Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to honour a friend of many of us in this chamber and of the media, someone whose job it has been for almost four decades to capture the important images that record our social and political history. After covering 10 prime ministers since arriving in Australia in 1968, my friend Alan Porritt retires from the press gallery next week after 38 years of service behind the lens. After working as a photographer at the Women's Weekly and the Telegraph in Sydney, Alan arrived in the press gallery in 1976. He has seen governments come and go and has been at the centre of the revolution in media affairs. In relation to his profession, he has seen the transition from black-and-white darkrooms to the colour photography of the digital age. I have often seen him rushing through the corridors, burdened by that technology, and filing photos on the move via wi-fi.

Since leaving the papers in the 1990s, Alan freelanced and then became the founding gallery photographer for AAP in 1999. Perhaps only Don Woolford and Max Blenkin have been around AAP longer. Press photographers are actually among the very few people who tell Prime Ministers where to go and what to do and they actually do it. Perhaps Alan can do that because he has been an election talisman, accompanying the winner on the last 10 campaigns. I salute Alan Porritt as a gentleman and a consummate professional. I wish him well as he spends more time with his family and pursues less-hectic interests. Thank you, Alan Porritt, for your wonderful service.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!