Kay Patterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sadly and reluctantly, having being sworn in on the same day as Senator Calvert, I seek leave to incorporate my speech, which I would rather have given.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

If a week is a long time in politics then twenty years is almost a lifetime.  The 11 July 1987 election seems, on the one hand, like only yesterday and yet in other ways it seems like an eon.  I don’t think when Senator Paul Calvert and I were sworn into the Senate in the old parliament house on the 14 September 1987 we could have ever imagined we would still be here 20 years later.  We have seen enormous changes in that time – we moved from our shoe box office in the provisional parliament house (those last elected got the smallest offices) into our brand new parliament house offices on the hill.

Over that 20 years we have experienced the roller coast ride that is politics.  The lows of losing elections, the highs of winning elections.  We have seen senators go, and we have seen a large number of senators come and go.  Over that 20 years we have experienced personal highs and lows.

One of those highs for Paul Calvert must have been his election to the very important office of President of the Senate.

Paul has undertaken his role as President just as he has carried out his role as a senator – with diligence, dignity and with his own endearing form of humour.  The latter a quality which has never deserted him even if the going has been tough.  I first experienced this humour very early on when I was in the old parliament house.  I had to keep dashing in and out of question time on the day of my maiden speech.  I sat across the aisle from Paul and he diagnosed what was wrong.  I won’t disclose the nickname he gave me but it is one he has not forgotten and will regale people with the story given half, or even a quarter, of a chance.

I can’t let this opportunity pass without emphasising the strain that service in this place places on spouses, partners and family.  I know Paul’s role has meant long periods of time away from home.  Before he became President he was for 15 years a very active and committed member of senate committees and this and parliamentary sittings has meant weeks and weeks in any year away from home.  Throughout those 15 years and the five as his role as President, Jill his wife has been there – a rock, a source of comfort and encouragement.  Theirs is a true partnership and I know how much Jill’s support has meant to Paul.

Not many people can leave this place unscarred and unscathed but I think I can say that Paul is no different from when he first entered this place.  He is happy on his tractor as he has been mixing with Lords, Ministers, Kings and Ambassadors.  Rudyard Kipling’s ‘“If” - if you can walk with kings and not lose the common touch’ applies to Paul.

Paul has not lost the common touch – he has served Tasmania, the Senate and the Australian people and his family should be rightly proud of him.

People say you don’t make friends in politics.  Well I can say that they are wrong.  I count Paul and Jill as friends – I thank him for that friendship – and wish them both well in the next phase of their lives.