Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (15:20): On indulgence, I want to thank the Prime Minister for his words. On behalf of the Labor Party and the opposition, I wish to express our condolences to Mark Colvin's family and to his colleagues on his tragic passing today. Across four decades, across mediums and across continents, I think we all agree that Mark Colvin was one of the finest minds in journalism. We use the word 'giant' perhaps causally sometimes, but no-one, I think, would dispute that he was a giant of journalism. From Canberra to London, Teheran, Rwanda, Belfast and Baghdad, Mark explained to Australians what we needed to know in a way that only he could do. I think most Australians would know Mark best through ABC's PM program. For two decades, he had a calm and measured, mellifluous voice, which was with us in the cars as we drove home, keeping us company on an evening shift or perhaps in the kitchen as we got dinner ready. He had a certain manner. There was a disarming mix of gentleness and authority. He could cajole the most skilled, recalcitrant non-answerers into finishing a sentence, at which point passes through the mind of the interviewee: 'Did I just say that?' It is a loss to journalism, as the Prime Minister said, but it is a loss to public discourse, it is a loss to national life. To his family I say: most Australians will never know him in the way you did, but it is a remarkable gift to know someone through their voice alone. And through his voice, capacity and values to be able to know a person is, I think, the mark of the person who has passed. I think his life was interesting, rewarding, colourful and challenging. His was a life worth living. He was a man worth knowing. He was journalism's gentleman and a voice that we will never forget. May he rest in peace.