In delivering his valedictory address, Senator Patrick Dodson announced to the Senate that he would resign on January 26, 2024.
Dodson, a Labor senator from Western Australia, entered the Senate on May 2, 2016, filling the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Joe Bullock. He was elected in his own right at the 2016 and 2022 federal elections.
Known as the “Father of Reconciliation”, a cause he has championed all his life, Dodson was appointed as the Special Envoy for Reconciliation and Implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart on June 1, 2022, following the election of the Albanese government.