Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I very much enjoyed listening to the memories of the member for Sturt about my predecessor in the seat of Stirling, Eoin Cameron.

Unfortunately, I did not get to know him very well personally. He was my Liberal predecessor in the seat, there was a Labor member for six years between us, and by the time I ran for the seat of Stirling he was already back on ABC radio and was not available to play a big part in the campaign. Some of his family members helped me out, particularly his son, Ryan, and his wife, Wendy, who I had a very high regard for. Unfortunately, I cannot give you the sort of personal memories that the member for Sturt has and I am sure the member for McMillan will also be able to share with the House.

I think that the member for Sturt captured a lot of what I know about Eoin, which is that he was a man who was absolutely larger than life. Certainly, some of those stories about his interactions with constituents have come back to me as the member for Stirling some six years after he left parliament, because they are enormously entertaining. Clearly he was somebody who really broke the mould for politicians. I think the member for Sturt was correct in saying that he was not that fussed about being a good politician in that sense. He wanted to represent his constituents, but he would do things that most of us, I think, would look askance at.

He was true to himself whilst he was here, and he is remembered as a man who had enormous integrity whilst he was here and the fact that he stuck to his independent views and was very much his own man. Of course, that happened at a time when there was a lot of internal division within the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party. It is a very happy family now. It is hard to remember when we look back, but the battles there were, quite frankly, vicious, and it was a very difficult time for members of parliament who essentially were dividing on one side or the other. Eoin did spend a lot of time in his final couple of years engaged in that, particularly with what was known as the anti-Noel Crichton-Browne forces. It is hard to remember what they were arguing about now, but at the time it was certainly a very vicious battle.

John Howard, who was Prime Minister at the time, remembered him as somebody who was his own man in every respect. He said that he was a strong Liberal who was loyal to the party but he was not a person who could be taken for granted and he always brought an independent view. The opposition leader at the time, Kim Beazley, said that he was a good politician who did not like being one much.

As the member for Sturt has mentioned, Eoin left school at the age of 14. The member for Sturt mentioned something that Eoin spoke about publicly, quite recently and very movingly, and that was the sexual abuse that he suffered as a young person. Anybody who listened to those stories when he was on the radio would have found it absolutely harrowing, but he used what must have been an incredibly painful and difficult period of his life for good. He was very strong supporter of the work of beyondblue. As the member for Sturt mentioned, Eoin suffered from bipolar disorder himself, and others in his family subsequently suffered from bipolar disorder. He was a great advocate of the causes of mental health, and he did not mind sharing his own intensely personal and painful experiences in pursuit of that goal of advocating for mental health. I have great regard for him for that. I listened, not as a friend of his but as somebody who has listened to his radio program, and he was very up-front about the horrible things that had occurred to him. He was trying to use that terrible experience as a force for good. He did overcome many challenges in his life, including sexual abuse and the subsequent depression and bipolar disorder than came along with that.

He was a very passionate person, and he shared those painful aspects of his life—all aspects of his life—on the radio. He was very much a personality in Perth. He was very well known for the way that he conducted himself on the radio and for the sorts of relatively outrageously things that he would do on radio, but, of course, that endeared him to his listeners very heavily. His listeners thought that he was straight talking and honest. He was renowned for his awful taste in music, including an enduring love for Dusty Springfield.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

Shared apparently with the member for Sturt. He was never short of an opinion on his radio show. Of course, he was absolutely never afraid of speaking his mind, and he was not remotely concerned about who he would offend in doing that.

He will be sadly missed. I am sorry that I did not get to know him better. Unfortunately, it was just not the way that it was. We did not cross paths as often as I would have liked, but I do wish his family all the best. I offer them my sincere condolences, particularly to Ryan and Wendy, who I got to know a little bit, but also to his daughters, Jane and Jacinta. He was grandfather to Jeorgia, Cameron, Sophie, Lachlan, Eugenie, Flynn, Milla and Sadie and, of course, to his surviving siblings as well. We send them our deepest condolences for somebody who, unfortunately, left us far too soon.

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