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

Alby turned to me and said, 'Listen, mate. I'm going to ask a question about this money that Labor has promised for the hospital. They're going to say that they didn't promise it. I want you to hold up the front page of the Post to show that they made the promise.' I said, 'No worries, mate. Will I get into trouble for this?' He said, 'No. Don't worry about it.' So he asked the question and I held it up. Harry Jenkins, the then Speaker, looked up and said, 'The member for Herbert shall leave under 94(a).' I turned to Alby and said, 'What do I do?' He said, 'You have to go, mate.' I said, 'What happened here?' He said, 'Just don't make eye contact with me'—which was reasonably funny because I was on his blind side anyway.

There is a special place for the vitriol he sent to the Labor benches, but there was a special level of chat that went towards our friends and cousins in the National Party, and especially towards the crossbenchers. He was merciless in his words to Messrs Katter, Oakeshott and Windsor, but, to their credit, every time you went out and came back in, either Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott or Bob Katter would be sitting there having a chat to Alby. It was like a traditional football game in that, during the heat of battle in here, it was full on; but, with Alby, outside of here it was just the same. He gave no quarter and expected no quarter. In the party room, he was pretty much like that as well. His refrain was: 'We are the party of prime ministers.' He had a special place in his heart for that ideal. He wanted to make sure that it kept rubbing off on everyone in that Liberal party room and that we understood exactly where he was coming from. He asked for no quarter. He was fearless, ruthless and fun toward everyone there.

It was his turn of phrase that always got to me. I am a man who has been known to crack a joke and that sort of thing. I am pretty much the 'pull my finger' kind of guy, but Alby Schultz was very clever. When we were discussing the carbon tax, we were asking questions because the then Labor Northern Territory government was against the carbon tax and the then Victorian Labor government was against the carbon tax. The question was being asked repeatedly: 'Could you name a Premier who is in favour of Australia adopting a world-beating carbon tax?' The voice came from the back: 'Hu Jintao'—the Premier of China! It was just one of those moments. No-one else saw it coming except for Alby. It was just an absolute cracker.

We will hear during this debate about Alby's eye—how he lost it in an acid accident and how he dived into the pool and the thing was out in his hand before he came up. In relation to that, I want to talk about how he was not only a political warrior but also a great bloke. My family came to Canberra for my maiden speech, we were at a Chinese takeaway restaurant and Alby Schultz came in. My son was particularly interested in his glass eye. Whilst my daughter, Abbie, was pretty much horrified that this man had a glass eye, Andrew was completely and utterly besotted by the story of how he had lost his eye. You could see what a great parent and, especially, what a great grandparent he must have been, given the amount of time he gave us and the softness of his voice in his approach to my wife and my children. He was an absolute gentleman in that regard.

You cannot mention Alby Schultz without talking about his wife, Gloria. Whilst a lot has been made about Gloria—that you got two for the price of one; I do not think there is a married person in this place for whom you do not get two for one—Gloria was a bit special. Senator Ian Macdonald will always tell the story about when he was trying to get elected in 1990, well before Alby was in this place, and Alby had rung up from Cootamundra and said, 'I'll come up and help.' He and Gloria drove at their own expense and stayed in a motel at their own expense to help Ian Macdonald in the campaign that got him elected in 1990. That is the measure of the person. It is not so much what we do in this place; it is the stuff you do behind the scenes that really stands out for you. Like the member for Hughes said, Alby would always bring in stuff that he would distribute in the electorate. He would never tell you that it was right; he would always just say, 'Have a look at it; have a read of it. If there's something there that you can use, that would be great.' That was the making of the man. That is what I believe.

The other thing with Alby is that, just because you were a friend of his, it did not stop him of giving you a full and frank character assessment if you stepped over the line. Whilst I was never a recipient of the poke in the chest, I was not too far away on a couple of occasions. He did say that what he wanted was very serious and that what we were trying to do here was very serious. I cannot claim to be close to him, but to know Alby and Gloria was to understand the passion with which he represented his family, his workmates, his council, his state and his country. Peter FitzSimons has been in the papers lately. To paraphrase him: politics does not build character; it reveals character. Vale, Alby Schultz. You are already missed, mate. We really need you back. Cheers.

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