Sandy Macdonald (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It comes to all of us, this difficult task of saying goodbye and farewell, but I can reassure the Senate that fortunately I leave willingly, the timing is right, whatever contribution I could make I have made and the opportunities that lie ahead are generous. I have had some wonderful days, wonderful opportunities and wonderful responsibilities, and, like all federal parliamentarians, have gone places and met people that most Australians only dream of. But I remind all senators that politics is part of life and we forget that at our peril.

For me this game is over, and I only say that to reinforce the admiration that I have for all senators, who give up so much to make this wonderful country of ours a better place. If only the general public would reflect a little more on why we have such a good country—it is only because we have good people who give up otherwise productive lives to serve. This is not a given, not even in our great democracy, but it does still remain the case in 2008 Australia. On a lighter note, as young Mr Grace used to say in that long-running comedy Are You Being Served?, you’ve all done very well. Seriously, though, I wish all the work of government was more generally appreciated, but public service, as we all know, has its own rewards.

I feel enormously privileged to have been elected in 1993. I had to wait five weeks for the sixth New South Wales spot to be declared, taking the spot of Democrat Senator Karin Sowada and taking the problematic third spot on the coalition ticket. To have spent three years in opposition and then three years in government, to have lost my Senate spot through no fault of my own because of the Pauline Hanson charade—which drew off the coalition vote in 1999—and to have come back by casual vacancy in 2000 has been all good fortune. Success in politics, as all in this chamber know, is assisted vicariously by your party’s success, your state, your gender and other considerations. To have lost my spot—and the modest performance of my party, unfortunately, did little for my advancement, but then again very few people get a second chance as a senator, and I had that—and to have then been part of a government that changed the face of Australia, for better or for worse, but overwhelmingly for the better, was an incredible privilege.

I do not expect to see another government as good in my lifetime. It had discipline, it had until its last term incredible unity and it had positive themes that drove it to improve real living standards of all Australians, to balance the books and to spend money where it should be spent, to assist in providing lower interest rates, to revolutionise the tax system, to provide better super, to recognise the challenges of generational change, to establish the Future Fund, to establish good defence priorities, to make the waterfront work after 100 years of rorts, to establish good social policy as diverse as Farm Management Deposits and Green Corps—and the list could go on. The Howard government could never be accused of wasting its time.

I am personally indebted to former Prime Minister Howard. He gave me, I think most people would agree, the two best parliamentary secretary positions available on the numbers: trade and defence. Both areas I had taken a long interest in, and I was therefore very enthused to assist. The John Howard government, the Howard-Costello government, will be remembered fondly, maybe sooner rather than later. Despite how partisan we legitimately are in this place, I do feel that governments sometimes win one election too many. Mr Keating should not have won in 1993, and, however good our economic management was, electorates in functioning democracies tire of you and hence vote for change—however unfair or unpalatable it may be to the government of the day. I am not ungenerous to the new government: I wish it well, for all our sakes. After all, I know many of its senior members well and regard them as friends. The challenge and responsibility now lies with them.

To my wife, Alice, the heart and soul of our immediate family: I could not have done this job or had a degree of normalcy in my private life without her. To be frank, political life challenges your health, your wealth and your family life. Families do make a sacrifice, and there is frequently damage in the ranks along the way.

I got a chuckle the other day when I heard Adam Spencer of Sydney’s 2BL asking Dame Edna what she put her success down to. She replied:

To be frank, Adam, I have always insisted on putting my family last.

To politicians, this is a bit too close to the bone. All our children—Camilla, William and Angus—have been born since I have been in the Senate, and I have spent an enormous amount of time away from them. Children of course do not know whether they are lucky or unlucky, but they do know whether they are loved, and our children are that. The enormous richness of their lives, of which politics has inevitably been a good part, has been provided largely by Alice. I admire her and thank her for that. I also thank her for coming to live in Australia, for becoming a citizen and for contributing to Australian society, both locally and on a wider scale.

I also want to acknowledge my wider family: my wonderful mother; my parents-in-law, who, unusual as it may seem, I wish I lived closer to; my four sisters and my brother, all with strong, diverse and divergent political views, but all people with good priorities.

I want to thank my manager at Wallabadah, Harry Kelly, and also all of those who keep the show on the road at home. Harry has a uniquely safe pair of hands, and I could not have spent literally years away from home in the last 14 years if I had not known that he was in charge. These of course have been very demanding years in agriculture. In my time in the Senate I can remember few times and few periods when I have been relaxed about the season—and I am lucky, I live in a preferred rainfall area. I know how distracted and helpless people feel in continuing drought. Let us hope that, for Australia and for Australian farmers, we are blessed with good seasons and prices in the future.

Australia is fortunate to have food that is the envy of the world in both quality and price. And geographically positioned as we are, we will remain an agricultural superpower as we in parallel develop our importance as an energy superpower as the world’s largest exporter of coal, second-largest exporter of natural gas, and with the world’s largest deposits of uranium. Food and energy are paramount in the modern world. Let us seek excellence and leadership in both, because Australia is truly blessed in both.

I have had wonderful support from my staff down the years. I want to thank Gaye White, my first chief of staff—Gaye is in the gallery—and a wonderfully wise friend and confidant. I want to thank Di Kershaw, my executive assistant. Di is a super person, who I hope will assist in my postpolitical career. I want to thank Rachel Sherman, Scott McFarlane, Meredith Dickie, Katherine Martin, and my parliamentary secretary staff, Dianna Stainlay, Ross Jordan, Robin McKenzie, Joe Nyhan and Kate Duncan. Some of the latter are trade and defence departmental people who provided wonderful service to me. I also thank Peter Langhorne, who worked for John Anderson and later for Prime Minister Howard. Peter ranks among the most capable public servants I have met.

We are a lucky nation to have so many outstanding public servants, which has been alluded to by previous speakers. I have been fortunate to have had my share. I thank them for myself, but I also do so on behalf of the country. In trade, I know we sold Australia well. In defence, I hope we made the pointy end of defence capability a little bit pointier. In defence, I very much enjoyed working for Brendan Nelson—to have shared a little of the incredible responsibility of putting ADF personnel in harm’s way, of sending them to war, of visiting them abroad, of comforting their bereaved and of welcoming them home. Living constantly with the current operational tempo has been an unbelievable responsibility and honour. To have worked alongside the CDF, Angus Houston, the service chiefs and the secretaries of Defence, Rick Smith and Nick Warner, was an experience I will cherish all my days. As I said, we are a fortunate nation to have people of such quality to protect our welfare.

I want to acknowledge the leaders of the National Party: Tim Fischer, John Anderson, Mark Vaile and Warren Truss. It is a very difficult job to be the minor party in government, particularly with John Howard, who had a real sense of what you might call country mindedness. I particularly thank John Anderson because his relationship with Prime Minister Howard meant that after we had balanced the books he was able to direct essential funding to regional Australia. All the regional partnership programs—the Roads to Recovery, AusLink, essential medical infrastructure, Investing in Our Schools—have been a great fillip to regional Australia, building on social capital and assisting regions’ natural advantages. These are easy targets for political muckraking, but overall they have meant a lot to regional communities, and I hope and trust the new government will continue to help address the understandable unfairness of the tyranny of distance that affects a country as large as Australia. Local to where I live, near Tamworth, the National Equine Centre will be forever a reminder of what good government can do—not creating something in a vacuum but building on the natural advantage of our area. Across New South Wales I have been pleased to be associated with many community initiated programs in health and in transport and with the many community improvements in which we, as senators, have an important role to play.

I, like many senators, have played an active role in a couple of the parliamentary friendship groups—namely, Turkey, a country with which Australia has a unique relationship, and of course with Taiwan, a vitally important regional neighbour in North Asia and our seventh largest trading partner. When I became chairman of the group we had about 50 members, and now it is well over 100. Although not an official parliamentary group, it is one of the largest in the parliament. Both Turkey and Taiwan are countries that I will continue to have contact with when I leave the parliament.

I have enjoyed the constituency work that came with having my main office in Tamworth, a large regional city with a forward-looking community.

I have enjoyed my committee work, which developed a focus on foreign affairs, defence and trade and the security and intelligence areas. The early advice to pick areas of particular interest was well received by me. And when I had the opportunity to be Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Trade and then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence I had a good understanding of the issues on which Australia should be focused.

One inquiry I particularly enjoyed was the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry into the loss of HMAS Sydney in November 1941. I am delighted that the wreck of the Sydney has now been found, but I do caution that, despite a new inquiry, there are questions that can never be answered. Dead men, of course, do not tell tales. The Sydney was lost with all hands, having fought magnificently to the end.

I thought when I came to the Senate that I would make the best of the clubbable aspects of the extraordinary life we live here in Canberra away from family, friends and, can I say, a certain relevancy that comes with everyday life in the suburbs. I made some very good friends. Bos, my leader for 14 years—‘lonely is the head that wears the crown,’ as he says—I respect immensely. Many people around this place, including myself, have the word ‘honourable’ before their name. Bos is honourable in every sense. He is wily, wise and committed to his causes—but always honourable. I have always enjoyed his turns of phrase, like: ‘They get on like a cat and a dog in a paper bag’; or, ‘That person looks like he has lost a quid and found a sixpence’; or, ‘That person is so lucky, he’d put his hand into a bucket of the proverbial and pull out a gold watch.’  I hope he gets the years of relaxing and sailing of Moreton Bay that this very great Australian deserves.

I acknowledge my other National Party colleagues, particularly Nigel. I thought of him at Gallipoli in April. He has some of the same bravado as that exhibited in 1915. When all is lost, Nigel will think of something to get the troops out of being garrotted. To my other friends on this side—Senator Minchin, a distinguished former minister and the true professional on our side of politics; Senator Abetz; Senator Brandis; Senator Ferguson; Senator Parry; Senator Eggleston, a most unusual doctor in that he actually prescribes what you tell him to; Senator Lightfoot; Senator Chapman; Senator Johnston; Senator McGauran; Senator Bernardi; Senator Barnett; Senator Ian Macdonald and many others: we have all shared a certain humour along the way. Thank you for your friendship and generosity.

Like many on our side, I do admit to respecting Senator Faulkner. I would not say that John is a friend, because he would not wish to be categorised like that, but his word is his bond and you can forgive a lot for that. And, on a lighter note, he seems to have morphed exquisitely from the poacher to the gamekeeper with the change of government. Also, to my good friends John Hogg—shortly to be Mr President—Senators Forshaw, Bishop, Hutchins and others both here and in the House of Representatives: I have enjoyed your comradeship. As I depart this place, I would naturally prefer the coalition to be in government, but good democracies have a corporate life unconnected with us bit players. I can say that amongst our political opponents there are good, able and energetic people in whose hands the nation will now be to be looked after until their time is up—which, on the recent performance of some, particularly a distinguished former senator and now member for Robertson in another place, may not be so long.

I would like to acknowledge senators who have died during my Senate stay: John Panizza, Jeannie Ferris, Bob Collins, Peter Cook, Sid Spindler and Rob Bell. I remember them all very fondly. They all died before their time, and I suspect political life did nothing for their longevity.

I wish my fellow retiring senators well. I particularly acknowledge the contribution of Senator Murray to this institution. He has had a fascinating career. Brought up in what was Rhodesia, he is totally committed to the rights of man. I thank all those who make the Senate work and our lives as senators that bit easier: the Clerk, his deputy and assistants; the Black Rod and staff; committee secretariats, who are outstanding; Senate transport and Comcar; Tim and Kate up in the dining room—there are many senators who never visit the dining room, and I think it is a great shame that they do not; all the attendants; and the list goes on. I thank Jan Broughton, a Comcar driver who moonlighted keeping my Canberra unit so spotless that it looked like nobody lived in it. Thank you all.

So, fellow senators, if ever you drive up the New England Highway between Sydney and Brisbane—I suspect in future you will be doing that in electric cars—please consider stopping when you get to Wallabadah. We live very close to the highway. You will be assured of a strong drink and a very warm welcome. Perhaps I might take the opportunity to remind you of the five possible Ds of political departure: you leave dead, defeated, disgraced, disillusioned or divorced. Any or all or none of the formula need apply, but be careful. Finally, as Banjo Paterson wrote in the foreword of a book he gave to my grandfather: may all of you have better seasons than you deserve. I wish you all, and this institution, good health and good fortune in the years ahead. Godspeed.