To address you at this, the last meeting of the Senate, is a great honour and a privilege. I am speaking to a body of men and women who have honourably discharged the historical task to which they were appointed by our people. In so doing you have helped lay a solid foundation of our democracy.
Farewells do bring their measure of sadness.
But this closure sets the seal on a transition of which you yourselves have been architects and builders. We are shutting the door on an interim arrangement for something more permanent. Most of you will continue to serve as elected representatives, though in new ways. Today's ceremony symbolises and affirms our transition to democracy. The reason, I have no doubt, lies with this august body - you have clearly never been comfortable with the traditional perception of second chambers as bodies whose members are not very active or lively.