Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make some remarks on behalf of the Labor Party and the government to our retiring senators. I regret that retiring senators always give their best speech as their last speech, and that is a bit of a hard act to follow, but I do want to make some remarks on behalf of their Labor colleagues. A senator’s opportunity to serve in this place is very much a function of their political party’s decision making. Senators are subject to the vagaries of the views of party members and the shifting focus of power inside their political parties. We are all subject to those forces. Senators’ careers can come to an end due to factors other than their personal performance and contribution.

Tonight I pay tribute to the contribution of three of our Labor senators, who in my view have made significant contributions to the parliament, to the parliamentary Labor Party and of course to the Australian Labor Party. Their service has been appreciated by their colleagues and the labour movement, and their comradeship and company has been appreciated by us all. I want to make the very clear point that the end of their period as senators is not, in my view, the end of their contribution to the Labor Party or to public life. I think all three of them have a lot to offer in the years to come—even George, who might be a little more fixated on retirement than he need be or should be. I still think there is a role for him in the movement, as there is clearly for Linda and Ruth.

Talking about Senator George Campbell, as George said, he was elected as a New South Wales senator in 1997 after a long career in the labour movement. In opposition, he was parliamentary secretary to the shadow minister for innovation, industry and trade from 2001 to 2004, and then of course he took on the most important job in the parliament, that of the Opposition Whip, for four years, which he did with great distinction. George’s is a classic migrant-made-good story. George came to this country from Belfast in 1965. It is lucky that the English standard requirements then were much lower, because otherwise George may not have got in! George had a tremendous career in the trade union movement and rose to the height of National Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, which is a tremendous achievement—a very strong union but also a union in which the internal battles are well fought. To provide leadership for a lengthy period as national secretary is a tribute to him. He also, of course, served as a senior vice-president of the ACTU and provided leadership in the ACTU for many years. He has been on the national executive of the Labor Party for about as long as I can remember. I do not have the exact dates.