Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to associate myself with the kind remarks by the member for Brand and the member for Berowra. I rise with great sadness to honour the passing of a man I consider to be a great Australian, the Hon. Warwick Parer AM.

When I first came into this place as the member for Petrie in 1996, I was a very green member of parliament. I had worked in the business sector and did not know much about the political workings of the House. Warwick Parer took me under his wing. He was under no obligation at that time to extend his kindness and generosity to me, but that is exactly what he did, and I will be forever grateful for the benefits of his tutelage, his patience, his experience and, of course, his great congeniality. He was always a happy person. My experiences of him in this regard are not unique. We have heard in the other place Senators Boswell and Brandis this week acknowledging Warwick's open-door policy. He had a willingness to talk to anybody at any time about anything, and to provide advice. For that many of us in both houses were truly grateful. He was my mentor. I developed under his guidance, and he became my friend.

Too often in this place, and in other areas of life, the use of superlatives in describing someone as a statesman is often overused to such an extent that the true import or gravity of such a description is sometimes watered down or loses its true meaning, but that was not the case with Warwick Parer. When I say we have lost a statesman with the passing of Warwick Parer, I do so knowing that that description will stand scrutiny and it is a deserved description of a great man.

He was also a statesman of the Liberal Party. The member for Berowra spoke about his active work in the Liberal Party. Both he and Kathi were tireless workers for the party. For many years he was the patron of the Young Liberals movement, and he and Kathi worked in a very dedicated and committed way for the Creek Road branch of the Liberal Party. He served as a Liberal senator for Queensland from 1984 to 2000, and was the Minister for Resources and Energy from 1996 to 1998 under Prime Minister John Howard. The member for Brand spoke about his very short time as resource minister, and one cannot underestimate what he achieved. In that time, he oversaw the abolition of the three mines uranium policy. The member for Brand is quite right: he oversaw the removing of regulation that absolutely strangled our resource sector at the time and had an incredible impost on export controls. By doing this, he improved expansion of our sector internationally. He also freed up jobs growth in that really important area.

After leaving politics, Warwick was very active in the Liberal Party. He served as Queensland state president from 2005 to 2008. That was a very tumultuous time. He worked with the National Party president Bruce McIver to prepare for the eventual amalgamation of the two parties into the LNP. I had a large number of dealings with him after I lost my seat of Petrie in 2007. He was very helpful to me at that time.

He served his state of Queensland and the country proudly and with great dignity. His dedication to public life has been acknowledged by many from both sides of the House, as well as captains of business and industry, and particularly by a lot of people who worked in the mining and resource sector in which he dedicated a whole lot of his working life. He was able to bring that great expertise into parliament and it assisted him to fulfil his parliamentary duties. Warwick served Australia in a number of important roles in his twin careers as a businessman and as a politician and, as has been stated by many members, he brought a depth of understanding to that resources portfolio that nobody—and I mean absolutely nobody—in the parliament could match.

He was also a very interesting Minister for Resources and Energy. I recall that he would regularly say to me that the fisheries part of that portfolio took up 90 per cent of his time, because it was so contentious. I worked with him to remove an impost on the industry, which was the Australian prawn promotion levy. That freed up a lot of the impost, particularly on companies who were working in the prawn industry. The agency that was collecting the levy was very upset with the minister. It wanted the agency to continue, but the industry were so much in favour of it being abolished. I remember the agency taking out a full-page ad against the minister and myself. I was a bit disturbed at the time, and I remember Senator Parer telling me that it was the best advertising that I would ever get in my parliamentary career and that I should be very pleased that it was in the newspaper. I will never forget those words of encouragement, and he was absolutely right. It was a huge impost. The industry wanted it abolished and they were forever grateful that he took the step that he did.

He was an exemplary fishing minister who worked closely with industry to deliver better outcomes for the sector and to reduce costs. It was a great privilege to work with him when he was fisheries minister. He was also very mindful of environmental sustainability. I thank him for the work that he did, particularly on the Patagonian toothfish, the fisheries and Macquarie Island. He realised the importance that commercial fishery had to play as well as making sure that there was environmental sustainability. In a press release at the time, when he was minister, he said:

The arrangements will ensure that Australia obtains the maximum return from the fish resources in these waters, while guaranteeing that any long term fishery established in the area is sustainable.

He worked constantly towards making sure that areas such as Macquarie Island were nominated for World Heritage listing and that fisheries were in tune with each other.

Unlike many in this place—and I have had the experience of leaving not of my own choosing—he left parliament of his own choosing. He left the Senate in 2000, at a time that he decided it was best for him. In a testament to his talents and his expertise, the business sector was all too willing to snap him up. He served as the chairman of the energy and transport advisory sector of the CSIRO from 2002 to 2004. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for his work in the mining industry. In May 2012 Warwick took up the role of chairman of the board of Stanwell Corporation Ltd. His dedication to community service continued in his post-political life. He was appointed chair of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Foundation in 2010. I applaud him for fine work that he did as chair of that organisation.

Our sympathies go to Warwick's family, whose loss exceeds ours. His passing is a great loss to our nation and to public life. Warwick was a devoted husband to Kathi, a loving father to his seven children, Carol, Martine, Helen, Sonia, Warwick, Justin and Rowan. Warwick was also a very proud and devoted grandfather. To the Parer family: thank you, so much, for sharing your husband, father and grandfather with us. We are all the richer for his presence in our life.

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