Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to join my colleagues in acknowledging the life and work and achievements of Ronald Joseph Walker, to join with the many who, over the past few days since his death, have provided wonderful accolades of his service to the community, and to extend my condolences to his widow, Barbara, and members of the Walker family. In the many accolades that have been given about Ron Walker, both in this place and elsewhere in the last few days, there obviously has been great emphasis on his service to the community, particularly in Melbourne—to his work, firstly, as a successful businessman, his term as Lord Mayor of Melbourne and, more significantly, his chairing of the major events activities in Melbourne, including the Commonwealth Games and the Grand Prix, and then subsequent charitable work, particularly for others less fortunate than himself.

It's just one other, I suppose, in the life of Ron Walker, relative minor episode that I want to remark upon today which goes to the character of the man. It relates to a small country town in the north-east of Victoria named Walwa. Walwa is hundreds of kilometres from any major centre. It's on the Murray River, in the valley there—a beautiful spot in north-eastern Victoria between Albury to the west and Towong and the Snowy Mountains to the east. There had been, and indeed still is, a country bush nursing hospital at Walwa for many decades.

Walwa's a small town. At the 2006 census, the population was listed, I think, as 268. There are undoubtedly more people in the surrounding farming areas, but you get the sense of a remote community in this beautiful part of Victoria. There'd been a local doctor as well as the bush nursing hospital at Walwa for more than 20 years. But, due to funding constraints, there was a question about whether or not that hospital could continue to operate. Indeed, in about 1998-99, there was a real crisis in terms of the continuation of services in the community.

I remember one day, when I was the Minister for Ageing in about 2001 or 2002, getting a phone call from Ron Walker asking, 'Can't we do something about keeping this hospital open in Walwa?' Why was he interested? It was because there had been a story in the Herald Sun in Melbourne highlighting the plight of people in this remote community if they were to lose their doctor, which they'd had for many decades, and, indeed, if they were to lose their hospital. He said that he would do whatever he could to ensure that this hospital remained open. I think it was at the urging of his wife, Barbara, to do something for the locals there, not that he had any particular connection with them. He was urging me as the minister from the Commonwealth level to try to do something with the states as well. To cut a long story short, Ron Walker pledged $150,000 for the maintenance of this hospital, a pledge which he subsequently renewed some years later. In many ways, he was the saviour of the Walwa bush nursing hospital, so much so that by 2006, through a period of development, what came out of that was a medical centre, an accident and emergency 24-hour response centre and, in addition to that, independent living units that in effect brought together hospital and aged care. His frustration in conversations I had with him at the time was that, if the states and the Commonwealth could only get together, we could provide these services rather than having a division between the two. Through his championing of this through his personal financial contributions and his continued interest, the people of Walwa in north-eastern Victoria today continue to have medical and aged-care services that otherwise they wouldn't have. That would mean for them, for the farmers and for the townspeople in Walwa a journey of an hour or an hour and a half at least to a major centre such as Albury or further afield to get those services.

As I said, this small episode in a wonderful life is an indication of the character of a man who saw a problem in a remote rural town and decided that he could do something about it not just in his contribution of finances to the continuation of the hospital but by getting on the phone to the likes of me and the then Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Kay Patterson, to see what we could do and, by working with us, come up with a solution.

The other thing that is said about Ron Walker is that, even though he was a lifetime Liberal and a great contributor to the Liberal Party, not just financially but in other ways as well, he nonetheless had an ability to work with people on all sides of politics. He did that when he was the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, he did that through the major events and developments in Melbourne and he did it in a lot of other ways. He did it by bringing people together and heading towards a goal, less concerned about the political differences than achieving the goal. He was able to achieve a huge amount for Melbourne, for Victoria and for many ordinary people. We stand in his debt. I extend my condolences once again to his wife, Barbara, and to members of his family. May he rest in peace.

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