Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Member for Barton, I have nothing but yindyamarra for you. For those of you who don't know what yindyamarra means, in Wiradjuri it means 'respect'. For the Hansard translators, there was a beautiful song we were treated to. If they want to get a translation of that they need to go no further than Stan Grant Senior's book on the Wiradjuri language.

Both Stan Grant Senior and Linda Burney come from the Riverina and are proud of the Riverina. I know that Linda is a proud Whitton girl and she spent her primary years at that little village's primary school. She's gone on to great things. We thank you for that, Linda. We respect you for that.

Your work is not finished and we know that you are going to be a powerful voice not just for Indigenous people and not just for Torres Strait Islanders but for all Australians into the future. Thank you for what you have done in your public life. We respect that. We honour you as a Riverina girl who has gone on to great things, and not just here in Australia. The respect that you have is right around the world. You have shown what we can and should do for Indigenous peoples all over the world. So I say to you, on behalf of Riverina people, thank you.

To Senator McCarthy, good luck in your ministerial role. You have a lot of work to do, we know that, and to bridge the divide is so important. It's one of the most important things that we have as a parliament and as a people.

Again, to you, member for Barton, thank you for all that you've done and for all that you will do in the future.

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