Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I join others in congratulating you on your election as Speaker. The voice of the member for Canning is silent today in this place for the first time in a very long time. I think it is wonderful that today we can come together. Who would have thought, in all the paradoxes of this place, that it would be Don Randall who has brought us together today? As Don's voice is silent in this chamber today, he can be silent; we will speak and he can listen. I am sure Don would be enjoying hearing what he is hearing today very much.

Don passed away at work, as the member for Brand has just said, in his car. He was on route to the Boddington IGA, where he was going to yet another one of his listening posts. It is very fitting that that is the way that Don would leave us, doing what he loved doing every single day, working hard for the people of his own electorate. Much has been said about Don's significant electoral victories and achievements already. At the heart of those achievements was his simple commitment to the job that he loved doing and the people he loved doing it for. You cannot fake that. It is real and it is authentic. It was very genuine in the person of Don Randall. This is why he was successful in politics. People understood that about Don: his authenticity. He was unorthodox, he was a larrikin, he was tremendous company and he was controversial. He was all of these things, but he was a very human person, a very real person and a very authentic person that people could connect with.

Of his victories, there were many. They have been remarked on, whether it was his first victory in '96, the comeback victory in 2001 or his greatest victory, winning every booth in 2013. I think it was his victory in 2010 for me—as a former state director and party campaigner—which was most significant, because it was probably one of the toughest. He was up against his toughest opponent. We were relying on Don in that election to deliver as he always had. Don just never let us down. He campaigned bravely, he campaigned on his record and he campaigned on his unique relationship with his electors. Their response to him was instinctive and that was Don's reward: the appreciation of his efforts in a great contest.

As local members of parliament, we hope that we make a difference in our own electorates, as Don did. His achievements were many. I particularly want to commend him for his work in the Clontarf Foundation, which has been remarked upon. That did not only impact on people in his electorate in Western Australia; it is impacting on mine. There are 50 young Indigenous boys at Endeavour High School in the Sutherland Shire mentored by Jeff Hardy. That would not have happened if it were not for Don. These young boy have a future that they could never have dreamed of. That is a generational legacy for those young Indigenous boys.

I was an event recently at Endeavour High School. Premier Mike Baird was there also, lending New South Wales state government support to this incredible initiative that enjoys support across the chamber. There were two young men there who had been through the program and now were in employment, working on one of the big construction projects out in Western Sydney. The Premier and I asked them, 'How does this play back in your communities? What does your mum think about the fact that you have gone, you have got this job and all of the rest of it?' They said, 'They never thought it was possible.' For one Australian and one Australian family to now have a future that they could never have dreamed of, because of the support and investment of Don Randall, that on its own was a legacy worth leaving in his time in this place.

But there were many, many more. Others have remarked on Don's mentoring skills. That is true. I know, in particular, he was a fine mentor and friend to the member for Swan, as a former member for Swan. But it was not just members of parliament that he mentored. For those of us who came in in the class of 2007—there were not many of us on this side in 2007; there were a lot more on that side—Don was kind friend to us. With the member for Swan, we came in. We love him and miss him dearly.

It was for his staff also. I am glad the member for Brand mentioned the staff. Don was a fine mentor of so many staff, who you would see then going and working in other member's campaigns or even candidate's campaigns, as you would move around Western Australia. There are many people who own their place in this chamber because of the good skills and support of staff who were tutored under Don Randall's leadership. Someone who takes the time to take the interest in mentoring someone is a truly decent person. Don has set a fine example to us all in that regard.

In politics and in public life, and as a shadow minister and as a minister, there are difficult tasks that one has to engage in. In my own case—as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, as indeed the current minister would know—Don was the strongest possible supporter of the policies we took to the election in 2013. Many doubted, but Don was always a rock of support. I know members opposite who have taken and held those responsibilities know the difficulties and challenges of that portfolio. They know also how important it is when you have some mates who are there to back you up in the difficult times on those decisions when the world seems to be against you. Don was such a person. He believed in the outcome, he believed in the issue and he believed in the people who were doing it. For that, I will always remember my good friend Don Randall.

We got to know each other through a relationship with Sri Lanka, which the Minister for Foreign Affairs has referred to. Don was passionate about Sri Lanka, and they were passionate about him. I was there with him on one occasion and they referred to him as 'Mr Sri Lanka'. Don was passionate about the whole country and everything about it, but he was passionate and had an ambition for Sri Lanka that bore no allegiance to any ethnicity in Sri Lanka. I think this was something misunderstood about Don. Don believed in a peaceful, prosperous, successful post civil war Sri Lanka. He wanted the best for Sri Lanka, and he would support anything and anyone who was trying to bring about that result in Sri Lanka. He was not intimidated by those who were for this regime or that regime; he was just there trying to support the people of Sri Lanka on the ground—Tamil, Sinhalese and others alike. He reached out to them and he supported them; he supported poor families in the north and he spoke to presidents. He advocated on behalf of all for a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka. He will always be remembered in that country for his commitments both in this place and there. I want to thank the Minister for Foreign Affairs for reading the communication she received from the government of Sri Lanka.

Don will be deeply missed, as we have said, as a teacher, a larrikin and a mate. 'Mateship' is the Australian word for love, and we loved Don and he was a mate. But in all of these things and in all of our roles, the most important that we have—I know Don felt this way; we all know Don felt this way—is as a husband and a father, our greatest and most important roles. For Julie, Tess and Elliot, who are here, it is difficult for our families in the strange lives we live in this place, but you know, as we know, that you are much better off because you are the wife and children of Don Randall. We will miss him as a mate and we will love him.

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