many retired members have lamented the gradual decline in that I think this place could do with perhaps a bit more of. We get to know the members well on committee work and delegations but perhaps it is a shame that we do not sometimes push the tables together more in the politicians' dining room and share a meal with our combatants on the other side.

Noel Hicks, however, does speak of how better equipped this place is compared with its predecessor. We even have terrific childcare facilities, which are very important. We are incredibly lucky to have such a functional, modern and symbolic building in which to debate the nation's future. This is a place steeped in the traditions of the Westminster system which also reflects the changing nature and aspirations of the modern Australian nation. There is no better reflection of what our nation is then the wonderful synergy this place has of the old and the new. I commend the motion.

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