Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

on indulgence—Thank you for a masterclass performance, Bill. That was a remarkable speech, reflected by the acclamation across the gallery and across the chamber. The respect that people here have for you on both sides of the chamber, and, indeed, across the broader community, should be obvious to you today.

I think perhaps the classiest part of your speech was how you started with family. I think it was a window into your values and the way you have viewed your tasks—and not just your family but the Labor family, the union family and the workers and their families that you represented and that you fought for in their darkest hour. I say to Chloe, Rupert, Gigi and Clementine: you have been part of an amazing team. You've been through the highs and lows, reading things about Bill online that you know not to be true, and the savagery and the harsh nature of modern day public life—particularly for the Leader of the Opposition, I might say on indulgence! Some of it is true but not all of it! But your family do feel it. They go through the highs and the lows, and sometimes it's something you don't want them to share or be exposed to. But, Bill, you've always been there to guard your beautiful wife and children and all those who have meant so much to you.

I agree with your assessment in relation to the fine institutions that you mentioned in your speech. I think the AWU, through its long history and through different periods—up and down periods, as you pointed out—has been able to serve the Australian public and the workers of that union with great distinction. I, too, agree with you that the Australian Labor Party is one of the great institutions of this country—one of the two great political parties in this country, I hasten to add, just in case I'm quoted without the second qualification of that particular contribution! There was, for the sake of Hansard, a comma but not a full stop in-between those two points that I made. And I say that in all sincerity. I had a great deal of respect for Kim Beazley. I watched him from afar, and I watched him up close, having come into this parliament in 2001. I think he would have made a fine prime minister of this country. He shared many of the values and the love of the Australian Labor Party that Bill Shorten does, and I draw the same conclusion in relation to Bill Shorten. Knowing his intellect, his political capacity and the respect that he has for his value structure, he would have gone on to become a very good prime minister of our country.

Fortunately, that was not the case, because we won the election! It's tough though. I felt for him on election night at a human level. There was a reasonable—very reasonable—expectation that Labor would win that election in 2019. For a number of circumstances, that wasn't to be the case. That hurt him, and it hurt many of those close to him, including many on the front bench, and I acknowledge that. Politics is a rough-and-tumble business, but, in the end, it's how you come into this place and it's how you go out. The way that Bill Shorten came into this place was covered in glory in terms of his career, and he leaves this place covered in glory because of the sacrifice that he has made and that his family have made to the causes that are important to him and that are important to our country.

I also enjoyed, I might say, as a closing remark, the time with Bill on the Today show as well. I'm sure Karl and Sarah send their best to you as well. If only I had known more about the family tree, I could have given you more stick on the Today show about the convict history and other elements of it selectively chosen for the purpose of some sick, poor joke that we'd make against each other on a Friday morning. It has demonstrated, I think, part of Bill's character that many Australians have benefited from seeing. I said to a journalist the other day, off the record, of course, that I think there is a huge loss to the Australian Labor Party because, observing from afar—I say this gratuitously—my judgement is, with all due respect to some of my friends on the front bench and some of my enemies on the front bench, that he has the best political judgement on the front bench of the Australian Labor Party. He will be a loss to the party, and he will be a loss to the Labor cause. But he goes now onto the next stage of his life, of his career. He will make a significant mark there as well, and we wish him every health and success in that next phase of life.

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