Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to join in this motion of condolence on the death of the former member for Calare, Peter Andren. He certainly made a very substantial contribution to this parliament in a unique way. It has been said by many that he was perhaps the only true Independent in the parliament, in that he came into this House without any prior association with a political party and he vehemently upheld his independence right through his time in the parliament.

As we have heard, he came into this House in 1996 as the member for Calare, taking the seat from Labor during the landslide election result that year. I campaigned against him in Calare during that election. I spent some time in Orange and in other places, but I have to admit that I left the electorate with the view that we were facing a very formidable opponent. Peter was very well known and very well liked throughout his electorate. People liked him personally; others supported him because of the notion that Independents might have some influence in the parliament or perhaps one day even have a balance of power. He certainly held the view that he had a role in putting forward views in a forthright way and in ensuring that the whole House was kept on its toes. He certainly sometimes drew the ire of members of this place. His views were sometimes controversial. He was a particularly regular commentator on issues such as members’ pay and superannuation, and he usually gave the media the grab they were looking for. He was, as some have said, a conscience of the parliament in relation to that issue and a number of others.

We tried hard to defeat him in elections, with spectacularly unsuccessful results. I sometimes felt that Labor were perhaps a little half-hearted in their campaigns in Calare, probably because of some degree of realism that it was going to be a difficult seat to win but also because of the fact that, generally, Peter Andren’s views were perhaps more comfortably embraced by the other side of the House than by us. Nonetheless, there were times when everyone in this chamber tasted the ire of his views, which he presented always in a courteous but aggressive and thoughtful way.

In 2001 his popularity reached something of a peak when he got 75 per cent of the two-party vote. However, as others have said, whilst he was popular he was not a populist. Some of the views that he espoused would have been opposed by 75 per cent of the people in his electorate. Yet they respected him to such an extent that they were prepared to support him. He was, I think, an example of somebody who did not seek popularity. It came because of the work that he did and because of his willingness to stand up for causes that he believed in.

Peter was struck down by a particularly virulent cancer that gave him and his family little warning of its arrival and precious little time to adjust to what now seems, tragically, to have been inevitable. I hope that one day we can say that this and these kinds of cancer will not be a death warrant, as they seem to be today. The work of many Australian and international researchers gives us some hope that there may be some successes in coming years. The sad thing was that someone like Peter, who had made his decision not to seek re-election for this House but indeed to pursue an alternative course, did not live to see the election following his retirement. He did not have an opportunity to enjoy any of the good things of retirement that no doubt would have been very much in his heart in the more difficult times of his parliamentary career. Peter often, and certainly proudly, wore his badge as an Independent, which I know he felt sometimes to be liberating but at other times immensely frustrating. I think his intention in running for the Senate was to endeavour to be in a place where he might as an Independent have potentially more influence in policy setting. Whether he would have been successful we will never know, but it is a tragedy that his life was cut short and that he did not have the opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of retirement.

After Peter’s death, my colleague John Cobb became the member for Calare, assisted slightly by a redistribution. John particularly asks that his sympathy be attached to this condolence motion. He has the honour to succeed Peter as the member for Calare, and that in itself will be a daunting task. I would like to place on record that my deepest sympathy goes to his partner, Valerie, and sons, Greg and Josh, to his many family members and relatives, to his friends, to his constituents, who grieve his loss, and to Australians who appreciated his forthright views on such a wide range of important issues.

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