20 Years in Federal Parliament

Today I clock up 20 years in this House. It is a great honour to serve here, and in an age of the 24/7 media cycle and a cultural tendency to chew politicians up and spit them out, a remarkable honour to serve for 20 years.

George Bernard Shaw said the reasonable man adapts himself to suit the world, while the unreasonable man insists on trying to change the world to suit him, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. For much of my political career I have been in this sense unreasonable.

I couldn't have done this without support. I want to thank the voters of Wills who have stuck with me in good times and in bad. I want to thank my partner Kerry and my children Ben and Naomi, my father Allan and other family members.

I want to thank my office staff – Mimi Tamburrino, Tim Hamilton, Mark O'Brien, Julie Ryan, Cate Hall, Nosrat Hosseini, and many others who have served over the past two decades.

I want to thank the Labor Party members and volunteers in Wills – families like the Hosseini family, the Ouaida family, Angelo Koutouleas, Oscar and Alan Yildiz, Gino Iannazzo and Vic Guarino and so many others.

I want to thank the Trade Union Movement – Ged Kearney and Dave Oliver from the ACTU, Ben Davis and his team at the AWU, Tony Sheldon and his team at the TWU, Glenn Thompson and the Manufacturing Workers Union, Earl Setches at the Plumbers, Dave Noonan at the CFMEU, the Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and many more.

And I want to thank some business leaders too for their support and encouragement – Dick Smith, Graham Turner and Geoff Harris from Flight Centre, Robert Rio from Rio Industrial, Hugh Middendorp from Middendorp Electrical amongst others. To all of you thank you, for the chance to do this.