Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

Sometimes we would leave at about nine o’clock in the morning, having started at seven; it was nowhere near a hundred degrees at that stage, but I would dutifully walk off the job with my comrades in the abattoir and have the rest of the day off.

Mr Acting Deputy President Lightfoot, you hold yourself as someone who exhibits a strong sense of self-confidence, and that is understated, but the way you hold yourself, sir, I think is a great example to all of us.

Senator Chapman—‘Chappie’—has had a very substantial input into this place. I think that Chappie’s is one of those records that deserves to be read and reread, because he has made a substantial contribution. I think it is fair to say that Chappie has probably had better 12 months than the 12 months he has had, but he has done so with great dignity and he has not stopped smiling, and we will miss him very, very much.

I want to finish by talking on my two close friends: ‘Patto’—or Kay, or ‘Kaysie’, as I also know her—and Rod Kemp. I will start with Kay. Kay Patterson is one of those people who is a giver, in the classic sense of the word; Kay Patterson is a giver, not a taker, and she has always been so. I vividly remember, back in 1996, the day after Prime Minister Keating announced the 1996 election; it was the day that I actually went into hospital for surgery for cancer. It was a dramatic way to avoid the election campaign—I admit that. But I was there, and the first person in that office at nine o’clock in the morning was Kay Patterson, and that is where Kay Patterson stayed for the duration of the campaign. It was the mark of the woman that she was there; she was there early, and with no fuss—she just got on with it. I think it is a matter of great sadness that Eric is not here to join with Kay in her retirement. They deserved that retirement together, and I think that is a matter, as I say, of enormous sadness. But Kay Patterson is a warm, dedicated person, and I personally will miss her greatly.

Finally, I turn to my friend Rod Kemp—‘Kempie’. Quite frankly, I do not know what all the fuss is about! I have heard a lot of stuff said tonight, and I do not know whether I believe all of it! In fact, I believe it all—plus a little bit more. Rod and I first entered this place in 1990. I think it is generally acknowledged, looking at us, that he has suffered worse for the experience than I have! But, putting that to one side: we did come here in 1990 together and we do share a lot of things. We became members of the executive on 14 October 1996. I had a look at that photo the other day, Kempie, and you and I have not aged gracefully, I regret to say.

Rod Kemp is a funny, articulate, quick-witted man, whose contribution to the Liberal Party, to its Victorian division and to the Senate stands on its own. There was some fleeting commentary made about it tonight, and I, for the life of me, will never understand why Rod Kemp did not serve in the Howard government cabinet. That is something that I will never, ever understand, and there is only one person who knows the reason for that—and it is certainly not me, and I suspect it is not Senator Kemp!