Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am enormously in debt to the honourable member for Fadden for his tremendous contribution to this condolence debate. Before I explore, on behalf of the people of the electorate of Moreton, some views and some tributes for Sir James Killen, I would like to place on record my condolence to the family of Sir Robert Cotton, a former senator, on his passing. I did not know the gentleman. It has not been my privilege to have ever met him, but I would certainly like to associate myself with the remarks made earlier by other members about him.

With regard to Sir James Killen, and to follow on from the remarks made by the member for Fadden, this is a delicious set of circumstances for me. The member for Fadden has just passed Sir James’s record as being the longest-serving Liberal in this place elected from Queensland. It is important to pay that tribute to the member for Fadden, whom I first met in 1974. Do not worry, Member for Fadden, this is not a eulogy for you! I simply make the point that I would not be here today if it were not for the positive influence of the member for Fadden on me in those very early days and the direction that he showed me. He showed me the way in which good individual conduct should be rewarded, that people should be trusted, that a society should be organised around the fact that most people do the right thing—that sense of trust, that commitment, that covenant that we have with the people of Australia.

My earliest connection with Sir James Killen, even though as a young bloke I lived in the electorate of Moreton, was in about 1980, when he wrote to me. I had been appointed as a delegate to a national youth conference that was convened by the Fraser government. I was not appointed by the Liberal Party; I was appointed by the community. Sir James wrote me a very nice letter, which is framed and has been on display in my office for many years simply because it struck me as a wonderful example of how this man, as a local member, despite how busy he was as a senior minister, lived up to the mantra he lived by and passed on to me, as one of his successors in the seat of Moreton. That mantra was to always put the parish first, to always remember that the parliament equals the people, that your conduct in the parliament must be on behalf of those you are elected to represent and that there is no importance associated with this job other than the importance afforded to you by those who support you at a critical time of election but that you must still work for everybody, regardless of whether they have in fact voted for you at an election.

Sir James Killen did not miss the point of emphasising the importance of the parish to me at any given opportunity I had to be with him, to meet with him or to speak with him. Looking back, those meetings and discussions were too infrequent for my particular liking. He assisted me in gaining selection from the Liberal Party to be the candidate for Moreton a dozen years ago. He assisted me during the election campaign in 1996. I remember knocking on a door in Ness Road, Salisbury, and saying to a very pleasant lady whose name I will not enter on the record, ‘Hardgrave, Liberal, running for Moreton.’ She said, ‘I remember Sir James Killen well; what a terrific man he was.’ The next thing that happened—and you would not believe it, Mr Deputy Speaker Adams—my mobile phone rang, door-knocking etiquette 101 was out the door and I had Jim Killen on the phone saying, ‘My boy.’

See this speech in context