Pat Dodson to retire from Senate

The Western Australian senator will leave the Senate on January 26, 2024.

Transcript

00:00 It's a problem for Australia.

00:01 The 60/40 split of that vote makes it an Australian problem.

00:06 It's not an Aboriginal problem.

00:08 And we need to seriously think, and this concerns me leaving this place, not that I would be

00:14 able to save it from it, but we need to seriously think now of the way in which our civil society

00:23 knits together with this diversity and differences.

00:27 We can't take that for granted.

00:28 And it's not just First Nations peoples and non-Indigenous peoples.

00:32 This is an Australian problem we now have, and it's the legacy of the success of the

00:38 no voters.

00:40 It's a legacy of the success of the no voters.

00:44 And in my sense of analysis of that vote, the jury's still out.

00:50 Many Australians of goodwill possibly didn't know the implications and the complexities

00:57 of what the provision was about.

00:59 And that requires consultation, and I accept that.

01:02 But I think as a nation, not only now do we still have the ongoing problem and challenges

01:09 of colonisation and settlements and its impact on the First Peoples, we now have, if we're

01:15 not careful, serious challenges to the underpinning social fabric of our society from the successful

01:25 nature of our multicultural integration and achievements.

01:33 So they're the challenges for us as a nation as I see them.

01:37 I have great faith in the Labor Party to take on these challenges with courage and not to

01:45 capitulate against the naysayers on the other side or in the public space who seek to intimidate

01:53 us from upholding the better standards that we're capable of as Australians.

01:58 So they're my opening comments, colleagues.

02:01 My formal retirement from the Senate will be on the 26th of January.

02:12 It's three days before my 76th birthday, and it's a Friday.

02:17 So it'll be a good day to retire.

02:19 Thank you.

02:21 [LAUGHTER]

02:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]