Published by Senator Grant Mitchell on 16 December 2011
Senator Tommy Banks is sitting beside me this Friday morning in the Senate for the last time. After 11 years and 8 months in the Senate, he is forced to retire because he is turning 75 tomorrow.
I have dreaded this moment for a long time. I will not say that I have dreaded it since I got here, 6 years ago, because I did not have a full appreciation of what he had been doing as a Senator when I first arrived. But very shortly after arriving here, I began to get what it is that Senator Banks is as a Senator and how brilliantly he has fulfilled that role.
Tommy Banks is acknowledged by his Senate colleagues for his integrity, courage, determination to do what is right, intelligence and grasp of the issues. I have marveled at how he could grasp the nuance and complexity of an eclectic range of public policy issues. It has been a thing of beauty to share the table at various committees and to see him get exactly to the heart of a given issue in way that nobody else had seen, express it clearly, and ultimately propose a solution.
Amidst all of the "to-ing and fro-ing" in the political arenas, Tommy Banks has remained above the partisan fray, has remained respected by all sides and has engendered a great deal of fondness amongst colleagues.
He is truly irreplaceable and he will truly be missed.
(Click here to read tributes to the Honorable Tommy Banks)