Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to join with colleagues from both sides of the chamber to recognise the life of Warwick Parer. I had the privilege of knowing Warwick during his service as a senator and a minister in the Howard government, and he quickly earned my respect and, I know, the respect of all of his colleagues. He was determined. He was honourable in the true sense of the word. He was an achiever. He was a man who had a vision for Australia, a particular passion for the mining industry and the resource sector, and he was a man who made a real difference in Australia.

Like most Queenslanders, Warwick was parochial, a fierce advocate for his state, and an Australian dedicated to development and progress. He passed just a few weeks short of his 78th birthday, having been born in New Guinea in 1936. He was a nephew of Australia's renowned Second World War photographer Damien Parer. The devastation of war was sheeted home to Warwick at a tender age when he lost his father in New Guinea in 1942 following the result of a Japanese attack on his aircraft as he prepared to take off from the airstrip at Salamaua.

Warwick was educated in Brisbane and at the University of Melbourne, where he gained a Bachelor of Commerce. He developed a keen and deep knowledge, over decades, of the mining and energy industries that are so central to the development of his state of Queensland and our nation. Warwick founded the non-destructive testing laboratories, a facility widely used for materials testing in engineering, aeronautics and medicine, in 1962.

He had a distinguished career in the private sector before taking on public office. He became commercial manager and assistant secretary of the Utah Development Company in 1973 and chairman of the Australian coal exporters in 1976. He pioneered the development of the Bowen Basin coalfields for the Japanese market, a development which helped to transform the state of Queensland and enable it to develop the kinds of infrastructure and services that have held the state proud in subsequent decades.

Few people have entered parliament with the depth of Warwick's understanding of his industry and the Australian national interest at stake in mining and energy. He knew it well. He appreciated its capacity to transform Australia and had played an active role in bringing this industry to fruition. His service as Minister for Resources and Energy between March 1996 and October 1998 reflected his deep understanding. The portfolio suited his skills and experience perfectly. He was especially proud, as resources minister, of his abolition of export controls on minerals. Those controls had dated back to the Whitlam years. Warwick would not have been out of place in today's government, cutting a swathe through the red tape hampering national prosperity. He turned the first sod for the Australian Geological Survey Organisation's building, and he also chaired the first meeting of APEC ministers in Sydney.

As resources minister, his tasks were about more than mining and energy. He played a key role in preserving and protecting the Patagonian toothfish. As the minister for natural resources, he led the charge for the government to move in the Australian Navy to enforce Australian fishing regulations and arrest a number of ships that were fishing illegally in Australia's Antarctic waters. There is also the famous occasion when Warwick took on the Japanese under the bluefin tuna convention. He believed the Japanese to be unreasonable in demanding a take under what he thought was a ruse of science, putting ocean tuna stocks at risk. Despite all of the departmental and other advice of the time advocating compromise, Warwick declared, 'No, this is wrong in principle'. His strident approach was to effectively ban the Japanese take. While controversial at the time, his stance was later vindicated through the courts, forcing a change in tack from the Japanese towards compromise.

These are examples symbolic of the man: strong when he needed to be and pragmatic in dealing with problems fairly and with a strong sense of natural justice. After his retirement in 2000, Warwick continued to contribute very generously to Australian public life. As others have mentioned, he served as President of the Queensland Liberal Party between 2006 and 2008, and was Chair of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Foundation from 2012.

Warwick was a longtime champion of the merger of the Queensland National and Liberal parties, determined to see it through for over a decade—and the member for Maranoa spoke previously about his role in one of the first attempts to bring the parties together. He believed in that cause and was supportive as the opportunities arose later for that merger to be realised.

I would catch up with Warwick regularly. He was a regular attendee at my annual Brisbane Conservative Club post budget breakfast addresses. He still attended LNP conferences regularly and campaign launches and other important party events but also he was still regarded very highly in mining industry circles not only for his contribution as a practitioner in the industry but also as a minister who understood and cared about the industry and wanted to see it grow and prosper. He remained a true champion of conservative politics, Queensland's progress and national growth throughout his life.

On a personal note, Warwick's chief of staff during the time when he was a minister was David Whitrow, and David has been my chief of staff now for around a decade. David also has fond memories of working with Warwick, whom he admired as a boss and as a partner in endeavouring to deliver reform in the mining sector. Australian industry, the mining sector in particular, is much better and stronger because of the role played by Warwick Parer and his lifetime of service to the industry.

Our thoughts are with his wife Kathi, their seven children and, I understand, 26 grandchildren, so it is a very large family—all of whom will grieve his loss. Those of us who shared the parliament with him also grieve his loss and recognise his contribution as a senator, in particular, to Australian industry and commerce. I salute a great Australian and may he rest in peace.

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