Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (12:24): I just want to say a couple of words about the government business program. I think the member for Ripon has highlighted pretty well what the situation is—that is, that it is getting a bit light on towards the end, and so we are suddenly getting the opportunity to actually interrogate legislation that we always should have done. There are two pieces of legislation this week: the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I look forward to speaking on both of those, actually; both have some pertinence to my electorate.
As the Leader of the House has indicated and the house has just resolved, we will meet on Wednesday night to select a replacement for the late Senator Kimberley Kitching. I would just like to take the opportunity now—I did not know the senator, although my wife did work with her in a previous life and said she enjoyed working with her—to extend my condolences to all those in the labour movement and the Labor party and to Senator Kitching’s family as well. I know it has been a difficult time for all.
I note too the intention for there to be a condolence motion for the passing of Shane Warne, on Thursday. In the expectation that I may not get the opportunity to speak, I would also like to just comment on that. I extend my condolences to his family, in particular his children, and to the many people who were touched by Shane Warne’s brilliance. I well remember that ball of the century to Mike Gatting, as does everyone, I am sure, who has even a passing interest in cricket. I still watch it today, and I still cannot comprehend the physics behind that delivery, just as Mike Gatting was dumbfounded at the time and bamboozled. In fact I go and look it up sometimes and just watch that delivery again, because it was very well described as the ‘ball of the century’.
The joy that Shane Warne brought us continued for another decade or more afterwards in what was an extraordinary career. I think the Leader of the House had it right. He is certainly the greatest cricketer that I have seen in my time, bringing back leg spin bowling at a time when it had been completely unfashionable and when the Windies pacemen in particular had dominated world cricket for a decade or more. Shane Warne brought with him a larrikin attitude—I suspect he was not always a saint, and he never claimed to be one. Certainly I was very sad, as many Australians and Victorians in particular were, to hear of Shane Warne’s passing, and I look forward to sitting in the Shane Warne Stand in the future.
The agenda this week is quite light, but it is good that the government is starting to see the light and we are getting the opportunity to actually interrogate some legislation through the consideration-in-detail process. So I look forward to that opportunity for my colleagues on Thursday afternoon.