Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

I described valedictory speeches on the last occasion as real-time obituaries for the living. I do not want to prolong those obituaries. However, I want to record that when Senator Minchin was appointed by then Prime Minister Howard to be the leader of the coalition team on the resignation of Senator Hill in the last couple of years of the Howard government, I confess to have been quite resentful of that decision. I thought it was inappropriate that a person should be imposed on the senators and was determined that if the opportunity arose I would not support Senator Minchin's election. When, after we lost office in 2007, he approached me seeking my support for his position as leader of the party, I was able with complete honesty to say that he had my support and my vote because he had demonstrated to me his ability to lead, in the best possible way, all the members of the coalition team from government into opposition. I remain in awe of his capacity to unite his colleagues and to be sensitive to their respective needs as individual politicians. That skill in leadership is something that the Liberal Party particularly will miss.

I regret enormously the loss that the Senate coalition team will experience with the departure of Senator Ferguson. The time that I have shared with him in this place has been characterised by his enormous sagacity, an ability to reflect on the past but make constructive comments about where we should be going without ever sounding as if he is preaching to us. I feel as if we will need some kind of electronic hotline to him on days of party room meetings to get his latest advice on particular situations, which I have no doubt he might regret wanting to give—but if it is available, we will take it.

Senator McGauran, my wife was here earlier to hear your farewell speech just as 24 years ago she heard your maiden speech in the building down the mall. She was particularly sad to see Senator McGauran's departure and I express on her behalf the great sense of loss that we feel for his leaving. He has somehow managed to retain a sense of youthfulness and awe of the place he works in, a kind of Peter Pan quality which others of us who have served less long but have more grey hair do not seem to have mastered. I wish him the best for the future, as I do all of my colleagues. I hope, with the loss of their experience that we endure from 30 June, we can gain new blood which will put the Liberal Party particularly in good stead for the future.