It is a sad moment to be back here in Parliament without Kimberley with us.

I just want to reflect on her achievements and legacy, and many have spoken around her various and significant achievements.

But I'll just focus on some of the areas where our work intersected, primarily in defence matters, foreign policy and humanitarian action, and in particular with that shambolic withdrawal out of Afghanistan and worked to retrieve people, to save people's lives out of Kabul.

Kimberley was always a very strong supporter of the Australian Defence Force and of our allies.

She wanted to understand deeply the work of the ADF, and the struggles and sacrifices of our service personnel and our veterans.

She was a frequent and active participant in our Defence Force parliamentary program, travelling to the Middle East on several occasions: 2017, 2018, 2019. I'm sure if it wasn't for COVID, she would have kept going over to the Middle East, because she wanted to learn more.

She wanted to hear from the ground the experiences of our defence personnel so that we could make sure that our support was as good as it possibly could be.

And that we were making sensible decisions in the national interest.

Kimberley had wanted very much to come to Darwin to participate in Operation Resolute through that parliamentary program.

And we often talked about it and unfortunately she never had that opportunity, but she always known how important that the work in their electorate for national security and the defence of our nation was.

And she wanted to know as much as she possibly could.

She would be very interested to know that Admiral John Aquilino, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, had been in Australia and in Darwin recently.

It's a visit that Kimberley would have very much appreciated.

She did so much for our relationship with our allies, the United States. And I know that our American friends very much appreciated her and her solidarity and intellect.

Kimberley was the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of the United States, and she did a wonderful job in that role, being a great advocate for strengthening and deepening that important relationship.

Of course, soon we will have a new Ambassador from the United States, the formidable Caroline Kennedy.

Kimberley would have been such an important and effective representative of not only our party, but also this parliament to the new ambassador.

Kimberley believes, as I do, that our nation is extraordinary. That it's exceptional. And she spent every day in this place fighting to make Australia live up to our great potential.

She said in her first speech to the Senate back in November 2006, and I quote:

“In this Parliament, we must proudly make the case for Australian exceptionalism.

“Australia is not exceptional because we have been divinely mandated or because of some inherent quality, unasked and unearned.

“Australia is exceptional precisely because generations of Australians have made hard choices and hard sacrifices.”

For all the vast US policy interests and advocacy, Kimberley never lost sight of why she came to Canberra in the first place, and that is what makes her Labor.

In her first speech she said, and I quote:

“I come here to represent everyday Australian people, the working Australians, the families, the students, the hospital cleaners, the retail workers, the mortgage holders, the renters, the mums and dads, the 4am shift workers, the nurses, the police, the firefighters and the factory workers.”

And it's a good reminder for all of us. Deputy Speaker, why we are here and who we are ultimately working for.

Ultimately, what I remember most about Kimberley is conversations when we were both talking to people on the ground in Iraq or at the Pakistani border, within the ADF, within the US chain of command, trying to get people who were in desperate need and were in some cases being hunted, getting them to safety, and that she was in the thick of it.

As has been well described by the Member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten and others that she was getting after it, saving lives.

I remember her beaming smile and her energy and I was glad I could have the opportunity to tell Andrew that when we gathered to dedicate a rosary to our departed sister Kimberley.

May eternal light shine upon her.