Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Like my colleagues Senator Brockman and Senator O'Sullivan, I can also remember the first time I met Marise Payne. It was during the 2019 election. We were knocking on doors and doing a few business visits in the little town of Deloraine in Tasmania. I think it's fair to say that the people of Deloraine were quite shocked as to why the Minister for Foreign Affairs was taking a stroll down their street and knocking on business's doors.

A lot has been said about Marise tonight, and I'm sure I wouldn't be surprising colleagues in saying that she's always very well briefed for whatever meeting she might be or whatever candidate she might come across. I, as a little, potential new senator on the Senate ticket in 2019, said to Marise: 'It's such a pleasure to meet you, Senator Payne. Apart from the fact that we're both Liberals and, hopefully, one day we'll be colleagues, we have something in common.' Marise said: 'Yes. We're both former federal Young Liberal presidents.' I said, 'Yes, well, you were the first person to hold that position.' At that point, in 2019, I was the last. It was some years between Marise being a federal Young Liberal president as a woman and myself finding myself in that role. There was only one other woman who had been federal YL president between us. I can remember going to Young Liberal conferences back in the day, and I think it's fair to say that even when I first started out it was still quite male dominated, and you'd come away from each federal conference thinking, 'Gosh, I wonder if we will ever have another woman in charge, given Marise Payne was the last one.' It was a great honour of mine to find myself in that position at some point later on, as well.

I think it shows the change that happens within our political party, but I'm also very cognisant of the change that has happened in the place. Being a member of the class of 2019, I think it's easy for many of the women in this chamber now to take for granted, having been elected at a time when the Senate finally reached fifty-fifty gender representation, there was a point in time when that was not the case. Certainly, when Marise first came to this place it would not have been anywhere near the case. The change in culture and the change in the way we operate within this parliament and within the Liberal Party changes for the better when we get more women involved. That is something Marise and I have always agreed on. I'm very grateful to you, Marise, for the trail you have blazed both within the Liberal Party and within this chamber.

Just quickly, it was such a pleasure to work with you on the committee in this parliament that sought to establish codes of conduct that will govern the way that we all act in this building—not just us parliamentarians but staff and members of the public as well. That was a tough piece of work and an important piece of work, and it was really inspirational to work alongside you on that committee to achieve that outcome.

In the remaining time that I am standing here this evening, I did want to touch on some of the substantial contributions that Marise made during her tenure as Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was during Marise's term, as has been referenced previously, that the Australian parliament passed legislation to enable the establishment of a Magnitsky style sanctions regime. There is no doubt these reforms have provided a greater range of options to sanction individuals and entities responsible for crimes including serious human rights abuses and corruption and malicious cyberactivity both in this parliament and in the last one. That plays a really important role in enabling us to act alongside our security partners and allies to sanction those who are undermining global world order. I really thank Marise for the role that she played in guiding those laws through this place, because if it weren't for those laws, we wouldn't have been able to sanction individuals linked to the Russian regime following the invasion of Ukraine and we wouldn't have been able to sanction individuals within the Iranian regime.

Marise, you were also absolutely resolute in the face of some very aggressive posturing from the Chinese government, especially in the term of the last parliament following the Morrison government's call at the time for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. I know that was an incredibly brave thing for you to do and for us as a government to do. I'm very glad we did that. It was absolutely the right thing to do. All of the work that you put into ensuring we had a strong position on that, has continued to be leveraged by us on the side and across the parliament and the country. Thank you so much for your leadership on that front.

Finally, I hope you and Stuart get to enjoy some well-deserved time together, which I know would have been particularly hard in past years, given the role that you were in and the role that Stuart was in. Please know that, as the curtain closes on your time in this place, you have absolutely made a difference.