Mr Speaker
In 123 years of the history of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1244 individuals have been elected to the House of Representatives, each introduced themselves in their first speech.
Three hundred of these served in the Cabinets of Australia.
But only 216 ever got the chance to say goodbye, to give a valedictory.
Political life can be tough. Election defeat, scandal, illness, Section 44…
So today, I stand here neither defeated nor disposed, lucky to have served, fortunate to be able to say goodbye and thank you.
My first thank you is to my greatest good fortune – my family.
To Chloe, you cast everything around you in a golden pool of light. I love you with all my heart.
Your gift with people, the way you leave every room with five new friends, every baby cuddled and with a promise to follow-up on three different policy initiatives.
That’s not a learned skill – it’s an innate quality, it’s who you are.
And you’ve passed that on to our three beautiful children.
Rupert, Gigi and Clementine, you’ve been conscripts to rallies, speeches, polling places, branch meetings and every community event imaginable.
Always quick to lift me up when I’m down – and even quicker to bring me back to earth when I’ve needed it.
You have given me so much more than I’ve ever given you and I don’t tell you enough, I am so incredibly proud of you.
To the McGrath and Bryce clans, sorry you’ve had such a shy, retiring relative.
And I cannot leave my faithful Bulldog, Walter, off the family thank you list. Thanks buddy, for your unconditional loyalty and being an outstanding listener.
***
Mr Speaker
The first role of a member of the House of Representatives is as a local member.
I am exceptionally grateful the voters of Maribyrnong for electing me on six consecutive occasions to this place.
When Barry Humphries dreamed up Dame Edna, he based her character in Moonee Ponds. The epitome and epicentre of post-war, suburban Australia and the epicentre of my electorate.
Today, walking down Puckle Street is to glimpse cultures and traditions from every part of the world.
And for all the diversity, people are united by a common pride in their community.
It’s been an honour to represent some superb family businesses – Lee and Tony at Fresh on Young, Ali at Dan Dans, Cameron at Ascot Vale Saddlery, Olga at Pauline & Maree and many, many more.
You’ve been the studio for countless live crosses and Today Show slots.
And a big shout-out to my neighbours Josefina, Katie and Rob and the Travancore Brigade, who have had to put up with giant buses, stalkers, staffers, journalists and other undesirables.
I thank the great people of Maribyrnong for putting their trust in me.
***
Mr Speaker
You don’t have to sit in Parliament to serve the Parliament – or our nation.
I thank all the outstanding Commonwealth public servants I’ve worked with over many years – Treasury, ATO, Education, Workplace Relations, the ADF, Hearing Australia, NDIA, Social Services and Services Australia among them.
And I thank all the people who make this building tick – the cleaners, clerks, security guards, Dom and his team at Aussies – you are all indispensable.
My Comcar drivers: Steve, Smokey and Pete. I’m very flattered you’ve made the trip up from Melbourne today.
And then there are the people Ryan Liddell used to call my ‘paid friends’.
Because behind every politician there are dedicated personal staff and through my 17 years in Parliament, 192 people have worked for me.
The magnificent Sandra Papasidero who has held my life, diary and travel plans together for 11 years knows this because she has spoken with nearly every one of them in the lead up to today.
The remarkable Rod Gurry, who has been my eyes and ears in Maribyrnong right the way through, has seen them all come and go.
It’s a bedrock convention of this place that we don’t name staff.
They don’t seek the spotlight and we don’t put it on them.
I wanted to upend that today, and name them all.
Sadly, Central Agencies briefed against this at ERC.
So, I compromised. I will table a list, a roll call of 192 names.
Thank you all for your patience and sacrifice; for going one day longer.
Thank you for always being prepared to craft bold policy – and prepared to tell me when to stop crafting bold policy.
Thank you for taking – or faking – an interest in the Romans, Napoleon and the wonders of toy soldiers and dioramas.
And thank you for dealing with those other servants of our democracy, the Press Gallery.
I should note that ever since I announced that I was leaving politics – I’ve never had better coverage and in fact my opponents have never been nicer.
I’ve worked with some outstanding people through the years: Amit (Singh), Sam (Trobe), James (Newton) Fiona (Sugden), Antonia (Magee), Maree (Goodrick), Shawn (Lambert) and many more.
In fact, three of my former staff now sit here today in Parliament.
Many of my staff have gone on to great things and I’m sort of OK if some of you don’t mention me on your CV. But only sort of.
But all of you will always be able to find your name in the Hansard for this day.
***
On an occasion like this, a measure of nostalgia is impossible to resist.
But I don’t want to reflect merely on my past. I want to talk about our nation’s future.
About the better, smarter, more prosperous destination we can reach.
About the people – and institutions – that will take us there.
It is said that humanity’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible…
… but it’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
Right now, around the globe, democracy is under greater challenge than at any time since the Second World War.
We cannot dismiss these threats just because we are an island continent far away, hoping our distance makes us immune to troubles elsewhere.
We have to nourish our democracy and safeguard our pluralist society.
I’m proud to have served in three institutions essential to this endeavour:
The Australian Workers’ Union.
The Australian Labor Party.
And the Commonwealth Parliament.
***
Mr Speaker
I got my MBA from the Melbourne Business School, but it was the members of the first great democratic institution I served – the Australian Workers’ Union – who taught me about the real economy…
…through the privilege of representing them.
Steel workers and ship builders, fruit pickers on the Murray, tow operators on our ski fields, greenkeepers, forklift drivers, chicken growers and winery workers, embalmers and coffin makers, stable hands and shearers, aluminium workers and civil construction.
And netballers and jockeys. Champion athletes who had won everything, finally winning the right to decent pay and conditions.
These members taught me about people too.
Because across all the diversity of locations and occupations and circumstances…
…when you scratch the surface, we Australians share the same aspirations and nurture the same hopes.
We Australians by and large, are a pragmatic bunch.
We don’t tend to think in ‘isms’ and ‘ologies’, we don’t have time in our day for every new outrage and shock.
Most Aussies focus on the fundamentals: family, health, home and community.
Mr Speaker
The AWU took me from oil rigs in Bass Strait to farms and factories all over Australia.
And it took me to Beaconsfield.
A fortnight that began with a fatal, catastrophic rock-fall – and ended in a man-made miracle.
I’ll never forget that when Larry Knight’s body was found, management talked about stopping the rescue so the Coroner could take control of the site.
I was witness, outside the Superintendent’s office, when a salt-of-the-earth AWU miner, Garth Bonney, said:
“This is not a recovery operation - it’s a rescue mission.
Until we know different, there are men down there who are still alive”
And, so, a group of modest heroes dug through hard rock and saved their mates.
When Brant and Todd emerged from the mine shaft and tagged out, I made sure they got paid for each and every day they spent underground.
Mr Speaker
I will also never forget the faces and the names of members who were let down by the system.
I remember the explosion at the Esso Gas Plant in Longford.
Two workers killed, others badly burned, including Heath, whose wife gave birth while he was on that fateful shift.
Graham, a mechanic I’d signed up one week, crushed to death under a bobcat the next.
Allan, a fitter who lost his arm on a conveyor belt that was neither properly guarded nor immobilised.
Mario, whose lungs were scarred in a single breath after an explosion in a non-ferrous furnace.
And Owen…I can still see him at Caulfield rehab, sitting on his bed…one leg amputated at the hip and the other at the knee after a trench collapse.
All reminders that the most fundamental workplace right of all, is the right to return home safely.
***
I was elected to the leadership at a very tough time for the AWU. Falling membership, neglected awards, and the fruit of a poisoned amalgamation.
At the 1997 ACTU Congress in Brisbane there was only one thing on the minds of delegates – whether to dismember the mighty AWU and divvy up its membership to rival unions.
But, I and state AWU leaders, reinvigorated the show – holding true to its best traditions as a moderate, honest, democratic union.
In this colossal task – and often since – I benefited from the wisdom of Bill Kelty.
The understanding that the right of workers to organise for fair wages and decent conditions must move in concert with the imperative for employers to create the wealth that pays fair wages.
Modern, honest, democratic trade unions should always seek to work with good employers.
And there should be no dividing line any longer in this Parliament between those who are pro or anti-employer, those who are pro or anti-union.
We no longer have to make that false choice.
We can work together.
The nation needs this.
That’s what I always sought to do.
There is a degree of irony that all the effort I put in to ensuring both workers and companies benefited from negotiating better agreements…
…ended with me being asked 1000 questions through two whole days at the now discredited Trade Union Royal Commission.
More questions than any CFMEU official…though none of them were Leader of the Labor Party, were they?
It’s a bit easier for me to see the funny side now.
And I’m sure the incomparable Sharon McCrohan would agree…as would Leon Zwier…known to many as Mr Fix-It and to me as just a great friend.
***
The second important democratic institution I have served is the Australian Labor Party.
In fact, serving as Labor Leader for nearly six years was the great privilege of my time in public life.
Our party is indeed a grand and enduring national institution.
But its life and strength have always been its people, upon whose shoulders I have stood.
From rank and file members of the Maribyrnong ALP…
…to true believers like: George (Wright), Neil (Pope), Judy (Madigan), and the late Senator Kimberley Kitching to name a few.
And then there’re my perennial comrades in arms – Earl (Setches), Luke (Donnellan), Andrew (Landeryou), JP (Blanthorn), Michael (Borowick), Ian (Silk), Mocca (Steve Michelson) and Craig (Shannon). Thank you.
But all of us in the Parliamentary party are only the tip of the spear, we march at the head of a movement.
We carry the hopes and aspirations of millions of working people, who want better for their families and their country.
And we champion the cause of the most vulnerable.
Those are the values and policies the Albanese Government will take to the next election…
…and this is the work I’m confident my colleagues will continue in Government after the next election.
Serving the Labor Party gave me the rare honour to work with my heroes: Barry Jones, Simon Crean, Gareth Evans, Robert Ray.
And – of course - Paul Keating who, when I became Leader, I invited back to the Caucus Room for the first time since 1996.
It remains a source of enduring pride that the last act of collaboration between Paul Keating and Bob Hawke was their joint opinion piece advocating for the platform we took to the 2019 election.
A shame more people didn’t read it!
Through my time as Labor Leader, I was proud to lead not just a strong Opposition – but a genuine, positive alternative.
This is a fitting time to thank my deputy, Tanya Plibersek, in particular, for the unwavering support she offered in those moments.
When I look back on those days after the 2013 election defeat, we had been reduced to 54 seats and I recall - to borrow a phrase from Tony Abbott - the battlelines we drew.
They united us, defined us and rebuilt us.
Labor is always at its best when we know who and what we are fighting for.
We stood against the cuts and austerity in the 2014 Budget.
We stood for Medicare, education and pensioners.
We stood against the abolition of ARENA.
We stood for real ambition and action on climate.
We stood against the entrenchment of inequality and trickle-down economics.
We stood for genuine tax reform.
We stood against everyday Australians being ripped off.
We stood for a Banking Royal Commission.
We stood against a harmful and unnecessary, lazy, taxpayer funded opinion poll inviting strangers to vote on other people’s relationships.
We stood for marriage equality.
I know we didn’t win every battle.
I know perhaps some of my ideas were ahead of their time.
Some – such as new incentives for Electric Vehicles, more Australian manufacturing, and new investments in TAFE and childcare worker wages – are becoming a reality.
There are others I hope can be picked up in the future - in particular, the 2019 policy to ensure all forms of cancer treatment are fully covered by Medicare.
When you’re in the fight of your life, Medicare should be there with you.
Cancer makes you sick – but it should never make you poor.
***
Mr Speaker
The third great democratic institution I’ve served is this Parliament.
From time to time, politicians declare a particular issue should be ‘above politics’.
The sentiment comes from a good place.
That parliament has the responsibility to make democracy work.
The idea that we shouldn’t let big important questions be caught in the quicksand of name-calling, gotchas and sloganeering that we are all prone to.
But we all know this is not the totality of politics, any more than the first salvos of Question Time reflect the business of a sitting day.
No shade on you, Mr Speaker, not proud to say sometimes we’re pretty much ungovernable. Though you should count yourself lucky you’re not in the Senate.
I want to be clear though, we have an adversarial system to test ideas.
The potential for disagreement, or argument, or the proper interrogation of ideas should not be avoided or averted.
That does nothing to build public trust in politics or democracy.
This place must rise to the big issues and engage with them thoughtfully and respectfully.
Let us not be a stage for noisy actors talking at each other, over each other and past each other.
Parliament has the responsibility to ensure the extremes of the left and right do not set the terms of debate.
Otherwise, the ideological trenches become deeper – and the centre ground becomes no-man’s land.
I am a proud moderate. My goal has always been to turn ideas into outcomes.
I reject outright the argument that being moderate is a sign of conservatism or apathy.
You can be in the centre and be a reformer, a humanitarian, or radical in terms of your ambition to get things done for the Australian people.
Being in the centre is an acknowledgment that Australians hold broad, diverse views. The majority in the middle should never be hostage to the intolerant few on the zealous fringe.
I personally know the powerful good this Parliament can accomplish.
I think back to our investments in bushfire reconstruction, informed by my more than 50 visits to communities devastated by Black Saturday fires of 2009.
The class action that spelled the end of Robodebt, together with the Royal Commission to make sure it could never happen again.
Better flood insurance because we listened to Queenslanders who explained how they were being dudded in 2011.
Our FOFA reforms, shaped by people who’d been ripped off by unethical advice.
An Asbestos Safety Agency, laws against workplace bullying – delivered because we listened to victims.
Sometimes, progress takes time. When I was Assistant Treasurer, I moved legislation to increase superannuation from 9 to 12 per cent.
On 1 July next year, we reach that milestone. Slowed down by Coalition Governments, initiated and delivered by Labor.
And – closest to my heart - the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
When I became Parliament Secretary for Disabilities in 2007, I thought I knew hardship having seen disadvantage representing workers.
But nothing had prepared me for the way literally hundreds of thousands of Australians with disability and their carers were sentenced to a second-class life of lesser opportunity.
The midnight anxiety of sleepless parents in their 80s wondering who would love their adult children with profound and severe disability, when they no longer could.
Together with Bruce Bonyhady, John Walsh, Rhonda Galbally, Kirsten Deane, Bronwyn Morecomb, Jenny Macklin, and others, we created, organised and animated an army of everyday Australians determined to change that.
The result was the most significant social reform of this century.
Something the whole Parliament can take ownership and pride in.
The NDIS belongs alongside Medicare and superannuation as examples of Australian exceptionalism.
In creating the NDIS, we didn’t look to international precedent but instead created a global precedent.
Because we know the best in the world is only just good enough for our people.
The NDIS gave dignity and agency to people with disability.
Choice and control.
Empowerment and security.
Its great strength comes from putting people with disability at the centre.
All this derives from the best of Australian values – kindness in another’s trouble.
The understanding that because disability could affect any one of us or someone we love – it matters to all of us.
I am forever grateful to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard for the privilege of serving as the Disabilities spokesperson and for recognising that this idea’s time had come.
And I want to thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity he gave me to serve in this Cabinet to get the NDIS back on track.
At its birth and in its repair, I must acknowledge thought that the overwhelming majority of the Parliament backed these reforms…
…because while this was a Labor Government initiative, it was not a Labor Government issue, it was parliament at its finest.
In Opposition, I took the same approach on national security.
Working constructively with Prime Ministers Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison.
This was not unquestioning bipartisanship.
For example – it was important that we defeated the Australia-China Extradition Treaty.
But I always understood that dealing with the threats of terrorism, foreign interference and home-grown extremism, depended on putting the national interest first.
***
Mr Speaker
I understand now in a way I never could at the start of my 17 years of service, that the party-political process is important…but the Parliament is even more so.
This is the place where national interest should be pre-eminent over partisanship and ideology.
I mentioned that in regard to industrial relations, the NDIS and national security.
And I want to talk about some other areas where Parliament can do better in the future.
How the next Parliament can best serve the next generation of Australians.
This begins with unfinished business for the nation – climate.
Climate change is not a Labor issue, or a Liberal one.
It doesn’t belong to the Greens or the Teals. Or any other colour.
The world we live in – and the country we pass on to our grandchildren – concerns every Australian.
So too does the unfinished business of tax reform.
At the beginning of this year, the Government created fairer income tax cuts for all working Australians.
But our system still taxes property preferentially and lightly – and income heavily.
As a result, young Australians carry a disproportionate share of the burden.
Not only do they pay more tax than a generation ago.
They pay more for their education than ever before – and I’m pleased our Government is working to ease some of that burden.
And it is harder than ever for young Australians to save for a first home.
Increasing supply is an essential part of solving this problem – that’s why our Government is building more homes.
Because we must not become a society where the best predictor of owning a home in the future is the bank balance of your parents now.
Parliament also has unfinished business on defence and foreign policy.
The Government has made significant advances in our relationships with old allies and important trading partners.
But we need to develop even further our own defence capabilities within the bonds of existing alliances.
And prioritise, even more, Australian foreign policy with an Australian accent.
There are big nations that threaten our small and close neighbours.
The Pacific is not an empty ocean we fly over, rather a blue continent of diverse cultures.
On the subject of enduring cultures: Parliament also has unfinished business with First Nations people.
The Uluru process proposed a Voice to Parliament to help address this – a novel idea.
Sadly, recognition in our constitution became a horribly toxic issue.
I remain hopeful that – with good faith on all sides – we can achieve recognition of Indigenous Australians in our nation’s birth certificate.
And genuine empowerment for our First Nations people, including in the work of treaty.
The traditional owners of this nation are not asking much from the parliament, only recognition of 65,000 years of continuous connection to this continent we call home.
Finally, our Parliament and our nation most definitely has unfinished business on the equal treatment of women.
Because there is no more shocking indictment or measure of inequality between men and women, than violence against women.
***
Mr Speaker
In this job, in my life, in every battle I’ve fought and all the causes I’ve championed so far, strength has come from having people believe in me.
People on my side.
Now, in my new role as Vice Chancellor of University of Canberra, I choose the side of young Australians.
And I choose to be on the side of the people who will nurture and challenge their inquisitive minds – their lecturers and tutors.
And I choose to be on the side of the phenomenal researchers whose work impacts our society.
I choose to be on the side of the knowledge keepers and the knowledge seekers because they are instrumental to Australia’s prosperity.
I choose young Australians, their aspirations, their dreams, their education…
…and I choose those who embrace lifelong learning.
I am excited to have new horizons to strive to in the national interest, consistent with the values which have guided me my whole working life.
And to give something back to the city of Canberra, which has been my second home for 17 years.
It gets a bad rap, usually because people associate it with us politicians, but its role at the host of our parliament gives it ‘main character’ energy.
A welcoming, clever community, a cultural and arts hub, a magnificent natural environment, with 447 iconic bus stops and more roundabouts than any other city in the world.
***
Soon after the 2019 election loss I was chatting to some English relatives.
They gave me a remarkable dose of perspective…
…they reminded that my great grandfather, William Menzies Cameron, a son of Dundee, a dock worker in Tyneside. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the chairman of the shop stewards.
My grandmother was a cleaner and barmaid and an air raid warden during the Blitz and lived in council housing.
Her son, my Dad, trained as a fitter and turner, was a seafarer, then worked in the rough and tumble of the Melbourne ship repair industry.
In fact it’s the family history of seafaring is one of the reasons I’ve always championed a Strategic Merchant Marine Fleet, along with the Prime Minister – and I acknowledge Minister King is working on.
My relatives said my grandmother could not have imagined a world where her grandson would be a member of Parliament, let alone running for Prime Minister – not once but twice.
Ultimately that’s not a reflection on me – it’s a tribute to Australia.
A nation of that has flourished as the home of the second chance, the land of the fair go.
A place where every generation can aspire to better for the next.
More than anything else, education is what makes that possible.
Education is the hope of the world.
It has lifted millions out of poverty and been a force for equality and progress – the most reliable path from disadvantage to advantage.
And it teaches the critical thinking crucial to preserving our democracy.
This was my mother’s story.
My Mum lived the power of education – and she loved university.
She was the first in her family to attend.
Her stock were convicts, unsuccessful gold prospectors, Eureka rebels and trouble-making left wing tradies in the mid 20th century.
The first time my twin brother Robert and I were at uni with Mum, we were four years old in the Kindergarten while she was lecturing in the education faculty.
The next time, Rob and I were in first year law and Mum was a mature age law student who won the Supreme Court Prize.
So, I see this next phase in my life, as a chance to pick up some of the threads of what Mum taught my brother and I all those years ago.
She used to say, never forget where you come from.
Never judge a person by how much money they have.
Instead, she said, everyone has merit.
Everyone has value.
Everyone deserves the chance to fulfil their potential.
And that’s what this place has been about for me.
That’s what the next chapter in my life is about too.
When I announced I would not be contesting the next election, I quoted ole Blue Eyes.
Regrets. I’ve had a few, but then again too few to mention.
You do regret your mistakes, you don’t forget your failures.
Oh, what I would give to go back to Election Day 2016 and turn that sausage in bread around the right way…
But some of your failures become the best part of you.
I’ve known some extraordinary highs and some painful lows.
Good days and hard days.
But I would not hand back a single minute of a single hour of a single day I’ve spent in this place, or in this job.
I leave here full of gratitude to all who made it possible.
And full of optimism for the future of the movement and party I love, the people we serve and the country we are so lucky to call home.
I’ve always been ambitious for Australia.
That flows from my faith in our people, my optimism for the future and my deep and abiding love for our country.
I encourage future Parliaments to carry that sense of ambition forward.
Be ambitious and mature on climate.
Be ambitious to be a good neighbour in the Pacific.
Be ambitious for Australian foreign policy to have an Australia accent.
Be ambitious on tax reform.
Be ambitious for a fairer relationship with First Nations peoples.
Be ambitious for the young people of this country who currently feel that politics disenfranchises, disengages and dismisses them.
Be ambitious for this place. This great democratic institution and its power to forge a path to a more productive, moderate, compassionate and inclusive Australia.
My final advice to all future parliamentarians.
Our time here is finite. Fill every unforgiving political minute with 60 seconds of distance run.
I’ll be urging you on – and wishing you well.
For the last time, I thank the House.
As at 21 November 2024.
