Christopher Pyne: 'This place brings out the best in us and it brings out the worst in us', retirement speech - 2019

4 April 2019, House of Representatives, Canberra, Australia

Thank you, Mr Speaker. To the chagrin of a few and the joy of many, maybe even some in this place, I'm retiring from the Australian parliament. On 28 April 1992, I was preselected for Sturt. The opening lines of my speech were: 'In 1966, after 17 years, Sir Keith Wilson handed Sturt over to his son Ian. Now, 26 years later, it's time to change again.' Of course, I went on to win that preselection. After almost 27 years, it's time for renewal in Sturt again.

I'd like to thank the Liberal Party in South Australia and in Sturt for giving me the opportunity to carry the Liberal banner in this seat for nine elections, for over a quarter of a century. They're a wonderful group of people. The Liberal Party in South Australia and nationally can be a rambunctious group of people at times, but I believe in the party and I always will. Like the member for Grayndler, I'm a team man. I just happened to go for the team that is the election-winning machine!

I'd also like to thank the electors of Sturt: thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you and the privilege of representing you. I'm confident that I leave my seat and the great state of South Australia in good shape. I'm sure that the Liberal Party's candidate—and my good friend—James Stephens will retain Sturt at the coming election, and I have every confidence that the Prime Minister will lead the coalition to victory in the election in May.

I would also like to thank my dozens of staff over the years. We all know in this place that they are like a second family to us. They allow us to shine and they help pick up the pieces when we crumble a little. I'd also like to thank my family—my wife, Carolyn, and my children, Eleanor, Barnaby, Felix and Aurelia—as well as my extended family. We are a tight-knit group. My family have been with me every step of my political career. I volunteered but they were conscripted, yet they supported me willingly and graciously.

Since 1993 I have been a backbencher for 10 years and a frontbencher for 16, in cabinet for six years and in the leadership group for 10, in government for 17 and in opposition for nine—which is a good balance! That places me as the longest-serving non-Labor member of the House of Representatives for South Australia since Federation. Four prime ministers have appointed me to their executives, and prime ministers Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison chose me to be their Leader of the House. I am going to miss the stage of the dispatch box, which gives you some amateur thespianism. Some of my favourites include 'a bloodied dagger masquerading as a speech', from the member for Grayndler; 'I'd back the member for Corio in a fast-moving butterknife fight anytime'—I assume he won that butterknife fight; and 'I fixed it'. I thank Sky for giving me a moniker that I have not been able to shake!

As Minister for Defence and Minister for Defence Industry, I have been responsible for delivering the $200 billion build-up of Australia's military capability, the largest in Australia's peacetime history, which, at the same time, we have used to fundamentally reshape our strategic industrial base. These are the largest Navy, Air Force, Army and cyberprojects in 75 years. And, with the other members of the National Security Committee, I created the Pacific step-up to support Australia's strategic position in the South Pacific. Whoever follows me in this role will be the luckiest person in the government. To be a Minister for Defence in the Defence portfolio is to see Australians at their best. Our Australian Defence Force, and all who enable them to use their capability, are one of the greatest attributes of our country's history and our national character.

Beyond the Defence portfolio, I am proud to have delivered the National Innovation and Science Agenda, to have reformed the national curriculum, to have introduced compulsory literacy and numeracy testing for Australian teaching graduates and to have expanded phonics teaching in remote schools in northern Australia with Noel Pearson. But I am particularly grateful that the youth mental health initiative that I created in 2006, headspace, has gone on to thrive and become a fixture in the mental health sector.

In a few weeks my political career comes to an end. Franklin Roosevelt said a long time ago:

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

I have tried to keep that creed as my lodestar throughout my career because I have had a fortunate life. I don't have a log-cabin story like so many people in this place—although I did once have to get my own lemon for a gin and tonic! That may or may not qualify, Mr Speaker! As the psalms say: of those to whom much is given, much is expected. I have always believed that those who have had great opportunities have a responsibility to work to give others the same opportunities.

Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues on all sides of the House. I once described the House of Representatives as being my natural habitat; you are all my fellow species in this unnatural place! This place brings out the best in us and it brings out the worst in us. I have seen some truly dreadful people come through here over the last quarter of a century. But I have seen many more outstanding people, including my current colleagues. Something drives us all to get here. In most cases, it is a fierce competition internally within our parties and then in the campaign. But we are driven on nonetheless because, my friends, we know, each one of us, that to get the chance to influence the society in which we live, to make a difference in the lives of our fellow citizens, is worth the sacrifices. To be part of politics is to be part of history, and no-one can take that away from any one of us.

For decades I have carried a little card around in my wallet that has written on it these lines that Plutarch once wrote about Pericles in the lives of the Athenians:

Virtue in action immediately takes such hold of a man that he no sooner admires a deed than he sets out to follow in the steps of the doer.

We've all followed in the footsteps of great deed doers, men and women who have assisted Australians to build a great nation. As the member for Warringah is fond of saying, you win the lottery of life when you are born in Australia, and everyone around the world knows it. That didn't happen by accident; it happened because of good governments and good men and women trying to do their best. I've relished the opportunity to attempt great deeds in the one forum that in our democracy allows every Australian the chance to do so, the House of Representatives. Thank you, goodbye and good luck.

David Lammy: 'If you lay down with dogs, you get fleas', Windrush debate - 2018

16 April 2018, Westminster, London, United Kingdom

The relationship between this country and the West Indies and the Caribbean is inextricable. The first British ships arrived in the Caribbean in 1623, and despite slavery and colonisation, 25,000 Caribbeans served in the first and second world wars alongside British troops.

When my parents and others of their generation arrived in this country under the British Nationality Act 1948, they arrived here as British citizens. It is inhumane and cruel for so many of that Windrush generation to have suffered for so long in this condition and for the Secretary of State to be making a statement on the issue only today.

Can the Secretary of State tell us how many people have been deported? She suggested earlier that she would ask the high commissioners, but it is her Department that has deported those people. She should know the number.

Can she tell the House how many have been detained as prisoners in their own country? Can she tell us how many have been denied healthcare under the national health service, how many have been denied pensions and how many have lost their jobs?

This is a day of national shame, and it has come about because of a ‘hostile environment’ and a policy that was begun under her Prime Minister. Let us call it as it is: if you lay down with dogs, you get fleas, and that is what has happened with the far-right rhetoric in this country.

Will the Secretary of State apologise properly? Will she explain how quickly the team will act to ensure that the thousands of British men and women who have been denied their rights in this country on her watch in the Home Office are satisfied?”

Maurice Williamson: 'Be ye not afraid', Big Gay Rainbow speech - 2013

16 April 2013, Parliament House, Wellington, New Zealand

I've had a reverend in my local electorate say that the 'gay onslaught will start the day this bill is passed.' So we are struggling to know what the gay onslaught will look like. We don't know if it will come down the Pakaranga highway as a series of troops or whether it will be a gas that flows the electorate and blocks us all in.

I also had a Catholic priest tell me that I was supporting an unnatural act. I found that interesting coming from someone who has taken an oath of celibacy for his whole life. Celibacy... I haven't done it so I don't know what it's about.

I also had a leader tell me I would burn in the fires of hell for eternity and that was a bad mistake because I've got a degree in physics. I used the thermodynamic laws of physics. I put in my body weight and my humidity and so on. I assumed the furnace to be at 5000 degrees and I will last for just on 2.1 seconds. It's hardly eternity. What do you think?

I also head some more disgusting claims about adoption. Well, I have got three fantastic adopted kids. I know how good adoption is, and I have found some of the claims just disgraceful. I found some of the bullying tactics really evil. I gave up being scared of bullies when I was at primary school.

However, a huge amount of the opposition was from moderates, from people who were concerned, who were seriously worried, about what this bill might do to the fabric of our society. I respect their concern. I respect their worry. They were worried about what it might do to their families and so on.

Let me repeat to them now that all we are doing with this bill is allowing two people who love each other to have that love recognised by way of marriage. That is all we are doing. We are not declaring nuclear war on a foreign State. We are not bringing a virus in that could wipe out our agricultural sector forever.

We are allowing two people who love each other to have that recognised, and I cannot see what is wrong with that for neither love nor money. I just cannot. I cannot understand why someone would be opposed. I understand why people do not like what it is that others do. That is fine. We are all in that category.

But I give a promise to those people who are opposed to this bill right now. I give you a watertight guaranteed promise.

The sun will still rise tomorrow. Your teenage daughter will still argue back to you as if she knows everything. Your mortgage will not grow. You will not have skin diseases or rashes or toads in your bed. The world will just carry on.

So do not make this into a big deal.

This bill is fantastic for the people it affects, but for the rest of us, life will go on.

Finally, can I say that one of the messages I had was this bill was the cause of our drought. Well, if any one you follow my Twitter account, you will see that in the Pakuranga electorate this morning, it was pouring with rain. We had the most enormous big gay rainbow across my electorate. It has to be a sign. If you are a believer, it is certainly a sign.

Can I finish, for all those who are concerned about this, with a quote from the bible. It is Deuteronomy. I thought Deuteronomy was a cat out of the musical 'Cats,' but never mind. The quote is Deuteronomy 1:29. 'Be ye not afraid.'"