Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

on indulgence—On behalf of the government, allow me to acknowledge that Kylea Tink's first speech showed an infectious enthusiasm and that that enthusiasm and optimism has been the story of this whole term.

When redistributions come by, the loss that you immediately go to—it isn't as though a community won't be represented, because the communities all go somewhere. The loss that everyone was talking about immediately was the loss of Kylea Tink. What many people outside the oddness of our occupation won't appreciate is the number of changes that are made that are not in the public view.

I know with legislation of my own and some briefings where, at the end, having provided a briefing of legislation I was intending to introduce, it was almost shell shock in terms of some of the responses I got sometimes. But there were changes that were made to legislation before it was introduced. The one that comes to mind immediately was a variation in how same job, same pay was done. Even though it still didn't have the support, there was a fundamental shift in how we did it because of feedback that was given by Kylea Tink because of her business background. There are changes in legislation—that story will be all across the parliament.

But, I think, most importantly, beyond that, there was a change of tone, because Kylea Tink's optimism was part of the parliament. North Sydney was better served because you were here, the parliament was a better place because of your role here, and Australia is a better country because of what you've done in the 47th Parliament. So thank you for your work.

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