PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION

Senator DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory—Independent ACT Whip) (18:37): I know we're getting between Pete's family and friends and drinks and celebrations and reflections, so I want to be brief. I want to really thank Pete for his work in this Senate. I've only known you for the last four years, but I'm very much aware of the work that you've done over the last 14 years.

You're a man with a love for oceans and a love for coastlines—for the rugged Tassie coastline. Looking at your first speech and reading you quoting Gandhi about being the change you wish to see in the world, you can clearly see that has driven you over the last 14 years when it comes to raising issues that at the time were not popular. They did not have popular support.

Some that you still talk about still don't. You talked about Julian Assange and how long that took to get popular support. You were clearly one of the earliest to be talking publicly about that.

Shark nets are still an uphill battle, yet you're constantly pushing for recognition of the ocean and of species like the white shark and of respect for science. You've clearly made a big contribution when it comes to things like plastics and the circular economy—the way we set up our economies as humans. Then there's the Great Southern Reef.

That's something that I've really enjoyed learning more about from you and your advocacy. I think it really highlights one of the great tragedies that we face in this country—that we are losing so much that so many Australians actually don't even know we have. I think you can only fight for something that you love and you can only love something that you know.

I think what you've brought to this Senate is a knowledge and a love of the oceans of our home planet that sustains us. We've seen your fight in this place to actually recognise that we are part of nature, that we're totally reliant on nature and that the decisions we make in this place have a huge impact on our country, on this incredible continent we get to call home.

I was reflecting on some of the things you said in your speech and was reminded of a line from one of my heroes, Aldo Leopold, when he talked about how 'one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds'. I can sense the anger and the disappointment in what we're losing here in Australia and globally, and we should be angry.

We should be. We should be furious about what we have allowed to happen and what we currently are continuing to allow to happen. We are destroying our home planet.

We are destroying the very thing that sustains us physically, emotionally and spiritually. I was really reminded of Tim Winton's book Juice. It's set in the future, looking back and basically telling a dystopian tale of what potentially lies ahead if we don't actually have the juice, have the moral courage to stand up to the forces that Pete talked about in his speech, to the forces who are currently profiting from the status quo.

I think that that is something that all of us will take in our work from your words and what we've seen of you over the last 14 years in this place. So thank you, Pete. I wish you all the best on the next chapter.

I assume and hope there's a time of reflection and family and catching waves. I'm sure this is not the last we'll see of you and you'll be knocking on doors and putting your time to good use. So thank you very much.

Maybe you'll chip and sand your board again. So we'll see you in Bicheno. Senator Whish-Wilson: You can drop in any time.