Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

Janet, I extend to you the warmest and most generous cheerio. You will absolutely be missed. As you were mentioning some of your important work and causes here, the parliamentary friends of free Tibet, the parliamentary friends of grandparent and kinship carers and your work on Myanmar, I couldn't help but think that perhaps too much of my time is spent in the company of Greens as well, because on those issues we have worked very, very closely together. You have been constant in speaking up for people—never timid, but then never rude either. You are always giving people the space, and always inviting people to listen, to learn, to understand and ultimately to care a bit more.

Just a few weekends ago, I had the opportunity to interview Janet on Joy 94.9 Saturday Magazine with Macca. There were a lot of powerful things in the conversation. The most powerful thing for me was your reflection on the importance of your relationship with Anne.

I was sitting over there where Senator Raff currently sits when you came to learn of Penny's passing—it was during question time. Being the ever-dutiful Chief Government Whip at the time, my job was to scan the environment constantly. I saw great care and concern in the Greens enclave, I saw your colleagues rally around you, I saw their distress and I really saw the deep sense of respect, trust and love that they had for you, particularly in your time of need. For me it was a really powerful reminder of how important it is to do these jobs knowing we are loved and cared for by others. That was a really important point for me.

When we look back on the same-sex marriage debate—and I always like to remind people that I was probably the latest, not the earliest, comer to that—what is really remarkable and what is not reflected on enough is how everyone in that debate trusted each other and respected each other enough to give up a bit of territory, and everyone in that debate—with the exception of one part of our community—saw how important it was to give up some of their territory. It was in the giving up of that territory that the parliament could come to a unified position.

I always love to see the colour and movement and all the historical images of that debate because you'd think it started and ended in the House of Representatives. For me it's a really powerful reminder of how the work of the Senate and the work of senators isn't really appreciated in our community. That might be a virtue because I think the Senate does, for the most part, attract different sorts of people. That's why such a significant outcome like the marriage equality debate and outcome was initiated, struggled through and delivered in the Senate. We all knew that, once that moved on from this place to the other, it was done.

I extend to you my warmest thanks for the friendship and trust that you've shown me. I have learned something very powerful from being in your company and watching you do your work. That is just how important it is to be visible, and how important it is as an LGBTI+ person to be more visible because often, in the world around us and even in this place, people seek to diminish us, our achievements and the contributions that we can make. But you've risen above that.

Congratulations to you, and I don't know if I need to come to the lesbian forest retreat but I'm happy to come to the afterparty.