Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have been a relentless user of the Parliamentary Library. At one stage they told me that only one person was using their services more. I do not know if this is praise but that was Mark Latham. Thanks must also go to Bill McCormick and all the very worthy people who work in the Parliamentary Library. I have spent many of my most interesting moments at Aussies, which is run so well by Tony and Dom, and many thousands of dollars of Kemp money have gone to that family. I am told that there is a Kemp wing at their home.

The Senate has changed very substantially from when I commenced my term in July 1990. To be quite frank, I believe that it is a better chamber, a more vigorous chamber. It is a chamber which demands greater accountability from governments. I have no doubt that this tradition will continue to grow. I am of the view that the Senate is still stretching its wings and it will cause considerable pain to governments in the future and, provided I am not part of the government that it is causing pain to, I am all in favour of that Senate practice.

Looking back on my time in the Senate, I would like to make a few very brief observations. Perhaps one of the major changes has been the change in the attitude of the Labor Party towards the Senate. Those of us who are old enough to remember the 1975 crisis can perhaps understand that the Labor Party was not an enthusiastic supporter of this chamber. Labor senators might correct me if I am wrong but not so long ago it was part of the Australian Labor Party platform to abolish the Senate. Our most famous critic was, of course, Paul Keating, who called us some terrible names. Today I suspect that such comments would be very poorly received in the wider community and I do think the strong bipartisan support this chamber has is helping to add to its strength.

Another thing which has struck me is the remarkable shift in political debate in this country. Let’s face it; during the 1980s and 1990s it was the Liberal Party and the National Party that won the historic philosophical debate. Free enterprise, not government planning and regulation, was seen as the road towards greater prosperity and individual liberty. To hear Craig Emerson, just last week, arguing for a world of free markets, smaller government and tax cuts proves the comprehensive nature of the coalition’s victory over the ALP comrades. The Labor Party’s new-found affection for responsible economic management is most certainly not rooted in that party’s history or culture. As one of my colleagues said to me, how many people joined the Labor Party because they were opposed to big government, high taxes, and budget deficits? Not many, I think.

Time will tell whether all the song and dance made by the Rudd government about fiscal conservatism is just another example of government spin. Likewise, I believe that the coalition has won some really historic victories in the cultural arena—an issue that I spoke of in my maiden speech. We now hear Labor leaders speak about the importance of high standards in education, the need for comprehensive testing and the desirability of returning to the basics. These views are light-years away from the attitudes of teacher unions and state education bureaucrats. The excesses of multiculturalism have been rejected and there has been a healthy return of pride in Australia. It is now bipartisan policy that Australia needs a citizenship test that recognises our shared values and culture. The Howard government, to its undying credit, and the former Prime Minister himself took on the ‘black armband’ view of history and showed how flawed it was. As a result of this, there is healthier debate on our past than in the days of political correctness that marked the Hawke and Keating eras. The Liberal Party must be vigilant in defending the victories it has won, and the legacies it has built.

I started my senatorial career in opposition and I leave it while in opposition. Despite the fact that we lost an election last year, it has to be conceded that the Labor Party ran a remarkable campaign by any previous standards. Not only was it remarkably well funded—never before has one group, the ACTU, spent more money than the political parties themselves—but the discipline of the ALP members and senators was a good lesson to a lot of us, and the research of the Labor Party was remarkable. It shows the challenge that we will be faced with in the next election. For those who may be interested, the Labor Party, despite its protestations, involved itself in massive pork-barrelling in our marginal seats. That debate will continue to flow over the next 12 months.

The truth is that the Labor Party is not John Howard ‘light’. The Labor Party comes from a different tradition. The conservative clothing it has put on is starting to be cast away. There are some rocky reefs ahead for the Rudd government. It will be tested on its promises, and the huge challenge of its policies on climate change is certainly going to be the subject of major debate in this chamber. I will look forward to it with great interest.

I would like to mention one colleague on the other side: Senator Forshaw. Senator Forshaw and I went away last year to the UN to save the world—