VALEDICTORY
Speech
Senator JOYCE (Queensland) (9.22 p.m.)—I would like to briefly touch on a few senators. I will not touch on all of them—I know that they will be looked after well and truly through other valedictory speeches. First and foremost, I would like to pass on my congratulations for his service to Senator Watson. As another fellow of the CPAs: to see another accountant leave this chamber certainly narrows our numbers down quite considerably. I have always admired Senator Watson. He is someone who gives the continuity of history to this chamber. He is someone who can take the experience from the past to where we are at the moment, and the work he did in superannuation is certainly to be admired. His diligence in an accountant’s way, his dry diligence to the cause and his ability to get underneath the facts, to dig round and to make sure that we have a Senate that does what it is supposed to do—review and amend legislation and represent the rights of the states—and to be discerning and forensic in legislation are things that I feel Senator Watson has been quite an able advocate for. He has also been a very able advocate for his state, Tasmania. It is a shame to see him go.

I would also like to talk briefly about the Acting Deputy President, Senator Lightfoot. Senator Lightfoot has been an absolute pleasure to work with in my work with the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories. When you meet him, you can see the human side of him. He has a very dapper exterior; there is no doubt about that. Sometimes you take that the wrong way and when you meet a person you think, ‘This is a foil to protect the proper person,’ but what I like about Senator Lightfoot is that the proper person is ready and waiting to meet you. He is a very colourful and encouraging character who is able to engage with people. Another character that adds to the colour of this place will be lost when Senator Lightfoot walks out the door. I thank him for the work he did, especially in the national capital and external territories committee.

I too went to Antarctica, and I noted that some people on the ship still remembered their experiences with Senator Lightfoot. The way they expressed it to me was, ‘If all that Senator Lightfoot tells us is true, we presume that he must be about 143.’ He certainly left his impression on the good ship Aurora Australis.

Interjection
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Lightfoot)—I’ve crammed a bit into my life.

Continue
Senator JOYCE—I also knowledge the sentiments that he still holds dear, which have carried him through this place, on the ownership of Australian assets by Australians predominantly—that the resources of this nation should be the benefaction of the wealth of the Australian people. That, I think, is a sentiment that is still widely held and will continue to be widely held, because we must look after our own number first.

To be honest, at times Senator Sandy Macdonald and I have had our differences on a range of issues, but I still respect the fact that Senator Sandy Macdonald is truly a person, like me, from New England. Being people from New England, we really do feel that we are from New England first and other places after that. There is a confusion in New England in that everybody believes that what they do should be right and proper; it is just that everybody has different ideas as to exactly what that is. It breeds a certain affection towards a conservative way of life, a view of the protocols and structure of society being in a balanced form. Senator Sandy Macdonald is certainly a great exemplar of that. He is a true reflection of a true section of the Australian community. I also admire his patriotism in his connection to our defence forces and the work he has done there. For our differences, I would never, at a blush, ever consider that he has done anything else but try to represent our nation in the best possible form so that our nation remains a sovereign and protected place. His engagement with and his love for the defence forces is something to be admired.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the person who has just walked into the chamber and sat down beside me, Senator Murray. Senator Murray in this place goes down as someone who across political party lines is acknowledged as one of the best senators whose shadow has been cast in this chamber, because he holds the chamber in the true respect with which it was formed. At times when for me the pressure might have been on, I could rely on Senator Murray to be a non-partisan, non-parochial but honest arbiter of a view. If you wanted to speak to someone who was not going to spin you the line but would try and tell you the truth, try and be honest in their appraisal of a situation and try to see it through your eyes rather than their own, then Senator Murray was the person to speak to. I think he will be a great loss.

All of us here have seen the amount of work that Senator Murray does when he walks into this chamber. He actually does do the briefs. He actually does write the speeches. He does do the research. He is forensically and clinically incisive in the way that legislation is put forward in this place. He is a great example, I hope, to other senators who come into this chamber, to see what you can do and how you can attain a respect across political lines if you dedicate yourself to the job.

Senator Murray has done that, and it will be a great loss to this place when he walks out the door. I hope that other people acknowledge that, when you come here, you come here not for your own personal designs, not for the possibilities of laurels that may be delivered to you at a later stage in your life or a later stage in your political career; you come here, first and foremost, as a servant to your nation and as a servant to your state to make sure that you deliver the best outcome for them. That is the sort of example that Senator Murray has delivered to us, and it is peculiar in the extreme, but wonderful, that he came from another nation to do that for our nation.