Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to remark that today is the last parliamentary sitting day that we will see Matthew Franklin appearing in the parliamentary press gallery above us. As many members of parliament would be aware, he has announced that he is taking a redundancy from the Australian and he will file his last story tomorrow. He has worked for News Limited for 25 years in a variety of capacities. He has been in the press gallery for quite a long period of time. I first got to know Matthew Franklin when he was working for the Courier-Mail. He took a particular interest in health issues, coming from that Queensland experience, and I at the time was shadow minister for health.

Of course, we do not always agree with our friends in the press gallery, but I think we respect that it is a hard job—an increasingly hard job as the media industry changes. It is not an easy time in newspapers, but it is always an important time for people to be out there looking for the stories, looking for the facts, looking for the issues that will be in public debate. Matthew Franklin has certainly done more than his fair share of that.

He joked with me at one point that he was particularly following our Teach for Australia and Teach Next initiatives because he imagined that perhaps at a later stage of his life he would use something like Teach Next or Teach for Australia to move from journalism into teaching. I do not know whether or not that is his plan. I suspect at this stage he does not even know either. But if he was going to move from journalism into an Australian school to teach English or history I think that would be a very welcome addition to our education system. So to Matthew I say a fond farewell.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I suppose one good thing to come out of Matthew Franklin's I hope temporary retirement from the Australian is that we finally have the government saying something nice about a News Limited publication, which is excellent.

Matthew Franklin will be much missed from the press gallery, which he has adorned for some 11 years. Prior to coming down to the press gallery in Canberra he was in the press gallery in Brisbane for some nine years. He has brought a grace, a decency, a balance and a fairness to his reporting of politics, which, I have to say, ought to be an exemplar.

The great thing about a good journalist is that a good journalist is the master of analysing an issue quickly and then distilling it succinctly into something that the average person can well understand and appreciate. A good journalist is like a good barrister, only much more affordable, so I am confident that Matthew will not be idle for long, that he will be snapped up by the many people who would love to use the services of someone of such insight, such gifts of expression and such decency.