Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great privilege that I get up to speak about Bart Cummings. Bart Cummings was in fact my cousin. My mother was Bart's first cousin, and my grandmother on my maternal side was Annie Cummings, and Annie was Jim Cummings's sister. I have great memories of my boyhood years when they were living at Glenelg. Bart and the family had their stables in Glenelg in Adelaide. I lived in the country, but we would often holiday in Adelaide and we would stay with Bart's sister, Teresa O'Driscoll. I can still remember that Teresa, her husband and her son, Jamie, had a house in Macfarlane Street adjoining the stables. In my earliest memories I can still remember Jim Cummings, who at that stage was still alive and who lived next door. Bart and Val lived on the other side of the stables on the other side of the block. I have many fond memories of walking around those stables and having the privilege of the horses and the champions that were in those stables. As the member for Lalor would appreciate, when you are with a horseracing family there are things that you do that may be strange for other people. One that I remember is that on many days we would sit in the lounge room—and I am showing my age here—and put on an LP and listen to Melbourne Cup races in sync—one of the 10 or 12 LPs of Melbourne Cups that we had. We would relive those races by listening to the LP, and we used to do that quite frequently.

I have many memories and many stories I could tell. I also have many memories about Val—Val, obviously, is Bart's wife. Val was, for me, a larger than life figure. I was a relatively shy country boy when I would go and visit them. I remember one day Val took me and Jamie, and some of her own children, to the circus. We were driving there, and all of a sudden for me it was a car with no roof. I did not know that there was such a word as 'convertible'. Suddenly the roof of this car came off and I said, 'This car has no roof!' She was a fun character; she was always laughing and great to be around.

As the member for Lalor indicated, they went through some very, very tough times, and it is well publicised that in the late eighties and early nineties Bart went through massive financial problems and he persevered. It was well within his character to do that. I think the reason he endeared himself to the Australian public was not only the fact that he was successful—there are a lot of successful people in our community and in our country—but also that Bart had a manner about him and a way about him that was characteristically, dare I say it, 'Australian'. He was very self-deprecating in lots of ways. One of my favourite statements he used to have was—and he used to say it quite a bit—'I am just an ordinary workin' fella havin' a bit of luck.' I remember a friend of mine spoke to him once and said, 'Bart, what advice would you give me?' Bart said, 'Always remember those you meet on the way up, because you might meet them on the way back down.' In his wit he had a lot of wisdom and he certainly had lived a very full life.

His beginnings were very, very humble. They had a family farm—I would not necessarily even call it a property—near a place called Eurelia in his younger days, which was where my mother also grew up as a young child. That place almost does not exist anymore. It was very dry. The blocks that everybody got back then were very small and they thought they were going to be able to support families but they did not, so there were very tough times, and he saw everything. He saw great poverty and great hardship in his younger years and he got to the stage where he was mixing with leaders, queens and royalty around the world and at times did very well.

My thoughts are very much with Val—who is obviously still with us, and as I said she in her own right is a great character, a great Australian citizen and a wonderful person to be around—and the children, Anthony, Margaret, Sharon, Anne-Marie and John, and their families. Bart has great-grandchildren, so I acknowledge all their families at this time. He was a great Australian. They have every right to be very proud of him. My mother used to love Melbourne Cup days when she would go off to her Melbourne Cup luncheons, and every year that Bart won—there were a lot of them, as we know; there were 12—she felt very proud and very honoured to be his cousin. He has brought his family and extended family great joy.

See this speech in context