Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker , may I take the opportunity to congratulate you on your elevation as well. It is a very fine job. I did it in the previous parliament.

I will take this opportunity to say a few words about Kevin Rudd—as I know him—the member for Griffith, who, as the House is aware, chose to resign and therefore end his active parliamentary political career. It is very important, I think, to say a few things about Kevin. I met Kevin all those years ago when I first came into parliament as a much younger member. One of the things that struck me the most about him was his incredible knowledge. Kevin is one of those people who has incredible knowledge. Basically, there are people in the world who can very quickly learn lots of things, and he was one of those people. He was also one of those people who had travelled extensively and obviously had a great love for foreign affairs. He is, if I can describe him as such, probably the consummate global citizen, which is what he described himself as the other day as well. He is a very proud Australian, very committed to this country, but is also recognised and moves in a very global community. In fact, that is pretty much the way of the future for all of us. I think we all at some point in time have to become, at least in our thinking, global citizens, and certainly Kevin has embraced that global thinking.

Kevin is also well known for the fact that he has a very strong connection to the Australian people. I think everyone has seen that relationship over the course of his time here in parliament and certainly as Prime Minister. He had a remarkable ability to connect with people. For me in particular it became very obvious and evident at the time when he became the Leader of the Opposition in 2006 and then led the then opposition through to the 2007 election campaign victory.

I have been lucky to have Kevin visit my electorate on many occasions throughout the time that I have been the member for Calwell. In fact, his very first meeting was in a tiny little house in one of our neighbourhoods. He came to visit my local Iraqi Christian Chaldean community. I was not sure how the meeting was going to go, because the emerging Iraqi community were in the middle of being involved in the Iraq war. They are refugees here in Australia.

I have to say that there was nothing that Kevin did not know about ancient Mesopotamia, nothing he did not know about their history and nothing that he did not know about the ancient church of the east. I was struggling to understand all of those nuances. Kevin knew them all, and he forever impressed that community, so much so that they became devotees of him. In fact, that was so not only for that community but for other communities in my electorate, to the extent that I have often referred to the federal seat of Calwell as very much a Rudd seat. Certainly the people that live in the federal seat of Calwell had a very high regard for Kevin Rudd as a parliamentarian and in particular as Prime Minister of Australia.

One of the most remarkable examples of his visits to my seat was in the lead-up to the 2007 election campaign. It was the Monday before the Saturday, and it was supposed to be a very low key, sort of secret meeting with people in my electorate. I will not disclose any further—it was not me, but I just had an office close to the airport. We had to work very hard to make sure that it was kept secret or low key. But he was spotted. My office is in a railway station centre, and as he entered he was spotted by busloads of schoolkids who were going home. They refused to leave the station. They waited for Kevin to come out, because they wanted to see him, to shake his hand. For me, that was an indication of just how popular he was amongst young people. In fact my constituent Ian Hogarth had popped into my office that day to say hello—I know that he would want me to say this and to quote him—and he said to me: 'Do you know what this feels like? I walk into your office and there's Kevin Rudd. It's like going to church and God shows up.' This is a quote from Ian Hogarth. I do not mean to offend anyone or anything, but that was the extent of the impact that Kevin Rudd had on people.

Of course, you cannot speak about Kevin Rudd and not make reference to the events of 2010. I do not want to say very much other than to say, again, that it was a turbulent time and one that horrified the Australian public. I think it is fair to say that it horrified the Australian public and that in fact it traumatised them. I was having dinner that evening with Shane Maloney, the author of the Murray Whelan series of crime novels, who was in Canberra, and he was later to write about that day:

That is from a very interesting article about Shane's experience here in Canberra on that day.

Kevin visited the electorate of Calwell on many other occasions, and in particular last year. I want to thank him for his friendship. I want to thank him for his contribution to the Labor Party. But I particularly want to thank him for his contribution to Australia, his foresight, the stolen generation apology, and all the things that he did to enhance our country's reputation abroad. He is highly respected by the diplomatic corps. Wherever I travelled overseas as an Australian member of parliament, everybody knew Kevin Rudd and I think that that is an indication of the extent to which he is recognised internationally as well.

I believe that Kevin still has a contribution to make. I want to wish him well. He is very devoted to his family. His little granddaughter, Josephine, is delightful, and he is totally besotted by her. So I wish him well and look forward to seeing him again. I also look forward to his further contributions on behalf of Australia in the international community.

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