Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

table it—or perhaps hang it up in our party room to see exactly what Alby thought! As I said, we know that Alby was not one for political correctness. But, even in that valedictory speech, he brought up something that I know was of great concern to him—the appalling waste of our limited and precious resources on wind turbines. I again quote from Alby's valedictory speech:

Wind turbines have cost the electricity consumer approximately $2.25 billion from 1 January 2011 to 30 March 2013. That is $1 billion per year—think about what that could be used for in our communities.

And Alby was right. He understood. He wanted to do the very best he could for the communities he represented.

I think sometimes in the cities we get a little bit disconnected from the lives our country cousins live. I travelled to Alby's funeral down in Cootamundra. I remember driving through the town of Harden, which is part of Alby's patch. The shops there were closed down. There is probably less prosperity in that town today than there was 100 years ago. We talk about the housing affordability crisis in our cities, but in the window of the real estate agent in Harden I saw a three-bedroom brick house on a large block of land for sale for $210,000. These were the people that Alby Schultz represented in parliament. These are the people that he stood up for. I will miss Alby. He was a good friend. May he rest in peace.

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