Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make only a few brief comments. I feel privileged that I knew and served with Alby Schultz. At a time when people lament the bland nature of politicians, Alby was not that—and he was not from a bygone era. He was there in the Howard times and of course also in the previous parliament. So he was not from some time way, way back that people look back at through rose-coloured glasses. This was a bloke with passion. This was a bloke with beliefs. This was a bloke that lived those passions through compassion.

It is probably not something that a lot of people have spoken about here, but he would pull you aside—sometimes when I was a minister, as well as at other times—and tell you what he thought of the job you were doing. He would be frank, but you could tell from his conversation that it came from a belief system about what was good for humanity. It did not matter whether it was about his electorate or whether it was about something in my area of either Indigenous affairs or disabilities; there was always a passion mixed with compassion.

We all regale each other with stories about the great Alby shaking his head and storming out of meetings, about him telling the Prime Minister what he thought of him and about his colourful turn of phrase. But, if you distil all that into what people want from their elected representatives—that is, they want to know that their representatives are real people with lived experience and that they are willing to put something of themselves into what they do—Alby Schultz encapsulated that in everything he did.

I did not know him as a state parliamentarian, but you can see from the results he achieved in the polls that he was one with his electorate, and all 150 of us, regardless of political persuasion, should want to be as much one with our constituents, to know what they are feeling and to be able to articulate that here without fear or favour. That is what makes a genuinely good local member, and local members are what we are, after all. We are all, first and foremost, private members of parliament.

There are many lessons that every member of parliament, present and future, could take from the passing of Don Randall and Alby Schultz—members who did not just give to their electorates but worked with their electorates, who were passionate and compassionate about what they believed in and had no self-interest. It was not about where they were going but about what they could do for others. It is such personalities that give a rich vein to the Australian parliament. It is those rich backgrounds of lived experience without which you cannot represent the Australian population and have a broad cross-section of the Australian population's viewpoints focused on in this place. Alby brought that here without fear or favour. For all of us here, it was a privilege to know him.

We all know that he suffered great illness. Before that, of course, he had that awful accident with the pool acid, but he never once seemed to feel sorry for himself. He just took it in his stride: 'Yep, I was lucky I didn't lose my other eye,' and, 'What a silly thing for me to do.' Boy, there is a lot for us to learn.

We give thanks for the life of Alby Schultz, for his contribution to public life and for the wonderful contribution he made to the people that he loved, literally, in his electorate and that he stood up for. He spoke on behalf of those who did not have a voice. We say thank you and we thank his family for the commitment that they showed him and the contribution that they made. We are all the better for having been part of the life of Alby Schultz. May he rest in peace.

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