Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bendigo for his input to this debate. I think it very well reflects the fact that David Jull made friends wherever he was—not just in parliament. In parliament he made very close friends with some people whom you might have thought would be enemies. I think that was very much David Jull's approach to life.

We all know that he was a long-serving member—11 terms in parliament. I certainly do not wish to emulate 11 terms in parliament, but David Jull liked parliament as an institution—and he was an institution in this parliament. He represented the division of Bowman from 1975 to 1983. Unfortunately, he then lost his seat due to the Hawke landslide, but it was not long before he was back in the parliament in 1984. He started off with a marginal seat and ended up with quite a safe seat. That does not happen unless you are doing your job in the electorate and you have the respect of the people in the electorate. He served until 2007 and indeed when he actually left the parliament he was the fourth longest serving member of parliament ever, out of over 1,000 members of parliament. That is a pretty extraordinary record.

We know that he had lung cancer in 2005. That was a sad time for all of us—the fact that he had it and that he had to have a lung removed. But, true to the spirit, he said, 'I am going to make sure I get back to parliament.' And so he came back. He obviously was not quite as strong, we all knew that—his big, booming voice was not quite so big and booming any more. Like the member for Bendigo, I last met him at David Hawker's 25th year celebration—that was about two years ago, when we were in opposition. It was great to catch up with him. He had not changed. Obviously, though, he was not quite as fit as he had been.

He was a member of the shadow ministry from 1989 to 1994. When we became the government in 1996, he became the Minister for Administrative Services and served in that role from 1996 to 1997. It was often said—and I repeat: often said— that Jully, as we fondly knew him, was the unluckiest MP in parliament and deserved to serve as a minister for much longer than he did. When he no longer served as the Minister for Administrative Services, he became chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation from 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—from 2002. So from 1997 to 2007 he served as chair of one of the most important committees. To be the chair of that committee—or even a member of it—you needed to be someone in whom absolute trust could be placed. The fact that he was appointed to that position shows that people respected his abilities.

In this capacity, he presided over the committee's 2003-04 inquiry into the performance of the Australian intelligence services in relation to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. As the member for Bendigo said, the committee did not pull any punches. The minister may not have liked it, but David Jull was not going to gild the lily. Coming back to him being unlucky, he almost certainly deserved to serve much longer as a minister. I supported him in a vote for the Speaker because I believed he would have served in that role with distinction. I believe he had all the qualities needed for the role of Speaker. He had the experience, there was no doubt about that, and he had the excellence. He had the knowledge of how parliament works—when to use standing orders and, probably more importantly, when not to use standing orders. He had gravitas and he had authority. He had a booming baritone voice. He would not have needed a microphone to rule from the chair.

I had the wonderful experience of sitting directly in front of him for nine years. I do not know if anyone else can claim that. I think it was a blessing to sit in front of him for nine years. I heard every humorous comment that he made. I do not think I ever heard him being warned, because he was clever enough to speak at the right time and just loud enough but not too loud to be called to order by the chair. It was really interesting to hear some of his comments and I will reflect on a few of them. I will not say who they are about because some of these people are still in parliament. He had a comment about every member of parliament. His descriptions included, 'ugly as a robber dog's backside'—that brings up an interesting vision—and 'Bob Hawke's love child'. Another one was 'one of the beagle boys'—as an avid reader of Donald Duck comics in my youth, I knew exactly what he was on about. Others were 'member for Nagger Nagger', 'promoted way beyond his abilities' or 'better as a front-rower than a frontbencher'—I think that was something about rugby. He had many, many more, but they were always very apt. He certainly did have a way with words.

I might reflect on his wine palate because he had one of the best wine palates in the parliament. One night we went out and somebody bought a bottle of '92 Grange—I would never have been able to afford it—and a bottle of '93 Area Red from Langhorne Creek. Not too many people would have heard of Area Red; it is not one of the great wines. But we all agreed that the '93 Area Red from Langhorne Creek was actually better than the '92 Grange. I happen to know the winemaker because I had played cricket with him. It was part of my electorate and also I spent about 20 of my younger years in that area. I rang the winemaker on the off chance that he had some left. Michael Potts, the winemaker at Bleasdale, had made this wine for Vintage Cellars and Michael said, 'No, I do not have any left, but I will try to find if there is any left in Australia.' True to his word, he rang me the next morning and said: 'There are four dozen left in Australia. Would you like them?' I said yes without even thinking. But I did ask how much per bottle and they were only $28 per bottle—actually a bargain. The first thing I did was to phone Jully and I said, 'Do you want half of these?' Jully said: 'Yes, please. When can you get them to me?' At least I was able to provide some pleasure in his later years with a fantastic wine that we had all enjoyed. David Jull, I drink to your memories and toast a champion. Vale, Jully.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:59 to 18:14

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