Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Bartlett stole my opening line, which is that this is probably one of the most difficult speeches I will have made in this place. It is the end of a 31-year long era, and I desperately wish that I was handing my seat over to the next generation of Democrats senators rather than standing here, the last of our parliamentary leaders in the Senate, turning out the proverbial lights.

To the Australian Democrats, the party executive, our founders, the Chipp family, former senators, the members and supporters, many of whom are here tonight, and the people of Victoria: thank you for the very great privilege of serving in the most important legislature in the country. The Senate fills me with pride and I will go on being its ardent advocate for a very long time.

I am enormously pleased that my family is here today. My mother, Joyce; my sister, Barbara; my partner, Peter; my brother, David, and his partner, Liz; and my niece, Beth: thank you so much for coming—it has been really important. I promise to make up for 12 years of neglect. Thank you for your support and for coming with me on this ride of a lifetime.

When I entered the Senate in 1996, I could not possibly have imagined what was in store. I did not know how important the work of committees would be, how their inquiries would so consume my time and energy, how they would so effectively expose the shortcomings in services and policy, or that they would often have great influence on government decision making.

I have been indulged by my party room, committee chairs and senators across the board in agreeing to the many references to inquiries I put up over 12 years—about 10 of which I chaired. I want to say thanks for the enormous amount of time, travelling and effort that other senators in this place have given to issues that were not necessarily high on their political agenda but certainly were on mine.

Committee inquiries have been an education no university could offer. I know a great deal more about superannuation, the electoral system, tax, the fuel sector, health economics, uranium mining, mental illness, water management, the science of climate change, the complexities of teaching kids with learning disabilities and aid programs—and they are just some. Just today the report of the sexualisation of children inquiry was tabled and, again, I thank those who joined with me in that committee. It was a very good inquiry, like so many others in this place, and it was a privilege. The Senate committee system means that horizons are expanded, and hearts and minds are changed when people here are confronted with the evidence.

Most negotiation in the Senate is done outside the chamber but on rare occasions a minister can be persuaded by the arguments and amendments agreed on the floor. It is rare, I acknowledge, but I want to pay tribute to one minister who did that most effectively here—that was Senator Robert Hill.

I think it is tragic that the public we serve judges us, and judges us harshly, by the dogfights and the sham that passes for question time—mostly in the House of Representatives, not here—when collaboration and negotiation is what the Senate is good at, particularly when neither major party has the numbers. In 1996, I could not know that I would negotiate hundreds of amendments, spend days in the chamber on a single bill and take decisions that were politically risky.

I will not forget the experience of being in the parliament during dark and defining moments in our political history like 9-11, the attack on Iraq, the threat of terrorism and the Bali bombings, the unravelling of native title, Tampa and children overboard. For all the power bestowed on us as parliamentarians, at these times, the powerlessness was profound.

I did not expect that colleagues—all from other states and almost strangers at the start—would go on to mean so much to me. I could not have anticipated the unforgettable experiences: the rudimentary earth floor birthing facilities in remote Thailand; our women-centred aid programs in distant provinces of Vietnam; a meeting with the delightful King of Jordan; and the visit in the dead of night to refugee camps in Western Sahara in the desert of Algeria, where people have lived for more than 30 years through endless dust storms and 48-degree heat on a daily basis. To see whole villages reduced to concrete rubble in Lebanon just weeks after it was attacked by Israel, to fly over offshore wind farms in Denmark, to don a headscarf and long black cloak to be driven at breakneck speed through crowded Iranian cities and to visit Timor not long after the bloodbath that followed the referendum were some of my Senate delegation experiences that will live with me for a long time.

I gained an intimate knowledge of sewage works in our Senate water inquiry. I was shocked by the high-security ward at a women’s prison in Brisbane holding women with serious mental illness. I came to understand some of the complex problems of schooling in remote Indigenous communities and saw the very best and those that were below Third World standard. I stood in the now filled-in decline at the Jabiluka would-be uranium mine and the rock cavern underneath Botany Bay that is now filled with LPG.

I thank my colleagues Senators Bartlett, Stott Despoja and Murray for a very smooth ride for the last three years and thank them and the six other Democrats senators with whom I have worked for their intelligence, hard work and commitment to the principles of the party and more—I have learned a great deal from them all. We went through some very bad times as political relationships go, and I am relieved that professionalism and goodwill has mostly healed the wounds.

Thank you to colleagues on all sides of the Senate—more than a few of you would be ideologically better placed with the Democrats; others would not. But, with a few exceptions, the more you get to know people the more you find in common.

A special thanks to the women here for their sisterhood in an environment still dominated by men. Women should be outraged that the most competent women in this place have been discarded or just overlooked because of factional deals. The collaboration over reproductive health like the history-making RU486 bill showed us what is possible, and I wish we had done more. I like working with women. Their egos do not get in the way of a good campaign so much but often parties do in my experience.

I would like to see more attention paid here to working women—the double, sometimes triple jobs they do in raising kids or looking after sons or daughters with disabilities or ageing parents while mostly doing the lower paid jobs. I wanted to be, when I came into this place, a good representative of women and their interests. I am profoundly disappointed that the dangerously repressive family planning guidelines are still intact thanks to religious zealotry and that our spending on family planning has dropped proportionally to one-sixth of what it was 12 years ago. It is disappointing that little progress has been made on violence against women and children, that more women than ever are in prison on drug convictions and that fewer will be in the Senate post 30 June.

I made a speech this week urging the government to act with more urgency on climate change. I regret that I will not be here to keep prodding them into action. I am sure it will be necessary. On current progress, and, if the point-scoring absurdity of the response to petrol costs is anything to go by, the chance of reaching agreement about Australia’s response to greenhouse, or that of the international community, before it is too late is looking very remote. For all the blokinesss in politics, it seems that neither major party has the guts to tell people that high petrol prices are here to stay and the inevitable pricing of carbon will push them even further, much less encourage alternatives.

I am very proud of the achievements of the Democrats over 31 years and of my own work in establishing, for instance, the national environment legislation, from a Senate inquiry back in about 1997 to the passage of the legislation and, with it, 500 amendments improving the bill. I negotiated two extensions of the photovoltaic rebate scheme, establishing renewable energy grants for remote off-grid communities, pastoralists and Indigenous people, and a scheme for recycling lubricating oil. Probably nobody here knows that, but I am telling you now! I won $400 million for greenhouse abatement through an inquiry into Australia’s response to greenhouse. That was more than eight years ago and the recommendations are still as relevant now as they were then.

The Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Scheme was my work, so, when you go into a whitegoods shop and buy a washing machine, those stars on that washing machine are down to me. That would have been done eventually, but I can claim that was my work, as were national fuel and emissions standards and grants for conversion to alternative fuels like LPG—again, taken up, fortunately, and improved by governments more recently. But these were all measures that governments did not take up at the time and perhaps would not have taken up had we not held the balance of power.

Eventually the recommendations of the urban water and greenhouse inquiries that I initiated will be implemented. Perhaps too the recommendations on Indigenous education, education for kids with disabilities and teachers will be implemented, which were all from inquiries that the education committee worked so hard on.

The mental health inquiry I initiated generated $4 billion in much-needed new funds from state and federal governments. Thank you to my colleagues on the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs for their enormous effort and the great collaboration and agreement that was able to be reached on that committee. We made a difference. The inquiry into the Jabiluka uranium mine assisted the Mirrar people to stave off that assault on their Kakadu land.

I wish my efforts on banning cluster bombs altogether had been more successful with the new government, but at least there is a half-good treaty underway. I did my best to discourage the Howard government from joining the attack on Iraq—a war that has taken five years so far and killed hundreds of thousands of people, mostly civilians, I might add. At least the Bush administration admitted that it was about oil and the Australian government admitted, finally, that it was all about the US alliance.

I am very pleased to see that the Rudd government has recently taken up the case for nuclear disarmament—another of my strong campaigns. I ask that it also look at setting up a ministry of peace and a law that would require governments to act when Australian citizens face unfair trials overseas, like David Hicks. I ask that it look at setting up an energy efficiency trading scheme, a bigger renewable energy target, a ban on new coal-fired power stations unless they can meet very tight emissions standards and a ban on junk food advertising directed at children. The government will find bills to do all of this under my name.

I want to express a big vote of thanks to my staff, my amazing staff: Jo Dower, Siobhan O’Mara, Daniel Barnes, Paul Watson, Vikki McLeod, Craig Beale, Sarah Benson—who is not here—David Collyer, Tim Wright and a dozen or so more who went before them. Thank you for putting up with me, my disorganisation, my impatience and my unreasonable demands. Your hard work, your loyalty and your intelligence got me through more than a few sticky moments, and your fingerprints are on so many of our achievements.

It is difficult to single people out. However, I give special thanks to Jene Fletcher, who is an amazing member of our staff. Only the clerks know more about the procedures of the Senate, and even that would be arguable. Jene, you have been in the Senate for longer than any Democrats senator and you have been a rock for 19 years. We will miss you, but so will the many others in this place who constantly ring you to ask your advice.

Thanks to all who work in the parliament and who treat us with respect, whether we deserve it or not. I have the greatest respect for Harry Evans, not just for his spirited defence of the Senate but for his diligence and that of his staff in making us look good. We arrive here ordinary people, for the most part, with highly variable levels of education and most of us with no experience in the parliament and yet we still get by without knowing Odgers.

I acknowledge the great patience and multiskilling of Rosemary Laing, Cleaver Elliott and their staff; the amazing responsiveness and organisational ability of our committee secretaries, despite impossible deadlines; the wonderful and important service of the Parliamentary Library; and Comcar—that great white symbol of privilege that makes us safe and comfortable on the long days and nights of travel. Our Hansard reporters are highly skilled and, my understanding is, second to none in the country. Attendants, photographers, security staff, cleaners, travel agents, gym staff, caterers and more all work to guarantee the very smooth operation of this place. I thank you, Mr President. I thank the Deputy President and the acting deputy presidents. I regret that I never made it onto the big chair up the front.

I want to also thank the architects of this parliament and the contractors who, 20 years ago, made this building. After 12 years in this place, I still revel in the architectural beauty of it, the timeless materials and colours, the attention to detail, the glimpses of courtyards, the fabulous artwork, the seamless transition between public and non-public spaces and its great success as an embodiment of democracy.

I have a lot of respect for the many journalists in the press gallery and the work that they do. Most of them have gone, I see, but never mind! There are important synergies between us: we both play a role in keeping the bastards honest. But I have to say I will not miss the endless need to pursue stories that put us in a good light or persuade them to take us seriously. I think the media could never quite accept that a party could give its members the democratic right to determine policy or its leaders or allow its senators to vote on opposite sides of the chamber. It does not quite fit the major party mould of tight discipline that so strangles honest debate and decision-making. I think our demise could have been otherwise if the graveyard stories had been balanced by the substance of our last two election platforms or our record in the parliament, but this was not to be the case.

I leave this place with great pride and many wonderful memories. I think we have upheld the principles that Don Chipp started in this party of not just keeping the bastards honest but bringing integrity, honesty and tolerance into this chamber. Thank you, Mr President, for your involvement here. Thank you to all my colleagues in this place, and goodbye.