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

First of all, I want to pay my regards to all of those members who have spoken before me and regaled the parliament and the public with their incredible journeys in this place, how they came here and what they have achieved, and obviously I wish them all well into the future. As Cobby just said, western New South Wales is rugged. Whenever you want a break, come to the Sunshine Coast, mate!

Folks, my journey started 21 years ago. And I have got to be honest with you: when I came to this place my greatest fear was that I would be an embarrassment. I figured everyone in this joint would be a Rhodes scholar and a brilliant orator, and I just wanted to make sure that I did not let the people of Longman down. That is a statement of fact.

When I stood for preselection there were nine candidates. You might notice that I have a couple of notes here because, as usual, I am really well prepared! The first speech I ever gave, I was very fortunate. For everyone, the most important speeches you give are your preselection speech—and you worry about every word—and your first speech in this place. I turned up there. There were nine candidates, as I said, in the memorial hall at Caboolture. It was pouring with rain. There was no speaker and no-one could hear anything, so that was a damned good thing, and I came on about eighth. I read my first page and I flicked to page 2—and it was about page 8. I became very calm and I just kept flicking and kept talking—and then I realised that I did not even have the other pages. The brilliance of that for me was that everyone thought I was this great orator who did not need notes, and it paid to my favour.

Many of us in this place will remember John Howard walking up to a lectern—if you had the pleasure of sitting near enough to him—and pulling this bit of paper out of his pocket. I have seen him pull it out. I hope I am not going to be in trouble here for holding up props, but he would hold up something with as much on it as on this piece of paper here and he would put it down and then he would speak for 40 minutes, and it would be the most coherent speech you have ever heard.

I am not going to be long tonight. I am sure you are all grateful for that, because you get to get out of here when I am finished. My staff are sitting back in the electorate office tonight and they have just messaged me to say, 'When the hell are you going to speak?' They do not normally listen to me. So, given that they are there, I first of all want to acknowledge Helen, who has been with me in both Longman and Fisher. She is just a powerhouse. This is a woman who gives so much. She has had many challenges in her personal life but she never brings them to work and she is always there as a loyal servant of to the people that I was proud enough to represent and to represent me. She is there with Annette, who also was with me previously. Again, she is just a wonderful woman. Family is everything to her. In more recent times, Leah and Sophie have been there.

Like so many people in life's journey, all of these people have had their own struggles. I think sometimes we forget that and we get so absorbed in what we do that sometimes it takes something to make us step back and reflect upon the people who are closest to us. So, to all of you sitting up there watching tonight: yes, thank you; I appreciate it, and I know you are hanging on every word.

I also have to tell you that it is really strange here tonight. If any of the public are listening—and there is no-one left in the gallery because I am speaking—they must really be confused. Everyone sat here respectfully for the last few hours listening—or at least pretending to listen—and commenting positively about the opposition. They must be saying, 'What is going wrong here?' And they would like to see a bit more of it. We all know that this place is one of combativeness, but let's all do our best to do a little more for each other in this joint and be a little less combative, because it does not do any of us justice. Here endeth the lesson.

As I said, there were nine candidates in my first preselection, and I was the interloper from the Sunshine Coast into Caboolture. I did not know anything about numbers—since then I have been accused of knowing a bit about numbers over the years—and I just thought, 'Be yourself and run.' I later found out that a fellow called Bob Tucker, who was the party president, had a little bit to say. He knew about numbers and he helped me. But along with that is a person I know who has helped Wyatt Roy: Beth Harris and her husband Peter. They showed faith in me at that time, and I thank them for putting me on this journey. It has been an incredible journey. It has been over 21 years, with a hiatus of six years in between. I think I am the only person who is sitting in this place right now who has not had a day in opposition. I knew when to leave and I knew when to come back.

An honourable member: A fair weather sailor!

A fair weather sailor! Walk in these shoes, old son. I know you are only kidding. I want to thank Bob Tucker. Another person who was in the House again this week and is known to many of you is Everald Compton. Everald Compton was asked by John Howard to help 12 members to get elected, because he was the world's first international fundraiser, and when I was first preselected there were 30 members of the electorate—Liberal Party members in those days—and there was no money in the bank. So when I was told this fellow called Everald Compton who raises hundreds of millions of dollars around the world was coming I thought, 'You beauty.'

I will never forget the meeting. He was sitting there and he said, 'Well, son,' and I said, 'Well, what do you do?' And he said, 'It's like this: you ask for it.' I said, 'Go on,' and he said, 'No, that's it,' and I was gobsmacked. But he was right. Have yourself a proposition—a proposition of 'Do you want to change the country?' in this case, because Keating was the Prime Minister. It was not 'What policy do you want?' It was 'Do you want to make a difference? Do you want to change the country?' 'Yes.' 'Well, it's going to cost you money. Are you willing to put it up.' And to my great surprise people did. I thank them for it and for showing faith in all of us.

I will quickly mention two other families who have been on this journey with me almost from the start. One is the McMahon family—Terry and Bev—just the most wonderful people, out of Brisbane. They are farmers now up in Wide Bay. They are the salt of the earth. To you and your families, I say: the love, respect and support you have given Sue and me over two decades will never be forgotten. There is also their very good mate Louis Bickle, known to many in this place. I went to his 70th birthday party and became paralytic. He owned the club, so I did not get kicked out! He is a wonderful man and a quintessential Australian, who now, at age 73, is looking for the world's new opportunities. In fact, he probably thinks there is no better time to be an Australian.

Who else? When I came up into Fisher, there were a bunch of old Liberals there. I do not mean old as in age; I mean old as in they were former Liberals. They used to come down occasionally and support me in Longman. They are the Gowers, the Stephens and the Smiths. I just want to put on the record my thanks to them for showing support for me in what was a very challenging time and sticking loyally to us.

I want to thank the party membership and the wider friendship group that everyone else has also reflected upon. I thank them for being on the journey with us through the highs and the lows, and this place has both. I did not get a chance to give a valedictory speech in 2007, and I knew I was gone. For those of you who are facing election in marginal seats—and a lot of people have reflected today on marginal seats—it is character building. In 1998, with Sue, I remember precisely where I was sitting on election night. We were in tears and saying, 'We could not have done any more,' and it is not enough. You are lost for words because you think that giving everything—and your kids give up an enormous amount, as you all know; you are not there for anything. Then the last booth came in—it was Maleny—and I went ahead by 0.1 of a per cent. I went, 'I'm in,' because I knew we would win the postal votes and the pre-polls. But it is those moments when you think that it was maybe something you did as a team—it is nothing that you do as an individual—that just pulled those few more people together and those votes that got you across the line. It allowed me to go on a journey which has enriched my life, and I hope, in some small way, we have helped to enrich a few others.

There are couple of other people to thank. Phil Barassi got married, as someone said, the other day. Teresa and I were there, and, thank God, he did get married! Good luck to his wife! No, no, they are a lovely couple. Phil said to me one day, 'You're a miserable bastard.' He was probably not the only one to say that, because I do not go out drinking and partying here, and I will tell you why—I have no disrespect for anyone else who does—but my wife was home with three young kids. I used to think 'If I go home and say, "What a great night I had last night out on the turps at Manuka," she is at home with that responsibility.' So I took the decision that it was really important that I was on that journey with her.

Phil said to me, 'You love touch footy, mate,' and we started playing touch. Not long after, Andy Turnbull turned up, and now you have the parliamentary sports group. Chris is sitting over there. We used to play touch footy together and with so many others. You build up friendships and learn things about people on a sporting field that you will never learn around in a bar or when they give speeches in this joint. That is on both sides. Thanks to everyone who has come down over the years—in particular, Joe Hockey and I. As long as Hockey was on the other side, I only had one rule: it was my ball, they were my cones, they were my rules and I refereed. You are not forgotten over there in the US, mate. We know well the contribution you have made.

I have a few things to say on policy, very briefly. The veterans have always been very important to me. Rick, Louis, Pattle and Ako at the Mooloolaba Surf Club are still doing a great job with our new vets, and I thank them for what they are doing. It is the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, and Harry and the boys will go back there. They have recently had a hearing where people have told some really hard home truths about that battle and some of the awards that were given. I will say no more about that. Suffice to say it has been a privilege to know these men and to count them as friends. I think all of us in this place who are touched by the military feel the same way.

When I travelled with John Howard to spend Anzac Day in Iraq was one of those memories of my life. I do not want to detain you, but I think you will appreciate this story. We were flying out of Baghdad in a C130, I had General Cosgrove on my left, and I was the only one with headphones in the back. O'Leary was sitting there—he did not like flying—and the PM was up the front. I want to tell you what I could hear. The pilot said, 'Welcome, Prime Minister,' and he said, 'Oh, yeah, good to be with you!' I do not know how Hansard is going to handle my impersonation or how John is going to handle that either, just quietly! I always used to like imitating you, John, but with the most dearest respect.

We had been flying for a short period of time—Cosgrove was looking out the porthole and I could not see—when the pilot went, 'Powerlines coming up front left. Train front right', and I was thinking, 'Aren't we in the air?' So I went to Cosgrove, who said, 'We are on the ground', and I went, 'How good is this?' Then the pilot went, 'Missile front left!'—there was a bit of a change in his voice. It is bizarre what you think. I put my feet up and went 'Well, bugger me. This is how it ends', because there is nothing you can do. It was not because I am a hero, trust me. Then I heard the SAS guys at each corner say, 'No missile front left. No missile back right', and I went, 'Ah, enough excitement for one day.' We ended up flying up high, and I went to the front and said to John, 'Well, how was that?' and he went, 'Manoeuvrable, isn't it? Manoeuvrable, isn't it! The man of steel. Seriously!

While I am on John Howard: thank you for the opportunities you gave me as a minister and the trust you placed in me. The respect that I have for you is immense—as is everyone else's here. But I was also privileged to serve with Peter Costello and Peter Reith as their junior ministers, and that was an incredible experience as well.

Indigenous affairs was a big part of my life, and it will be a big part of my life to the day I die. I came back to this place because my wife had unfinished business with Indigenous affairs. I have never told this story publicly, but she has been moved beyond belief and wanted to do more for children who had been hurt. Little over a week ago it was reported that a 10-year-old girl had committed suicide. If that girl had been white and been living in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne, it would have been worldwide news. It hardly made the news here. It did not make our parliament. That is a reflection on all of us. I do not know what the answers are, but I do know that collectively we need to do more than care; we need to actually address it. These are tragedies in our backyard, and we collectively are responsible. That affected my wife greatly, and she wanted me to come back to continue what we tried to do earlier on. That was not to be. I never expected it to be. But I just commend her for her passion for her fellow Australians.

On that, I had the most memorable meeting with Professor Marcia Langton, Noel Pearson and Galarrwuy Yunupingu up at a Galarrwuy's joint on Ski Beach. We talked about things that mattered to people's lives but also the symbolism. We went back and spoke to John Howard and he announced that within 18 months a re-elected coalition government would address the issue of Indigenous recognition in the Constitution. Of course, we were not re-elected. But here we are eight years later and we are still talking about it. It will not fix the lives of children who have been hurt, but what it will do is fix a wrong that has been part of our Constitution from the start. We are far more enlightened today, so I just implore you all to do what you can to make sure that we fix that wrong and that we move forward as a nation of one people.

To my class of '96: Bob Baldwin; Bruce Billson; Teresa Gambaro; Andrew Southcott; Sharman Stone, who will be the only one after this term from the class of '96 to have completed 20 years—and who will continue on; Don Randall, our great friend, who he is still part of us here today—a great loss; and Joe Hockey. We were all here together at the start. As you know, two of them are, for different reasons, no longer with us. But to all of you: thank you. It was a great class, and it was a great privilege to be part of that journey.

To the people who helped and supported me to return here, particularly Glenn Ferguson, Tony Riddle and Tony Davies: I pay my greatest respect to all of you for what you do in the community on the Sunshine Coast and how you have supported me on the journey.

Finally to my wife, who went home on a plane this afternoon: I do not think she would have wanted to have been here. She wanted me back here to do a job. She was never about the pomp and ceremony. She was never comfortable here. She is at home, and I will soon be joining her. When I do we will be with our grandchildren. We are looking forward to the next phase of our life.

Thank you all for what you do for Australia. Make sure that you continue to make Australia a great nation. That is our first and last duty, and I hope that you embrace it with all your heart.

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