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

She was a very young woman! Even I was a bit younger then. She spoke at a state conference on, as I recall, a woman’s right to choose and the abortion debate. She spoke very strongly, made a huge impression and made a very telling contribution to the debate. I think it is fair to say that it was not in tune with the views of many of the people with whom she was associated in the Labor Party, and it certainly was a contribution that probably worked against her political career at the time. As Sir Humphrey Appleby would say, it was a ‘courageous’ contribution. It was a sign of her strength of character, her commitment to her ideals and her preparedness to stand up for those things even though it was not necessarily in her personal political interests at the time. She made such an impression that I employed her. One of my few strengths has been that I have always employed good people. I have had tremendous support from people with great skills, and Ruth was one of those. Her contribution while she worked for me was fantastic. Both inside the Senate and in politics, she is one of the best campaign managers we have produced out of WA, and she will not get out of that role easily.

It is interesting, I think, that Ruth’s career has included strong advocacy for women and women’s rights, for health and mental health issues and for a range of other areas of interest. I thought of the contribution she has made to the Labor Party. It struck me that, when Jacinta Collins returned to the Senate the other day, we got to a position where 14 of the 28 Labor senators were women. The best thing about it was that no-one remarked upon it. It was not considered strange. That suddenly half of the Labor Party’s senators were women was not considered worthy of any debate. No-one talked about tokenism. No-one talked about special treatment. People accept that the Labor Party having matured to the point where half of its senators are female is the natural order of things. I thought that was a really maturing moment and a reflection of the contribution that Ruth, many other female senators here and others in the party had made. I know that Ruth also, like Linda, was involved with the issues of stem cells, a woman’s right to choose and those other large issues of conscience that have been part of our debate in recent years. I think her strength of character, her passion and her commitment came to the fore in those debates.

The other thing that I would say in looking to wind up is that one of the things I most admire about Ruth is the way she accepted what was a fairly hard decision that the party took. It influenced her and ended her Senate career. She never dropped her head, never dropped her bundle and worked just as hard on the last federal election campaign as she had on the probably 15—certainly 10—before that. I think the loyalty she has shown is a great credit to her. I think that is true of Linda and George as well. One of the things as Senate leader that has impressed me about all three is that knowing that their time in the Senate was coming to an end has not affected their commitment, their loyalty or their contribution. They have all worked as hard up until the last days of their term here as they did in the early days of their term. I think it is a great credit to all three of them that there has not been a slackening of effort and that they have contributed at a very high level.

That sort of loyalty and commitment is, I hope, recognised more broadly in the party. That sort of professionalism and dignity is certainly recognised by their peers. It would have been easy for the senators who lost preselection to be bitter. It would have been easy to concentrate on the unfairness or the impact of that decision. I think the fact that all three have dealt with it so well—have shown such professionalism, dignity and generosity despite taking quite big knocks on a personal level—is a great credit to them. It is a good indication to me that the Labor Party still has their support, but also that they have something further to contribute. Because of the way they have handled themselves it seems to me that their colleagues and those in the broader labour movement will come to recognise that their contributions are still valuable.

So it is with some sadness that I remark on the retirement of three of our senators, but they have all had good careers, made strong contributions and can be proud of their contributions. There is life after the Senate, I am assured. I keep running into retired senators who are much happier than when they were in the Senate, and I hope that is true of all three of you as well. All the best.