Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With you indulgence, Mr Speaker, and the indulgence of the House, I want to make some remarks on the former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. Our nation, our parliament, our government and our coalition parties owe Tony Abbott an enormous debt of gratitude for his leadership and his service over many, many years. He led us out of opposition, back into government. The challenges of leadership are very considerable. The pressures are enormous. As Tony Abbott has often said himself, very profoundly, all of us here are volunteers; it is our families who are conscripts. We should acknowledge today, of course, the debt we also owe to his wife, Margie, and their daughters.

Tony has discharged his role as Prime Minister—indeed, as Leader of the Opposition—with enormous distinction and achievement. The free trade agreements alone, which have been negotiated under his leadership, represent some of the most significant foundations for our future prosperity. Of course, under his leadership our government restored the integrity of our borders, with the consequence that we have been enabled to make the increased and very generous arrangements for Syrian refugees last week.

We owe a great debt to Tony Abbott. We thank him for his leadership and we thank him for his service. He is a great Australian and our country has been improved and has been better led under his time as Prime Minister.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to add my remarks to the events and the departure of Mr Abbott as Prime Minister. It is a privilege to serve here and it is a vocation, but, as we know, politics can be very hard as well. It is part of the Australian spirit not to score points when someone is down, so I just want to say that public life is hard on people who serve and it is hard on their families. It is not for me to be partisan about Mr Abbott's record, but he certainly led the Liberal Party formidably for well in excess of five years. He is a fierce and formidable proponent of his views and a ruthless advocate for what he believes in. From his first victory in 2009 to become the Leader of the Liberal Party, right through to last night, he has been a fighter—a formidable fighter.

I have exchanged harsh words with him in my time as opposition leader. I have disagreed with his politics and decisions on many occasions, but I also wish to record that he had this frustrating ability on occasion, just when you were really frustrated with a particular decision he might have made, to do something unexpected, generous and personal. At the time when my mother passed, he was very sensitive to that. I said this to him and I explained this conundrum of his frustrating behaviour. He just smiled at me said, 'I'm sure I will frustrate you again.' And he did.

It is a very tough day for Mr Abbott. I say to him, to Margie and to his remarkable daughters that we wish you well. To Mr Abbott's personal staff, led by the formidable Peta Credlin, you have served the boss loyally and according to your code, and we recognise this. In conclusion, I just say to Mr Abbott: I had the privilege, on several occasions, of being with you when we addressed serving men and women of our defence forces. What I thought was remarkably humble of the member for Warringah was that he would frequently begin his remarks to them by saying, 'I have never served.' He was conscious of this, even disproportionately. I say to Mr Abbott: you have served. I do not think you need to judge yourself any lesser for not having actually worn the uniform of this country. You have represented and been the Prime Minister of this country. That is service indeed.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

May I briefly add my warm regards to the member for Warringah, Tony Abbott, on his term as Prime Minister of this country. It was a very great pleasure to serve with him for all of his five years as Leader of the Liberal Party. He certainly had a vision for Australia. He had a particular interest in promoting infrastructure and wanted to be known as the infrastructure Prime Minister, and so it was perhaps easy to be minister for infrastructure when there was such a strong level of support from the Prime Minister. While his term as Prime Minister was relatively short, I was pleased that he did get to open one or two projects. I acknowledge that some of those projects were inherited from the previous government—because building big projects these days takes a long time—but so many new projects have been started, and they will be part of his legacy to his country.

I also want to acknowledge Margie Abbott. Lyn and I enjoy our relationship with the Abbotts as a couple and we appreciate the tremendous sacrifice that a family in this position makes. While Margie is not a particularly political person—I think she is happier doing other things—she was very supportive of Tony through all of that period.

In his relaxation time, Tony did the most extraordinary things, such as ride a bike faster than most people in this country and for longer than most people in this country. I suspect that the AFP might be relieved to have someone who is a bit slower runner—sorry, Malcolm!—and a bit slower bike rider—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And a larger target!

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

than his predecessor, who usually took two teams to keep up with and, when he travelled around the world, was able to train and ride with some of the fastest people in the country. In addition to that, his hobbies, such as being involved with the volunteer fire brigade, lifesaving et cetera, really marked him as a true Australian who has made a wonderful contribution to the nation as Prime Minister. I wish Tony and Margie every success and happiness for whatever the future may hold. We very much value the privilege of having worked with him.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I congratulate Mr Turnbull on being chosen by the Liberal Party to become Prime Minister of Australia. It is a signal honour. It is one which is afforded to very few Australians. You have sought an active role in public life and this is the highest position which can be awarded. We on the Labor side congratulate you. We also recognise that you have a unique opportunity to make this country more modern, more adaptive and more responsible. It may be a genuine chance for this nation. This chance is not defined by you or me but by the coalition's policies and Labor's policies and what we can do for this country. That is the real test. For us, it will be about the ideas you put forward and the ideas we put forward. It will be a genuine choice and a genuine chance for this country. It will be up to this country, between now and the next election, to select who has the best ideas to advance Australia.