Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to take the rare opportunity to make a brief observation myself, if I may, from the chair. When any senator is here for a time, they make their mark, but party leaders make more of a mark because of the consent of their colleagues who elect them and the role that they play in this place.

I must confess that I first met Richard a long time ago. I had the privilege of having him run in the seat I was a voter in many, many times—the state seat of Melbourne. I must confess that I didn't vote for Richard, but that won't surprise him. When Senator Hanson-Young mentioned that he missed out by a whisper in 2007, indeed he did; there was 0.78 per cent separating myself, David Feeney and Richard Di Natale, and he just missed out on that last spot. Living in that area at that time, I noticed that I didn't have to share someone's political views to admire the fact that, in my view as an outsider, Richard Di Natale played a strong role in building the Greens as a political movement, as they were growing in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. He was there in the early days. I remember when they won their first mayoralty in, I think, the City of Yarra. He was one of the people involved in building a political party. Civic involvement is something that I think we can all say is something we wish more people would undertake. That, in itself—building a political movement—is something that strengthens our body politic and it strengthens democracy in this country.

I don't mean to sound trite, but I want to be brief. In this place, we all share a similar aspiration in so many ways. We want to see a society that provides opportunity. We want to see a society that allows people to be healthy in a better lived environment. We disagree very strongly on the means and we disagree sometimes on the priorities, but, importantly, Richard has represented a shared commitment to this place as the way to resolve those—this place as a parliament and as a national parliament. As I've said before, this place—the Senate—represents a much more diverse set of views than the other place, and it plays a unique legislative role in that important aspect of compromise on which all democracy has to be based. We don't have to share views and we don't have to share a starting point, but sharing a process and a commitment to civic involvement, citizen engagement and this parliament is very, very important.

I might also say that I can't really apologise, but, if I had had to pick someone I was going to have to ask to leave the chamber, it wouldn't have been Senator Di Natale at any point! He was very good-natured about a very difficult time. I know that that was a moment of very strong feelings in the Senate, and I do know he genuinely meant the views that he expressed, and I understand why he did. Sometimes being in the chair is not easy.

I'll conclude by saying that, when I had an illness, Richard contacted me a few times. I have always found him a profoundly decent person who cares for his colleagues, as those closest to him have said. I'm not quite 50, but I've obviously made the same decision, and I would just say to him: very best wishes to you, Lucy and your boys. After your leading a political party in our national parliament, which is an extraordinary commitment, with the kilometres travelled and the time away from home, I hope that you and they have so much more opportunity to share the time that your colleagues have benefited from over the last decade.