Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, I clock up 20 years in this House. It is a great honour to serve here. In the age of the 24/7 media cycle, and a cultural tendency to chew politicians up and spit them out, it is a remarkable honour to serve for 20 years.

I could not have done it without support. I want to thank the voters of Wills who have stuck with me in good times and in bad. I want to thank my partner, Kerry, my children, Ben and Naomi, my father, Allan, and other family members. I want to thank my office staff: Mimi Tamburrino, Tim Hamilton, Mark O'Brien, Julie Ryan, Cate Hall, Nosrat Hosseini and many others who have served over the past two decades.

I want to thank the Labor Party members and volunteers in Wills—families like the Hosseinis and Quaidas, Angelo Koutouleas, Oscar and Alan Yildiz, Gino Iannazzo, Vic Guarino and so many others. I want to thank people from the trade union movement: Ged Kearney and Dave Oliver from the ACTU, Ben Davis and his team at the AWU, Tony Sheldon and his team at the TWU, Glenn Thompson and the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, Earl Setches at the Plumbing Trades Employees Union, Dave Noonan at the CFMEU, people at the Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and many more.

I want to thank some business leaders, too, for their support and encouragement: Dick Smith, Graham Turner and Geoff Harris from Flight Centre, Robert Rio from Rio Industrial Group and Hugh Middendorp from Middendorp Electrical, amongst others. To all of you: thank you for the chance to do this.