Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am going to break the confidence and the seal of the party room. There are a bunch of kids up there in the gallery listening to us. In the party room Senator Brett Mason announced it was his last party room. He went to how blessed we are to be in this place, how lucky we are to be in this place He raised an amazing thing. We still have Philip Ruddock, the member for Berowra, in this House, who served with Malcolm Fraser, who served with Robert Menzies, and in the first Menzies government Billy Hughes was there. Billy Hughes was in Australia's very first parliament in 1901, so people like me have only three or four degrees of separation from the birth of our federation. That is one of the coolest things I have ever heard, and it lets you know just how blessed we are to be in this place.

I think, when you go to the life of John Malcolm Fraser, when you do sit down, what a lot of people gloss over here is the toll this place will take on you and the toll it takes on people who sit in that front chair. Malcolm Fraser was two years younger than I am today when he left office after 28 years in this place. I came in with you, Deputy Speaker Griggs, and you are a damn sight younger than me, but I am now 55. I have been here for coming on five years, and Malcolm Fraser had already had his 28-year career and was gone two years ago in my life.

I never met him. I saw him once in a lounge, but I never had the guts to go up and say g'day. I never voted for him. My first election was in 1980. I was a very young 20-year-old and more intent on filling my car, filling my belly and getting the next beer. When he floated the world parity pricing on oil, it hit my hip-pocket and I could not stand the bloke. I did not vote for him in 1980 or 1983. The thing you have to understand, is what he stood for. The man had principles.

A lot of people here have spoken about the dismissal and the way that it seemed to be more collegiate in those days. I disagree. When you look at principle and that sort of thing, I do not think anyone would have played a harder hand than him in the dismissal. To compare parliaments and eras is like trying to compare cricketers and footballers or different styles of football, and who would be good today and who would not be good. All you can do is play the ball that is in front of you. All you can do is play by the rules that are applied now. There is no way in the world that a man today could have a 28-year career or be in the parliament for over 12 years and not get a promotion to develop his craft.

A lot has been said about the friendship between Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, but the friendship stretches across the parliament. There are friendships here, now—and the member for McMillan bears it for everyone, and I see the member for Melbourne Ports there. He used to sit next to the previous member for Banks, Daryl Melham, and Russell Broadbent. The member for McMillan came in at the same time. They have regular dinners. They get on very well. In this place you can get on with people across the board. I played a little bit of football in my day—not very well—but the thing is you have to leave it on the pitch. We come in here for an hour-and-a-half each day. At two o'clock we go on and belt the living daylights out of each other, and we go off afterwards and get back on with the work.

Whether I agree with what Malcolm Fraser did, whether I agree with his economic policies, is moot. I cannot do anything about it. What I can do is express my admiration for someone who stuck at it for so long. What I can do is tell people how much the job must take out of the Prime Minister—any Prime Minister—how much stress it adds and how many years it takes off your life. To come through that, to be in here, is very lucky. To get to be Prime Minister—the air is so rare; anyone who can take that step and commit so totally that they can make that office deserves the respect of everybody in this place.

I still have both my parents with me. I do not speak to them often enough. I do not see them anywhere near often enough. As the member for Wright said, to lose your dad is a big thing, no matter what age you are. To lose your mum or your dad is a big thing. So my condolences go to the Fraser family, to Tammy, their children and their extended family. I do wish them all the best and I pass my deep condolences to the family. Vale John Malcolm Fraser. He stood for something. He was a man, and he was a big man—a big man in this country and a big man on a page of this country's history. I thank the House.

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