Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to rise and acknowledge the retirement of my three colleagues and make a few brief remarks about each. This place is an odd place to come and spend so much time in because often the work and the contribution that is made by individuals is never acknowledged except perhaps in these last speeches. Each of the three senators who is retiring tonight has made a very special contribution in different ways to the Labor Party and to those of us who were in opposition for so many years and latterly in government. I want to talk about their special contributions.

Firstly, the person whom I have known for the least time is, of course, Dana Wortley from South Australia. In fact, I have not worked on a committee with Dana and have only observed her work in passing. But the very special contribution that she made in this place was one of cooperation and camaraderie. Someone made a reference earlier to the fact that often in late-night sittings it was Dana's office that we attended for drinks and an exchange of views. But more special than that, Dana has the ability to bring people together because she is always first on the phone to issue an invitation and to organise a social function, particularly in those last three years when we were in opposition when she first came here.

Dana contributed by bringing others in and by binding them to a wider group and a wider organisation. She was always most helpful, most cheerful and most pleasant in those endeavours as she was always in her work in this place. She made special reference tonight to her husband and her son, and of course that was from the heart. I wish her well when she returns to Adelaide, because often when we were out to dinner of an evening she would take a phone call from her son and you could see the gleam in her eyes and the pleasure as she spoke to him. I wish her very well in her retirement.

Turning now to Kerry O'Brien, oddly enough, given the large amount of work that Kerry has done since I came to this place in 1996, I do not think we have ever worked together on a committee. Kerry chose an area of endeavour which has been referred to by others and I do not think we ever managed to share any sessions together where you get to know each other much better than you do in other ways. My own observation from when I was on the frontbench of the Labor Party from 1998 through to 2006—and I think Kerry was there in one role or another all of those years but in different areas: agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport, tourism for a while, regional development and regional affairs—was that he was always prepared. He never spoke off the cuff. His remarks were always judicious, they were always considered, they were suited to the legitimate interests of the group he might be advocating for and, best of all, they always had a political edge. They had merit in terms of the contribution to the particular group but there was always a useful political take on whatever the issue of the day was. So to Kerry as he retires I also wish him well.

I first came to know Michael Forshaw in the very early eighties. Michael was then either national assistant secretary or national secretary of the Australian Workers Union and I was an official of another union in Western Australia. At that time I had very close political relationships with the two senior men who ran the AWU in Western Australia, in those days referred to sometimes as the two Joes, who had been around for many years. They used to be very supportive of me in various endeavours in different forums in the labour movement in that state. Through them I got to know Michael when he used to come over to Western Australia in relation to various dis­putes and various other sets of negotiations.

I noted back in the middle eighties that Michael was always a person who listened, a person who consulted and a person who gave consideration before deciding on a particular course of action. When I came here in 1996 he had been here for two or three years beforehand and again his strengths were along those lines. Michael is a person who has some of the strengths that serious negotiators often overlook. When he went into a negotiation he had always worked out your position, your true interests or where an outcome that would suit all interests might be achieved, and he would work towards that. He had a very useful ability to negotiate. He had a very useful ability to seek a compromise and to know when a deal was on the table, to stitch it on, get out of the room and move onto something else. In that context he always had the ability to understand what was critical or important in a particular negotiation and what was more peripheral and of not so much consequence. That was the contribution that he brought to this place.

As I said at the outset, each of three retiring senators from our side brought a different contribution. They brought a remarkable strength. In a lot of ways the contribution they made was not properly recognised or understood. Often it was underappreciated and undervalued, particularly in respect of Senator O'Brien who made a contribution in an area of work which is not natural to many Labor Party people but which he got on top of and worked hard at—as I said, he was always well briefed. The particular piece of bastardry that undid him under the former Prime Minister was noted by a lot of people in this place and should not go unremarked because the treatment dished out was not appropriate. But in respect of all three colleagues, I thank them for their assistance to me over the years and the time they have spent. I wish them well as they retire and spend more time with their families.