Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

on indulgence—There are few times when you meet a great person, and I believe that one of the greatest people I've ever had the privilege to meet was Senator John McCain of Arizona. Senator John McCain was the son and the grandson of naval admirals. What epitomised his life, though, was the exemplary nature of his bravery and his capacity to stand against impertinent forces and the status quo when required and as required. Senator John McCain was no saint. He was far from it. He had, one would say in polite terms, a very colourful life in his early life. He was married twice.

But what we all note, and what illustrates this, is the bravery he showed after being shot down over Hanoi—when he became a prisoner of war. It's been noted by previous speakers what he endured in solitary confinement for five years. He was fed a diet of a form of pumpkin soup and bread. When they found out his father was an admiral, he refused to take what was offered to him and go home, because he believed that others who were in more need had always to go first. He was hung from the roof by ropes. He was tortured. Later on in life he was one of the first people to stand up against the excesses of Guantanamo Bay and to make sure that America was not a participant in such things as waterboarding. He was always a person who could be relied upon to speak the brave part.

One also notes, and it will be noted a number of times, that when a lady accused then Presidential nominee Barack Obama of being an Arab, in front of a partisan crowd which could so easily have been moved to an animal intent, he decided instead to stand up and say the truth. These are the sort of qualities which would embellish any political career. It's one of the reasons, when I heard of the death of Senator John McCain at 82 from brain cancer, I thought that if I had an opportunity to say my part, I would definitely take that opportunity. Senator McCain went home and said, 'I'm going to die.' That was basically it. There was no grand plan or great finale. It was another statement of the bravery of this individual.

In his previous life, the time he was shot down over Hanoi wasn't the first time he was injured. He was also part of a major accident where over 130 were killed on an aircraft carrier. His grandfather had been instrumental in the use of aircraft carriers in the Pacific during the Second World War. On this occasion, a missile was accidentally sent off. It hit a fuel drum beside his plane, and he had to roll across the thing and got terribly burnt. Later on, by reason of his torture in Hanoi, he was unable to put his hands above his head. He had to get someone else to comb his hair. Yet he never used that as a mechanism to sit down and wallow in his grief. He was always going forward.

In my conversation with Senator John McCain—and it's such an honour to be able to say 'in my conversation with Senator John McCain'—he was a person who had a real spark to what he could do. You could see he had lived an interesting and full life. He had grabbed life with both hands, in bravery, in struggle, in politics, in love and in life. When he went out with his colleagues, they said it was one of the wildest experiences in their lives as to where they would end up, because that's what he was: he was full on, as we would say. In my discussions with him, he looked at me and said, 'Did you play rugby?' which was pretty astute, because I had. I played it for about 21 years. He had a passion for rugby. It was a game that I would have thought he wouldn't know much about. It was yet another form of where there was something about him. What you saw when you were meeting someone who I believe was a global giant was a person of humility. He met people as they walked up to him. He didn't stand on a podium when he was speaking to you one on one. He spoke to you as a person. He was accepted by both sides and spoke to both sides of politics when he was here in Canberra.

Even though he had a large and colourful life, he had a deep faith, and he utilised that, I think, for the best mechanisms. His vision of the United States of America's position in the world was to be an article that promoted the rule of law, justice and right. He said America would be noted for its military strength but, more than its military strength, it would be noted for its ideals. Its ideals were the issues that he believed were vastly more pertinent in affecting global affairs than its armaments. But he realised you had to have them both.

No person is perfect in their foreign policy, but he had a strong view on where right and wrong are. He obviously had strong questions about what President Trump did, but I think he only voted against two of Trump's bills—I may need to be corrected there. But what he didn't agree with was what he believed was the loss of dignity in the presidential office that was coming about by reason of some of the more extreme statements of President Trump. He thought that that was taking away from the dignity of the presidential office. I have to stand by that. I was disgusted when President Trump disparaged his military service. I think that was a disgrace. I would hope—and of course he's not going to listen—that at some stage President Trump will apologise directly for that. Maybe he will. He tweets at two in the morning. Maybe he's listening now.

If we can borrow something from this, it is that a good politician is not a pastor or a priest but a person of full life, and Senator McCain aptly represented that. With a person of bravery, you will find their bravery permeates through many sections of their life, and Senator McCain represented that. A person who has a love of their nation has a love of their nation to the very last breath. When he was voting on issues that he believed in and being taken back to the Senate to do it, Senator McCain of Arizona represented that. A person should be accepted for both their strengths and their weaknesses and the wider encumbrance of human nature, and Senator McCain was a display of that.

I will always treasure the brief time that I had in discussion with someone I think of as a political giant. He was a person who had to live in the shadow of exceptional people, they being his father and grandfather, but you would have to say he exceeded them in the end. When he went through his military training he came, I think, 854th. He was four from the bottom. He was not noted as an exemplary student. He showed perseverance in his personal life, aspiring always to be a better person, and had an intense love of his nation. But it was a love of his nation which didn't cloud his ideals and the better angels of his nature—the better angels we should always give way to, rather than the more base implications of the human condition in any form.

I hope that Senator McCain's family, including his mother, who's 106, manage to take some solace from the giant of a life that is represented by Senator John McCain. Obviously, he was a man of Christian faith. Borrowing from the same, I wish that he remain in our prayers and that he rest in peace.

See this speech in context