Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak of a man who was a friend, a colleague and someone who is greatly missed. I first met Alby Schultz when I became vice-president and then president of the Liberal Party of New South Wales. Alby worked for me as a field officer—a field officer who understood what it meant to connect with people in order to get a political message across. He was by far the most effective field officer I had. It was no surprise that he was then preselected to become the candidate for the seat of Burrinjuck—a seat that had almost been a Labor fiefdom, having been held by a particular Labor family for a long period of time. Alby went into that contest fully in the knowledge of the people of Burrinjuck because he had connected with them when he was working as a field officer. He was elected and he served in that seat in the state parliament for 10 years. He was part of the great Nick Greiner election in 1988. For various reasons the seat of Hume became one the Liberal Party could contest, and Alby sought preselection. He was successful, and he then fought a strong election and was successful in becoming the member for Hume.

We have heard time and again in these speeches about Alby's life and about his service that he had humble beginnings, that he had worked as a slaughterman. He went on to get a Diploma in Meat Industry Management from the University of New South Wales, and he was a meat processing industry consultant from 1953 to 1984. He had seen that education could expand his knowledge and his ability and improve the way in which he could work. I have to say of Alby that he was a man who was just as much at home in the working environment of any workplace as he was aboard that luxurious liner the world. He was a man who was natural because he was honest in his opinions and his approach. But he was an enormously loving family man. Gloria—'Glo' as she is affectionately called—is a wonderful woman. The two of them loved each other with a passion. Glo, too, served as an endorsed candidate in a state election, and that was far from a pleasant experience. But they stuck together and they fought it well.

Alby's children Grant and Dean were adored by him, as were his grandchildren. He believed in family values, as we have heard others say. He was also a man who sought to ensure that the things that he believed in he carried out in his life. He understood the importance of the individual and opportunities for individuals to reach their maximum potential. He lived his life in this way. He was a man who could deal with adversity when it came in such an unfair way, first with the accident with the pool chlorine when he lost his eye. The courage that he showed in dealing with that and making it a new persona—the wearing of the black patch, the connection with children—was an inspiration to so many. But it was the unfair cancer that finally took him from us. He fought it with every fibre in his body, and he and Gloria together had a strength that enabled him to live several years when people said he only had months.

Alby was someone who would not stand for being unfairly treated. I remember well when he was passed over for the chairmanship of a committee when he thought he should not have been—and others shared that view, including those across the aisles and those sitting beside him. The net result was that, when the nominations for the chairmanship of that committee were called for, it was not the one that had been directed from on high but Alby, who was supported by the committee in total, who was elected as chairman of that committee. It was unfair that he had been passed over, and his resilience and his ability to persuade other people—or because other people saw that it was unfair—ensured that the support went to him. He chaired that committee, and chaired it damn well.

Alby's passion and tenacity on a subject, once he got his teeth into it, was legendary. He was one of those who are standing up strongly for those in their electorates who are adversely affected by windmills, by so-called wind farms. When he was looking for someone to take his place in this chamber, to become the new member for Hume, it was these things that he looked for in that replacement, and he was enormously proud to have Angus Taylor become the endorsed candidate.

Friendships develop over long periods of time. As I said, I first met Alby in the mid-eighties—1985 is when I became very close to him. It is a friendship that endured. It is a friendship that I enjoyed with a glow, a friendship that in a way goes beyond earthly ties. Memories of that friendship stay with one and enhance one's friendships with those who loved him and those who knew him in a way that can only be said to enrich one's life.

Gloria Schultz, Grant Schultz and Dean Schultz, you are missing a wonderful member of your family, but the love he bestowed on you, and you in turn bestowed on him, is an example to us all. I am lucky to have known him as a friend and I recognise that this chamber is the poorer for his no longer being here with us. Vale, Alby Schultz.

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