Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I first thank the Leader of the House for referring this matter to this chamber for discussion. I know a number of my colleagues intend to speak to it. It is not always the case that the passing of a former member is acknowledged by a condolence motion which is spoken to but, on this occasion, I very much wanted it to be. Bruce Cowan passed away on 7 April this year, and it is somewhat ironic that today is the inaugural memorial ceremony conducted by the Association of Former Members of the Parliament of Australia in recognition of those people, former members, who have passed away between the last parliament and this parliament. Bruce Cowan's name is recorded in the honour record of those deceased members and senators of the Australian parliament who were remembered today. I wanted to note of Bruce, somebody I knew well and with whom I served, that he was a particularly remarkable individual. While his name was David Bruce Cowan, he was Bruce. He was born in 1926. He was educated at Oxley Island Public School and Taree High School. He worked as a dairy farmer, a real estate agent and a stock and station agent before serving as an alderman on Taree Municipal Council, rising to the post of deputy mayor between 1959 and 1965. He had earlier been unsuccessful in tilts at the state parliament, but he was elected as member for Oxley in a by-election in 1965. He retained the seat through five elections, during which time he served as Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Water Resources in New South Wales. He resigned the seat in 1980 to contest the federal seat of Lyne. He was elected and he held that seat until his retirement.

What it does not state in recording those dates was that he served with my late father, who was a member of the New South Wales parliament and also a minister. They served contemporaneously. I still have photographs in my electorate office and in my home of Bruce and my father as they sat together in the legislative assembly of New South Wales. I thought it was somewhat ironic that at a later point in time Max Ruddock, who had also served in local government and in the state parliament, had one of his former colleagues, also a deputy mayor, in the federal parliament with his son. I came to see a lot of Bruce. I enjoyed his company. I think he had a very considerable contribution to make in public service.

As I reflected on this motion today, one of the observations that have been made about him that particularly impressed me was that he was a very strong coalitionist. In his maiden speech he said:

I am pleased to say that we have, particularly in the Federal coalition and in the New South Wales parliamentary National Country Party, of which I was a member, a very happy and very close association with anti-socialist policies which are so important to us.

He was a man of his time. I note the Labor Party do not claim to be socialist these days, but I am sure they do not mind being reminded of it. He was a person who gave very considerable public service. It was recognised on his retirement in comments from a former leader, Tim Fischer, who had also served with Bruce in the legislative assembly of New South Wales and in the federal parliament. He noted that Bruce had given some two decades of dedicated and determined service. He went on to say that the member for Lyne had also suffered a horrific personal tragedy, of which I think many of us are aware, in losing his wife, Marion. The former leader went on to say that Bruce:

… elected to carry on in the service of his electorate. I salute his service to this Parliament and to the widest range of community groups he represents. Nothing was too small or too large for Bruce to undertake. He finetuned my process of representation when I was a very young and new member of the New South Wales Parliament.

He went on to say:

In a sense he showed me the 'two-minute Tim' trick: the ability to be available in front of a post office or a council chamber and do a fair dinkum tour of one's electorate, being readily available to everybody.

Bruce was a man of the people. He served the people of the North Coast with particular dedication. I had the opportunity, particularly as a member of the parliamentary delegation to the United Kingdom and Ireland shortly after Marion's death in 1988, to travel with Bruce and with the late Glen Sheil as members of that delegation. He was great company to us. He was a fine mentor to those like my wife, Heather, who claims some Scots heritage. He and Glen Sheil both identified very much with that heritage. His service to the nation was recognised by the award of an OAM, I think richly deserved. I want to finalise my comments by noting that we all are very much concerned at the loss of him, at 85. I give my condolences to his now widow, Jan. Bruce was the father of Jane and Rosemary—the wife of my state parliamentary colleague and now New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell—and Mandy, Michael and Peter. He was the proud and loving grandfather of Tom, Will, Sheri, James, Xiao Lian and Xin Hu.

Bruce Cowan is a person whom you miss. I miss him. I reflect upon him as a fine former colleague. I am delighted, as I said, that the Leader of the House has given us an opportunity today to pay this tribute to him.

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