Mr DUTTON (Dickson—Leader of the Opposition) (15:27): I thank the Prime Minister for his warm remarks. I'll start, firstly, by wishing he and Jodie and Nathan and their family a wonderful Christmas, a nice relaxing time and an opportunity to recharge the batteries. This Christmas—and we've already seen some evidence of this—our firefighters will be busy. There will be ambos attending accidents, as the Prime Minister pointed out. Tragically, on our roads and in our backyard swimming pools, terrible events will take place, and we'll be kept safe by those first responders. They will save lives. They will keep our country safe over the Christmas period. I acknowledge their work and their sacrifice, including the amazing men and women of the Australian Defence Force here in Australia and around the world. They work day and night to keep our country and our people safe. Young Australians and older Australians travelling overseas this Christmas will be kept safe because of the work by the people in our embassies, the Australian Defence Force and our intelligence and policing agencies. So I want to say thank you very much for their sacrifice. To them and their families, I hope they have some downtime and time to spend together over the course of this Christmas period. I also want to acknowledge all the veterans who have been acknowledged in different ways during the year. It is a time to say thank you to our veterans, who have served over many successive generations to keep us safe and to allow us to live in the best country in the world. I want to acknowledge in particular this Christmas, and in relation to our veterans, the late Private Richard Norden, who was awarded the Victoria Cross on Remembrance Day. He was finally acknowledged for his battlefield bravery in Vietnam in 1968. We are the beneficiaries of their service and sacrifice, and we are the custodians of their legacy. I want to make a special mention of Australians of Jewish faith this year. They have faced a shocking and unprecedented level of racism and antisemitism in our country, and many kids in Jewish schools have attended those schools over the course of this year with armed guards out the front. That is something completely unacceptable in our society. I commend the Australian people for their resilience over the course of the last 12 months. There are many sites that we visited across the country, including food banks and the Salvation Army, where people are providing support to those less fortunate than ourselves—people who are working hard and yet are still unable to find accommodation. They are living rough, living in their cars and turning up for food packages on a weekly basis. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are less fortunate and will be separated from their families because of marital breakdown or estrangement of grandparents or others in their family circle. Family celebrations won't be a part of their Christmas, and we acknowledge those Australians this year as well. There are many things we dedicate ourselves to this Christmas, but the betterment of our country in 2025 for the benefit of all Australians is the top of the Christmas wish list this year. I acknowledge all of my colleagues and thank them very much for their hard work and sacrifice. But all members of parliament, including the crossbench, and all of our families make an enormous sacrifice for us to be here. We spend time away from our children. I know that every parent in this place feel that, as many parents and workplaces do across the country. I acknowledge the families—including my own, of Kirilly and our kids—who provide us with so much joy. I'm sure they will this Christmas as well, although they're drinking more at Christmas time, I might note, on their dad's beer tab! That is the case for many families here. I say thanks very much to Simon Birmingham, who has just announced his retirement as our Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Birmo has a young family, and I know he's going to look forward to spending more time with them. He has given an enormous amount to our country. Thank you to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Michaelia Cash, to my partner in crime, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Sussan Ley, who has been on this journey with me since 2001. As the Prime Minister said about his deputy, the loyalty and support I receive from Susan is something I deeply cherish. Thank you very much to DLP and all of the Nats for their close collaboration. The work of our coalition has served for the decade, and I'm sure it will into the future. Thank you to Perin Davey and Paul Fletcher, the Leader of Opposition Business in the House, and to our entire team. I congratulate Simon Kennedy, the member for Cook, for his by-election victory in April. I also acknowledge our state colleagues Jeremy Rockliff, Leah Finocchiaro and David Crisafulli, who have taken the reins in their respective jurisdictions and are doing great jobs in Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Queensland respectively. Can I thank Alex Dalgleish, my chief of staff, and Jacqui Cooper, who leads my office in Strathpine in Brisbane. I thank all of my staff for their wonderful work, the sacrifice they make and the time they spend away from their families, helping constituents and people who have queries. We deal with those cases on a daily basis. Thank you so much to the people of Dixon, who give me the great honour of serving in this parliament. And thank you to the Australian Federal Police, who provide support to me and my family, for keeping us safe and for the respectful way that they treat my wife and my children, given that we have so much contact with them. Can I say to the Deputy Prime Minister and to all the ministers on the frontbench: thank you for your service to our country and for the sacrifice that you make. We live in a great country, as I say, and we're very lucky to be here to serve the Australian people. We should never ever forget that that's our priority. To you, Mr Speaker: thank you again—I echo the words of the Prime Minister—for your dedicated service. The way in which you conduct yourself as Speaker of the House is a great credit to you. To you and to your family, to the clerks and to all of those who make parliament work: thank you, and I hope that you're able to spend a joyous Christmas with your families. The most important element of Christmas, of course, is that it's a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. To those of Christian faith, I wish you a wonderful Christmas, a happy and merry Christmas, with your families and communities. May it be a safe Christmas for all Australians. We hope that people travel safely over that period and go into 2025 realising their dreams and aspirations in the greatest country on earth.