Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to mark the passing of Warwick Paul Boyd. He was a great supporter and my oldest friend. Warwick was born on 17 July 1968. I first met him when we were year 7 students at Newcastle Grammar. He was a leading figure in our year, a great sportsman with a dry and irreverent sense of humour—a quality that remained with him for his entire life. After leaving school, he railed for years against the injustice of consistently being given 14 out of 20 for economics assignments, regardless of the extremely high quality of his work.

After Warwick left school, he started working with Qantas, a job that took him all over the world. He certainly enjoyed it and always had great stories about his travels. But, after several years and having started a family, Warwick turned his attention to two of his many other talents: building and business. He built exquisite homes and units in the Newcastle and Port Stephens areas. I marvelled at his creativity and also his extraordinary work ethic. Much of what he knew was self-taught. His buildings were synonymous with quality. Although Warwick was a highly talented builder, he was to find his true calling as a restaurateur—more particularly as a McDonald's owner-operator. His friends all remember how he had had a passion for those restaurants since his school days. He would go on to own restaurants at Industrial Drive and Mayfield in Newcastle, and he loved every facet of the business. As with the rest of his life, he set high standards and his restaurants thrived. He didn't have many regrets, but one was that he didn't become a licensee sooner.

He had an avid interest in politics, coming to Orange to help my first campaign and attending my inaugural speeches. He met the love of his life, Leanne, at the Delany Hotel in Newcastle, and they married in 1995. They would have two wonderful children, Madison and Mason. To Warwick, his family was everything. He could not have been prouder of Madison and Mason and the people they grew up to be. He loved them dearly.

Warwick was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2013. He was determined to face it with positivity and a will to live life. All was going well until 2015, when the cancer came back. It was a heavy blow. He had a second major operation that year. While he was recovering, an accident at the hospital nearly cost him his life. Warwick went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead for about seven minutes. Incredibly, and as only Warwick could, he came back but had to be taken to a hyperbaric chamber at Prince of Wales Hospital to recover. The next few years were difficult for Warwick, Leanne, Madison and Mason. They were filled with treatment and trials, and through it all he was sustained by the love of his family. He just kept defying the odds, coming back time and time again with grit, determination and an extraordinary endurance. He inspired us.

Warwick passed away on 9 April 2019. I'll be forever grateful that I got to spend some time with him in his final days. He was a man of strong ethics, hard work, enterprise, great humour, warmth and love for his family. On election night, I dedicated my win in Calare to him. My condolences go out to Leanne, Madison, Mason and the rest of his family. Farewell, old friend. It's not the same without you.

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