Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Senate for the honour it has bestowed upon me. Honourable senators, thank you for the enormous honour you have done me by electing me as your President. I will endeavour to repay the trust that you have placed in me. I could not be elected to this office without the support of my party and the people of South Australia, and I express my thanks to the South Australian division of the Liberal Party for their faith in endorsing me and to the voters for electing me to this place. I also wish to thank my Liberal Party colleagues in the Senate for their unanimous support for this position.

I pay tribute to my predecessor in the chair, my close friend Senator Calvert, who has been an excellent President of the Senate for the last five years and who did much to reform the bureaucracy of the parliament. Senator Calvert has chosen his own time to retire—something not everyone in this building has the chance to do—and I know all honourable senators will wish him well for the future. It was a South Australian, Sir Richard Baker, who was the first President of the Senate at Federation; and six senators for South Australia have now occupied the President’s office—more than from any other state. We also claim Senator Margaret Reid, who spent all of her formative years in South Australia. If my memory is correct, she was the first president of the Young Liberals in South Australia. I do not know why my state has this statistic—maybe there is something in the water.

Apart from the support from my party and my colleagues, the greater personal debt of gratitude I owe is to my wife Anne and my family. They have been a continual source of support during my political career. It is a career which I know comes at a personal cost to all households that contain a politician. I cannot express my gratitude enough for that support. Together with Anne and other family friends in the gallery, two of our three daughters are here—along with Grace Heaslip and Jim Le Messurier, two of our five grandchildren. As President, I aim to continue the unbroken tradition of my predecessors to endeavour to treat every senator equally, and I hope all honourable senators will play their part in helping in that endeavour—and those who assist the President in the chair.