Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are here on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. I acknowledge and pay tribute to the owners of this stolen land and to all First Nations peoples, including the Wurundjeri people where my home and office are, in Naarm/Melbourne. I'm sorry that in my decade in the Senate we have not made the progress that we should have towards First Nations justice, truth-telling and treaties. I'm appalled by the ongoing racism in this country, the deaths in custody, the poverty and the lack of self-determination experienced by our First Peoples. I salute the resistance and the resilience of our First Peoples and commit to continuing to work with them for justice after I leave this place.

Ten years ago I came here with high hopes, enthusiasm and a commitment to do my best as a senator to make a difference in the world. I leave with a sense of achievement, particularly in passing marriage equality, establishing and completing the first national inquiry into poverty in 50 years and being one of the few in this place—along with my colleagues—to advocate for people and issues that are too often ignored by the powerful. I also leave with a more clear eyed view than when I arrived of the work and time and energy required to achieve change, to fight the vested interests and how the struggle for justice is ongoing. Working in this place certainly has its challenges, but after a decade here I still believe in our representative democracy. We just have to make it work for us.

Sadly, but not unsurprisingly, too many people have tuned out from our political processes. They don't think that politicians are interested in listening to them or actually representing them. Too often, when it comes to the major parties, they are right, so people decide they've got better things to do with their time and energy than tune in. Why aren't governments listening to the people? A big reason is that wealthy and big corporations have outsized power and influence over both the Liberal and Labor parties. The majority of Australians want serious action on the climate catastrophe, and they want to see precious places and homes of threatened species protected. People want decision-makers to take a long-term view to take into account what the consequences of our actions are in 10, 20, 100 years time. People know that the fantasy of infinite economic growth on a finite planet is unsustainable. Surely, it should not be too hard for us to agree as a parliament that longer than three years matters and to commit to at least assessing the impact of regulations on future generations, just as we do with the impact on human rights.

People want governments to properly fund public housing, to end homelessness and to stop skyrocketing rent. They want top-notch public education and health, including dental and mental, in Medicare. They want people on income support to have a liveable income, but Labor and Liberal tell us that we can't afford it. We can. We could increase taxes on the wealthy and the big corporations to fund the things that we urgently need but we don't, because the big corporations are calling the shots. Actions that would reduce the profits of the big corporations and mean they have to pay more tax are fiercely fought against by these corporations and their media mates. And because Labor and Liberal are both trying to appease their corporate overlords, too often they agree to deliver for the corporations rather than for the voters, who don't get a look in. Getting people to re-engage cannot be solved with a quick fix. It requires us to stand up to these companies and instead listen to the people and act on what is heard. We could do so much better in listening and learning from each other and from the community, understanding where and why we don't agree and acknowledging that no one person or party has a monopoly on wisdom. We do this to some extent in committee work but we could do much more.

It has been a privilege to chair the Community Affairs References Committee for the last two years and to spend considerable hours of my life in the Environment and Communications Committee, and in Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and RRAT as well. The powerful work done to establish a body of evidence that we can agree on has kept me committed to committees. Our differences usually come down to differing views about what to do about the issues facing us. It would be a huge step forward if we could commit to establishing an evidence base more generally in our work here, including through establishing institutions, such as a parliamentary office of science and technology. This evidence could then underpin evidence based decision-making. I know, you can call me naive; I am obviously not a scientist at heart!

It would be much easier to establish this evidence base if we had radical transparency. If we ever have serious debates about our future and what it will take to fix things then we all need to share the same information. Information is power and too often critical information is hidden to boost a particular case and discredit others. We need to strengthen our freedom-of-information laws and stop blocking orders for production of documents to ensure that evidence is available to all of us so we can shine a spotlight on government decisions made that are inconsistent with that evidence. From robodebt to sports rorts, from colour-coded spreadsheets to documents about dodgy contracts that are ostensibly about modernising Meals on Wheels, this stuff matters.

In contrast, when we don't have that shared agreed evidence base, there is little to stop speech after speech in here with people sounding supremely confident, even when there is no evidence to support their views, views that may well work in a soundbite but that stoke conflict and division and inflame underlying prejudices. This may seem like a good political strategy at the time but it erodes people's trust in our democracy and results in people tuning out.

But despite me seeing some room for improvement in how we work here, I have been proud to be part of some big steps forward over the last 10 years, the biggest being marriage equality. I took over as the Greens' LGBTIA+ spokesperson in 2015, when the campaign had already been going for a decade. Despite a conservative government in power, we got there. People were put through the wringer with the plebiscites and still feel the scars. People's human rights should never have been put to a popular vote. However, the committee process that led to Dean Smith's private senators bill was the best committee process I was involved in over my decade here because it was focused on achieving an outcome we could all live with, a genuine consensus. We sat around the committee room, and we debated and negotiated that bill clause by clause. Dean, Louise Pratt and I were the key players in that room, and we trusted each other. David Fawcett did an excellent job chairing. We had different pressures on us and different constituencies, but we knew that the only way we were going to achieve marriage equality was to end up with a bill that we could all live with, which is what we achieved. The marriage equality legislation we have now is not what the Greens would have drafted, and it's not what the others would have drafted, but we reached consensus on it, and marriage equality has changed lives. It's saved lives. It's created so much happiness and joy and wellbeing, and the sky has not fallen in.

Marriage equality meant that I could stay married to my late wife, Penny, and she could change her birth certificate to say 'female' without us having to get divorced. Penny was such a star during the campaign for marriage equality. As a transwoman, she put herself out of her comfort zone to speak up, to say 'love was love' and that all we wanted was to stay married. Being married to a transwoman inspired me to be such a fierce defender of trans and gender-diverse people during the campaign and beyond. I feel so grateful for Penny's love and support and for our lives together until her sad sudden passing four years ago. For me now, marriage equality means that my partner, Anne, and I, who have been together for the last two years, can get married. A news flash—we reckon we probably will! I love you, Anne.

In the Greens fight for marriage equality, long before either Labor or the Liberals would give it the time of day, we and the queer community and campaigners pushed the issue to a tipping point. Equality could no longer be ignored. However, the fight to reach the end of our journey towards equality continues. There's still discrimination against LGBTIQA+ people baked into our laws and our society. Just last week we received a stark reminder of this, with the debate over the proposed religious discrimination legislation firing up again.

It's been such a privilege to be a voice for queer folk in this place, to be an out and proud bi+ person—the only out bisexual person in this parliament. To everyone who is part of our big rainbow family, it has been such a privilege to represent you in this place. It's been a privilege to be a voice for people, especially those whose voices go unheard, and a voice for our planet these last 10 years in parliament. I'm proud to speak up for people living in poverty. More often than not, they are treated like second-class citizens—as though being poor or out of work or having a disability represents some kind of character flaw. It doesn't. People on income support deserve far better from the politicians who are supposed to represent them. Every story I've shared of someone who is struggling on JobSeeker or the DSP or the youth allowance carries the message that their voices deserve to be heard.

Breaking the poverty machine is an ongoing campaign, and one that must be won. The small increases in income support in the last budget are better than nothing, but the extra $4 a day still leaves people living in cars and tents with their kids, only eating one meal a day and living with excruciating toothache because they can't afford to go to the dentist. In a wealthy country like ours no-one should be living in poverty. Everyone in this place who voted in favour of the stage 3 tax cuts that gifted an extra $4½ thousand a year to politicians and billionaires while doing nothing for the one million Australians in poverty should be deeply ashamed of themselves. We can do so much better than this, as the inquiry I established and led on the extent and impact of poverty in Australia shows. We have to raise the rate of Centrelink payments above the poverty line to $88 a day and guarantee a livable income for all Australians.

It's been so humbling to speak up for people across the world who are oppressed and persecuted for standing up for their rights, their homes and their very being. Last month, I was censured for speaking up for people in the Philippines and protesting the oppressive regime of President Marcos Jr. I would do that again in a heartbeat. Everyone knows where I stand on Palestine. Palestine will be free. The war in Gaza, the more than 30,000 people killed and the starving of the population is genocide not self-defence, and it is shameful that this Senate still has a motion on the books that says we stand with Israel.

Tibet will also be free. Tibet is ranked by Freedom House as the least-free country in the world. It was such a privilege to travel to Dharamshala last year with our parliamentary friends of Tibet group. I will keep fighting for a free Tibet. In fact, I am just about to accept an invitation to join the board of the Australia Tibet Council. Thank you to all my Tibetan friends, including Karma Singey, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Llama in Australia, who are joining me here tonight.

West Papua too will be free. The shocking revelations in the media this week about the torture of West Papuan freedom fighters shows the oppression that West Papua is under. There's a contingent here tonight from the Federal Republic of West Papua, including Jacob Rumbiak, their foreign minister. Thank you, Jacob, and all of you for joining me here; I'm really touched.

And Julian Assange will be free. God, I hope so! His unconscionable punishment must end.

I'm proud to have contributed to getting people out of Afghanistan after the Taliban took over. Like most of our work, this was definitely a team effort. So many MPs in this place worked so hard in the weeks after Kabul fell, advocating for people in Afghanistan who were desperate to get out. Some of the people my team and I worked with managed to be amongst the lucky ones who got here and are forever grateful for Australia to have given the opportunity of a new life. And just last week we heard that two teenagers who my office had been advocating for for a year, who were separated from their mum and left in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over, have just received visas to come to Australia.

There are many more refugees that Australia could and should be accepting, and we have to stop the racist demonising and scapegoating of refugees and asylum seekers, such as through the appalling legislation that is being rammed through the parliament today and tomorrow on the spurious grounds of national security that is not supported by evidence. So the campaigning continues.

I'm proud to have spoken up in my speeches and advocacy here for the people of Myanmar, Kashmir, Ukraine, Iran, Hong Kong, East Turkestan, China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Cambodia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Artsakh and Armenia, Sudan, Western Sahara, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Congo and Pakistan—to name a few. Human rights matter for all people across the world, and we cannot afford to pick and choose whose human rights we uphold. We should not discriminate because of political expediency, cultural biases, and historical and often very unjust so-called security arrangements.

Lastly, I want to speak about the issue that got me started in politics that will always be close to my heart, that I've spent more than 40 years campaigning on: ensuring that our environment and native forests are protected and that our climate is safe for the whole web of life and for all the generations of life to come. The big win in this space that I've been proud to be a part of in the last decade has been the end of native forest logging in Western Australia and Victoria. These were wins that were achieved because of the campaigning of millions of people over decades, supported by Greens in parliaments who have been listening to the majority of Australians who want to see an end to native forest logging across the country. Our forests are more than mere commodities. They are our breathing spaces, a mosaic of life that's bigger than us. They soak up and store massive amounts of carbon and they deserve to be protected.

At least we finally now have a recovery plan for the Leadbeater's possum—10 years of estimates questioning finally paying off! And now for protecting swift parrots and greater gliders and all of our precious animals and birds threatened by logging, and seeing off forest management activities, including in Victoria and Western Australia, that are not grounded in forest protection. The campaigning continues.

Everyone who knows me knows how much collaboration and teamwork mean to me. Nothing worth doing is ever done alone, so I want to close by saying a huge thank you to everyone who has shared my journey over the last decade. Thanks for your support during the hard times when my wife, Penny, passed away suddenly in 2019—something that you think you could never get through, but you do. I learnt a lot about myself, about love, about life and about the power of community and the natural world to support and nurture and heal. Experiencing such a loss has made me wiser, more empathetic and loving, more spiritual and a better representative because of that.

Thanks to my amazing staff. All of us politicians here would be nothing without our staff. T hanks to my current team: Rachel, Shani, Vic, Shreya, Nic, Claudia, Sam and Luci. And thanks to those who have gone on to other things: Tarek, Georgia, Mia, Simon, Sam, Matija, Rachel, Simone, Ellie, Nat, Alyssa, Srishti, Harry, Freja, Gid, Illiana, Joe, Flis, Maddy, Pavel, Chelsea and Adam. What an incredible bunch of folks you all are! A lot of part-time workers! I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks to my wonderful Greens colleagues and former colleagues and all the staff, led so capably by Adam and by Richard and Christine before him. I will miss you all.

It has been a great honour to have chaired our party room for most of the time I've been here and to have facilitated us through so many decisions—almost all of them made by consensus, aided and abetted by copious cups of tea. I'm pleased to announce that my teapot is being bequeathed to the Greens party room archive.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Greens workers and volunteers. Thanks to every branch, every working group, national council, state councils, every member, every supporter and every voter. We are a great green ecosystem, and we wouldn't exist without each other. I've been so proud to see the Greens grow over the decades. I was one of the founders of the party in Victoria 31 years ago, and I know that we are on track to continue to grow in size and in power. Bring on the next election! It is truly inspiring. The Greens and the communities we represent are what gives me hope for a healthy future—another world which is not only possible but she is on her way.

Thanks to all the advocates and campaigners I've worked alongside. There are far too many to mention, but I do want to shout out to all the First Nations reps, social justice advocates, unionists, aged-care campaigners, young people, queer folks, women's groups, environment groups and climate groups galore. I hope to keep working with you post parliament, too.

Thanks to everyone here and in the House who I worked with over the years, sharing support for just causes, learning together, hearing people's stories in committees and parliamentary friendship groups, negotiating together, travelling together and just hanging out and having a chat—connecting together across political differences. Those have been treasured experiences.

Thanks so much to all of the staff who support us here, from the clerks and attendants to the cleaners and the Comcar drivers. We could not do our work without you.

Thanks to my mum, my kids—John and Leon—my sisters and brother, my friends who I haven't seen nearly enough of over the decade but who have stayed there for me, supporting me personally and politically. I'm so looking forward to having more time with you all.

Thanks to Anne for sharing the highs and lows, putting up with the late nights and hardly seeing me as I arrive in Canberra for parli weeks. I'm so looking forward to having much more time with you and lots of adventures over the rest of our lives together. There's so much that I'm looking forward to having more time for: from working with people to build skills and working collaboratively, to campaigning, spending time out bush and at home and in my garden, playing and listening to music, and being on my bike, beginning with riding home from Canberra to Melbourne in May, as a bookend to my ride here a decade ago. Anyone who would like to join me for all or part of the way, please get in touch.

At the end of my time here, I am acutely aware that I stand on the shoulders of giants and that my work is just part of a movement of billions of people around the world, including my amazing colleagues here and soon-to-be Senator Steph Hodgins-May, who I know will be awesome.

My final words: stay hopeful that things can change and keep working determinedly towards that change. Just because we haven't reached where we need to be yet doesn't mean we can't and we won't. We have to keep at it because one thing is certain: if you don't fight, you lose. So onwards and upwards! Thank you.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the government and the Labor Party to acknowledge and thank Senator Janet Rice for her service to the people of Victoria, to the Senate and to the nation. Senator Rice has served for just under a decade in this chamber. She was first elected at the 2013 federal election and took a seat in the Senate in July 2014 before being re-elected to represent Victoria at both the 2016 and 2019 elections. Senator Rice's passionate advocacy for our environment, particularly native forests and wildlife, is well known, along with her deep interest in addressing climate change. I understand that Janet was a key player in the formation of the Australian Greens, Victoria, around the time of the 1992 Victorian state election. I recall that this was not the first position Janet was elected to. Before entering the Senate she was a Greens councillor for the City of Maribyrnong in Melbourne for six years, serving one year as mayor.

Senator Rice has served at various times as the Australian Greens spokesperson on forests; tourism; transport and infrastructure; mental health; agriculture and rural affairs; sports; science; research and innovation; foreign affairs; multiculturalism and, most recently, social services, aged care and government services. But during her time in the Senate, working on LGBTQI issues—and one in particular—was when Senator Rice worked most closely with those on this side of the chamber. It was of course an issue that was deeply personal to many Australians, including Senator Rice, and that is the campaign for marriage equality.

It was a long and arduous road to marriage equality, as Senator Rice herself said when speaking to the bill to amend the Marriage Act. Senator Rice spoke eloquently on what the achievement of marriage equality meant and continues to mean for LGBTIQ people and their families:

It means that our love, our relationships and our families will be equal under the law. It means that LGBTIQ people will feel safer to hold the hand of their partner when they walk down the street. It means that LGBTIQ couples will be able to get married and to celebrate their love in front of family and friends. And it means that young LGBTIQ people will feel safer to come out, knowing that their community said yes and that who they are and who they love is respected by law.

I know that my colleague Senator Wong wanted to thank Senator Rice for her collaboration in making marriage equality a reality. The work across party lines remains an example of how what unites us in this place is often greater than what divides us, and that we can do great things when we put the greater good ahead of grandstanding and narrower partisan interests. I hope we can do more of that on the issues that matter to the people we represent.

In her first speech in this place, Senator Rice described how her upbringing instilled in her the values that saw her pursue a career in public service. She said:

My upbringing was one where you had a responsibility to contribute if you could and to follow the golden rule of doing unto others what you would have them do unto you. They are the values of a caring society.

Senator Rice went on:

I grew up believing in a just society. I believed that if people were law abiding and hardworking then they would have the opportunities to live successful lives. And I believed that government decisions—in Australia at least—were evidence based and in the best interests of society as a whole.

While it certainly is true we on this side of the chamber have not always agreed with every position Senator Rice has taken here or elsewhere, nor is that a requirement in our great pluralist democracy. These are values we should all strive to uphold in this place. In my own experience working with Senator Rice, particularly on committees, Senator Rice was always collegiate, sometimes patient—mostly impatient!—and mostly constructive. And, whilst we will hear the last of Senator Rice in this chamber, I'm confident it won't be the last we hear of Senator Rice. I was going to mention the Leadbeater's possum as well!

Sincerely, on behalf of the government and the party, we thank Senator Rice for her near-decade of service to this place and to the people of Australia. We wish you well in the next chapter of your life, particularly your future wedding, and place on record our thanks for your contribution to the nation as well.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a valedictory, not an obituary. Janet, we want to thank you, congratulate you and wish you well most sincerely in this place. I wont repeat the biographical details that Senator Chisholm has outlined save to say that your place in Australian political history is a notable one and an important one. To have played a role in the formation of your party, of the Greens in Victoria, is no small feat. To then have seen it grow as it has—much as some of us may not like that!—to have seen its support grow and to have had the opportunity to serve that party in the nation's Senate is something that you and your family should be very proud of, more particularly the pride in how you conduct yourself and the work that you have undertaken during your time in the Senate.

As has been acknowledged, that work has stretched across a whole range of different portfolios and areas, some of which, of course, we've had vast differences in. I note your long list of foreign affairs and human rights engagements that you made in your remarks. Many of those I'm sympathetic to. Some we will have points of difference in. One you mentioned, of course, was when most recently I got to move the motion censuring you. I suspect you are pretty happy that I moved it too though! It's that passion, that determination that you have brought to the Senate—a genuineness and a passion across the different causes that you have championed. You have done so consistently, be it in the areas of human rights, as I said; in areas of multiculturalism; in standing up, of course, for forests—and perhaps we should have a commitment that every remark made in this valedictory should mention the Leadbeater's possum just for the sake of ensuring that that is driven home on the way through; in areas of transport and infrastructure, where we look forward to the Insta journey of your bike ride back home from Canberra; and across the realm of science, research and innovation.

I'm sure we also acknowledge the particular role that you have played in advocating for equality for LGBTIQ+ peoples and particularly the work during the marriage equality debates. I know very well the work that you did with Louise, with Dean, with David and with others. The way in which you reflected on that committee process is an important testament to how you all applied yourselves to be the best of this Senate and to ultimately achieve an outcome that I was pleased to sit with you on the same side for. I acknowledge your critical role in getting to that point. You did that along the journey and with the personal challenges that you had, and the way in which you came back to this chamber following the tragic death of Penny and the professionalism and determination with which you have conducted yourself and applied yourself is a real credit to you and obviously to the love and support of your family, of your friends, of your staff, of your colleagues, of your fellow party members and of all of those whom you acknowledged throughout your remarks.

Congratulations to you and Anne. I hope it wasn't news to Anne! But we do wish you all the very best in the years ahead. May you get much pleasure from the continued advocacy and campaigning that I have no doubt that somebody of your spirit will do, but also from your great exploration of the wonderful world around us that I know you will take your zest and love of life into. I know as well that you will do so with the type of passion that you've deployed throughout your service in this place. We wish you well.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a brilliant valedictory speech—so full of grace and wisdom—from our dear friend Janet! And I'm so pleased that Greens leader, Adam Bandt, and our members in the lower house, Max and Libby, were able to hear the tail end of it, after the tragic passage of the bill to facilitate offshore gas. But more on that later. I and all of the team will dearly miss Janet's presence in this place. She is such a force in our movement. Before I share some personal memories, I want to emphasise a few of her incredible achievements. And it's so weird, because I've got my back to you, Janet—I'm sorry about all of this.

Janet fought hard for everyone to love who they want and to marry who they want. She was at the forefront of campaigning for marriage equality, and what an incredible win that was! I love that you've hinted at impending nuptials, and I look forward to the wedding invitation if and when that transpires. You'll have to sort out the dogs and the cats getting along, though! I know that's an ongoing issue. We're so grateful for her ongoing leadership in LGBTIQ+ communities and for her advocacy, in particular, for trans and gender diverse people.

Janet was also an integral part of the tampon tax campaign. In 2018, after I section-44ed myself, Janet introduced a bill to the Senate to scrap the GST on sanitary products, which passed with the support of some of the crossbench and Labor. Well done, Janet.

For over 40 years Janet has campaigned to end native forest logging. I'm not sure whether she'll be relieved or not, but there won't be any more questions about Leadbeater's possums in estimates. Perhaps we'll keep up the focus.

Hon. Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's all good! The announcement that Victoria will end native forest logging was an incredible win from her tireless advocacy and, of course, that of many others as well, and the Greens will continue Janet's fight until we have a native forest logging ban nationwide.

Janet has always advocated for the protection of human rights. She's fought for a free Palestine, a free Tibet, a free West Papua, and she hasn't stopped calling out human rights abuses for the 10 years that she's been in our federal parliament. She's courageous under fire always.

Janet has reminded us time and time again in this place that poverty is a political choice, and I want to congratulate her on securing and then completing a mammoth 18-month inquiry into poverty, which gathered convincing evidence that our current social security system and income support system are inadequate and leave the most vulnerable Australians—single mums, domestic violence survivors, those struggling to keep a roof over their heads—condemned to poverty. In her words:

We have a moral responsibility as elected representatives not to relegate millions of our fellow citizens to a life of poverty.

All of this work shows what a huge heart Janet has and, despite 10 years in a place where, frankly, artifice and peacocking dominates, Janet's realness and her honesty, her unfailing sense of justice and integrity, and her deep care for people and the natural world have always shone through. She has never compromised on that, and I applaud her humanity and her compassion. I will continue to consider you a dear friend and an inspiration.

During her time with us she faced deep grief, with the passing of her wife, Penny. I was with her for part of that awful day, and I've watched with such pride as she's opened her heart again to her partner, Anne. It's clear that her heart's capacity knows no bounds. You're a lucky lady, Anne.

Janet was one of the founding members of the Greens. For anyone to spend 40 years in politics is heroic, but for it not to cruel you and darken you is an incredible achievement. She is joyful, and we will miss that ray of sunshine in our party room so much.

In her honour, once she leaves this place, I will try to emulate her habit of taking the outside path from the chamber to the office in order to get some fresh air. I won't be alone, I hope. I won't, though, be doing a cycling commute to and from the building at all hours of the day and night, as she does. And I don't plan on getting stuck in Antarctica either—as Janet famously was before she took office.

Janet joined the parliament when dear Christine Milne was the Australian Greens leader. And Christine would like me to share this brief message with you, Janet:

Janet has been an activist for environmental and social change all of her life. I was so pleased when Victorians voted to send her to Canberra to speak for them as part of the Green Team following the 2013 election when Tony Abbott and the climate deniers and fossil advocates took charge.

She quickly found her feet as a climate campaigning senator and LGBTIQ+ marriage equality champion. As a founding member of the Vic Greens with Marg Blakers—who I think is here with us tonight—and Peter Kristof, she demonstrated her long-term thinking and commitment to building new institutions and new ways of decision-making. She has been a peacemaker and a change-maker in the Greens and the community, from local government to the Senate.

Christine continues:

But most of all Janet is a defender of nature and a climate activist. I have no doubt that will continue post politics and I look forward to working with her in our ongoing battle to end native forest logging in eastern Australia and to keep 1.5 alive.

Activists and campaigners don't retire; we just change roles and platforms and never give up. Janet's leaving the parliament is the community's gain. Congratulations on a decade of driving change.

And former Greens leader Richard di Natale also wanted me to pass on his best wishes to you, Janet.

We need more people like Janet in this place. The Greens will of course keep fighting for social and economic justice, for forests, for human rights, for LGBTIQ+ rights, with the determination that you have shared with us for 10 years in this place. And I know you will keep fighting for all of those things outside of this place. Thank you for giving us and this place so much of yourself in the service of good, Janet. We are going to miss you so very much.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All of my colleagues of course want to make a contribution to this and we are running against the clock, so I will keep comments brief, as Janet always liked to make sure we did as she chaired the party room, except of course if she had an idea she wanted on the table.

We are going to miss you, Janet, dearly. I can't remember the first time I met Janet, because I was a ratbag teenager at some point in the Victorian forests, and Janet has always fought to protect where I grew up and my home. And I know that you will continue to do that. Your love for our forests and our environment and our wildlife is unmatched. The fact that everyone in this place knows that, come estimates time, the Leadbetter possum was going to be raised, because we all know that you have such a strong commitment to the natural world and that you can see that it is not there just for our use. We are part of the environment and it sustains us. You have always believed that. You've always fought for that.

Sometimes in this place it is very easy to have one's debates or issues too simplified and we lose the true meaning. I think Janet has always been one—she does the internally in our party room process, but I see her do it time and time again in this chamber—to not allow us to lose sight of what it is that we are actually trying to save and why we are trying to save it.

You are a true believer, Janet, in consensus. Sometimes that meant our meetings went for a very, very long time. But, right down to some of those very late-night discussions when there were issues that we really had to struggle to come to an agreement on, you had faith that getting to the consensus position would mean we would all be able to go out of that room and back-in those decisions. And I can't say the same for everybody else in this place. It's something that you have always held your head high and been determined about—not wanting us as a group to be unhappy with the position that we are fighting for with our votes that people have sent us here to cast—to uphold that, to be proud of that, to make sure that people are included and heard.

Lastly, I want to say that the contribution that Janet made to the marriage equality debate was remarkable and important, and it was for all of us. Janet talked all the time about what it meant for her and her relationship with Penny at the time, but you were doing that for all of us, and I know it took a toll. I know a lot of that debate was hard. A lot of that debate meant that you had to front some pretty horrible things during that period, but you did it for everybody else, and we are forever grateful. Thank you, Janet. We're going to miss you, and we might share the cup of tea around.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to say thank you to you, Senator Rice, and I use your title while you are still a senator. It has been an honour and a privilege to work with you. I thank you for your visibility with your wife Penny. That meant a lot to me. You have held people absolutely to account in this place for the kinds of values that you hold strongly and hold dear, many of which I share, although sometimes our respective political movements differ in their execution. It has been a good thing I think to be able to step through that accountability on issues, whether that's for the environment, for social and economic justice, poverty, renters' rights or environmental issues. I love how you took credit for the Greens just now for stopping logging in native forests in Western Australia. Actually we should talk about that further because it hasn't actually stopped. There is logging and there is mining—anyway, we'll talk about that another day.

I know other Labor senators wanted to say a few things, and I think Senator Smith is hoping to make it back in time to do so. For my own part, I really just want to say that I will miss you, I thank you and that I hope that my wife Bek and I bump into you and Anne at some kind of lesbian forest retreat or something, which you will be much more familiar with than I am but I know I will enjoy equally as much. Thank you.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to 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.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Janet, you are just the most terrific human being. You are optimistic and indefatigable, you are an extremely caring and loving person and you're an authentic human being. In one of the greatest compliments I can give to anyone, you are a genuine life enthusiast. Enthusiasm for life takes a little bit of courage because you're not just opening yourself up to the good things. To be an enthusiast, you're opening yourself up to some of the blows that life can land on you and sometimes those blows land really deeply in your heart and in your gut because you are so open and enthusiastic. Despite a couple of blows along the way, you have remained a genuine enthusiast and you have my upmost regard for that.

Others have spoken about some of the things you've been involved in. I want to mention forests, and what an honour it is to take that portfolio on after your massive efforts—with some success. I know you will agree the fight is not over and it will go on, and yours are really big hiking boots I now have to try to fill, but I take it on because I genuinely share your abiding love of nature which has shone through in what you do because you're a force of nature as well as someone who loves nature.

We have heard that you are a founding member of the Victorian Greens. All of us in the Greens stand on the shoulders of giants, founders, elders and legends of our party, and you take your place in that pantheon for us. I know my colleagues will forgive me a slight breach of our party room rules, so I'm going to reveal something that happened this morning, and it was about Max Chandler-Mather, who is here with some of his House of Representatives Greens colleagues. It turns out that Max was born in the year that Janet helped found the Victorian Greens. That is how far we have come as a movement and how far, I have no doubt, we are going to continue to go.

Janet's love of consensus decision-making has made some of the more impatient in our party room—I'll put my hand up here—gnash our teeth from time to time but it comes from an abiding love of that process. Janet, I know you genuinely believe it, as we all do, that a decision made by consensus is one that will stick. You have repeated that to us.

Janet, I've got to go to Selection of Bills Committee but we are all far, far better people for having spent time with you. We trust there will be plenty more of that to come. I will see you in the streets, and it wouldn't surprise me if I see you on the barricades in the forest one day. Thank you very much, Janet.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to say it at the start, Janet: I will miss you so much. I said that to you many times since I heard you were leaving. Senator Janet Rice has not just been a fierce champion of equality in this chamber, she has been a remarkable colleague and a very dear friend to me. When I started here I was lucky to get an office right next to Janet's and that meant I got wonderful doses of Janet's optimism—her glass half-full philosophy—sunshine and positivity. With our two offices being the furthest away from this chamber, Janet and I were often running partners in the race to come here and beat the bell. On the way back, I got to see sunshine if I followed you through the outside route. I guess it is these little things and the incredibly big things that you have done, Janet, over your 10 years in here that we will miss and we will remember forever. I can truly say, Janet: you are the most caring, genuine, heartwarming person in here. You truly are. Others have said it—your heart is so big; it just gives to so many people.

As you retire, you leave an indelible mark on this place and on our collective struggle for social and environmental justice. There are too many examples to give but I will mention a few. You have been such a tenacious advocate on LGBTQIA+ rights and for the community, fighting so passionately for equality, for acceptance, for dignity. Your proud presence and work in the Senate, I think, has actually changed what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse, intersex and queer in Australia today. I think that is the level of impact that you have had. Just over six years ago, when the marriage equality bill finally passed through parliament, it was the culmination of your tireless work, Janet, and of so many other Greens and so many others in the community for decades. Your legacy, Janet, for me, continues to be a beacon of hope and a stimulant for progress on the challenges and discrimination still faced by so many LGBTQIA+ communities.

So many have spoken about your work on protecting native forests and I will as well. The 10 years of asking about the endangered Leadbeater's possum recovery plan—I will not forget that—is really testament to your deep love for nature and your resolve to safeguard it for the future. With your mantra of poverty is a political choice, you have brought so much care, attention and energy to our work on social services, which has continued the Greens legacy of fighting for fairness.

I will talk about the party room as well. I won't reveal any secrets, but I will mention your wisdom, your integrity your compassion and your practice of consensus as chair which you brought to our party room and which has really enriched our deliberations and our decisions in the end. Who can forget you holding up a Palestinian flag as we walked out of the Senate in protest? Who can forget your recent protest and your really deadly speech on human rights in the Philippines? It made me, yet again, proud to be your colleague and friend. It truly epitomises your courage and your determination to uphold human rights here and everywhere else in the world. So you will be very, very deeply missed.

I feel this real pang of sadness at your departure. I am truly thankful to have spent the last five years with you as a colleague and a friend. From the bottom of my heart, I really wish you the best of times to do the things that you haven't been able to do as much as you wanted to do during your time here, because it does take over your life—to spend time with family, friends and loved ones, to campaign more, to be out and about cycling and walking in the bush and also, hopefully, knitting more colourful scarves for equality. I love you, Janet. Thank you so much.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How do you begin to sum up someone so incredible that is such an amazing force in this place, like Senator Rice? I think I echo everyone's comments that we have been so fortunate to have been able to work with you. She's loud, she's proud and she's fierce but also she's warm, caring and so welcoming. She is so smart, dedicated and passionate.

Senator Rice—and I too am going to keep calling her Senator Rice until the end of the day—has well and truly shown us how politics should be done differently and how compassion and determination can in fact co-exist. What an amazing and incredible activist and an amazing all-round person you are, Janet! You give such inspiration, not just to us as colleagues but to everyone in our party and in the movement. We're just so grateful. I've had the great privilege of working alongside you in the party room since 2021, but I probably fangirled for longer than that.

We know your amazing bio and the work that you've done since coming to the Senate in 2014. Whether it's forests, tourism, marriage equality, foreign affairs, aged care, social services, government services, transport—the whole gamut, really—in all of that work you leave such an amazing legacy, but the big work of founding the Victorian Greens is such a huge part of this party, and we will continue to work to ensure that our development and our growth as a Greens movement is part of what you started. For this alone, we owe you so much. Thank you.

I'm not going to draw this out any longer than I should, but one of the really great memories that I have of you, Janet, was the protest, also. When we asked, 'What does that look like?', you just knew from the time that this was crafted what you were going to do and your confidence in that just told me: 'Oh, it's great. Janet has a plan.' And it is something that I know and that I hold onto when I work alongside you: 'Janet has a plan, and we're in safe hands.' The stewardship that you gave us in the party room as our party room chair gave me great confidence from day one when I worked in that place. The quiet conversations—whether it was dinner at the Kingston foreshore or your coming to Perth to help me campaign to be re-elected—are the really precious moments that I have about the quiet confidence, the mentorship, the support and friendship that you offered to me in this place.

For me, some of the bigger parts of the work around the cashless debit card and the way that you passionately talked about the abolition of the cashless debit card came through as so important in your work and your passion for working alongside as a great ally to our First Nations communities. There is the legacy that's left by Rachel Siewert and Raise the Rate in eradicating poverty for our communities, and you just grabbed hold of that, took it and made it your own. I'm so glad, when I come into the chamber and make a speech, to say, 'Oh, I agree with Senator Rice,' because there were so many things that you just paid so much attention to. I want to thank you from all the First Nations people that you worked so passionately with, particularly over the last 18 months in that campaign.

You continue to be so present, and I think Senator Smith and Senator Pratt both articulated your visibility in this place as a constant reminder that you give us about the rainbow family. To be a proud ally standing beside you and campaigning, particularly in Perth at our pride events, is one of the memories I hold very close to me.

You worked so hard, Janet, and you deserve a rest! I'm glad to hear about the forest retreat. I'm sure that you and Anne will make some wonderful memories in the future. Like Larissa, I look forward to the wedding invitation and the pending nuptials. But enjoy your retirement and your rest in particular. I know this won't stop you. I know your passion and your energy, because you can't keep a good woman down for too long, and I know that's you. Thank you so much, Janet.

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to preface this by saying I'm convinced I'm going to cry very soon, but I'm going to do my best. Janet, I want to say thank you to you as an elder of our party, and to everyone else who's an elder of our party, for your vision, for creating a party that was committed to peace, social justice, climate justice and consensus. Without that, I wouldn't have a political home, and I really want to thank you for your foresight and the way in which you and our other party elders have created not just a party but a movement that we can really commit to and value.

I was going to talk about the fact that you are compassionate and fearless, but I actually don't think you are fearless, because one of the things that you taught me, particularly the other week, when you went into the House, is that being courageous is not having no fear; it's feeling the fear and doing it anyway. I think that has characterised the way in which you've approached so much of what you've done in your work both inside and outside the parliament, and I want to thank you for reminding me of that so that I don't let my fear stop me from being the advocate that we all need to be.

I want to thank you for your commitment to human rights. I know that the Global Greens and the Asia-Pacific Greens Federation will really benefit from the fact that you will have more time to spend with them on the work that they do. I know from my own involvement in APGF that that is something that will be really valued right across the region. I'm sure you're going to have a huge impact on that as well.

You talked about the Greens ecosystem and the members and supporters out there who support us. The first time that I really had much to do with you was on national council. I got to see, when you showed up and showed up and showed up, your commitment not just to consensus but to consensus between the members in our party and the members of party room and to making sure that that connection wasn't lost and that we worked together. I really respect and value that. I hope that, as I take my stint on national council coming from the other side, no longer being the party but being in party room, I can really model the things that you showed in that space.

I feel very daunted by the fact that I am taking on so many of the things that you have really set the standard for. It's a real honour to become the party room chair. But it's more of an honour because I know that I'm following you. I really hope that I can live up to your example of commitment to consensus and make sure that we continue to work together as a team. And I hope you don't mind if I ring you from time to time to get some advice on that.

I'm also so honoured and proud to be taking on the social services portfolio from you. I'm really conscious of the fact that I'm following on from a giant in Rachel Siewert and a giant in you. I am really committed to fighting tooth and nail to make sure that the vulnerable people in our community are heard and that we really make change for them because it really should have happened by now. The fight will continue, and I really look forward to carrying on your legacy in relation to that.

I also want to thank you for all the work that you did to bring about marriage equality. Even though our family didn't know it at the time, I am the parent of a rainbow child, and I know that bringing in marriage equality was something that contributed to her feeling safe about exploring who she really is and being able to come out, and I want to thank you because you played such a big part in that. I also observed the impact that it had on kids too. As a teacher, I saw time and time again how difficult it was for young people who were queer. That change in making them feel valued made a real difference, not just to adults in our community but to young people as well.

I know there are other people who want to speak and we are short on time, so I'll leave it there, but I just want to say thank you, Janet. I'm so grateful that I got to spend two years in the party room with you. I also want to thank you for the generosity that you showed for me as a new senator. You were one of the first people to check in and offer advice, support and encouragement. I really want to thank you for that; it means a lot.

Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What beautiful speeches—and so appropriate for all of your years here, Janet. I feel like years in the Senate are dog years. You've done 10, and that is 70 in my book. It is such a privilege to celebrate you with everyone else. I consider myself, like Penny, so lucky to have had nearly two years at your side, with your example before me and with all of your support. I have really loved working alongside you, and I have learnt so much from the way that you work. Just like Dorinda said, you gave me confidence from day one in the courage that you take into your incredible role here. You are an inspiring leader, senator, activist and human being.

Three things have really stood out for me. I have been really inspired by your consistent and persistent standing up on human rights. You have just always been the one to name things immediately in the party room and to have the courage to follow through for people whose democratic rights are denied, whose lives, land and very survival is threatened. You are there for them every time: Palestine, Tibet, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Uighur people and many people in Australia—our human rights here as well. The fact that people have come tonight to celebrate and acknowledge that is a very important tribute to you. The Australia Tibet Council is lucky to have you in its future as well as its past.

You always do the brave thing—most recently, calling out the human rights abuses in the Philippines when the president of that country was invited to address our parliament, ignoring the ongoing and long history of human rights abuses. You lead the way to call out the hypocrisy of that. I was sitting next to you and I could almost feel your heart beating. My heart was certainly pounding. I was watching everyone slowly turn towards us to look at you as you held up the sign that you had made. And, exactly as Penny said, you felt the fear—I could feel the fear next to you. It's not about feeling the fear; it's about doing the thing, remembering the trade unionists who have been shot in Manila, all of the human rights activists, the community members and the villagers who have lost their lives. That is what you take into that work.

As you said when you did that protest, there are at least 800 political prisoners in the Philippines at the moment and you felt it was your obligation and responsibility. It's such a powerful thing you have given us. With your inspiring commitment to truth, whether it is truth in science or truth in calling out hypocrisy and suppression of human rights, you have more than truly stood up to your first speech pledge to work for self-determination for First Nations Australians and a treaty—very powerful work.

Secondly, you have been an incredible campaigner for LGBTQI+ communities and individuals. I have been in awe of your powerful contributions arguing against—this is where I will cry—the regular hate directed in this place at trans communities and individuals. You have stood up time after time while that hate has come at us and you have insisted that people have the right to be who they are, that everyone is welcome here and that trans kids in particular are loved. So thank you for standing up truly to something you also promised in your first speech, which was to speak up always in the chamber for our rainbow community. You have more than adequately fulfilled that promise as well—energetically, lovingly and courageously.

Finally, Janet, you have an extraordinary work and activism ethic, and these are very big boots to fill as we have acknowledged. I am really in awe of your work ethic, your commitment to making change, not only through activism but also through your parliamentary work. You have always walked on both those legs: doing the community work on the weekend, coming back here the following week to do all the parliamentary legislative work that you have shouldered. They are both demanding places, they will take all that you can give, and you have given both places everything that you had.

You now get to rest for a bit but it won't be for long. You are unstoppable. I thank you for your sisterhood, for your inspiration, for your sweat, for your generosity. I wish you and Anne and family and friends all the very best and many wonderful times in the forest and on your beloved bike, avoiding planes—won't it be wonderful that you won't have to get up and get on a plane! You will go on to do all those things at a pace that you set yourself. You leave a giant legacy and I thank you for all of it.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have been listening to the contributions. Sorry I haven't been here for all of them. I want to thank you for your work as chair of the party room for so long, for all the things that you have been part of and witnessed over the years and for the way you have been able to guide us through some highs and lows. I genuinely don't know how you do that. With your patience, your kindness and your compassion, everybody feels the same way towards you, which is pretty rare and which I haven't seen.

I remember when you got the news about Penny, in here, in the Senate. I was next to you. At the time, I thought you couldn't have been in a worse place to get that news, in the middle of proceedings. But in many ways, I think it was symbolic of the life you were living, the sacrifices you were making, that we all make as senators. I just wanted to say I think Penny would have been very proud of everything you have achieved here. I am sure she would have loved to have been here to see this, and you certainly have done Penny proud.

Lastly, forests: with your connection to nature, there are lots of things to cover. Look, I am going to miss you greatly. Going back to the origins of the Greens and how we started, we had our 50th anniversary celebration down in Hobart in 2022 with a lot of the original members. For me, it is an almost spiritual thing to be part of the movement that you have been a giant in. You have carried that all the way through to the parliament. A lot of the original members, Di Hollister in Tasmania, Bob and Christine and others—they're quite happy out of parliament, by the way! They get to go back to what they love to do and where they originally started.

For those who aren't aware, when the UTG—the United Tasmania Group—first started, the kinds of people who joined that party to go into parliament or take their issues into parliament had to draw names out of hats for candidates. Nobody wanted to put their hand up to be a candidate so that's why they were forming a political party, because they knew they actually had to do it. It wasn't seen as something that was—no-one was interested in power and the trappings or anything that goes with it. They were there for one simple reason, and that was to put the environment and their issues, the four pillars, which started with the UTG, front and centre and to change things from within the system.

It's a bit like being a ring bearer in the Lord of the Rings. There will be things that will stay with you for the rest of your life from your time here. Nevertheless, it's not an easy thing. I applaud you for what you have done and I look forward to a few fireside chats, whether it's Sisters Beach or Bicheno or somewhere else down in Tasmania, and spending some time with you in the forests. Thank you for everything.