Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to wonder how Senator Siewert is feeling at the moment sitting there. After all the years of the slings and arrows that are part of this place, you finally hear that people think you're a pretty good person, Rachel. It must be a profoundly interesting moment to be sitting here experiencing that. I want to reflect briefly on your contribution, having heard your voice and the particular tenor of your review of your 16 years here. It was a voice thick with emotion, because you care about what you do, which has been reflected by everybody who has made a contribution so far. To have been serving in this place, about which people, sadly, have become increasingly cynical, with not a skerrick of cynicism in your voice is a testament to how resilient you are, how much integrity has been part of what you have brought to your role and what you've continued to model here for many senators and members of parliament who could well and truly take a leaf out of your book, in terms of a model of deep service to community, because that is exactly what you've given.

Of course, you did indulge yourself in a very brief record of your service, but that, again, just reveals the humility that you bring to the task that you have undertaken here. I also note that your comments tonight were somewhat tempered by a bit of a sorrowful statement about the things that were unable to be achieved—in particular, your passion for the challenge of our time: the red alert that is the climate change reality that is just so much a part of this time in which we live. I know that you care about that so much, as I do, for the next generation and about what the impact is. I also stand with you in knowing that there is capacity in this institution to make a change that is material, and you acknowledged that one period of time under the leadership of another great woman from a different party—my party, the Labor Party—the former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

I have in my drawer the actual first document from when that legislation came in. I had it signed by the four ministers who introduced it, because, when that happened, I knew that was a day when we could make a change. It is heartbreaking sometimes to put all that effort in and get to the point of having it pulled apart. But, incrementally, even if we're sorrowful about not having achieved the goals as easily if we might have—if there wasn't such a miserly vision of that issue—you have been part of bringing to bear that pressure to move us towards a better place. I'm sure that the task will get done eventually, Rachel, and it'll be on the back of the efforts of people like you. In particular, the passion, energy and integrity you've brought to that issue is absolutely notable, and noted.

I will pick up on the remarks of Senator Waters about your work at estimates. In my entire time here in the Senate I have not seen public servants so aware that they were going to have to provide an A3 sheet profoundly densely printed with every single piece of detail about how many people had come or gone from a particular program. You've just got them so well trained—although that's probably a bit of a pejorative term. They're so well prepared for the degree of scrutiny and integrity that you're going to bring to the work that you do both in estimates and in the committee work that I've been so privileged to share with you. That is quite some achievement. It's probably not going to make the front page of a newspaper, but it's exactly the kind of thing that should, because that is the real work of the Senate—reviewing the work of government with care, kindness and compassion. Everything that you do is replete with that standard of professionalism.

I acknowledge your service to the great state of Western Australia. It is a beautiful state, and I spent quite some time there in the year that I took off with my husband. We travelled around the country before we were grey. We were nomads and we were very fit and healthy, and we had the most wonderful time in Western Australia. You've been a champion for that state and you've brought a very powerful perspective from the whole state—not just from Perth and the southern areas where you live but also from your roaming across that state. You've brought the real perspectives, and the longstanding relationships you have with people of First Nations communities across that country is absolutely known and acknowledged. You've done great work in that area.

A lot of people in this place draw attention to the points on which we disagree. Of course we disagree, but this is democracy in action. It's a choir of different voices. Sometimes we really get it right and we sound harmonious, but discord is part of our journey to understanding what that is. Where there's disagreement, that is a sign of a healthy democracy. I think that you have stood and had a strident voice when it's been required and, as many have reflected, you've found the harmonious points whenever you could. That's a remarkable character trait.

You bring to the debate in this place your passion, care, detail and information, but it's in the hearings that I've been in with you, whether you've been chairing or we've just been participants, that I've really seen who you are and how you lift and encourage into the place people so completely unfamiliar with the parliamentary processes. You have, as Senator Lambie said, a really rich and practical knowledge of the standing orders and how this place runs, but you are one of the few people who have never used that as a weapon against people who don't. In fact, your understanding of it makes you more respectful of those who don't, and that comes through in everything that you do. You're a person who lives your values, and I'm very pleased to have shared with you quite a few meals after hearings as we've been on the road in all sorts of places. To me the word 'integrity' applies to somebody who lives their values, and that is exactly what you do.

How the Greens are going to go with Senator McKim doing the job that you've been doing as whip—oh my gosh! He's going to find it incredibly difficult to do. I see you marshalling the troops over there. I'm always impressed. You do it discreetly, but you do it very powerfully. Everybody knows that they can trust your word, your direction and your insight, and that is a great tribute to you as well.

I want to reflect briefly on a mental health tour that we took. We did it in two ways. One part was in Australia, when we were looking at access to mental health services for the country. Like Senator Waters said, we were in small planes on a sort of milk run across the north of the country to see what we saw. I'm sure that you will remember some of the evidence where people had so little faith in being able to access any decent health care, because there were so many locums coming through, that they called all health professionals 'white Toyotas'. Once something like that washes over your experience, it's hard to forget. Discussing that and so many other things over dinner with you, getting to know one another—that is one of the great things about being in the Senate. Through the committee work that we do, we get to know each other's stories and find out about each other, and that helps us do our work more collegially.

I haven't checked with you, but I'm sure you won't mind me acknowledging, on behalf of the Australian people, how significant a trip our research tour was, with our colleague Andrew Wallace from the other place, who co-chairs the Parliamentary Friends of Mental Illness group. We worked together as Team Australia, and that's one of the things I'm always proud of when we get to travel overseas, as we did in the olden days and hopefully will again sometime in the near future. I have been very honoured to work with you as Team Australia—to really pick the eyes out of best practice in other contexts, to understand it, to bring it back, to try to bring it to bear in our committee work and to inform the government.

I want to acknowledge the drip-feeding of some of this pressure, particularly when I was in the role of assistant shadow minister for mental health. You and I, along with Mr Wallace, got to the point where we were able to firmly recommend that a minimum of 20 consultations was necessary to help with eating disorders. It actually did imprint, and Minister Hunt brought it in. With that as a floor, we have seen during COVID that capacity for people to access mental health services, with a minimum of 20 consultations. That was our work. It did take a minister to listen and implement, but it wouldn't have happened without the passion and energy you brought to the task. I'm so proud to have been able to help with that alongside you.

Of course, there was Centrelink compliance—a lovely name for what is really the robodebt debacle. It's been great giving a hit from the left and a hit from the right over here to the government to try to get them to pay attention to the fact that they inflicted this debt on their own people and we cannot let it continue. I've been so glad to stand with you and fight that fight. I've given you my word, and I give it here publicly, that I will not let that go. That deserves a much better response from the government than we've seen so far. Four rejections—that's just the beginning. We're going to keep pushing this, because the Australian people deserve to know. I will channel your determination and perseverance to make sure we get a good outcome on that matter.

I want to acknowledge what a family person you are and how much of a challenge it's been for your family to provide you in service of the nation—all the flights over 16 years, and everywhere you've been, and your service in the Senate of the country we're so proud to call our home. Your care and compassion for your family is absolutely reflected in what you do here. I don't know whether it is just the deep guilt of being a serving senator, or whether there is a gender dimension as well, but to be away—you talked about missing your son's end-of-school ball and seeing him in his finery. There are great sacrifices, but your family have enabled you and supported you. I acknowledge them for doing that and I acknowledge the sacrifice you have undertaken in what you've given to this place. I wish you a safe return to them after 16 years. I wish you very deep powdery snow when you resume your skiing career, and I hope it's for many more weeks than you've been able to do as you sandwiched it in between your service in this place. I wish you the very best of health into the future. Thank you.