Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Or 12—thank you! As a local member, I've been able to achieve things for my electorate, not least the siting of a Medicare urgent care clinic in Bridgewater and a new Services Australia centre in Sorell, both of which officially open today. There are many others: sport facilities, factory funding, communication upgrades, irrigation funding and more, but those two I'm especially proud of. I'd like to thank the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the Minister for Government Services for their support. Over my time as the member for Lyons, around $2 million has been disbursed to local non-profit community groups and talented young athletes, with grants ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars, and every single dollar has benefited the communities of my electorate and the people who live in them. I'm sure all members have similar experiences.

Speaking of achievements, the Prime Minister announced the other week $150 million for the Greater South East Irrigation Scheme in my electorate. I've been advocating for months for this project, but it was Rebecca White who sealed the deal. Rebecca grew up on a farm in the south-east, and she was able to make the strongest argument. She's not even in the parliament yet and she's already delivered a $150 million project for Lyons, not as an election commitment but as funding that will be delivered this term.

I've got people to acknowledge: my Tasmanian federal parliamentary Labor colleagues, Julie Collins, Carol Brown, Anne Urquhart, Catryna Bilyk and Helen Polley, for being such great Tasmanian teammates. Of course, I acknowledge Ross Hart and Justine Keay, who were elected with me in 2016 for Bass and Braddon, but who sadly left the parliament in 2019. The class of 2016 is a great class.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

An honourable member: As was 2019.

Hear, hear—as was 2019; that's right. Leave no-one out!

I thank the Prime Minister for his leadership and his vision. I thank former leader, Bill Shorten, for his service and his support; the Leader of the House for his intellect and his enthusiasm; the members for Fremantle, Perth and Chifley, whom I knew long before I came to this place from other lives; and so many of you for the chats, catch-ups, advice and support. It's all treasured. Thank you to the member for Macarthur for trying to keep me alive a bit longer.

Across the aisle there are the members for Riverina, Gippsland, Bonner and Bass, whom I have very much enjoyed catching up with. The members for Indi and Mayo have always been delightful company, and the members for Goldstein, Flinders and Parkes, have been thoughtful and positive contributors on my comms committee, alongside our own members for Macquarie and Corangamite. There is so much more that unites the people in this place than divides us. It's important to have the fights, as the member for Maribyrnong said in his speech the other day. It's important to have the fights—to test what works and what doesn't, to stand up for your beliefs and ideals and to poke holes in the other side to expose the fault lines. But I know most of us would prefer that we were able to do it while being just a little bit nicer to each other.

I must thank the many volunteers and supporters who have door-knocked, made calls and allowed me to litter their yards with posters. There are too many to count, both volunteers and posters. What do you do with old corflutes apart from line your chook pen? I don't know, but I'll find out. And, of course, my staff: Lara von Stieglitz, Ben Dudman, Anthony Corke, Lyndell Jones, Mel Franklin and Tom Price, and Shannan Aherne, who just last week gave birth to Harrison, a new addition to her beautiful young family. I'm pleased to say that I won the office sweep on the most likely date of arrival. Thank you all for your service and dedication to our community. My name is on the door and the letterhead, but I have never forgotten that this is a group effort.

I would like to thank my former staff too for their invaluable contributions, especially the late Sharon Carnes, and Darren Clark, Janet Lambert, Margaret Watson and Lachie Grey, and Natalie Maple, who left me earlier this year after nearly eight years service—she really lost the lottery there—to look after her health. We love you, Nats, and we miss you and wish you all the best. Staff are the unsung heroes whom none of us can do without. Assisting our constituents with their concerns and grievances and helping them navigate bureaucracies and achieve just outcomes are our bread and butter.

I recall not long after I was elected that Margaret dealt with a man who had been struggling for years to access his superannuation. He was a bit aggro in his manner, and it was clear that the people he'd previously talked to just wanted him out; he was too difficult to deal with. But Margaret stuck with him, patiently teasing from him the details she needed to chase up his super. He would grump and harrumph, but she would brook no nonsense. She got the details she needed and she got his super for him—$400,000! This guy was couch surfing. It only happened because that remarkable woman stuck by that difficult man and because I'd been in a position to give Margaret a job. Margaret changed his life. There have been so many other cases where my staff have won results for our constituents through dogged determination. I won't take credit for their work; they deserve the acknowledgement. I wish them all well in the next stage of their journeys.

I thank the Australian Labor Party for preselecting me three times and the people of Lyons for electing me for three terms. It has been the privilege of my life to serve in the national parliament. I know I leave my communities across Lyons in the best of hands with Rebecca White as our new federal Labor candidate.

I must say before I leave that I thank the attendants here, the comm car drivers and everybody who assists us in this role. The cleaners of this place are just wonderful. Dom at Aussies—everybody you come across just makes your life easier and better, and I thank everybody for their service.

Last, but not least—never least—is my family: my wife, Tania, and our two remarkable children, who have allowed me the freedom to do this job, which comes with such heavy demands on time and on bandwidth. My family is everything to me, but as the wonderful Kim Beazley remarked in his valedictory many years ago, the fact is that, with this job, 'our families come second'. I will miss this job and I will miss you all, but my time here is done. In the immortal worlds of Gotye, now I'm just 'somebody that you used to know'.

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