Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to provide some contribution to saying goodbye not just to three of my Labor Party colleagues in the Senate—and I will get to them a bit later—but to all 14 senators who are going. I think nights like tonight provide us with an opportunity to acknowledge the work they have done and to say thanks.

I will start with John Watson and Grant Chapman. You have to acknowledge the many years that they have spent in this chamber and the years they have dedicated to public life. I think it augurs well that people on all sides of the chamber have acknowledged their contribution. Senator Watson was a pre-eminent expert in superannuation—something even acknowledged from time to time by my colleague Senator Sherry—and I know we enjoyed his bipartisan cooperation in that matter.

Now to you, Senator Sandy Macdonald. In my 10 years in the Senate, Senator Macdonald has actually gone and come back again. But this is an opportune time to acknowledge the contribution he made through his committee work and the work that he has done in this chamber.

I will move on now to Senator Ross Lightfoot. I have only worked with him on one committee in my time here. But what has stood out for me about Senator Lightfoot—apart from the antics that have got him onto the front pages of newspapers occasionally—is that he is a true gentleman. I have appreciated his courtesy and his ability to accommodate the views of members from the opposite party. Certainly, as we sat together on the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories, he was always willing to pursue the interests that people like me had in issues pertinent to Christmas and Cocos islands and the Indian Ocean territories. He is well mannered and, I think, one of the truest of life’s true gentlemen that I have ever come across, and I want to pay tribute to the manner in which he has undertaken his role.

That leads me to make some comments about Senator Patterson. When I think of the comments of my colleague Senator Kirk about the contribution women have made in this Senate, Senator Patterson is certainly up there with them. If I reflect on my time here, some of the most momentous occasions have been the contributions and the debates we have had around stem cell research and RU486, and there Senator Patterson had a key role. She may not know this, but there were a number of us who felt very saddened that she lost not just a relative but a very close friend and associate just prior to getting into the ministry. Even though we are from different political parties, there are those human elements that bind us in the Senate, and we did feel for you at that time, Senator Patterson—as we did also in your losing a very close friend in Senator Ferris. We all felt that but, of course, none more so than people like Senator Minchin and Senator Patterson.

Having said that, though, I must tell the Senate this story. When Senator Patterson was the Minister for Health and Ageing, in question time after question time we would ask her questions—as you do when you are in opposition, seeking to elicit a slip or an error, or to get the government in some way to trip over policies or commitments and then lunge for the attack and hope that you will come through. My mother and father, who are in their eighties, have come to enjoy watching question time in the Senate. I have no idea why. They would often say to me, ‘Trish, we don’t understand why your party keeps going after Senator Patterson. She is such a lovely lady. Could you pass on our concern that you ought to back off and give her a bit of a go.’ I do not think I ever passed that on to Senator Patterson, but I think that is how she did come across in question time: a person who was genuine and sincere about the work that she was doing.

I want to pay a big tribute to Kempie. I know that is unparliamentary, but maybe tonight is the night we can let down our guard. There is a major flaw in Senator Kemp’s personality that I have tried to highlight during my years in the Senate, but tonight I will just have to put it on the public record: he is a Carlton supporter. I know that this may affect any future career he might want to have outside of this place, but it leads us to a common interest we have in the AFL. People may not have known this, but many times in question time we would pass notes to each other across the chamber, having the odd $20 bet on the coming game on Saturday—particularly when Essendon played Carlton. Actually, Senator Kemp, if you are listening: I think you still owe me $20, because I won the last bet and you have not paid up yet. We would always be betting against each other when Essendon played Carlton.

This leads me to a story that I am going to put on the record, Senator Kemp, so that you can read it in years to come. At one time I was agitating for money for the AFL in the Northern Territory. They had had a grant of around $300,000 and, lo and behold, Senator Kemp became the sports minister and the following year I found that the money had been cut in half. I was absolutely dismayed. My research showed that most of that money was going into supporting Aboriginal kids in communities and football development. So I gathered up some research and wrote many, many letters to Senator Kemp urging that the AFL get back the $150,000 that he and the government had taken from them through DCITA. One night, very late on a Tuesday when we have our open-ended adjournment, I actually gave an adjournment speech about this. From memory, it was probably around 11.30 pm. I remember thinking to myself as I went back to the office: ‘I’ve got that off my chest but I guess I’ll never see the money for the AFL in the Territory.’ But lo and behold, a couple of days later Senator Kemp grabbed me in the corridor and said to me very quietly and privately: ‘Senator Crossin, the one thing I like to do when I get home from the Senate at night is to grab a drink, sit in the armchair and listen to the BBC on the radio. The other night, there I was, ready to relax, but I had to put up with the last couple of minutes of the Senate before the BBC clicked in, and there you were, nagging me for this money for the Northern Territory. If it is not bad enough that I’ve got my wife constantly nagging me’—and, by the way, that is okay, because she is a Richmond supporter not a Carlton supporter, so he should not criticise her—‘I had to listen to you have a go at me on radio.’ So I thought, ‘There is a place for adjournment speeches. One can only hope that ministers are sitting at home actually listening to what one has to say.’ The upshot of that was that he did actually find some extra money for the Northern Territory AFL. It was not $150,000 but I was pretty grateful when I heard that an extra $78,000 was coming their way.

I also want to pay my respects to Senator Kerry Nettle, who is also leaving us. I do think that, if anything, we need to recognise her youthful spirit and her dedication to her party and her party’s policies. You do some incredibly hard work when you are in a minor party such as the Greens and you have got quite an extensive workload. I do think it is important that we acknowledge her contribution and the role that she has played.

Let me go to my colleagues in the Democrats. I know they are not here, but I do want to acknowledge the work that they have done over the years that they have been here. I got to know Senator Andrew Murray—another fine gentleman in this place—through the Scrutiny of Bills Committee. It was a privilege to be at one of the committee’s infamous breakfasts this morning, where they paid tribute to Senator Murray for not only the role he played on the Scrutiny of Bills Committee but also his role in workplace relations, in economics and in tax issues and his endeavour to provide some justice for children who have been in institutional care in this country. That will go down in my mind as the legacy he has left through the work that he has done.

I paid tribute to the work of Senator Andrew Bartlett on Monday, when we tabled the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs report on his Stolen Generation Compensation Bill. It is a tribute to Senator Bartlett that he continues to pursue issues that are pertinent to Indigenous people, but he will also be known as the member of the Democrats who has relentlessly pursued the rights of refugees and highlighted their situation and plight in this country.

I acknowledge the work that Senator Lyn Allison does in the education field. It is nice to get up in this chamber and to know that someone else understands the language and the lingo of education and the field of education. Senator Allison has certainly been there, supporting and pushing for the rights of public schools and for further resources for public schooling in this country. I got to know Senator Lyn Allison through the work we did in pursuing the regulations and oversighting of uranium mining in this country. I pay tribute to Senator Lyn Allison for the work that she has done in that area over the years.

I got to know Senator Natasha Stott Despoja very well through education areas and our work on the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. She also has been quite an outstanding role model for young people in this country, having come into this Senate at the age that she did, Doc Martens or not. That just added to the credibility and the very real and tangible symbol that young people related to at that time. She is such an extremely hard worker. During her time here she has pursued the issue of higher education—the rights of students, student unionism and better provision of student allowances while they are studying—with passion, in the same way that she has supported me in trying to get a childcare centre in Parliament House, and in her work towards paid maternity leave. I say to you, Senator Stott Despoja, as you depart from this chamber, those are two issues that a number of us will continue to pursue.

Many people may not know this but at the 20-minute mark of my first speech I was drawn to a conclusion, much to my shock and horror, by a government senator at the time. Very nervously, I had no idea what to do, having been told I could take as long as I liked but then being stopped at 20 minutes because my time had expired. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was heavily criticising the government at the time for their cuts in higher education. It was actually the Minister for Education, Employment and Training who decided that my 20 minutes was up, so you can well guess who that was. In all of that chaos a note from Senator Stott Despoja was slipped to me. It would be most unparliamentary if I reiterated to people exactly what was on that note. She knows what it says and it hangs proudly in my office. What she should know, though, is that, for one fleeting moment, not only was I pleased to get some support from another party but I was also pleased to know that there was another senator in this chamber who thought exactly the same as I did (a) about the government and (b) about the senator who had interrupted me. Thank you, Senator Stott Despoja, for that support.

I will turn now to my colleagues who are departing. I did not get a chance to thank Senator Robert Ray. He has retired and left this building and he is enjoying cricket and many other things. His knowledge of the Senate and its operations—the political strategies and the way in which this place operates—was something I had the benefit of enjoying for a significant period of my time in the last nine years. I was never here to enjoy Senator Robert Ray as a minister and to work with him as a minister, but I can only imagine how competent he would have been and what sort of a mentoring role he would have played to other members of parliament at that time. Senator Lundy and I were laughing just this week about the orange-bellied parrot and Senator Ray’s pursuit of that issue with Senator Ian Campbell. On reflection, I think Senator Ray got that gig all the time because he was probably the only one who could actually say ‘orange-bellied parrot’ very fast and consistently when in a rush, because it is particularly difficult to say.

There was one occasion when I had a fall in the internal stairs here, which are quite slippery. It was a wet day and I lost my grip on about the tenth step and landed at the bottom—on top of a fellow from Channel 7 who had a camera, I think. Anyway, I hobbled into question time and within about half an hour my ankle had blown up. Senator Ray, who I was sitting next to at the time, said to me, ‘You need to go off to the nurses station and get that looked at. How did you do it?’ I said, ‘I fell down the stairs, actually. I tripped down the stairs.’ He said to me, ‘Well, that’s why I always take the lift.’ I said, ‘Yes, they can be pretty slippery, can’t they?’ He said, ‘No, no, no; I just don’t want people like you falling on top of me.’ His sense of humour is something that I will remember. He was a great contributor to this Senate.

I also want to pay my respects to Senator Campbell. There has been a lot of comment tonight about your role in the trade union movement. When I was coming up through the ranks of the trade union movement, you were one of the pre-eminent trade unionists in this country. It is not unfair of me but very just of me to say that I do not believe that the metal workers would be the union that it is today if it had not been for your leadership during the period of time that you were there. You worked incredibly hard for the rights of those workers in that union. You took that work to the ACTU and you took that work around the country. You have been a friend of mine here, and I will not forget the support that you provided to me in my early years in this chamber. In your first speech you commented on your role in the trade union movement and your absolute commitment to support trade union members and trade unions and workers in this country. You can very proudly look back on your record in this chamber and know that you have not wavered from that commitment at all. Your contribution to workplace relations bills, particularly during the time of the Howard government, played a significant role in getting that debate in this chamber to the level that it arrived at, as did the role that you played last year in the lead-up to the federal election. You can well and truly leave this place knowing that you have not let the workers of this country down in any way whatsoever.

I want to pay tribute to Senator Ruth Webber and her work here as well. It is true that when I look back at my time in this chamber I will look at the work that Senator Webber has done with Senator Patterson and Senator Moore in what have been some of the most outstanding legislative achievements we have produced in the last 10 years. It was of course a cross-party effort led by wonderful, feisty—I am not sure that ‘feisty’ is the word I would use for Senator Webber—determined, articulate and well-grounded women who know exactly what they believe in and know that there are others behind them supporting them. I believe that you have been a tower of strength and have led a lot of us to come with you and provide support during that time. In your first speech you talked about EMILY’s List. I think that is a great institution and I know that you have been guided by and have stood by that institution well in your time. Thank you for your work as well.

Finally, Senator Kirk, I want to pay tribute to you not only as a friend and a colleague but also in my role as Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. We had our last round of estimates a couple of weeks ago, but I have worked with Senator Kirk on that committee for probably four or five years now. It is true that your legal background and your economics background were of great benefit. I look at your CV and see that you undertook studies at the University of Cambridge. I admire your hard work, your intellect and your ability to provide such a substantial contribution to the committee. I am not sure that you will be replaced by someone of equal legal eminence, which will be unfortunate. I think you have made a great contribution.

I also want to say to you that I think the work that you did in leading a campaign, through your newsletters, website and postcards, to get children out of detention was very significant. Our shadow Attorney-General at the time, Nicola Roxon, accepted and adopted your policy and your thoughts. You are one of the people who I think led a significant change in the thinking within caucus. Your commitment, along with that of Carmen Lawrence, to making a change for refugees took the Labor Party in a different direction.

In concluding, Senator Kirk, I think the first speech you gave in this house is one of the finest speeches ever in the history of this parliament. It is one that people will turn back to and look at. For me it was a watershed in first speeches. No longer were women coming into this chamber expected to provide a 20-minute ‘travels with my aunt’ monologue about their life. You provided a well-crafted, intellectual, well-researched constitutional analysis of the election campaign slogan that former Prime Minister Howard used at the time. I think that in decades to come, if people want to research what first speeches are and what they are used for, yours will be at the top of the list. I urge people who might be listening to the broadcast tonight to go to the parliamentary website and read Senator Kirk’s first speech. It is one of the finest speeches I have ever read. For me, that was another defining moment in your career. It certainly said to the rest of us: ‘I’m here. I’m very intelligent. I know my law and I am going to make a difference.’ Senator Kirk, I know you leave this place under very unfortunate circumstances, but in your time here you have made an enormous difference, I believe, not only inside the Labor Party but also for constitutional law, law reform and the rights of refugees. I want to thank you, on behalf of the Senate legal and constitutional committee, very much for that contribution.