Senator Andrew Bartlett
Sunday, June 26, 2005
 
The saddest week
I said in my previous post that the last sitting day would probably be a long one and it was - we started at 9.30am in the morning and worked through until about 1.30am on Friday morning debating the Migration Amendment Bill, Superannuation Legislation, Tax Laws and various other pieces of legislation as well as listening to more valedictory speeches.

I have to say that in about 15 years of pretty intensive involvement in parliamentary politics, last week has been far and away the saddest that I have experienced, not just for the loss of three good senators but also for the loss of many wonderful staff as a result of the last election (a circumstance that hasn't been conducive for regular blogging - apologies for the hiatus on this site).

People like Daele Healy who has been on staff with the Democrats for a very long time and whose personal support for me as well as her broader support for the party was so valuable and appreciated. And Jo Pride, an incredibly professional person whose standard of work continued to be excellent no matter what. Work that was not only useful for the Democrats but that resulted in better laws for Australia. And the incredibly professional and focused Eleri Morgan-Thomas who came on board as chief of staff during my leadership .... and many more who have basically paid the price for past mistakes made by others.

Many showed their commitment to the party’s principles and values by staying on during the last six months, which has been a difficult period. They knew it was not going to be fun, but people stayed and continued to work hard not just in ensuring that the Democrats remained effective in the Senate but in doing a lot of very valuable work ensuring the Democrats are in the strongest possible position to rebuild - work that will stand us in good stead as our party works together in a focused way on rebuilding support for the very important role we still have to play.

It was a great team of people - whilst there have also been some talented people in previous years, this group was the most cohesive staff team I've experienced in my time in the Senate, especially over the last year or so. One of the major frustrations of the last few years has been that the strange, alternative universe the press gallery seem to inhabit, seemed to have no connection to the world that the Democrats Senate team operated in, working as an effective unit inside the chamber and out in the community with a capable and cohesive team of staff. The press still seem to be imagining some serious disunity and loss of focus, although it is hard to see how they could have any idea given how comprehensively they ignored what we were doing.

That was the major frustration of the period when I was the party leader and it is frustrating to see that nonsense being spouted again by a few in the last week or two, pontificating about stuff that simply does not reflect reality.

I believe that as a nation we focus too much on the negative in politics. The positive contribution each person makes is almost always overlooked. The positive impact a person makes in the Senate is not always able to be measured in amendments passed or committee recommendations accepted, although I should say that the Democrats excel in that area. The impact that comes from supporting a single person, an idea, a movement or a group of people can be very hard to measure, but it can be huge.

Without doubt Brian Greig’s greatest achievement was that, even with a government that was so pig-headedly opposed to the simple notion of equality, he was part of the Democrats’ success in achieving an agreement from this government to recognise and provide superannuation entitlements for people in same-sex relationships—an achievement that I believe has been drastically under-recognised by those who called for it for many years. Brian is a quiet person, but he has strong beliefs and can also be quite extraordinarily quick witted and very funny — often at unexpected times. His advocacy on a wide range of human rights issues is something of which he can be justly proud.

The loss of Aden Ridgeway is perhaps the biggest loss for this parliament, because it represents a lost opportunity. It remains a sad reflection on our democracy that we have only had two Indigenous Australians elected to our parliament in over 100 years, and to lose Aden’s Indigenous voice is a loss not just for the Democrats but for our nation as a whole. While like all Democrats, Aden covered a huge range of issues and spoke effectively on many of them, he could not escape his wider role as an Aboriginal voice in parliament. It was a role — and sometimes a burden — he was very willing to shoulder, and he did so effectively and sometimes with great importance in his contribution, at times when sadly the government was unwilling to give this central issue the priority it deserves.

Personally, at a time when my character was being publicly attacked from a range of quarters in the national media, Aden was straightforward and open in his support for me and in recognising the simple reality of a situation that was blown totally out of proportion. We did not always see eye to eye during some of the public difficulties the Democrats went through a few years ago — at a time when we all made mistakes — but I appreciated his simple and consistent support for me then and throughout my time as leader.

John Cherry has been in the middle of some tumultuous times in the Democrats. Whilst he had been an adviser to Democrat senators for some years, I think he joined the party on the day Cheryl Kernot resigned. It’s no secret that John and I did not always agree during some of the public disputes within the party a few years ago, however we were always able to keep working together effectively as senators for Queensland and the Democrat membership in Queensland. Being effective in achieving positive change is one of the key benchmarks I use in assessing the value of people’s time in the Senate, including my own, and John Cherry has undoubtedly been effective in a range of areas, not least in significantly assisting low income earners through a number of initiatives.

Even though you wouldn’t have known it from reading the newspapers, we all got over the divisions of the past and got on with the job. We worked effectively as a single team of Democrat senators to achieve a lot of positive things. Whilst we might not have achieved electoral success, we certainly achieved a lot of gains that will benefit Australia’s people and environment for many years into the future. Those three Democrat senators – along with the staff that supported them - played a key part in that and all made a positive difference.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Sunday, June 26, 2005 Permalink
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