Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

Super advice, amongst many types of advice, but most recently it was to ensure that I enunciated a bit more and spoke a little bit slower for broadcast days. That is the sort of wisdom that we young fellas, or new fellas, need, and we need continual reminding about it. I say that in all seriousness, because it is important for us to know. More than that, John, you have given me specific advice about the financial industry, which is of particular interest to me. I am humbled by not only your knowledge of tax and superannuation but your continuing interest in it. It never ceased to amaze me that whenever something came up you knew exactly what it was about and you knew the history of it. This is the sort of thing that I can only aspire to in my career, however long it may be, in this place. You have set a very high benchmark; I salute you for it.

I also recognise your enormous contribution to Tasmanian politics. One of the things that I admire about the Tasmanian senators is that they regularly get together and discuss what is of great importance to Tasmanians. They caucus and they represent the interests of Tasmanians very effectively. They have obviously been doing it for a long time; it obviously started somewhere and you have obviously been a very big part of that. It is a lasting legacy that all of us representing our states in this chamber should learn from, so I congratulate you. I extended my best wishes to you and your wife when I was in Tasmania recently and I hope, whatever path you choose after 1 July, you enjoy it, because it is a very well deserved respite from a very gruelling experience in this Senate.

Sandy Macdonald—I note Sandy is not here—has always been a true gentleman, very generous with his advice and support. Whenever I had a phone call from Sandy I always knew it would be important. It would not necessarily always revolve around politics but it would be important to my family, to society or to the community. Sandy never took his eye off the ball as far as that was concerned. He was a great lobbyist and a great advocate, and continues to be, and I am sure that Sandy will enjoy his time outside of the parliament as well.

It is interesting that Senator Lightfoot has been talking about Western Australia a lot, but I understand he is basically a South Australian. Once again, the best of the west comes from South Australia! He was indeed in the Port Lincoln light horse, or grey horse, unit of the police force. Ross also has a few secrets, not too many of which I will share in this chamber. He was the chairman of the G&T committee, which is a private committee that meets occasionally. He was an able chairman, always defending Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and successors—