Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Australian Greens with a real sadness to farewell a dear friend of ours, Senator Richard Di Natale. We're sad to lose him from our party room, but we are so happy to see the spring in his step and the ease with which a smile comes to his face these days. After 10 years in this place and five as the leader of a political party it's no mean feat to retain your humanity, your sense of humour, your sense of perspective and your compassion for the world and for others. Richard is a truly remarkable human being. I think I speak for many people—certainly I speak for everyone in our party room—in saying that we're going to miss him dearly. He's a dear friend to all of us, and I think he has made an enormous improvement to the culture of the parliament and to this chamber.

I was really honoured to serve him as a deputy leader. I'm sorry about the section 44 thing, Richard, for all of the stress that caused you in what was a torrid time! But it was another situation that you handled with grace and an impeccable calmness and kindness. Richard's gone through some of the amazing achievements that he has been proud to deliver in his time as Leader of the Greens. I'm conscious that Richard has to leave in about 15 minutes, so I'm going to keep my remarks fairly brief, because I know many others on our Greens team want to say their farewells as well, but indulge me.

The first time I met Richard was in 2007 when we were both candidates to become senators. We both missed out that time around, but we bonded over some terrible media that we'd both had at the time on a dodgy website. Perhaps I don't need to go into the detail of that! But we then entered the Senate together in the class of 2010, and I've continued to make wonderful memories of my parliamentary work with Richard, including eating Italian in Paris when we went to the climate conference in 2015. Of course we were eating Italian in Paris—it was Richard! On that same visit we both met David Attenborough, and we both became completely starstruck and were tripping over our tongues. I remember getting to see his farm and watching the ease and the loveliness of him and his family together. I remember getting to see a terribly bleached Great Barrier Reef on a trip that we both took after, I think, the first bleaching event. There was then a subsequent one the following season. Just sharing the grief of the starkness of that completely destroyed coral reef is another experience that I won't forget.

Richard's just an all-round decent bloke. I couldn't make a final contribution without acknowledging that I think everybody's mum is in love with him. I'm pretty sure it's not just my mum, Richard! The Hansard has to reflect that. He really has warmth and good sense, which I think encouraged people to really consider what the Greens stand for, to give us a chance and to trust us with their vote. His achievements have been impressive. He's listed many of them: championing marriage equality, working for medevac legislation, fighting for an independent federal anticorruption watchdog, that money for Landcare, leading our party to our second-highest vote at an election in our history—the list could go on, but, fundamentally Richard is an incredibly decent human being. He is a really good person and we will miss his contribution and his considered wisdom in our party room.

I do also have a message from our new leader, the wonderful Adam Bandt, to convey to you, Richard, and to put on the Hansard. Adam says, 'Thanks for your amazing service to our movement over so many years. We're so lucky to have had you as a Greens warrior. You leave a great legacy behind, and I'm sure there's much more to come. We can't wait to see what you do next, but hopefully it involves a bit more surfing, a bit more time with the family and a lot fewer late night phone hook-ups! We will miss you.' Indeed, we will miss you, but we look forward to a lot more catch-ups outside this crazy life, lots more pizza and probably some beer, but I'm bidding for nonna's arancini balls because they're delicious!

I sign off by saying thank you so, so much to Lucy, Luca and Ben—your family—for sharing you with the nation for the last 10 years. We know what a sacrifice that is, and we're deeply grateful for it. We're sorry to miss you and lose you, Richard, but we're so happy that your family's got you back. Thanks so much.