Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, senators. I am not going to repeat all the fantastic statements that all the leaders have made and that Senator Lazarus has made on behalf of the crossbench, but I do not want that in any way to diminish my heartfelt thanks to all those that were mentioned. I sincerely think this place is run very well, and all the people who were thanked deserve those thanks.

Could I thank you, my colleagues, for your patience and your contribution. I feel as though I should give some senators a Christmas present—it would be the standing orders wrapped up in a suitable paper with certain annotations to certain pages and, in particular, standing order 203, Senator Conroy. You might need to study that over the break!

Please go home to your families and to your friends and to your states, your electorates, and enjoy what break you can have. We use this word 'break' often, and quite often we go home to do a lot of work and we get a minimum time down. So please enjoy. Come back refreshed.

Senator Lazarus, we will start a bit sharper next year, and the latitude from the chair might diminish a little bit. I am sure you have had your good six months of training.

But thank you all. It has been very good, and I know you all put some tremendous work into this place and representing your home states. Whilst it has been a bit of a battle here in the last week or two, I think we have ended on a slightly better note, and I am sure we will all go away as friends.

The chamber attendants I think were thanked, but thank you, Clerk. I do particularly thank the chamber attendants again—but they were thanked, I believe, in the earlier statements. Have a very safe and happy Christmas.

Senate adjourned at 00:38 (Friday)