Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the member for Macnamara on his fine contribution and also all of the many other fine testaments to our friend and our colleague Kimberley. It is a sad moment to be back here in parliament without Kimberley. I want to reflect on her achievements and legacy. Many have spoken about her various and significant achievements, but I'll just focus on some of the areas where our work intersected, primarily in defence matters, foreign policy and humanitarian action, and, in particular, that shambolic withdrawal out of Afghanistan and work to retrieve people and to save the lives of the people of Kabul.

Kimberley was always a very strong supporter of the Australian Defence Force and the defence forces of our allies. She wanted to understand deeply the work of the ADF and the struggles and sacrifices of our serving personnel and our veterans. She was a frequent and active participant in our Defence Force parliamentary program, travelling to the Middle East on several occasions: 2017, 2018, 2019. I'm sure, if it weren't for COVID, she would have kept going over to the Middle East because she wanted to learn more. She wanted to hear the experiences of our defence personnel on the ground so that we could make sure that our support was as good as it possibly could be and that we were making sensible decisions in the national interest.

Kimberley had wanted very much to come to Darwin to participate in Operation Resolute through that parliamentary program, and we often talked about it. Unfortunately, she never had that opportunity, but she always made me know, as she had with many others, how important the work in their electorate for national security and the defence of our nation was and that she wanted to know as much as she possibly could. She would be very interested to know that Admiral John Aquilano, the Commander of the USINDOPACOM, or the US Indo-Pacific Command, had been in Australia and in Darwin recently. It's a visit that Kimberley would have very much appreciated. She did so much for our relationship with our allies the United States, and I know that our American friends very much appreciated her and her solidarity and intellect.

Kimberley was the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of the United States, and she did a wonderful job in that role, being a great advocate for strengthening and deepening that important relationship. Of course, soon we'll have a new ambassador from the United States, the formidable Caroline Kennedy. Kimberley would have been such an important and effective representative to the new ambassador of not only our party but also this parliament.

Kimberley believed, as I do, that our nation is extraordinary, that it's exceptional, and she spent every day in this place fighting to make Australia live up to our great potential. She said in her first speech to the Senate back in November 2016:

In this parliament, we must proudly make the case for Australian exceptionalism. Australia is not exceptional because we have been divinely mandated, or because of some inherent quality unasked and unearned; Australia is exceptional precisely because generations of Australians have made hard choices and hard sacrifices.

For all her vast policy interests and advocacy, Kimberley never lost sight of why she came to Canberra in the first place. And that is what makes her Labor. In her first speech, she said:

I come here to represent everyday Australian people: the working Australians, the families, the students, the hospital cleaners, the retail workers, the mortgage holders, the renters, the mums and dads, the 4 am shift workers, the nurses, the police, the firefighters and the factory workers.

I think that's a good reminder for all of us of why we are here and who we are ultimately working for. Ultimately, what I remember most about Kimberley is conversations when we were both talking to people on the ground in Kabul, or at the Pakistani border, within the ADF and within the US chain of command, trying to get people to safety who were in desperate need and, in some cases, being hunted. She was 'in the thick of it', as well described by the member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten, and others—she was getting after it, saving lives. I remember her beaming smile and her energy. I was glad to have the opportunity to tell that to Andrew when we gathered to dedicate a rosary to our departed sister Kimberley. May eternal light shine upon her.

See this speech in context