Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I join the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in recording our sympathies to the family of Jeannie Ferris and our great sadness that the nation has lost a great contributor to public affairs in the Senate, in this parliament and in this government. Jeannie Ferris was a great friend and colleague to us all and a great advocate for all matters regarding rural Australia, notwithstanding her beginnings, coming from the Land of the Long White Cloud. Her first employment was actually with the Rotorua Daily Post in New Zealand. When she did move to Australia and started working in journalism in this area with the Canberra Times and the ABC in the press gallery, she very quickly, as we all knew, picked up her Australianness and loved this country dearly, particularly that part of Australia that we lovingly refer to as the bush.

That passion about rural Australia only became much stronger when she later went on to work for the NFF as their political adviser here and in South Australia. She was, of course, as the Prime Minister indicated, a participant in many of those great struggles as far as the rural community in Australia is concerned that are now part of our folklore and our history in getting a greater understanding of the differential circumstances that confront and beset families living and working in regional Australia. She continued that fight for greater recognition of their circumstances when she entered the Senate in 1996.

It was not a smooth start, coming into the Senate in 1996, but it was certainly an indication of her tenacity that she did ultimately join the Senate. She actually had to resign shortly after taking office because she had worked on Senator Minchin’s staff between her election to the Senate in March 1996 and the start of her term in office in July of that year. Fortunately, the parliament of South Australia then very wisely reappointed her to fill her own casual vacancy. It was an indication of the strength of commitment that she had to public service, to serving the nation and particularly that rural constituency in the nation. Once she got into the Senate, Jeannie Ferris became a strong and effective advocate for matters of rural and regional Australia right until the end of her career and the end of her wonderful life.

As the Prime Minister indicated, one of my most memorable experiences and one that is the epitome of her commitment and tenacity was in February of last year at the height of the debate about the future of the Australian wheat industry, our relationship with Iraq and that market for Australian wheat growers. Jeannie, as the chair of the government’s agriculture policy backbench committee, joined me on a trip to Iraq. In spite of her illness and going against the advice of her oncologist, she took that trip because she saw how important that was going to be to Australian wheat growers to be able to deliver a message on behalf of Australian wheat growers to the government in Iraq.

We travelled to the Middle East and flew into Baghdad in the normal manner that you can: in an RAAF C130 with helmets and flak jackets on. We should bear in mind that when Jeannie undertook this trip she had only just completed a fairly lengthy series of chemotherapy treatments that had left her quite weakened. Once we got to Baghdad we then had to transfer straight into US Air Force Black Hawk helicopters to fly from the airport into the Green Zone. Again, wearing flak jackets in the transfer and running across the tarmac it was exhausting for all of us—and I know the Prime Minister has had this experience as well. But the only thing that Jeannie was concerned about—and she declared that it was her only fear—was that her wig stayed on straight underneath the helmet whilst the cameras were on us and taking photographs of us racing across to jump into the Black Hawk helicopters and buckle up for the trip into the Green Zone. Of course, she did that with great aplomb and did it very, very well.

When we met Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi and his ministers in the main parliamentary building, we had quite a lengthy, frank discussion about the difficult circumstances at the time and the fact that we were representing the interests of wheat growers and no other entities in between. Jeannie was able to make that crisply clear, as a member of the parliament, not necessarily as a member of the executive—and she did. She engaged very deeply in the complications of the process at the time and the processes of the wheat trade. She had a profound impact on getting agreement from Deputy Prime Minister Chalabi that they would continue to do business with Australian wheat growers. This is just one of the great memories and legacies that Jeannie Ferris has left us.

To do that trip at that time, straight after her very tiring chemotherapy treatment, was a great testament to the feisty way she undertook her commitment to the people of rural and regional Australia. It has left everlasting memories in my mind as, only months before that time, I had had a brush with another form of cancer which, fortunately, I have survived. I know that I am not the only one in this place who has had that experience. So we all feel very deeply that Jeannie was not able to beat this insidious disease. It is incumbent upon all of us to ensure that we do whatever we possibly and humanly can to find cures for this disease, to ensure that our children do not face the sorts of challenges later in life which ultimately took Jeannie’s life.

We will all have those everlasting and very fond memories of Jeannie Ferris. She will be greatly missed. I join with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in expressing our sympathies and condolences, particularly to her sons, Robbie and Jeremy, and to the rest of her family and friends.

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