Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Before joining this debate I also want to welcome Senator Jacinta Collins back to the Senate. I am sure she will fit in very quickly where she left off a few years ago.

Robert Ray and I have some things in common—not a lot, but some things. We are both Victorian senators. I have not spent anywhere nearly as long in the chamber as Senator Ray—former Senator Ray as of today—but I, like everybody else who has spoken here today, admire him enormously for his great skills, his intellect and his contribution to the Senate. Thank you, Senator Carr, for pointing out that he was a technical school teacher. I did not know that, so I have that in common with him also—as well as our age, which I understand to be the same. He will be missed in this place, there is no question about it. He was an erudite, very articulate man and he was also very funny. A lot of people in the rest of the chamber would not have been able to enjoy some of the comments he yelled across the chamber at the government back before Labor came to office, but it kept those of us on the crossbench amused on numerous occasions. Senator Abetz, I am afraid, came in for much of this banter. It is true that, when he spoke, we listened because he did not waste words. He did not get up for no reason at all. When he had something to say, everybody knew that it was going to be important and so we did exactly that: listen.

I must say that since I have been here I have not felt a great closeness with Robert Ray in political terms. I do not know that he had a lot of time for the Australian Democrats. He certainly targeted me on occasions, suggesting that because my office was in the same building as the party’s that there must be some skulduggery going on. But it was done in an open way, and I think he accepted my arguments as to why he was wrong and he desisted in that effort. He was clearly a very tough and a very principled man. He did not suffer fools gladly and he expected a high level of engagement in this chamber, just as he gave. It does not surprise me that he would be a good mentor to new senators in this place. He was deeply loyal to the Australian Labor Party—no-one has suggested otherwise and I have no reason to think that would not be the case. It was pretty obvious from the way he spoke that the Labor Party is deeply important to him and that he was at all times interested in its wellbeing and in its being in office.

He was an interesting man to observe whether it was in committee work or in estimates, which is where I spent most time observing him. As others have said, when the duo of Senator Faulkner and Senator Ray came into the room you would know that there was an issue being pursued. It might have been trivial—it might have been the Prime Minister’s couch or it might have been something more significant than that—but there was always a story in it. There was always something in the media that would follow that was of great interest to people.

To some extent, I think it is a pity that Robert Ray did not do more media work. He used to come in downstairs to avoid the media doorstop interviews out the front and I think that is a pity. I think that as a commentator he was insightful and, as others said earlier, cut to the core on so many issues. It is also probably characteristic that he is not here today to listen to us speak about him. It is probably not something that he would have enjoyed. He struck me as not being a very sentimental individual. As I said, he was tough and not someone who would necessarily indulge in the sentimentality that necessarily comes at the end of a 27-year career in politics.

I hope that he pursues whatever he wishes to. It does not surprise me at all that he would not wish to be in the diplomatic corps or get a plum posting somewhere. He will do what takes his interest rather than do what might be expected of him. I hope he is successful in that and that his retirement is enjoyable for him.