Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I went to Woolbrook Public School. Senator Cameron went and saw the school that I was school captain of—the only other honour, apart from this one, I have ever had! It was peculiar: at Woolbrook Public School our biggest rival was the Catholic school. We could not stand the Catholics. The problem I had was I was Catholic, which was always an issue. I do not know how I ended up at the state school, but I did. If I am successful, it will be an interesting time for me to go back to a place that I left for work some time ago. I had to move to Queensland for economic reasons. There was not much work where I was in New South Wales. Anyway, one thing led to another and here I am.

I have a strong suspicion that this will be the last time I speak in this chamber. I would like to say that I have friends on both sides of the political fence, and the good thing about that is we respect each other's confidences and I think the Australian people should know that. I want to thank the Australian people for being so patient with me over this time. I would like to thank my party. The greatest honour I had was to lead the National Party. The National Party is so important. We get ridiculed for being hayseeds and this and that, but it is so important to try to bring to the debate the perspective of the poorest people in Australia. That is the thing I always kept closest to my heart—that is, we are the party that represents the poorest. We are the party that represents those people on the margins. And when we get ridiculed for being hayseeds, I always bear in mind that our people are ridiculed, with derogatory terms cast at the little towns and villages of the people we represent. Whether they are the fishermen or the farmers, they are generally the people who live in the weatherboards and irons out in the sticks; they are the people I came in here to represent and hopefully I will continue to do it.

If this is the last time, I wish my party all the best. They have been so kind to me. I hope I have been a good leader for them for the time I have been here. To everybody in this chamber and to my party, all the best and God bless.