Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to say a few words, having been mentioned generously by a couple of the retiring senators on the other side. I will start by referring to Senator Wortley, whom I have not known as well as many other South Australian senators, because in this place you tend to get to know the people you work with on committees best of all. Although we see each other on a social basis at times, it is when you actually work with people that you get to know them really well. But, Dana, I have always admired your enthusiasm—like some others, I do not always share all of your views but I do admire the way you put them. I think, even within your own party, you have shown your enthusiasm for the causes that you believe in and brought them to the forefront. And that is why we come to a place like this: to try to make a difference. Although your time here has not been that long, I think you have made a difference. I certainly wish you, Russell and Che well in the future.

It was interesting to hear Senator Sherry talking about Senator O'Brien's knowledge of horseracing. When I first got to know Kerry—after he had been here for a year or two, actually—we did go to South America together and, as we travelled around, we had a chance to talk. At the time, I just happened to have a share in a very good horse—well, I thought it was a Melbourne Cup winner—so Kerry used to keep asking me, 'How's the horse going?' With a name like Jeune Amour, it could not help but win! But I knew Kerry was a man who was very keen on horses and, certainly, his own horses that were racing at the time, and so we got to know each other very well.

I want to endorse another thing that Senator Sherry said. I rarely feel sorry for anybody on the other side of the chamber, but I did feel sorry for Kerry after the 2007 election when he was, as he put it, excluded from the ministry. At the time, there were a number of so-called high-flyers elected in 2007 who seemed to be able to find their way into jobs without doing any of the hard yards in this place. Kerry had done more hard yards than anybody I know. Throughout that period when he was shadow minister for agriculture, he and Jack Lake were a very formidable team. They were a very formid­able team, which is probably why Jack finished up in the Prime Minister's office. Well, I think that is where he finished up; I have a sneaking suspicion he was still filtering a bit of information back this way at times!

I think that Kerry would have made a very good agriculture minister. I have said that to all of my colleagues who asked me. As a matter of fact, after today's performance, he would probably be better than the one you have got now. I should not really put that in a valedictory speech—no offence to Senator Ludwig, of course. Kerry, I wish you well. You have made a great contribution. Paul Calvert used to tell me how great you were to work with as the Opposition Whip. At times it is not easy. It is not easy to make decisions, as Senator Parry knows and Senator McEwen knows. He always appreciated working with you and I am sure he would want me to pass on his best wishes to you as well.

Michael Forshaw and I have probably been here longer than the others. It seems longer anyway, but not nearly as long as the night we spent in Budapest. I had no idea we had so much in common. The longer the night went, the more we had in common. I had no idea why he was in the Labor Party. Had I asked some of my friends in the rural industries, particularly at the time of the wide combs dispute, I probably would have found there were some differences. It was about the second delegation I had ever been on and I think it might have been Michael's first. His wife, Jan, and my wife, Anne, became firm friends. The original delegation was supposed to go to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic—I think it might have even been Czechoslovakia then, I cannot remember. At the last minute, they pulled the Czech program off, so we only went to Poland and Hungary. I was talking to Michael before we left and said, 'Bugger it, I really wanted to go on this trip because I wanted to go to Prague.' The Czech part of the trip was what attracted me. He said, 'Same here.' So we made an arrangement that when the official delegation finished just the two of us with our wives would have a little 'bilateral' to Czechoslovakia—and we did. We had the most wonderful three days being looked after there by the local Austrade commissioner and his wife. It was the start of a firm friendship.

We worked on the Public Works Committee together for a considerable time. I was Senator Forshaw's predecessor as Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade for eight years. I still remember after the 2000 election Senator Forshaw coming to me and saying, 'I might want to chew your ear a bit; I think I am going to get your old job.' Michael, for the past three years, has been a wonderful chair of that committee. There is an enormous amount of networking with diplomats. He is able to be diplomatic in his treatment of them and is able to understand them. I found over my eight years in the job I got enormous support from opposition people because it probably is the most bipartisan committee in the whole of the parliament, if the truth be known. In all the time I have been on that committee, which is longer than I care to remember, the only dissenting report that I can remember was written by Dee Margetts of the Greens. It was a single dissenting report. The rest of the time we seemed to be able to reach a compromise because, as I have always said in this place, unanimous reports carry far more weight than majority reports and minority reports. Inevitably, when consid­ering legislation, the government puts in a majority report, the opposition puts in a minority report and the government treats it as opposition, whereas if you put in a unanimous report governments have to take some notice. They do not always agree. Michael has shown in his time as chair that he can work with his colleagues to reach consensus. whether those colleagues are on that side of the chamber or on this side of the chamber.

Michael, you have had a distinguished career. I have enjoyed your friendship and Jan's. I wish you well in the future. I am sure there are many things you will do in the future that will give you satisfaction. To each of you who have given your contributions tonight, I wish you all the best in the future.