Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about my mate Pat Dodson, who as we now know has been nominated by the Labor Party to fill an occasional vacancy as a result of a resignation from the Senate. I want to talk about Pat for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he is my mate; it is a good reason. I used to work for him, and he happens to be the godfather of our eldest daughter. So we go back a long way. Pat is an extraordinary individual—someone, I think, we are going to be very proud of as he serves in this parliament.

From very humble beginnings on the banks of the Katherine River, effectively, he was sent away to boarding school at the age of 13 after becoming orphaned; his sisters sent him away to Monivae, in Victoria and then became the first Aboriginal Catholic priest in the country. He then worked at the Central Land Council, starting in 1981, which is when I first met Pat. I was then working with Nugget Coombs at the Australian National University, and then later I went to work for Pat as his policy adviser. That was immediately prior to my entering the parliament. So it is sort of cyclical. I was employed by Pat when I entered parliament and now I hope to work with Pat as he enters the parliament as a member of the Senate.

He has by any measure already made a tremendous impact on the Australian community and on Australian society. He has many accolades—too many for me to mention here. I want to say to the Australian Labor Party, I am very proud of what has happened now. This could have been an issue which might have met some obduracy from some—some resistance—but in fact we have now seen the Labor Party say to Bill Shorten, 'This is a magnificent thing you have done, a really good choice.' Last night we had the admin committee of the Western Australian branch of the Labor Party unanimously endorse Pat to fill the casual vacancy. That is no mean thing. It is very important that we see him in the role he wants to play beyond the normal party conflict that happens in this place, to work across the parliament with all of us—engaged—to deal with issues of national and indeed international importance.

We do not often get people of such stature in this place. In fact, it is a very rare occasion. Pat Dodson is not some 30-year-old; he is a mature-age gent, if I might describe him like that—close to my own age, I might say. He will bring here much wisdom, and for that we can be incredibly grateful.

Many comments have been made about Pat over the years. I note one from when he was awarded his honorary doctorate at the University of Melbourne. The award-of-degree statement said:

Patrick Dodson has taught the Australian community that reconciliation is not an elusive ideal, but a practical, achievable reality for the future of our continent and all its peoples.

When announcing his proposal to appoint Pat as our candidate, Bill Shorten described him as:

… a truth teller, a powerful advocate for recognition, justice, equality and fairness for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Mr Shorten also said:

His advocacy and perspectives will continue to challenge all of us to face up to our shortcomings.

Noel Pearson, an eminent Australian in his own right, said:

I congratulate Pat and the Labor Party for giving one of the most important voices of our people a national platform. He will continue to be a voice for reconciliation … A man of such stature should give welcome ballast to our national parliament.

I think we can all be proud of this.

This is not just the Labor Party. We as Australian members of parliament across the aisle should be lauding this appointment and saying that we want to work with you to address those issues of common concern and give away the normal argy-bargy of this joint to work cooperatively together. I know we can. We just have to make sure we do. The conflict which often emerges in this place is often unnecessary. This gives us an opportunity to refocus, to recast, to have a different conversation and to create a different narrative into the future which shows how concerned citizens—as we are in this parliament—can work with an eminent Australian to get better outcomes for all of us.