Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The last time Labor won government from opposition was 2007. It's a year that we remember very fondly. But it wasn't only memorable for the election that year. I'm a very big fan of sport. I follow Tiger Woods and, of course, I'm a fanatic of the Geelong Football Club. And 2007 was a year which was characterised by Tiger winning one of golf's four major championships and by Geelong ending a 44-year drought and taking out the AFL premiership. So this time last year—when the polling was strong for Labor and, after a finals campaign followed up by an active trade season, it looked like Geelong was going to make another tilt at the premiership, and Tiger had just won his first professional golf tournament in five years—I thought that maybe 2019 would be the year where the universe would come into harmony once more. And, as the year started, our polling was strong. We went through our very first month as the Geelong Football Club undefeated. And then, remarkably, in April of this year, Tiger—at the age of 43—won the US Masters. And that's pretty well where the year peaked.

This has been a very interesting, up-and-down year for all of us. No more so than for the member for Paterson, who I was talking to last night about her concern in relation to her own house being threatened by bushfire right now. It's a reminder that we are about to go into the most dangerous season of the year on this continent, a season characterised not just by bushfire but also by cyclones—and it's a season which, in an unprecedented way, is of course well under way.

Let me start by turning my thoughts and giving my thanks to all the firefighters and emergency service personnel and all the volunteers who have been fighting fires across the country already this season—and, in doing so, putting their own lives at risk and often their own properties at risk. They deserve our nation's thanks. In giving them that thanks can I, in advance, also give our thanks to all those who will be engaged in emergency work during the course of the summer. These are tragic moments, but the service that they provide has an inspiration about it which speaks to the character of our nation. This has been a year, of course, characterised by drought as well. All of our thoughts are with those who are suffering through one of the worst droughts on our record.

It was an election year, and that was a very significant moment—one which looms with a different character in the minds of those depending on what side of the House you are now sitting. But there was one other event this year that I would reflect upon, which was not in this country, but had a connection to us: the Christchurch massacre. It was an appalling moment, made more appalling from an Australian point of view by the fact that an Australian was the perpetrator. I mention it because, in the aftermath of that—in fact, the following Sunday, by chance—it was Open Mosque Day in Victoria, maybe around the country. I visited the Geelong mosque on that Sunday. It's an event I've been to previously where during the course of six or seven hours you might get a couple of hundred people going in, out of curiosity and to have a look at what the mosque looks like. On the Sunday this year, thousands came through in a way which was truly inspiring about the kind of nation that we are. It was multicultural Australia at its best. Whilst it was initiated by the most appalling set of events, one couldn't help but feel a sense of being heartwarmed by the response that Australians gave it. I think it says so much about the nation that we are all so proud to be a part of.

As we leave this place, I would like to acknowledge my leader, the member for Grayndler, Anthony Albanese. I've known Anthony for quite a while now but, in the last six months, in difficult circumstances, I've obviously gotten to know him a lot better. He's a fantastic person and, in what has in many ways been a very difficult year, one of the great joys for me has been to get to know Anthony better. I think his persistence, his staying the course, his patience, his humour and his goodwill in the midst of all of this has been an inspiration to all of us.

I acknowledge Senators Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Don Farrell, and thank them for the friendship and support that they have given me during the course of this year. It is greatly appreciated, and it is also a joy to work with them amongst the leadership of the Parliamentary Labor Party.

This time last year our parliamentary leaders were the member for Maribyrnong and the member for Sydney, and I would like to pay tribute to both of them, who have led our party for six years. I've known the member for Maribyrnong all of my adult life and, during that time, we have been very close. I know how difficult 18 May was for all of us, and was for him. The dignity with which he dealt with that and has carried himself since says everything about the person that he is. We owe Bill and Tanya a debt of gratitude.

I acknowledge the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and all the members of the government. For those of us who have participated in government, we're all busy in this building, but we particularly know how busy you are. We hold you to account in this place and in the public domain, but, as a citizen, I thank you for your service. I hope that all of you get an opportunity to spend a well-earned moment with your families over the course of Christmas and over the course of the summer. It was, of course, a very successful year for you and you deserve our congratulations.

I acknowledge you, Mr Speaker, and the member for Page, the member for McEwen and all those on the Speaker's panel. You and I have known each other for a very long time. As I said earlier this year, it genuinely is one of the joys for me of being in this place to watch you blossom in the role that you are performing in, in the most difficult of circumstances. Today, in fact, was probably as difficult as any of them. You do a wonderful job. The comment that the Prime Minister made earlier about your standing amongst the Speakers that this country has had is absolutely right.

I acknowledge the crossbenchers. Those of us in the major parties sometimes forget how hard it must be to represent the voices of thousands of Australians in this place without the backup of a party apparatus, and we certainly acknowledge what you do.

I acknowledge the Manager of Opposition Business and the member for Hindmarsh and all those on the tactics team. You certainly guide us in this place in a very professional way, and we are very grateful. I acknowledge the Chief Opposition Whip and the members for Lalor and Werriwa. You certainly keep us in line, and we thank you for everything that you do.

I acknowledge all of my caucus colleagues. I grew up in a boarding school, and this place has a certain boarding-school character to it. The friendships that we have in here are actually what sustain us through long hours and sometimes difficult hours. So, to everyone that I have had a coffee, a lunch, a dinner or a beer with, thank you for your friendship and your camaraderie. It has been a difficult time, but it is to the credit of, I think, both the member for Maribyrnong and the member for Grayndler that we have managed to get through this year and find ourselves at the end of it with just a bit of a spring in our step—and that is, I think, in the context of what happened on 18 May, a remarkable achievement.

I'd like to acknowledge the many people who keep us functioning here in this building, starting with Dom and those at Aussies, and all of the caffeine traffickers in this building. I'm certainly grateful for your product! I thank all the Comcare drivers. I thank the gardeners, Graham Gosling and his team, who do such an incredible job on the Reps side of this House; the rose gardens are something to behold. To the cleaners of my office, Chanmala, Joy and Rosalba: thank you for your work. I thank all the attendants, the clerks, Hansard, the security guards, the IT and communications staff, the librarians and researchers, the building and heritage staff, the tour guides, the parliamentary gift shop and others who interact with public, and those involved in catering.

I acknowledge the press gallery. The member for Grayndler made a very significant point: the press gallery play a critical role in our democracy, and it is so important that they are supported in what they do, going forward.

I thank my staff. I thank my chief of staff, Lidija Ivanovski and, through her, all those who work with me—and they won't mind me singling out one of them, Saverina Chirumbolo. Saverina is 50 per cent Sicilian, she's 50 per cent Calabrian and she's 100 per cent scary! Next year will be the 20th year that we have worked together, and my life doesn't work without Sav. Whenever Sav goes, that's when I go as well.

I thank those who work with me in the Labor team in Geelong: the new member for Corangamite—it's great to see you here—and, at a state level, Christine Couzens, Darren Cheeseman, John Eren, Lisa Neville and Gayle Tierney, who all represent Labor in the town of Geelong. I thank the constituents of Corio for returning me here at the last election. I certainly do not take that for granted.

As we head towards Christmas, I'd like to acknowledge all our serving men and women, particularly those on deployment around the world. They do an incredible job, and it is an enormous privilege for me as the shadow minister for defence to get a glimpse of the sacrifice and the service that they provide to our nation. They are our nation's finest. There is something about putting on the uniform and the sacrifice that goes on with it in that moment which is unlike any other job in the land. I thank them, as I thank all veterans who have served. In the same breath, let me also acknowledge the defence minister, who of course is a veteran herself. I thank her for her friendship as we now find ourselves working in the same space.

Finally, of course, I'd like to thank my family: my wife, Rachel; and my children, Sam, Bella, Harvey and Georgia. And, in thanking them, I acknowledge the families of everyone here. They are not volunteers; they are conscripts in what we do. The hardest part of this job is being away from them, and I don't get to do what I do but for their support. As much as I love doing what I do here, and I love this job, it is not the most important thing in my life; they are, and I love them very much.

This has been a rollercoaster year for everyone in this building. There have been more twists and turns, more ups and downs, than perhaps we would even normally have liked. But Kim Beazley once said, in a year when Labor had also lost, that to be returned to this parliament and to have an office in it in any capacity is of itself a success. It speaks to the fact that, for all of us here, just being here and being the voice of thousands of people in the way in which this country runs is an enormous privilege. We are lucky to do it, and being their voice in the most sincere way is indeed a noble pursuit. On that note, I wish every member of this House and every member of the Senate the very happiest of holidays and the very merriest of Christmases.

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