Shorten condemns ‘quicksand of name-calling’ in fond farewell

“If only” were the unspoken words, surely the most poignant in the political lexicon, as Bill Shorten was engulfed in a wild swirl of hugs and long, long minutes of standing applause.

It was the culmination of Shorten’s valedictory, his formal farewell to the federal parliament in which he has sat for 17 years of ups, downs and sideways shoves.

Bill Shorten embraced his wife, Chloe, to whom he paid tribute in his valedictory speech. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

As politicians of all sides put their hands together as if they might not stop, more than 500 guests in the public galleries above stood, too, applauding and cheering as Shorten tore himself from the embrace of his colleagues and embraced his family – his wife, Chloe, and their children Clementine, Rupert and Georgette.

The best was to come.

Peter Dutton, hard-headed opposition leader and a man not given to praising Labor’s people, rose to respond to Shorten’s summation of his life in politics, and glory be, he had nothing but the kindest words.

Shorten, said Dutton,“would have gone on to become a very good prime minister of our country”.

If only, of course, he did not have to say, Shorten had won the 2019 election.

There was, of course, a deft turn of the knife.

Shorten, Dutton declared, was “the last adult in the room of that Albanese cabinet”.

“My judgment is,” said Dutton, “that he [Shorten] has the best political judgment on the front bench of the Australian Labor Party, and he will be a loss to the Labor caucus.”

This then, was a Bill Shorten day like no other.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Shorten had the best political judgment in Labor’s ministry.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

He began by noting that political life can be tough, regularly cut short by election defeat, scandal, illness and even questionable citizenship status.

None of this for him, however.

“I stand here neither defeated nor disposed, lucky to have served, fortunate to be able to say goodbye and thank you,” he declared.

He spoke of the privilege of having served three “great democratic institutions”: the Australian Workers’ Union, the Australian Labor Party and the federal parliament.

On this day with the cudgels lowered, Shorten said the adversarial nature of political debate was important, but “we shouldn’t let big important questions be caught in the quicksand of name-calling, gotchas and sloganeering that we are all prone to”.

“Let us not be a stage for noisy actors talking at each other, over each other and past each other.”

He spoke of unfinished business on climate and tax reform and a treaty for First Nations people, all of which needed to be addressed to serve the next generation.

“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.”

He had much more to say, too, as valedictorians of his status do, about both the past and the future.

“Now, in my new role as vice chancellor of University of Canberra, I choose the side of young Australians,” he said.

In the end, though, it was that long-standing ovation and the storm of hugs that will go with him. If only, he might have reflected ...

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