Linda Kirk (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

May I begin, Mr President, by congratulating you on the professional manner in which you have performed the role of President since you assumed the role last year. I note that you are the sixth South Australian to hold the office of Senate President and I take this chance to say that you do our state proud in the manner in which you perform this important role. I would also like to thank you for hosting a dinner for retiring senators tomorrow evening. It is a sign of your respect for the institution of the Senate that you honour us by inviting us to dine with you in the last days of our time in this place.

To begin with, tonight I would like to make some comments about my fellow senators who will be retiring with me on 30 June this year. I listened with interest last night to the speeches of Senators Watson, Patterson, Kemp, Chapman, Macdonald and Lightfoot. I congratulate and acknowledge them for the contribution they have made to the Senate, to their respective states and to the community over their many years of service. In fact, the number of coalition senators who paid their respects to their colleagues during the extended debate last night is a mark of the regard in which they are all held. I would also like to thank Senators Mason, Birmingham, Colbeck, Adams, Eggleston, Johnson, Barnett and Coonan, who made kind and generous comments about me last night. Thank you also to those coalition colleagues who have written me personal notes in the last few weeks and months. I very much appreciate that. I also take this opportunity to recognise Senators Bartlett and Murray, who have made a significant contribution to this place in their respective areas of interest. I have admired the dedication of Senator Bartlett, particularly in advocating for the fair treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and Senator Murray’s expertise in corporate and taxation matters and his understanding and advice in relation to the rules relating to political donations.

I must also mention my Labor colleague Senator George Campbell, who as Chief Opposition Whip in the last parliament provided me with much guidance and advice in my role as deputy whip. I would also like to thank him very much for the very kind words that he said about me this evening. I would like to wish you well in your retirement, George, and I hope you enjoy travelling the world—as you have indicated that you may well do—and lowering your golf handicap.

In my first speech in this place I acknowledged the contribution of the early pioneering women who preceded me. Tonight I want to make special mention of the five female senators who will be retiring from here with me on 30 June. Together they are a remarkable group and are in large part responsible for some of the most critical social reforms in this place in the past few years, if not in this parliament’s history. Without these women and their stance on matters which are regarded by the major parties as matters of conscience, these changes may never have occurred. Of course I refer to Senators Webber, Allison, Stott Despoja, Nettle and Patterson.

Senator Webber is a Labor colleague and a friend who has made a major contribution during her Senate term. She is a feisty and passionate woman who, together with Senator Moore, led Labor women in the debates surrounding the stem cell legislation and RU486. I would like to acknowledge the leadership she has shown recently in agitating for the much needed changes to AusAID guidelines which currently prohibit Australian aid contributing towards abortion services and education overseas. On a personal note, I would like to thank her for her friendship, encouragement and kindness over the past six years since we entered the Senate together. I am sure that she will continue to make a significant contribution wherever she chooses to go and whatever activities she pursues when she leaves this place.

Senator Patterson has been a great supporter of women not only from her own party but across the party divide. I would like to acknowledge and thank her for, amongst her other achievements, the introduction of her private members bill which introduced the second raft of stem cell legislation in 2006. Some people may wonder why it is that I am thanking her for proposing this bill, my support of which contributed to my involuntary retirement—nevertheless, I do. Senator Allison is another strong woman and effective senator from Victoria who has played a significant role on a range of issues, particularly RU486 and more recently the AusAID guidelines. I would like to thank her for her leadership of women and for the enormous contribution that she has made. Senator Nettle entered the Senate with me in 2002 and she has also made an enormous contribution in her six-year term. She is one of the hardest working and most passionate senators in this place and I have admired her tireless work advocating for fair treatment for asylum seekers and refugees. If every senator had her dedication and capacity for work, this place would indeed be an extraordinary legislature.

Last but not least I wish to acknowledge my friend and fellow South Australian Senator Natasha Stott Despoja. I first knew of Senator Stott Despoja when we were both students at the University of Adelaide. For many years I watched as she entered and began to make her incredible contribution to the Australian political landscape. She does not know this but she was in large part an inspiration to me to leave my comfortable existence as a legal academic and pursue a career in public life. Senator Stott Despoja’s contribution to the Senate, to the profile of women in politics and to the Australian community at large is almost unparalleled, and her departure from this place will leave a gaping hole. She has been an invaluable support to me and I look forward to continuing our friendship and extracurricular activities well beyond 30 June—