Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I'll be really quick because I know that you, Linda, would like to get back to drinks with so many of your friends who are here tonight. Standing between you and your friends and a drink at eight-something tonight is probably a really silly thing to do!

Linda, you haven't just been a colleague. You have been a genuine and dear friend, and you will be a genuine and dear friend after you leave this place. Linda is actually hugely good fun, which many of you probably know. She cooks an extraordinarily mean curry, and she can do that really quickly from scratch when she leaves here at eight o'clock, and it can be on the table by quarter to nine. And she's actually obsessed with jigsaws. This is something I found out during COVID, when we didn't have a dining room table, because Linda was always doing a jigsaw puzzle.

But the characteristic that defines Linda to me more than any other characteristic is that she is a person of immense integrity, and that is something that I think has been unfairly questioned in this place. The strength that you've shown when your personal life has been smeared across the front page of every paper in this nation over a number of years shows what an extraordinary person you are. I know you are immensely admired by everybody that sits on this side of the chamber.

Your time in this place has been marked by many, many achievements. We probably remember the high-ranking one, when you were the Minister for Defence, which was something that I know was so tremendously special to you. As has been mentioned, it was a pretty phenomenal achievement to have risen to the rank of brigadier and been, at the time, the highest-ranking Australian woman in the reserves in Australia's history. I know that that was a role that you took such enormous pride in when you first got it.

But I think your tireless work on some of the really tough social issues that you have taken on since you've been here is probably as much of an interesting reflection on you as the strength that you demonstrated during your time of service, either in the military or when you got responsibility for our forces when we were in government. Senator Reynolds is tough and dedicated to service—but she has got a heart that is absolutely enormous and, sadly, to her own detriment, she sometimes wears it on her sleeve instead of keeping it in her chest, which is the reason we love her so much. Much has been said in your contribution and in Michaelia's contribution around the things that you did. Your anti-slavery work in relation to orphanage trafficking was just extraordinary, as was living through it as you were going through it. Something Linda didn't mention is that she is currently the co-rapporteur in relation to orphanage trafficking at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which is an international body of 180 nations from around the world, and she managed to get a unanimous decision of that group—that is almost unheard of; in fact, it is unheard of—to establish the first global action on orphanage trafficking, which now means every one of those governments around the whole world has a framework through which they can legislate to actually stop orphanage trafficking. It is quite extraordinary, yet I don't think that many people know that that's happened because of Linda Reynolds.

I also acknowledge the support that you give to women, which has probably made the treatment that you've received in this place at the hands of some women somewhat more gruelling and galling. I know there are an enormous number of women in public life and there are an enormous number of women in this place that are here because of the support and the encouragement they received from Linda, not just to start but all the way through their journeys. So I think there is a debt of gratitude that is owed to you by so many.

Linda, my friend, it's been a pleasure to have had time working in this place with you. We had a false start; we thought we were going to get you here in 2013, but we eventually got you here in 2014. It's been great to be in the chamber with you, but it's also been great to have been your house buddy for most of the time that you've been here. You are incredibly generous and you have got a wicked sense of humour, but your loyalty to your friends and your colleagues is something that absolutely stands out to me. The person who made the statement, 'If in parliament you want a friend, get a dog,' obviously did not know Linda Reynolds.