Thursday, 20 September 2018

 Mr DIXON (Nepean) (12:33): I was just reminiscing with the Premier. On 5 March 1996 the member for Dromana, Tony Hyams, rang me up and said, ‘I’d like to speak to you about the campaign’. I was his campaign manager. I went in to see him, and he told me he was not actually going to continue with the campaign — this was three weeks out from the election. Three days after that, after a fair bit of work and some pushing and shoving, I became the candidate for the seat of Dromana, and three weeks later I was a member of Parliament. It was quite an amazing start.

I remember about three months into my term the class of ’96 were having a lunch with Jeff Kennett. There were 16 of us in the coalition who came in in ’96. We were all feeling pretty good about ourselves, and Jeff deflated our balloons very quickly by saying, ‘You do realise that only a couple of you will end up being ministers and most of you won’t last two or three terms.’ I thought, ‘Well, there goes my career, but I will make the most of it’. As it turned out, I was one of only two who became a minister, and I am the second-last survivor, so I did not think it would work out that way.

I would like to start with a few thankyous. Of course thank you to all the parliamentary staff for making us all look so good through the work you do. I have made friends amongst the parliamentary staff, and I thank them for all their support. To the committee staff: I think our parliamentary committees are great. I have been on about seven or eight of those committees. The staff do an incredible amount of work while putting up with all our political nuances, but I think between us all we have done fantastic work. Thank you to my ministerial staff who supported me, and I know there are a lot of them here. In fact we all still stick together and get together, including some of the department staff. We were actually described once by the Premier’s office as being recalcitrant and a bit like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, so we took that as a badge of honour. From then on I was known as ‘Dear Leader’ by my staff.

Thank you to my electorate staff. I have not had a lot of electorate staff. Either I have treated them well or the work was pretty easy, because they have tended to stick around. I would like to pay particular tribute to Barbara Walker, who was with me for 16 years in the electorate and also in my ministerial office, and Meredith Cassidy, who has been with me for 18 years and is going to pull up stumps with me in November.

I thank the Liberal Party and especially the local branch members. I would not be a member of Parliament without being a member of that party. For their fundraising, their support, all the hard work that comes with campaigning and just the maintenance of the party, and for looking after me and keeping me on the straight and narrow, I really do sincerely thank them for what they have done.

To my local community and those who voted for me, I hope I have not let you down. It certainly has been an honour to represent you all. It is just a tremendous community on the Mornington Peninsula. I lived there for many years before I became the local member, and I will continue to live there. They nearly let me down. I was elected by only 114 votes in 2002, and whenever my children want to get a rise out of me they just say, ‘Hey Dad, 114’, and I assume the foetal position on the floor every single time.

I thank my broader family, especially my brother and my two sisters, who have taken a great interest in my career. They come from different political aspects, but they have certainly been very interested in my career and have been thoroughly supportive of me. To all my many friends who have supported me and helped me and taken a great interest in my career, I thank you very much. To a dear friend Stacey, thank you for your great support.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my late wife, Chris, who deserves all the credit — so much credit — for being by my side for 20 years. Chris was not into politics. She did not really like politics, but she supported me; she was by my side. Whatever I wanted to do she just said, ‘Yes, you go for it’, and it brought us as a family great joy. In fact Chris was a long-time teacher, and I remember when I was shadow Minister for Education and then Minister for Education I would be very excited and tell her about some great new policy I had thought of or something we were doing. She would say, ‘Yes, yes, that’s nice, dear, but in my classroom today X, Y or Z happened’ and she always brought me back to reality.

Julia and Marty, my children: what can I say? Julia and Marty are in the family business; they are both in politics as well. They were aged eight and 12 when I was elected, so they have grown with me right through politics. They really like politics — they get it — but because of that their love and support and understanding of me has just been extraordinary. It is something that binds us together, and I just cannot thank them enough for the support that they have given me through this wonderful career.

With this job we are just so lucky. There is not a job around where you can help so many people and help a community in small ways or really large ways and make a massive difference. We are very, very lucky to have this job. One of the great aspects of this job is that we get to know our beautiful state of Victoria. I have been all over Victoria many, many times. The communities, the geography of it, the people — every single aspect of getting to know a state is a real honour and a privilege.

We all have to know a lot about a lot of things, and I think that is what has kept me young, kept me enthused and kept me interested in the job. You just have to know so much about so many things. I think that is a great challenge, but it is one of the great aspects and endearing qualities of this wonderful role that we actually perform.

You meet a lot of people along the way — a local hero who has done a tremendous thing in their community right up to world leaders. I have been going to a regular conference in Rome for a small group of Catholic legislators from around the world, and last year I had a meeting with Pope Francis. But one of the other participants at the conference was Sean Spicer — late of the White House, for those who do not know, but I think you do. Sean and I actually had a couple of bottles of red one night, which was very, very interesting, as you can imagine. When I came back to tell people, ‘I’ve been to Rome and I met the Pope and I met Sean Spicer’, all the politicians said, ‘That’s nice about the Pope, but tell us about Sean Spicer’.

I will just put my humility aside for a moment. One of the interesting things about being especially the education minister is you end up unveiling a lot of plaques around the countryside in all sorts of places. I do have suspicions that some of them actually come down when you leave, but I like to think that they are still there. My favourite plaque is the one at Kyneton Secondary College. I was invited to go up for the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the school. There was this massive granite block there — beautiful polished granite, very central Victoria, lovely gold lettering on it. I was to unveil the plaque. When I saw the plaque with my name on it, the lettering was all the same size. The plaque is massive. It is all granite and gold lettering. Sometimes I make some of my family members go up and have a look at it. In fact I said to them, ‘I won’t need a headstone. This will do me fine’, which will save the taxpayer a lot of money for my state funeral, I am sure. I am always thinking of the taxpayer.

It has been an honour and a privilege to serve this Parliament, and it has been an honour and a privilege to work with so many — obviously my colleagues around me, those opposite and those who have gone before us in this place. That was an unexpected highlight. We are all here because we are passionate about our communities, we have got incredible life experiences and we are ambitious, but it is an incredible mix. I never thought it would be as good as this with the people that I have worked with.

One group I have to mention is the country members. The Liberal Party have a country members group. We have a meal together on the Monday before any sitting day. It took me a while to break into this group, because they said I was not a country boy, but I pointed out that I did fulfil five criteria: one was I received the second residence allowance — legitimately; two, I had a Victorian Farmers Federation branch in my electorate; three, the Country Fire Authority served my electorate; four, I could see livestock from my house; and five, I had been audited by the Australian Taxation Office. They are a great group, and I appreciate their friendship.

I have made a lot of friends, people I will always keep in touch with. Two of my closest friends have been involved in politics. One is Nick Kotsiras, the former member for Bulleen. Nick and I used to hold prayers — ‘Thank God it’s Tuesday. Thank God it’s Wednesday’ — in the room just next door, and single-malt Scotch was the go there. Nick was a consummate politician and made sure that anybody who came in signed the visitors book. We had members from the Labor Party, the media and the leadership. Everybody came along. Their names are there for posterity. No-one ever complained about our prayers.

There is a rumour that Kim Wells, the member for Rowville, and I actually sleep together, and I want to take this opportunity on this last occasion to actually mention that rumour. It is true. Kim and I have slept in a hiking tent all over the world, all over this country and all over this great state. But, as Kim said, there was always one rule: Catholics on one side, Protestants on the other, and never the twain shall meet — and that has never happened. Thank you, Kim, for your great support and friendship.

My message to you all is please do not devalue this great institution and its great traditions. The committee work and the work we do with our conscience votes and in debates is just first class, and the fact that we can really work together is wonderful. The Westminster system may have its faults, but it is certainly the best system and something we should be very, very proud of and always work to uphold.

It is just great to see that this building is actually being looked after for those who work in it, because I think if you devalue the building you devalue the tradition and the institution. On our salaries and conditions and travel and all of those sorts of things, my message to you all is do not devalue yourselves by devaluing that. Every time you give something away, no-one says thanks for it. We have got to be proud of what we do and respect the importance of what we do. We should always hold fast to that tradition and the great position and honour that we have and not devalue it in a single way.

To my fellow retirees: congratulations on all your great service. I wish you good health and good luck in your future. And for those of you who are going on, good luck — not too much good luck over there. What am I going to do in my retirement? Well, I am going to enjoy my cars. I am going to buy a boat. I am going to take up the guitar again. I am going to travel. I am looking for a couple of board positions if anybody wants to come and talk to me later. More importantly, what I hope to be is a better friend, a better Poppy to Ella and Sienna and a better dad to Julia and Marty, because I think it is now time for me to give back to those I love and who have loved me and supported me all the way through. I really cannot believe it is all over. It has been a fantastic opportunity. It has been a fantastic journey. Thank you, and goodbye.

Honourable members applauded.