The past week has shown the worst of politics. A leadership challenge. A FIFO shitshow from Pauline Hanson. The findings of Operation Richmond, an anti-corruption investigation into the murkiest episode of Dan Andrews’ premiership.

As a sequence of loosely related events in Victorian affairs, it showcases our lesser instincts. The betrayal and deceit required to topple a leader. Hanson’s cynical mission to harvest votes from fear and anxiety. The brutal calculus of Andrews’ appeasement of a union boss.

It is thoroughly grubby stuff which, after days spent writing or reading about it, leaves you in need of a wash. It also has a deeper, corrosive effect on how we feel about politics and the people who practise it.

There was also a moment last week that reminded everyone that decency has not disappeared from Spring Street and that most people enter and exit parliament with noble intentions of doing good while they are there.

Tim Read, a Greens MP from Brunswick, gave his final speech to parliament last Wednesday. It was valedictory in more than one sense, as Read is leaving politics and has run out of treatment options for his cancer. As he noted with elegant understatement: “I’m seeing life and politics from a new perspective.”

A full Legislative Assembly was unusually quiet as he spoke, save for laughter at the funny bits. There were quite a few.

On the performative nature of parliamentary theatre: “When I first sat here I was horrified at how mean MPs seemed to be, here in the chamber, shouting hostile comments while others speak. Often verballing them.

“And then I was puzzled by how nice the same people seemed, as soon as they stepped outside. It helps to think of this place as a stage, where players overact outrageously and wipe off their make-up as they wander out for a coffee.”

On needing a blood transfusion before the parliamentary sitting week: “A big thanks to the anonymous donors who helped me get here. I wonder how they’d feel knowing they donated to a politician, and a Greens one at that.”

On having to ditch some items from his bucket list: “I’d love to see Mexico, but now I’m fine with watching an actor on SBS eat her way around that exotic country. And I can always send the member for Rowville.”

This was a reference to Kim Wells, a Liberal MP whose decision to use his travel allowance to jet around the world shortly before flagging his own retirement from parliament was recently splashed across the front page of this newspaper.

Read’s speech was dedicated less to his time in office than the issues and people he tried to help along the way.

He reflected on the growing inequity of access to housing and need to do more to regulate rental increases for young people who, more than likely, will never be able to afford to buy their own place.

He spoke of the need, at a time when falling trust in government is fuelling One Nation’s appeal, to strengthen institutions that safeguard democracy, starting with the state’s anti-corruption commission. He said the single most important step, which new Premier Ben Carroll on Saturday promised to take, was expanding IBAC’s jurisdiction from the criminally corrupt to include all dodgy behaviour across the public sector.

He warned of where One Nation wants to take us, and the lesson of Trump’s America, where demonising immigrants has escalated into persecution. “It’s hard to imagine this happening in Victoria, but we must fight the scapegoating, the race baiting if we don’t want to find out,” Read said.

Of course, he returned to climate change, lamenting that there is a greater concentration of carbon in today’s atmosphere than there was in 2018, when he was first elected to parliament. “While the fight to decarbonise and tackle global heating has been pushed out of the limelight by more pressing cost of living concerns, it remains the most consequential struggle of our time,” he said.

Finally, he left us with a parting thought about one of the most neglected areas of government policy – public health.

Read is a GP who, through his own melanoma and rapidly spread cancer, understands better than most parliamentarians the relationship between today’s investment in preventative health programs and the burden of chronic disease on tomorrow’s health system.

He is dying from skin cancer, a preventable disease, and watching as the government pushes ahead with an ill-conceived plan to abolish VicHealth, the health promotions agency that funded the SunSmart campaign.

“Think of the many illnesses, hospitalisations and other deaths that VicHealth has prevented,” he said. “Soon, however, their work will wind up, as the present government seems intent on dissolving VicHealth into the Department of Health.”

At the end of Read’s speech, MP’s from all parts of the parliament came forward to shake his hand, pat him on the back and embrace a respected colleague. They also hugged Read’s party leader Ellen Sandell, whose face was streaked with tears.

It was a touching end to a raw week in parliament.

We are heading towards the most unpredictable state election in living memory. The parliament will soon rise and the one that replaces it after November 28 will bear only a passing resemblance to its make-up.

Read is moving on to a stage of his life where votes and parliamentary numbers matter little. If Carroll or Opposition Leader Jess Wilson were at all moved by his valedictory, they should offer more than a farewell hug.

They should commit to keeping VicHealth.

Chip Le Grand is state political editor.

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