Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the government and myself to acknowledge and thank Senator Birmingham for his service to the Senate, his service to the great state of South Australia and, most importantly, his service to our nation.

As Simon said, he's been a member of this place for some 17 years. He has had quite an extraordinary career—there is the Murray-Darling Basin; anyone who serves in that portfolio bears certain scars!—and has had senior frontbench positions such as Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Trade et cetera and Minister for Finance, and, in this place, leadership roles across the board: Manager of Government Business, Deputy Leader of the Government, Leader of the Government and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. It is quite a remarkable career.

Senator Birmingham's political activism probably dates about as far back as mine, and we've had a similar career—if on opposite sides—both cutting our political teeth in Adelaide at the uni. We've clearly got different political ideologies. He once confessed to me that he joined the Liberal Party at a time when John Hewson was promoting Fightback, so clearly we disagree often!

Simon Birmingham has always engaged respectfully. He has always engaged with integrity, and he has always engaged with a clear view for achieving something positive for our country. Senator Birmingham is a thoroughly decent person, and I want to thank him personally for his constructive engagement across the table in this place in these last years but also over the last 17 years.

Senator Birmingham has repeatedly demonstrated a commitment to rise above petty personal politics, and we saw that again today. He's shown me a great deal of kindness at times. He may not remember this, but he was actually very kind to me after our 2019 election loss. Our children were doing Mandarin at the same school, and he saw me outside. He was very, very kind to me, and I've never forgotten that. He could have just said, 'We won,' or something like that.