Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Given that this is turning into the valedictory that Senator Dodson did not want, I would not want to miss the opportunity to add a few words to this debate, which is, of course, about a report that he was instrumental in delivering as well.

Like many people in this chamber, I first got to know Senator Dodson as a figure on the TV screens over many decades, leading the fight for our First Peoples and leading the fight for basic justice for our First Peoples. I remember as a youngish man watching Senator Dodson in full flight, heavily involved in the debates around the Native Title Act, the royal commission into black deaths in custody—which is an area that we still have so much more to do—and in so many other major public issues facing our country and our First Peoples. For decades, we saw that long, bushy beard that got greyer over time and that big hat. Never in my wildest dreams, when I was watching Senator Dodson in my teens, in my 20s and 30s, did I expect that I would have the honour of serving alongside him as a senator in this chamber.

It's not often in life you get to meet your heroes, let alone work with them. And it's very like Senator Dodson to be scoffing at the suggestion that he would be anyone's hero. But he has been a hero of mine for a very long time, and I know he has been a hero to many Australians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Having now got to know the real Senator Dodson, my esteem for him has only risen compared to what I'd already thought of him as a national figure on the TV screen.

We talked earlier today about a bush trip that we did together, with a number of other colleagues, through remote Western Australia and the Northern Territory. That was an experience that I will never forget. What I learned from Senator Dodson and from going to some of those incredibly remote communities will stay with me for my whole life. I hope that continues to drive me and those others who experienced that trip to do more.

Other senators have talked about the wisdom of Senator Dodson, which, again, I've experienced personally; his wicked sense of humour, which is something that I didn't know he had just from watching him on TV but got to know by serving alongside him; Senator Dodson's quite unique way with words, which I've always wondered whether that may have come from his time as a priest; and his ability to communicate in pictures and in visual form so many really difficult concepts and in ways that really stick with us.

I think it would be right to note that I know Senator Dodson, like so many other people in our country, will look back on this year with a tinge of disappointment about the referendum result. The referendum was something that I know he and so many other people campaigned for and worked so hard to build community consensus around for a long time. But I would encourage Senator Dodson to look back on his time in the Senate, and his entire career, as a lifetime of incredible achievement. We don't always get everything we want in politics, unfortunately, and I know that Senator Dodson, like many of us, would have liked to have seen a different outcome in the referendum. But that does not in any way diminish an incredible record of achievement in Australian public life over many decades, both before and since Senator Dodson came to this point.

Obviously, there is so much more to be done, as I said. Senator Dodson, in many different ways, has outlined a path forward on some really challenging issues that our country has yet to properly confront. I know that many of us in this chamber will very proudly continue the work that you, Senator Dodson, have set forward over your decades in public office. I know that you'll still be there to give us some suggestions when we're going off the right track as well. Senator Dodson, I'm really honoured to have gotten to know you, to call you a mate and to call you a comrade. Thank you so much to your contribution to our country. You leave the position of our first peoples in a much better state than when you entered public life, and you leave our country in a much better state than it was in before you entered public life as well. So congratulations; I look forward to having a beer with you, mate.