Last Sunday I went with my two sons to have their club football photos. Whilst their team was getting prepared I had some time to watch the under 6 team playing in one of their first ever matches. It was great to see their enthusiasm for the game matched by a spirit of generosity, limited span of attention and love of mud!
As I watched, smiling from the grandstand, my mind was cast back to a time eight years ago when it was my son playing his first game of football. There wasn’t much difference between the children I saw on Sunday and the boy I was encouraging all those years ago.
Coincidentally, it was a little more than eight years ago that I took my place in the Senate.
There’s an old saying that a week is a long time in politics so you can imagine just how much happens over the course of eight years. While the institution continues, governments come and go and the personalities change. What hasn’t changed is my enthusiasm and commitment for applying principle in politics and trying to make a difference.
In fact, the passage of time and the vicissitudes of public life have given me the experience (and the battle scars) that allow me to apply myself more effectively to achieve desired outcomes. This will be even more important with the commencement of the new Senate next week.
The composition of the new Senate has been the subject of a great deal of discussion in recent months.
We welcome three new PUPs, a Motoring Enthusiast, a Family First, the first ever LDP representative, another Green and some changes in the major parties. At a guess I would say it is the most significant shift in the composition of the Senate in many decades. It’s also an indication that political representation in this country really is open to anyone who dares to give it a go.
Some see this change as a problem whereas I see it as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to actually get things done free from the stifling doctrine of the Labor factions and the extreme Greens Party. It’s an opportunity to gain a perspective from those typically outside of the traditional political pathway and negotiate outcomes that will be of benefit to the nation.
Perhaps looking at it that way will come to be regarded as a form of political naiveté but one couldn’t survive the rigours of politics without a degree of optimism. Only time will tell if that optimism is well founded or not.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
