ACOSS would like to acknowledge retiring Labor MP Jenny Macklin for her long service to the Federal Parliament and the Social Services portfolio.

Ms Macklin will depart politics at the up-coming election after 22 years. Most of this service has been in social policy portfolios in which she has engaged widely with the community and social services sector and made notable contributions. Some of these include reducing poverty amongst older people by lifting the pension, overseeing the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, introducing paid parental leave, the national apologies to the stolen generations and former child migrants, and creating the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

These will go down as important legacies of her time in cabinet, and as the peak body for Australia’s community and social services sector, ACOSS pays tribute to Ms Macklin for her enormous contribution to public life and her efforts to making Australia a better place for all of us.