PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION

Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria) (18:42): I've been dreading this day for a long time. I've only been in here for a short time. I didn't know a lot about you when I came here.

I think the only thing that I'd been told was that you had an interest in UFOs, actually, and, surprisingly, you haven't even raised that with me in the time that I've been here. I just got a message from my loved ones, and apparently Otis has tuned in to watch tonight. But he tuned in just as Nick was sharing your campaign about shooting dogs on the beach.

He says, 'Oh, damn, he was my favourite Greens person!' He's watching tonight because you have made an impact on me and you've made an impact on our family—despite your hatred of dogs! No, that is not true. He's a dog lover.

Pete, I've only been here for a short time, but you have been such a trusted adviser to me and such a mentor to me on everything, ranging from the great scam that is carbon capture and storage through to the propaganda machine and the immense and deeply damaging misinformation webs that are destroying our democracy. It's been a real privilege to learn from you across so many areas.

There's a lot I'm going to miss about you. I'm going to miss that little sparkle in your eye. You know when Pete's going to either do something really cheeky, like drop an f-bomb in the chamber, or say something really genuinely empowering and beautiful.

I'm going to miss those hairs raising on my arms when you speak about the things that you love so dearly and the people that you love so dearly, as we heard tonight. I'm genuinely going to miss the confidence you gave me to do this job. Everyone's had that wink from Pete.

When you're a bit nervous and you don't know if you've said the right thing, you look around and Pete will give you a wink and you go: 'Okay. I'm alright.' You've given me the confidence to be myself in this job. One of those moments that I reflect on is sitting next to you at Woodside's AGM after none of those gas corporate CEOs would turn up and so we turned up to their AGM in Perth recently.

I just remember that my stomach was in knots and the reassuring pat on the back you gave me just instilling in me that we are here for a reason and not to take this privilege for granted and to do absolutely everything we can within our power to fight for Earth's natural living organisms. You haven't been a bulldozer to me, Pete; you've been a real mate and someone that I genuinely trust and confide in, really, as much as anyone else in my life.

I'm so, so grateful for that. We're all going to miss your conviction, and I think that across the aisle we've heard that tonight. They say we all stand on the shoulders of giants, and I know you do not see yourself as a giant, and you'd probably think that's pretty cringeworthy, but the truth is that so much of what is possible for us today and going into the future is because of the earth that you have laid over your time in this chamber over the last 14 years.

To Nat, Finn and Bronte: thank you so much for sharing your husband and dad with us. We're all better people, we're a better chamber and it's a better world because of the time that you've shared Pete with us. But I am so glad that he's returning to you all and surfing some more waves.

Thank you for your service. I know I'll see you in Bicheno, and I hope many of us do, so let's get on down there. Thank you, Pete.