James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) | Hansard source

Hi, Courtney. I'm quite grumpy at the moment—a real change of circumstances there! To begin with, Simon is leaving, and, secondly, he has made me cry. I don't cry, but he's leaving, and I'm very annoyed about that because I've known this guy for over 30 years. In the byzantine world of Liberal student politics, in the Adelaide conference of 1994, Simon was leader of the moderates—boo, hiss! Scott Ryan was there as leader of the Victorians—boo, hiss!—and I was there as a spear chucker with an unholy alliance between the Queenslanders and the New South Wales people—boo, hiss! It was a brilliant conference because no-one got on but three of us became really good friends. It was Simon, Scott and me. In later years, a fourth wheel joined our car, and that was Jamie Briggs. So, with Simon leaving today, it's the last of that group.

I want to say to Simon: thank you for being a good friend. Thank you for putting up with my grumpiness, my crankiness, my surliness and the fact that, like Courtney, I don't actually like people. Deep, deep down, though, I do like Simon, and I love Courtney. I don't think I've ever met Simon's mum, but Simon was also a flatmate of mine back in Adelaide, in the dying days of a previous Liberal administration in the 2000s. He broke my shaving mug, and I've never forgiven him for that, because I hold a grudge.

Simon: I'm so happy you're leaving this mad asylum and that you are going out into the real world. You're going to see the sun and the clouds and the birds and general happiness. Good on you. One day we will look to joining you in that happy, happy place—after we throw out Labor at the next election.