Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I am very pleased to rise in the House at the end of the year 2015 to make a few remarks to thank the people in this building who keep the House operating very successfully and smoothly and making us look good every day. However, I should begin by thanking you, Mr Speaker—and also the former Speaker—for the work that you have been doing in the last few month I think it is obvious to everyone that you have taken to the role very well and bring an authority and a knowledge of the standing orders in the chamber and an experience of politics which means question time and the rest of the House is allowed to flow and be allowed to be combative but also respectful and sensible. I thank you and congratulate you on the very good job you are doing as Speaker.

I should also acknowledge the former Speaker, the member for Mackellar, as I nominated her for the role and famously dragged her to the chair with Tony Abbott, who was of course the Prime Minister at the time.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How did that work out?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It did not work out too well, Graeme; that is the answer to that question. Politics is like that sometimes. The member for Mackellar did a sterling job in the role of Speaker. I think she did a very, very good job. She faced a lot of pressure from the opposition over that period of two years and left the office in circumstances that I am sure she regrets and that I too regret. She is a valued colleague and a very good friend. She is a very good member for Mackellar and I look forward to her continuing in that role for many years into the future.

I would also like to thank my staff first—because often we leave the staff right until the end. My staff have had a very busy year in 2015. They do a wonderful job. They are led by Adam Howard, who is my chief of staff. Before him it was Meredith Jackson—until the reshuffle moved me from Education to Industry, Innovation and Science. I would like to thank all of my staff, led by Adam. I would like to thank John Bathgate and Hannah March. Hannah is the House adviser and before her it was John Bathgate. They have established an excellent relationship with Ewan Kelly, from the office of the Manager of Opposition Business.

What most people do not realise is that the Manager of Opposition Business and I talk to each other a great deal. Certainly, our staff talk a great deal and they all get to know each other pretty well—because, while we do like to be 'hard at the ball' in a political sense, we also have to make sure that democracy in this country works. It is one of the great features of our country over the last 115 years that, because of compulsory voting and the preferential system, we have been dominated by two major political parties—or two major sides of politics. That gives us great stability in government—and the 43rd Parliament was particularly interesting to people because that did not happen. The 43rd Parliament was probably not one of the best parliaments in recent history. Usually, either Labor or the coalition is in power and that does bring a great stability. We work as much as we can together—as much as you can work with the opposition, who want to take your seat—to make sure democracy is working.

I would also like to thank Lisa Paul, the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training, which was my former department, and Glenys Beauchamp, the Secretary of Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, which is my current department. They are both very professional public servants leading very professional teams. Not necessarily every member of the Public Service was a devotee of the government's policies in Education—and that was probably the case in Industry, Innovation and Science but perhaps less so—but they all operated entirely professionally and I never felt that my departments were ever working against me in any respect. They are led very ably by Lisa Paul and Glenys Beauchamp.

I would like to thank the current Prime Minister and my cabinet colleagues, and I would like to thank the former Prime Minister for appointing me to the cabinet and giving me the job of Leader of the House. It is one of the more exciting jobs, for those of us who love the parliament—and I know that the member for Watson does, as did the member for Grayndler before him. Being Leader of the House is to reach the apex of the parliamentary chamber and being Manager of Opposition Business is not a bad consolation prize in opposition. At least it keep you busy in opposition trying to cause me trouble in government!

I would like to thank all the clerks. Led by David Elder, the clerks make sure we keep on track and they make us look good. I thank the Serjeant-at-Arms, Bronwyn Notzon, and her team. I thank the House Table Office, led by Catherine Cornish. I thank the House Parliamentary Liaison Office, led by Annette Cronin, with whom I work closely. I thank Peter Quiggin and his staff at the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, with whom I meet every week as part of the Parliamentary Business Committee—of which the member for Eden-Monaro is now an esteemed member. I thank Anne Dowd, Anne O'Connor and Sue Clamour, who do a lot of legislative work through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in terms of the schedule and the sittings and the legislation that comes to the parliament.

I would also like to thank the government whips—the member for Forrest, the member for Herbert and the member for Braddon—and their staff, led by Vicki Riggio and Nathan Winn. And I thank former whips the member for Wright and the member for Berowra for their work over the last two years. Being the whip is one of the hardest and most unpleasant jobs in the parliament, because you have to keep saying no to people's requests. The whip is not usually the most popular person in the government or the opposition. They are always very charming and very nice, and they work very hard to make our colleagues very happy, but it is a tough job. The member for Forrest is leading an excellent team in that role on behalf of the government—as, of course, is the member for Parkes, who has been the Nationals Whip since I can remember. He adds a bit of consistency and stability to the whips team—and I look forward to the other whips doing the same over the coming years into the future. I would also like to thank the Opposition Whip, the member for Fowler. Long may he reign! We on this side of the House are great supporters of the member for Fowler.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm with him!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am glad that you are with him as well. He leads an excellent team. Like the Manager of Opposition Business and I, the whips also talk to each other on a daily basis to keep the business flowing and to make sure everybody gets a chance to represent their electorate. That is the purpose of a good whips team—to make sure the members who have been elected to this place get the chance to represent their electorates, to put their arguments, to make their speeches and to do what they can to be good members serving their electorates.

I would also like to thank your staff, Mr Speaker, led by Cate Clunies-Ross, a person I have known very well for a very long period of time. They are very competent and I think they have taken over the role very successfully.

I would also like to thank the Manager of Opposition Business, the member for Watson. The member for Watson and I have had quite a challenging year in some respects. We have been thrust together far too often over issues to do with entitlements and family travel. I must say that I think both of us were rather unfairly treated, but we have come through that process and held our families intact and made them understand that this is just the vagaries of politics. I hope that we have a less challenging year next year from a family point of view. I thank him for his good cheer, integrity and honesty in his dealings with me and with the government. It is a very important relationship, and it is a relationship that can only work on the basis of your word being your bond. I have to say that, whether it has been the member for Watson or the member for Grayndler—and I hope they would say the same of me—that has been the case.

I do not think I could finish without mentioning Don Randall and his tragic passing. As the member for Canning, he is the only member we have lost this year. Every now and then a member of parliament does pass away, and it is a very traumatic period for everyone in the parliament, not just the party from which that member comes. Don Randall was a personal friend and a colleague. I spoke on the condolence motion for him when he passed away, but I would like to say in closing that we miss him and we will continue to remember him in this place.

Finally, I would like to thank my family for their forbearance. As Tony Abbott is very fond of saying, we are volunteers for this business; they are conscripts. My children are getting older in the service. My twins are now 15. I have a 13-year-old and a seven-year-old. They have only ever known politics. They are very good and very sensible, and I am very proud of them and very lucky to have them.

I wish everybody season's greetings or a happy Christmas, as I know the Manager of Opposition Business will wish everybody. Happy Christmas!

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In participating in the valedictories, I begin by acknowledging that, for the balance of the year, a whole lot of different people were in a series of key roles—in particular, the former Prime Minister, former Treasurer and former Speaker. I want to wish all of those three people, regardless of arguments back and forth that have occurred during their time in office, all the very best. Certainly the former Speaker and I continue to see each other at many events in Sydney. We both have a passion for the arts, so we see each other at intervals at different things. We speak very strictly about the show! I do wish the former Speaker well, as I do the former Prime Minister and former Treasurer.

Mr Speaker, I join with the comments that have been made about the way you have fitted into your role. You said you wanted free-flowing debate. I think it is fair to say that the best example of how you have achieved that is that you let the government say more than we think you should let them say and you let us ask more than the government think we should be able to ask. In terms of that balance and keeping to the standing orders in that way, the parliament is no doubt better for it. I will say, Mr Speaker, that you have been a disaster for my profile—an absolute, abject disaster! I used to be able to get on the news all the time when parliament was sitting and you have wrecked that! I wish you well during this break. You and your staff have done an extraordinary job in the role.

I contrast this place with the other place. Whenever you flick over the channel in a moment of madness to the other place and watch what is happening in the red room, almost always there is a debate going on about the order of debate. That is almost without exception. The more we can be debating the issues rather than the procedures or rulings the more the parliament is doing its job. I think that has been the case in this place in your time, Mr Speaker. I wish you and your family all the very best for the sort of summer you spoke about hoping for earlier on.

I also acknowledge your team—the Deputy Speaker, Bruce Scott, who has been very well regarded around here for a long time, and our own Rob Mitchell, who is not our own when he is in the chair, and the other members of the Speakers panel. However, the utility that we have always had in telling people, 'If you get on the Speakers panel you might be a great Speaker one day,' is another thing that you are starting to wreck as an argument, Mr Speaker, given that you have not yourself served on it!

I want to acknowledge the whips and their teams on both sides. The whips have a similar circumstance as what happens between the Manager of Opposition Business and the Leader of the House, which is that, while they can have disagreements, they must absolutely trust each other and keep their word to each other. Otherwise, the parliament cannot operate effectively. I want to acknowledge them.

Leader of the House, you are on my list, but you are a long way down, so I am going to move you up! I want to acknowledge the Leader of the House. The Leader of the House has been fearless in his advocacy for his own side and for getting legislation through. He would probably see it as a great victory that the House has frequently run out of anything to do when the legislation before us has been sent across to the Senate early so that it can sit there until late! There have been many times when the Leader of the House and I have had to manage difficult procedures through the parliament, and there has never been a circumstance when the Leader of the House has done anything other than keep his word or follow through exactly on the procedures that he said would happen. That is appreciated and respected.

In return, I would remind people, as a gesture of goodwill, that A Letter to My Children is available as a Christmas gift for those who choose to contribute. In doing so, they would not just provide a wonderful gift to whoever they decide to put it under the tree for; they would also give the Leader of the House the opportunity to pursue another career at some point in time!

On my own side, I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition. It has been said for a long time that there is no harder job in politics. The Leader of the Opposition has seen off a number of people who he has been in fierce debate with during his time in opposition. There is one more who we are seeking to do that with! I certainly wish the Leader of the Opposition, as well as Chloe and the kids, all the very best, and I hope they have a good break over summer before what will be a relentless 2016.

Similarly in the leadership team, Tanya, her husband Michael and their kids are good friends of mine. I thank the Senate leadership although members of the Reps, depending on the hour tonight, will have varying degrees of gratitude to those in the other place. I should also add the member for Grayndler, who, as my predecessor in this role for my party—for some time in between he held the position of Leader of the House—has always been available and contributed actively to providing guidance for tactics in the House and for the procedures of the House. I am grateful for both his counsel and his friendship.

To the rest of my parliamentary colleagues, I wish you well, my caucus colleagues and the family that you have within your own party. On that note, I would acknowledge that, when I talk about the family that you have within your own party, while we all shared in feeling the loss of Don Randall, I am very conscious that, for those who were in the same party, it is a very acute loss. There were staffers who had gone from office to office. There was very much a collegiate feeling among members of the Liberal Party and Labor continues to offer not only sympathy to Don's family but sympathy to all members of the Liberal Party, who have undergone a particular loss in the course of this year.

The Labor staffers do an extraordinary job at making all of us look significantly better than we would otherwise look and I want to extend my appreciation to them. There is an unfortunate claim that happens here, where people say someone has never had a real job when they work as a staffer, which is a terrible thing to say about people who devote their professional life to something they believe in passionately. I think it is important that we acknowledge that no-one should ever feel that it is not a real job to dedicate your professional life to your personal beliefs.

Thank you to those who work in the parliament itself: the Clerk, David Elder; Deputy Clerk, Claressa Surtees; the Serjeant-at-Arms and everyone in the clerk's, sergeant's and table offices, and parliamentary counsel as well. To the attendants, Luc and the team, I wish you all the very best for Christmas. It is not simply the work that the attendants do throughout the parliament but it is the smile, the friendship, the genuine concern, which means a lot when it is not always being shown by everyone else in the room at any particular time. To the Hansard staff, depending on who is on their feet, your challenge is greater from time to time, but I acknowledge your work as I acknowledge the work of the Parliamentary Library.

When I talk about our staff, allow me to acknowledge the Leader of the House's adviser, John Bathgate, who we worked with in the first half of the year, has moved on to bigger and better things in that office. I congratulate him on his escape from parliamentary procedure and welcome his replacement, Hannah March, who, I understand, has made a very good start in what is a challenging role.

I am grateful to my own staff, in particular Ewan Kelly. A lot of the administrative work in bringing everything together here is done by Michelle Melihar in my office and I also acknowledge my chief of staff, Alex Lim. Ron Mizan is in the office but he is off doing other things. He has not come into the chamber so I will acknowledge him next year. I thank everyone at Aussies, the coffee cart, the staff cafeteria, the staff in the dining room and the catering services. The cleaners of the parliament have frequently this year and last year found themselves the subject of parliamentary debate. They have kept their professionalism the whole way through and are an extraordinary group of individuals. Best wishes to the grounds people and maintenance staff, the drivers, the travel agency, FCM—who handle the bookings—the Federal Police and security staff.

We thank the Press Gallery on different levels on a day-to-day basis. I think we are all mindful that the Press Gallery contains fewer people than it used to and that is not a good thing. I certainly hope people in the gallery get through the different challenges that are happening at the moment. With changes in the media itself and how people get their news, I hope that we start to see over time a resurgence in the number of people who are able to dedicate their lives to reporting in this place.

There are a few people in the public gallery, but, because there will not be a photo, I will put on the Hansard that the public galleries are absolutely packed with people wanting to hear the valedictories tonight! The crowd is going wild! I want to thank those people who, during the course of the year, have given up a chunk of their day—which they may have regretted, depending on what they watched—and come in to watch the parliament directly in action.

A number of people have been lost in the course of the year, in addition to Don. I was close, even though he was on the other side of the House, to Alby Schultz. I am very conscious for two members of my own side that at the beginning of the year, the member for Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon, lost his father, a former member of this place as well, Eric Fitzgibbon, and, in the loss of Tom Uren the member for Grayndler lost someone who was like a father. I want to acknowledge that. In my own portfolio, I want to acknowledge the passing of Peter Walsh, who, from the Labor perspective, very much made and designed the Finance portfolio.

It has been a roller-coaster of a year. Given that next year is an election year, I suspect that we will see more of that. I would like to conclude with two thoughts. Sometimes people look at these speeches and say: 'Everyone is so civil. Why can't it always be like that?' Thank heavens it is not, because we come here on behalf of communities that want us to represent them and that means that we will argue for different things. Those arguments should be fierce; they should be passionate. That is what the parliament is about. It is a parliament not a club, and that is exactly what it should be. Finally, people would be aware that, depending on how you factor it in—and this is a constant argument between me and Chris Bowen, but I will argue it because I am the one before the microphone—my electorate is the most multicultural in the country. I am always glad that we have not gone the way of the United States where people just say, 'Happy holidays,' and are reluctant to wish people the best for individual feast days that mean the world to them. People will wish me the best for Hanukkah, they will wish me the best for Holi, they will wish me the best for Deepavali and they will wish me an Eid Mubarak. I appreciate it when they offer those from the bottom of their heart, because they are feasts and festivals that mean the world to them. For myself and my faith, we are about to enter what is, together with Easter, the most special time of the year. In the same spirit, I would like to wish each and every member of the parliament, the attendants and everyone who is here all the very best for a happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.