Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) | Hansard source

I rise today to pay tribute to my friend, colleague and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Senator Birmingham, or, as everybody who actually knows him calls him, Birmo. As Leader of the Nationals, the second party of the coalition in the Senate, I want to express my warmest appreciation to Birmo and my genuine sadness about the prospect of his departure from this place. But I also want to express my admiration for your energy, your enthusiasm and the wisdom in choosing the time of your departure. Not many people get to do that, and that again, I think, goes to your intellect and your desire to continually want to make a difference for the people.

As two people from the opposite edges of the spectrum of the coalition—Birmo is the Liberal end and I'm absolutely on the National Party end of the coalition—we have, as he referenced in his opening remarks, often been at the two sides of the internal debates that have consumed the coalition in our time in politics.

When I arrived in 2011, you were almost a veteran of four years. You were the shadow minister for environment. We sat on the environment and comms committee together. I had to text Ben Bartlett to see which was the big fight we had, but we did have a couple. One was on the reach rule, about the ownership of media organisations, and the other was on the Murray-Darling Basin. We have sparred, as you've sparred with many of my colleagues over the years, about that particular issue. Whether it was the vexed position for the coalition on the Murray-Darling Basin or something else, our dealings leader to leader have always found you being a man of great honour and principle. Tough conversations have had to be had, leader to leader, requiring an understanding of each other's internal difficulties of having to manage principled, value driven senators on both of our sides to make sure that our two great political traditions are respected within the functioning of the Senate. The differences of the coalition internally are very easily exposed in the detail driven chamber of the Senate. Finding ways to get through that together—to make sure that every member of our team is able to express their values and to find a solution that allows them to bring their constituents along and to actually respect their role as a senator—I think shows you as a very considered and pragmatic leader.

I will miss you as the coalition campaign spokesperson. Everyone laughs, 'safe pair of hands'. That's not easy to do, particularly in the heat of a campaign. I will really miss that aspect. I was also your education chair during the tumultuous times of the Gonski review, and I'm forever bonded to many members of your team, some of whom I had the privilege to employ as my own chief of staff and senior advisers in government. I think what really drove that, Birmo—as a former teacher—was your desire to get the right outcome for Australian students for the long term. As difficult as that was, I think we eventually landed. I will miss your humour, your indulgence—which you do indulge, particularly Cashie and I in the leadership group, a lot—