Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

David Jull was a good friend of mine. Indeed, I knew him for more than 35 years. He was a good principled man who served our country well. 'Jully,' as he was fondly and widely known, will always be remembered for his absolute dedication to his electors. The truly outstanding aspect of his work as a member in his electorate was that he was just as dedicated and just as effective in his final term as he was in first. As has been widely reported, he served in the federal parliament for more than 30 years. When he underwent major lung cancer surgery during his last term between 2004 and 2007, he did not reduce his electorate work, he just restructured it to take account of his reduced capacity to physically get around. Even in his final years here as a member, he would do what he did just about every Saturday morning: drive to one of the shopping centres in his electorate, sit in a prominent place at one of the coffee shops or cafes and talk to his residents. Then he would visit as many shops in the centre as he was physically able to.

When members gained access to modern communication mediums with their electorates, such as email and the internet, David embraced them. But he did not diminish his personal face-to-face contact with his electors or the many schools, churches and community groups within his electorate.

Anyone who is aware of David's upbringing would not be at all surprised at his personal attention to the needs of his electorate and the community. His father, the Reverend Canon Stephen Jull, was a much-loved clergyman in the Anglican church. David was born in Kingaroy, where his father was a rector. His father spent many years as the rector at Redcliffe, where the parish centre is named after him. His mother, Olwyn, was world president of the Anglican Mothers Union, and a trailblazer for women in the church. David often told the story that he was only able to attend the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane because his father's position as a parish priest enabled him to secure a substantial reduction in fees.

Before politics David had a career in radio and television, both on air and in administration; first, in commercial radio and then as the first face seen on the new Channel 0, now Channel 10. What probably sparked his interest in a political career was when at the age of only 19 he became the Queensland state parliamentary roundsman for Macquarie Broadcasting Services when Nicklin was premier. An old friend, Peter Farrell, recalls him as a young publicity manager at Channel 0. Peter was writing the Veritas TV column, and recalls that those were the days of Number 96 and The Box, big publicity budgets, promotional junkets and many long lunches. As Peter says, David was a man of principle, good humour and loyalty.

At the end of his time in parliament, David was back on radio—community radio in Logan City, where David shared his favourite music with the wider community. As part of his arrangements with the station he negotiated the right to play his choice of music, which was of course dominated by Dionne Warwick, Motown and classical music—an eclectic mix.

In his early days David had a commitment to community service that his parents obviously instilled in him. That commitment encouraged David to seek Liberal Party nomination for the seat of Bowman prior to the 1974 election. He was successful in winning nomination and, after losing in 1974, he won the seat in 1975. It was a seat which he held until the 1983 poll. Less than 18 months later he returned to parliament as the member for Fadden, the seat he held for 23 years until his retirement four years ago.

Fadden became a rapidly growing and changing electorate between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. At each redistribution—and they were frequent, given the population growth in South-East Queensland at the time—the boundaries of Fadden changed radically. It began as a seat centred around the south-eastern suburbs of Brisbane, then became a Logan City seat and ended up being a northern Gold Coast seat.

Despite all the boundary changes, David assiduously served his electorates and the organisations within his electorate. I am told he moved his electorate office three times as member for Fadden to ensure it was able to service the changes the redistributions caused. He began in Upper Mount Gravatt in suburban Brisbane, then moved to Springwood in Logan and finally to Coomera in the Gold Coast City Council area. As far as David was concerned the electorate came first. His personal convenience or inconvenience was irrelevant.

The electorate rewarded him with increasing majorities. Appropriately, his last election delivered the strongest majority in his long career. In the 2004 election, David's primary vote in Fadden was 60 per cent—a swing in his favour of more than six per cent when compared with the 2001 election result.

The other hallmark of his long career as an elected member was the loyalty of his electorate office staff, resulting in what must surely be the lowest turnover in an office, especially given the long period he served. Anne Quinlan, or 'Quinno', as David always called her, served as his secretary from 1975 until she retired in 1997. She had previously been his secretary when David was an executive at Channel 0 in Brisbane.

One area David embraced with enthusiasm at every opportunity was tourism, and despite being on the opposition benches he did enjoy his role as shadow Minister for Tourism and Aviation. While not a great fan of our national airline, which he referred to as the 'flying red rat', he nonetheless had an encyclopedic knowledge of every aircraft flown domestically by Qantas and Ansett, and the history of individual planes. He was always generous with his travel advice and assistance. When friends and colleagues were questioned about their travel plans they regularly responded confidently that they had nothing to worry about as they were flying 'Jull Air'. This usually meant that David had either suggested the itinerary or, in many cases, had made the bookings for them. David Jull was also the highly respected chair of the parliamentary committee on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation 1997 to 2002 and of its successor, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security formerly the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD since 2002. In this capacity he presided over the committees inquiry into the performance of the Australian intelligence services in relation to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in 2003-04.

David was not just loyal to his electors, not just committed to his parliamentary and committee duties he was also loyal to the party that enabled him to seek to represent them in the first place, the Liberal Party. He was a member of the Liberal Party and more recently the LNP for over 40 years. He believed in the Menzies tradition of the Liberal party. He embraced the reasons why Sir Robert Menzies wanted his party to be known as the Liberal Party, not the conservative party. David was a moderate in its proper meaning. He could not tolerate people who stood on the extreme. As an initial instigator and the unofficial moderator of the Liberal Forum known by its members as Black Hand, Joel used all of his influence and humour to ensure that his Liberal colleagues and friends did not become too full of themselves. He did so with the generosity of spirit and with a firm conviction that Liberals were in fact Liberals.

Even when David lost his ministry in circumstances many, myself included, regarded as unfair and unjust, he did not complain. His loyalty to the Liberal party remained unquestioned. When the Liberal and National parties merged in Queensland, he remained loyal to the new entity the LNP. Until his final illness prevented him from doing so, David was helping the LNP candidate in this local state seat Ian Walker with his campaign for the forthcoming state election.

On a personal note, Jully had a wicked sense of humour and was not constrained by any sense of political correctness. He did not need these constraints because his own values and principles were based on common sense and decency. I can still recall, as those members who served with him would recall, his satirical send-ups and of course his iconic bowling set. Simply put, David Jull was a genuinely good bloke. As he said in his final speech to the House four years ago in December 2007, 'some of my good mates in this place come from both sides of the House'. Tragically, the wishes of the Speaker at the time that it was 'the view of all members that the honourable member deserves a very long and healthy retirement' were not to be. I know the state president of the LNP Bruce McIver and the party organisation across Queensland join me in acknowledging David's outstanding service to the nation, his outstanding service to the parliament and his outstanding service to his electors over 32 years as their member and the LNP and the Liberal party.

See this speech in context