Former minister who has held the seat of Jagajaga for 22 years says ‘It’s time’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The former Rudd and Gillard government minister Jenny Macklin has announced she is retiring from federal politics.

The veteran Labor MP has held the Melbourne seat of Jagajaga for 22 years and served on the government or opposition frontbench throughout that time.

“As the longest-serving Labor woman in the House of Representatives, ever, ‘It’s time’, as Gough so famously said, for me to move on,” Macklin said in a statement on Friday.

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“It’s also time for the next generation. Although I still want to contribute to policy debates, it’s time for me to step back.”

Julia Gillard (@JuliaGillard) Jenny Macklin is a special combination of an enormous heart and huge brain. She used both to drive compassionate, caring and highly effective reforms for Australia. Our nation is immensely better off for her service. My personal thanks to her for all her help and support.

Macklin said she would not be stepping back from public policy or public life.

“I will continue to do all I can for my local community and to be an advocate for a more equal Australia,” she said.

Macklin, 64, was elected to the north-east Melbourne seat in 1996 and went on to serve as deputy Labor leader to Kim Beazley.

She served as families, community services and Indigenous affairs minister for six years and disability reform minister for two years.

“Every political party in Australia wishes they had a Jenny Macklin,” the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said on Friday.

Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) My full tribute to Jenny Macklin, one of Australia's greatest champions for the marginalised and the disadvantaged. https://t.co/jDAjlBtOR7 pic.twitter.com/eojYPPeUjp

“But only Labor has been blessed with her extraordinary mind, her caring heart and her fearless love of the good fight. How lucky we have been.”

Shorten said there had not been a single policy reform in recent times that had not been shaped by Macklin.

Other MPs and political commentators also lauded Macklin’s work on social policy.

Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) There is no better advocate for the rights of Australians, for the forgotten, for those who are doing it tough, struggling to make ends meet, for the elderly and those who depend on government services, than Jenny Macklin. pic.twitter.com/56gyPp0NY5

Chris Picton MP (@PictonChris) I witnessed first hand Jenny Macklin's work with victims groups and her understanding and compassion when her and Nicola Roxon set up the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse after @JuliaGillard's decision. A giant of Parliament, she will be missed.

Stephanie Peatling (@srpeatling) Millions of Australians can be thankful for Jenny Macklin's devotion to policy and politics. She drove the introduction of paid parental leave and the NDIS and so many other things - the apology to the Stolen Generations among them. https://t.co/OpjEThodfG via @smh

Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) Despite being one of the busiest people in APH, Jenny Macklin was like a Mamma Bear for new Labor MPs - taking the time to mentor, counsel, check in & offer support. Her encyclopaedic knowledge of social policy is fearsome, but it’s these little things that made people love her.

David Crowe (@CroweDM) Jenny Macklin's departure from parliament (I am sure she won't be retiring from politics and policy) is a huge loss to Labor. She has that rare combination of being so smart, never letting her opponents get away with anything and never being afraid to show she is human.

Michelle Grattan (@michellegrattan) Jenny Macklin is one of those politicians really into public policy - understanding it and promoting ideas. A person of good heart and good grace, who has contributed a great deal to the parliament and to her side of politics.

Susan Ryan (@SRyan4elders) Jenny Macklin represents the high point of the case for having women in Parliament. Her policy achievements are great especially her role in establising the NDIS https://t.co/J1dCKZrf7r