Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to endorse the comments made before and thank all the people that the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister thanked. That leaves me with, basically, the cat, the dog and the rat in the roof to thank because everyone else seems to have been thanked.

Starting off on a more serious note, I'd like to thank my family—obviously Vikki, who has been great support to me, and Sebastian and Thomas, who have made this their home, so much so that at one stage Tom, after having a shower in the Deputy Speaker's office, decided—we were standing there and we heard the door shut, and Luke managed to stop him just before he ran naked into this chamber, which would've been a remarkable addition to the parliament that day.

To my colleagues: I'd like to thank the leadership team of DLP, Bridget, Drummy and Perrin, for all their hard work through the process. I'd like to thank the deputy leader in the Senate, and Matt, Sam and Susan over there. To all the team here—Michael, I know it's been a tough year—I really thank you for the professional, diligent and decent way that you have acted. I'd like to thank Mark, Pat, Ken, George and Lou. To Dr Dave, Andrew, Keith, Hoges and Michelle: it's been a great year to prepare for the next year, which will be an incredible year, and we are going to make sure that we give the best representation of ourselves. Hopefully, we will all stay here—if that is the will of the people—and maybe we will bring a few others down here to Canberra with us.

To the ever-patient staff: you've been such a professional team down here and in Tamworth—an incredibly professional team. You carry me so well, and you make me look vastly better than I actually am. I thank you for that. I won't go through all their names because, as they know, I'm notorious for not remembering them. To the support structure in this parliament, to all the people you don't think about—imagine all the calls the ladies down on the switch get on the phones and the absolutely crazy or angry people ringing them up, and they have to try to deal with it. If ever you get a chance, you should go down to say g'day to them.

Obviously, to the people of New England and to the great part of New England that wanted to be its own state—

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