When a political fighter leaves the arena, it’s often an enemy who confers the highest praise.
As Bill Shorten farewelled the parliament just three days shy of 17 years since he arrived, it was Peter Dutton, his weekly sparring partner on Friday morning breakfast TV, who said what the prime minister and Shorten himself could not.
“Knowing his intellect, his political capacity, the respect that he has for his value structure – he would have gone on to become a very good prime minister of our country,” Dutton said before breaking into a grin.
“Fortunately, that was not the case, because we won the election.”
The opposition leader’s reality punchline heralded laughter across the chamber and cut through all the things left unsaid. Dutton was unencumbered by the legacies of leadership battles won and lost that inevitably mute the glow of tributes from a rival on the same side.
“The way that Bill Shorten came into this place was covered in glory in terms of his career,” Dutton told the House of Representatives after the former Labor leader, and then minister for the NDIS, had made his peace and said his goodbyes. “And he leaves this place covered in glory because of the sacrifice that he’s made, that his family have made, to causes that are important to him and that are important to our country.”
Shorten had broken with tradition and placed his watching family first, not last, on his list of thank yous. He said he loved wife, Chloe, with all his heart, declaring she cast everything around her “in a golden light”.
To the children, Rupert, Gigi and Clementine – the youngest of whom accompanied him through morning media interviews with enough panache to prompt baton-passing speculation – he said he was grateful for the unvarnished feedback and “incredibly proud”.
Shorten noted that of 1,244 people who had ever served in the House of Representatives, only 216 had the chance of a formal farewell. To a chamber filled with colleagues of all stripes across the floor and supporters and observers of history in the galleries above, Shorten declared that “political life is indeed tough”.
“Election defeat. Scandal. Illness. Section 44,” he said, reeling off the things which had sent others packing before they had this chance. “So I stand here, neither defeated nor disposed – lucky to have served, fortunate to be able to say goodbye and thank you.”
Those acknowledged by name included his British bulldog, Walter, hinting at that truism that if you want a friend in politics, the canine variety is best.
“Thank you, buddy, for your unconditional loyalty and being the best listener I’ve ever met,” Shorten said.
He spoke of the event that made the then union leader known around Australia – the Beaconsfield mine disaster – and other industrial accidents that drove him to defend “the fundamental workplace right … to come home safely”.
He noted a string of proud policy achievements – the national disability insurance scheme perhaps first among them.
He declared that “some of your failures become the best of you” and that despite painful lows, he “would not hand back a single minute of a single hour of a single day” he’d spent in politics.
There was only the barest reference to what would never be, with a reminiscence on the uproar that ensued when he tackled a sausage sandwich side-on.
“You do regret your mistakes. You don’t forget your favours. Oh, what I would give to go back to election day 2016 and turn that sausage and bread and eat it a different way.”
Shorten ran through his policy hopes and dreams with the urgency of someone passing the torch. He reflected on his English heritage and the precious gift of education – the field into which he goes next as vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra from February next year.
Thanking a roll call of Labor heroes and the party he loved, he pointedly singled out his former deputy Tanya Plibersek for her “unwavering support”.
The man who took Shorten’s job after a shock 2019 election loss and ran past him into office in 2022 said Shorten had done “big things, but he has also done small things that have made a big difference”.
“No one worked harder to rebuild Labor in opposition,” Anthony Albanese said. “No one had given more of their time or energy to making the case for a Labor government.”
The prime minister acknowledged the challenge that comes with an opposition leader’s job.
“Bill did it with distinction,” Albanese said. “He did it with commitment. He did it with passion to make a difference and to endeavour, not once but twice … to take Labor back into government, because at the end of the day, if you are not in government, you can’t make a change to the country that you want to make.”
Shorten ended with some advice to those he leaves on the leather benches, to be ambitious – including on tax reform and reconciliation – and optimistic about what they could achieve – and with a nod to Rudyard Kipling.
“All our time here is finite,” Shorten told them. “Fill every unforgiving minute with 60 seconds of distance run. And I and the Australian people will be urging you on and wishing you well. And for the last time, I thank the house.”
• Karen Middleton is Guardian Australia’s political editor
