Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Labor Party to acknowledge the valedictory remarks of Senator Di Natale and to reflect on his contribution to the Senate. He has served just over nine years in this place—elected as a senator for Victoria in 2010 and taking his seat in 2011. Richard has made a particular impact in health policy, multiculturalism and, of course, for five years, as Leader of the Australian Greens.

When Richard entered the parliament, he was one of a new wave of Greens senators. The 2010 election was a high point for the Greens electorally. The party increased its representation from three to nine after returning a senator from each of the six states, including Senator Di Natale, and that gave them the balance of power. It placed Senator Di Natale in the national parliament at a significant time for his party in his home state and in Canberra. I think he was the first Greens senator elected by Victoria.

Senator Richard Di Natale has been the Greens representative or spokesperson on health policy throughout his time as a senator. I recall sitting here for his first speech, when he spoke of his experiences in medicine, including working in community health as a general practitioner, in Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory and with the Nossal Institute for Global Health. This knowledge and understanding of how health policy affects people at a practical level, and in significantly disadvantaged communities in particular, has been evident in his approach as a parliamentarian and in the way he sought to advance policies with a focus on prevention was in recognition of the fact that so many of the illnesses he had been called upon to treat were entirely preventable. He also recognised that many of the factors that influence health and wellbeing lie outside our health system and that improvement in areas such as housing, water, sanitation and involvement in community are critical indicators. Individual health is inextricably linked to the health of our society. This is something that Senator Di Natale brought to his work and it's something that is worth all of us reflecting upon—and it is something illustrated by the current pandemic.

One aspect of Senator Di Natale's political leadership I wish to reflect on is his support and advocacy for a multicultural Australia. This is at the core of his own identity. In his first speech he reflected on the journey his parents had taken from Italy to settle in Australia: his mother as a young girl with her parents and his father as a 29-year-old man. Their migrant story is one echoed by so many Australians of multiple generations; people who combined hope for a new future with hard work to build their lives in a new country. He reflected that from these beginnings his family has contributed teachers, doctors, factory workers, builders, lawyers and a senator. He was right to say that multiculturalism is one of Australia's enduring successes and is an opportunity to focus on those things which unite us. He named respect for our democratic institutions, for universal human rights and for equality of opportunity. Its intrinsic value, he noted, comes through the relationships formed with people from different cultures, offering as they do important insights into our own. Throughout his parliamentary career, he has emphasised the importance of multiculturalism, including in his leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Strengthening Multiculturalism.

As Labor senators stated in their additional comments to the report of that committee, leadership from the parliament is an important factor in multiculturalism and its success, because we all have a role to play, collectively and as an institution. We have the opportunity in this place to shape community norms and we all have a responsibility to encourage cohesion in the Australian community. Regrettably, there are some in this place who seek to use race as a political weapon, despite everything history has taught us about where that leads and despite the pain and trauma that inevitably brings to fellow Australians. Richard Di Natale has always resisted these forces. He has been a consistent opponent of political efforts to sow division on the basis of race. He has been a voice for an inclusive Senate and an inclusive Australia, and I thank him for this.

Senator Richard Di Natale served as the Greens leader from May 2015 to February of this year. He knows any leader of a parliamentary party bears a significant responsibility. Some of the things we deal with are clear, but most are nuanced. The simplicity of the stories politicians tell can often conceal wicked complexity, because most of our decisions ultimately involve trade-offs. It was to the Greens' credit that they finally embraced those trade-offs in engaging with former Prime Minister Julia Gillard to put a price on carbon. The full extent of Senator Di Natale's influence on this is something we may never know. I do note that the climate package the Greens supported under Prime Minister Gillard was one that gave more concessions to carbon-intensive industry—a browner package than the CPRS that I had put before the Senate a couple of years before and that the Greens voted with the Liberal Party to defeat. The fact that the Greens voted with the Liberals against a less brown package before Senator Di Natale arrived and then voted for a browner package after he arrived suggests he might have helped them come to see the need for a more collaborative approach if they wanted to get something done. The stakes were too high for squabbling, and they still are. The climate emergency was barrelling towards us, and only action could avert the coming crisis.

I would never want to say our words do not matter—they do; especially as senators we need to choose them carefully—but, ultimately, science doesn't care about how fine our words are. It only responds to actions. Doctors know that when faced with a critical patient they need to act, not wait for the perfect and miraculous solution. In parliament, as in life, we rarely get to choose between something we think is perfect and something we think is irredeemable. As recently as this week, the new leadership of the Greens, and Senator Di Natale himself today, pointed to the Gillard years as a template. I would encourage them to recall that that period involved considerable compromise on their part, including supporting a browner climate policy than the one they had said was too brown. I urge recognition that change only comes through finding common cause with people who are different, and persuading those who do not agree with us. Anything less and we are part of the problem we claim needs to be solved. I would hope this is a perspective that Senator Di Natale shares, because politics should not just be performative; it ultimately must be substantive.

Finally, I want to observe that Richard has chosen the timing of his departure from this place. It is not a choice all of us have the luxury of making. I hope he does so happy with what he has contributed and with energy and enthusiasm for what lies next. Hopefully, it will involve much more time with his family, Lucy and his two sons and, of course, some time on the farm as he desires. Recalling a story he once told about his activities on the farm, I will just say to him: if you ever need someone to sample the next batch of salami or capicola, remember there are fewer vegetarians in the Labor Party!

Can I say on a personal level that I have enjoyed working with Senator Richard Di Natale. We have disagreed on much. Has always been decent and trustworthy in my private dealings with him. I wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.