Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I have to admit that unlike the previous two speakers, the member for Casey and the member for Bendigo, I am not a great fan of motorsport and I know absolutely nothing about cars. But what I do very much support is the generosity of human spirit, and Peter Brock had plenty of that. He was a very well respected member of my local community. He grew up just outside my electorate, in Nutfield, near Hurstbridge, and attended one of my great high schools, Eltham High. In fact, he is one of many celebrated graduates to come out of that school. As the previous speakers have said, Peter’s achievements in motor racing are deservedly lauded—winning the Bathurst 1000 nine times and earning the mantle of ‘King of the Mountain’.

In my view, it is his achievements as an Australian who sought to help others that really set him apart, particularly from many other Australian sporting heroes. He was not ever content to live what can be the pretty cloistered life of some of our star athletes. Instead he chose to turn his many talents and his fame as an athlete into a lot of very good work for different charities and, in particular, the Hurstbridge based Peter Brock Foundation. This foundation allocates funds and directs support to individuals, families, community groups—all of those different organisations that have a genuine need for help.

As others have said, young people in particular captured Peter’s imagination. He was concerned at the number of young people who engaged in self-harm and he helped to secure sponsorship—in fact, $10,000 from the Peter Brock Foundation—to help our local Nillumbik Community Health Centre and their ‘From Harm to Calm’ program. I know how much they appreciated that support.

Peter also understood that his achievements as a racing car driver made him a role model for many young people, in particular young men. He used his fame to encourage safe driving and he campaigned for that cause for many, many years and won an Order of Australia medal for his work. Most recently, Peter helped to launch a book called Motorvate, written by Eltham authors Jeff Fickling and Jennie Hill, which is directed at parents of kids approaching driving age and for those who are already driving, because he clearly understood that, as a racing car driver and a man of influence to many, he had a responsibility to encourage young people to be safe while driving on our roads. We can only imagine the number of young people who had their lives saved by Peter Brock’s interest in and support for educating young drivers.

He donated many other facets of his life to help others—his paintings, his image, his signature, his time—in many worthy causes. Locally, he could certainly be seen at many events—at charitable car washes in Eltham as well as at local concerts all around the place. He helped our community at a very grassroots level. To that end, I am very pleased that the organisers of the Brockie Big Day Out charity concert in Hurstbridge, scheduled for November, are still planning to go ahead. I am sure that Peter Brock would have wanted that to be so. There is no doubt that in staging that event enough money will be raised to see another one of Peter Brock’s dreams realised—that is, a bike path linking Hurstbridge to Diamond Creek. In a lovely gesture, the local primary school, Hurstbridge Primary School, is going to name an annual bike ride after Peter Brock. It is going to be called the Peter Brock memorial ride. That is just one example of how important Peter Brock was to his local community.

We can be very proud of his achievements as an Australian and as a Victorian. He will be remembered by so many people in the local area as someone who grew up on the outskirts of Melbourne, labouring over cars in a chook shed, filled with his dreams. It is a great sadness that will overwhelm many of his close family and friends. My condolences, along with those of every other member of the House, go to those who loved him. He will be greatly missed, but I am sure all of his family and friends will take comfort in the great legacy that he has left behind. I would like to say, particularly from the point of view of the local community and all the children and young people who have benefited, how much we appreciate his life.

See this speech in context