Natasha Stott Despoja (SA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed. Of course, she did. My decision to leave—it is an empowering one—is to spend more time with my family during these crucial years. This should not be interpreted as sending a message that motherhood and politics cannot be combined. That is not my message to women. It is possible, it is necessary and we cannot afford to lose that talent pool. If you believe in working families—and, let us face it, all families work more or less, and then there are the very young and the very old who are not working—you have to support them. There is a greater role for policymakers, for government, for industry and, of course, for parliaments to play.

I think we send one of the worst messages of all in that we work in a building with 3,500 staff and we have no childcare facilities. We must implement a suite of reforms that will assist workers and their families, whether it is the right to return to work; flexible and part-time work after having a child; breastfeeding breaks; quality child care that is affordable and accessible; and paid maternity leave, of course. But I do take great heart in this coalescence of support around the model that I, on behalf of the Democrats, tabled in this place in 2002. I do hope that we will see in the next year a real commitment to and the implementation of paid maternity leave.

Finally, I would like to thank the members of the Democrats, the supporters in my party and the people who voted for the Democrats. I see many members in the gallery. I see two former presidents, Matthew Baird as well as Liz Oss-Emer, and I am sure there are others. I thank them for the opportunity to represent and, indeed, to lead my party. I will always trust the members, and that is my message to any future Democrat representatives. I thank the people of our home state, South Australia, for the privilege of serving them for almost 13 years. I leave here as the Australian Democrats’ longest ever serving senator. That too is an honour I cherish, but it is also one that I wish to see broken. But, Mr President, who can predict what the future holds? Thank you.