Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity at the end of the 2006 sittings to thank all honourable senators for their contribution to the smooth running, most of the time, of the chamber this year. I single out the Deputy President and Chairman of Committees, Senator John Hogg. John has been an absolutely loyal and steadfast deputy. He has stepped in whenever needed. He has also been a great Chairman of Committees. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the temporary chairmen of committees, who on a daily basis run this chamber. It is always a pleasure to acknowledge the temporary chairmen of committees who take the chair and do such a great job.

I would like to thank the Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans; the Deputy Clerk and the other clerks at the table for their support to us all during the year. Their advice is always professional and timely, and I think it is a hallmark of the Australian Senate. I particularly thank the Usher of the Black Rod, for the support to my office during the year. I thank the chamber support staff, and in particular the attendants for their assistance during the year.

Everything in the Senate relies on the efficient distribution of paperwork and we would grind to a halt if that did not happen. The different sections of the Senate—the Black Rod’s area, the Committee Office, the Table Office, the Procedure Office—all merit great praise for their quiet and diligent support through 2006. The Senate in operation is a little bit like a duck paddling across the water. It often looks tranquil on the top but everything is going on underneath. When you move around this place you see that it is those people underneath who make this place work.

I thank the Department of Parliamentary Services, led by Hilary Penfold, for their work during the year to maintain this building, particularly the landscape staff, who had a particularly difficult year given the circumstances we have had to deal with with the drought and trying to preserve water and keeping this place looking like it was meant to.

The Parliamentary Library has continued to do excellent work under the new Parliamentary Librarian, Roxanne Missingham, and the new governance arrangements that have come into place with a strengthened Joint Library Committee and service agreement that I think have bedded down quite well. Thanks go to all the library staff for their continued and dedicated work.

I would like to also thank the staff of the two joint offices, the Parliamentary Relations Office and the Parliamentary Education Office, for their work during a very busy year—both for official overseas visitors to our parliament, whom we had many of this year, and for the volume of members of the general public, particularly those schoolchildren who flock here to learn about Australian democracy. The Parliamentary Education Office does a wonderful job.

I would like to also thank the guide service, who bring people through this place. They are a very vital part of Parliament House. I would like to record my particular thanks to Maggie Nightingale, who is retiring next week as Assistant Director, Visitor Services. I can say she will be sorely missed because she has been a great director in that area. She has been the leader of a great team. They do a wonderful job in showing the people of Australia how wonderful this parliament is.

I thank my colleague the Speaker in the other place for his cooperation during the year. Much of the work the Presiding Officers do in both chambers is done together. I appreciate the relationship I have with the Speaker. We have to make some decisions that you probably do not like, and some you do like, but we work well together.

I would like to thank the staff of my private office including those in Hobart, who support me in such a cheerful way, particularly when I am up here.

My wife, Jill and all senators and other people who work in Parliament House and in electorate offices right around Australia would like to wish you all our very best wishes for a very happy Christmas and a great 2007. We strongly urge those who are travelling over Christmas, as Senator Brown said earlier, to take particular care on our roads; as we all know, this is a very dangerous time of the year. I thank the Senate.