Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to wish all my departing colleagues all the best for their futures. Senator Kerry O'Brien, thank you for being an understanding whip to new senators. I very much appreciate the role that you played as I came in as a new senator. I will recall Senator Hutchins and Senator Forshaw mostly as being part of my introduction to the greater Australian Labor Party as the diverse national organisation that it is. It took me a little while to distinguish one grey-haired man from the other across the parliament; but you two I managed to sort out from each other very quickly, you will be pleased to know.

Senator Hurley, you have been an amazing chair in the economics committee. We have had some extraordinary experiences, as you have reflected on this evening, right from the OzCar affair, and it really has been an amazing experience. We have done a huge number of reports and I know what an incredibly significant workload you carried. I thank you very much for guiding me through that and for being such an excellent chair. To Senator Dana Wortley, thank you for your friendship. It was a pleasure to work with you on the cybersafety committee. I think you have laid the foundations for some really significant work.

To my colleagues on the other side of the House: Senator Troeth in particular, with respect to the principles within the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development, it is incredibly important when the views in parliament are so contested that we have the opportunity to have strong bipartisan relationships on these significant issues. I thank you for that. I would like to acknowledge Senator Barnett, whom I usually have diametrically opposed opinions to. My experience with him on the legal and constitutional affairs committee provided for me what is notable about Senate committees, which is: when you listen to the experiences of Australians, you can actually make mutual decisions based on what is in their best interests and move forward.

I have things to say about all our departing colleagues, but I would like my colleague Senator Carol Brown to get the call before we finish this evening, so I will finish with a quote:

Man's feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell

On that note, I would like to thank all departing senators for their valedictory speeches and say what a pleasure they have been to listen to.