Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

With the indulgence of the House, I will make my valedictory speech. I would like to thank all of the staff who have ever worked for me, ever kept me on time, ever kept me up to the mark and ever kept me being as good as I could ever be in this role. I thank the attendants, the clerks, the cleaners, the Comcar drivers and everyone else who works in this place to make this terrific institution as good as it can be.

I also thank a former senator, a fellow called Bob Collins, who gave me my first job in politics, in the early 1980s, in Darwin. That is where I met Warren Snowdon and began a lifelong combat with him which resulted in Warren winning on most occasions and one of the most enduring friendships of my life.

I thank Hansard. I thank the shadow ministers with whom I serve. I thank my party for both its support and its tolerance. I thank my voters for their incredible tolerance, and my supporters, both physical and emotional. In particular, I thank the financial supporters of my campaigns.

I thank those ministerial staff who have worked with me. I have always thought that you should select ministerial staff who complement your own views and do not reinforce them—staff who will challenge you and whose instinctive reactions are not your own. I have been blessed with those staff choices.

I thank the industries with whom I have worked—tourism, resources, small business, energy and the portfolio of northern Australia. They were all fantastic and wonderful opportunities given to me by Prime Ministers Rudd and Gillard.

I want to thank the public servants with whom I have worked. Our Australian Public Service is a unique institution. There are 160,000—at least, there used to be; it is probably now 140,000—Australians working in the interests of our nation. They are working every hour of every day somewhere in the world to support our country and our people. I thank them for the work that they do, and I thank them for the work that they did to make me look as good as I could be.

I thank my personal staff—in particular, Helen Hansen. To be a staffer of a parliamentarian is a tough gig. Staffers must always be there, and Helen always has been—not simply in Rockingham but here in Canberra and wherever we needed her to be. Energy, loyalty, dedication and devotion are important in our staff, and I count myself as being very lucky that my electorate staff have been so stable and thoughtful, thanks to the work that Helen has put in to make my local operation work.

I thank Kim Beazley. Kim bequeathed me a seat that was held by Labor, and I feel privileged to be handing that seat on to Madeleine King, who will hold that seat in the next parliament and make a wonderful contribution. Madeleine will be joined by Tim Hammond. With Madeleine and Tim, we will renovate the face of Labor in Canberra. From Western Australia, a new generation is coming through to make their mark. I am so pleased to be a part of that generational change.

I have always thought that diversity in advice was important. As a parliamentarian, a party member and a party leader, I have always thought that being a mentor is important. I have always thought that being outcomes focused is important and that you come here to do your work as well as you possibly can. I apologise to those electors who thought that my job was to come here and do their work. I came here to do mine, and I am proud of that. I came here to work hard and to be as fair as I could be. I came here to be, wherever possible, as polite as I could be to those people with whom I worked.

I thank my mum, who, in July, will celebrate 50 years of being in Australia. My father died in 2009, but mum continues to live in Whyalla, and my twin sister continues to share that town with mum. My brother, David, is in Brisbane. I thank all of them for their support, care and consideration through my life and through my time in parliament. I was lucky to grow up in a family which was overwhelmingly political.

Peter Walsh made a terrific contribution to this place in the other chamber. Peter was frugal and fair and, in a double-dissolution election in July 1987, amidst declining outlays, increased the Labor primary vote and the Labor preferred vote. That achievement in a double-dissolution election in July 1987—on Gough Whitlam's birthday—is perhaps one of the finest achievements of that Labor government. I became a big fan of double-dissolution elections in July!

What can you say, when you are about to finish up in this place, to your wife, who has put up with everything? I can only say thank you. To my children—Riley, Darcy and Toby—who fell asleep when I made my first speech: you are my heroes.

I thank, in particular, every single member of the parliamentary Labor Party. I thank Bill Shorten, who will be the Prime Minister of this country and who will be a good Prime Minister. Our country is particularly blessed in that we have as leader of the Liberal Party a decent man and we have as leader of the Labor Party—the future Prime Minister—a person in whom we can believe and in whom I believe. I will also say this: friendships get stressed in politics, but real affection never gets broken. I thank you all, and that is that.

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