Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Assistant Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, would like to associate myself with the remarks of the previous speakers. In December we mourned the loss of one of the National Party's great sons and a stalwart of Australian politics, Doug Anthony. What a remarkable legacy he has left our nation—Australia's longest-serving Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the Nationals for 12 years, a federal minister for 16 years, and the member for Richmond for 27 years until his retirement in 1984. Throughout his life he was a tenacious and powerful voice for the millions of Australians who live in our regional, rural and remote communities. I would like to take this opportunity to join with my federal colleagues to reflect on his life and his career.

John Douglas Anthony was born in 1929, the son of Hubert Lawrence and Jessie Mary Anthony, in Murwillumbah, northern New South Wales. His passion and talent for politics seemed to have been in his blood. His father was first elected to federal parliament in 1937 and was a minister in the first Menzies government, and, of course, Doug's son, Larry Anthony, continued the family's political legacy by being elected as the member for Richmond in 1996.

Doug was educated at Murwillumbah secondary school and The King's School in Parramatta. He went to attend the Queensland Agriculture College with a mind to working on his family's dairy farm. With his father's untimely passing in 1957, he decided to stand for the seat of Richmond. He won the by-election convincingly and was duly elected to federal parliament at the young age of 27.

Looking back, his achievements in agriculture and trade are legendary. In his first appointment as Minister for Primary Industry, he was instrumental in establishing the Australian Wool Commission. Importantly, he introduced wheat quotas as a way of limiting overproduction following a decline in prices. This was addressed by encouraging the Australian Wheat Board to open flour mills overseas.

When Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and the coalition formed government in 1975, Doug was given the role of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Overseas Trade, and the Minister for National Resources. He understood very clearly the enormous benefits that trade would bring to the agriculture and mining industries, which would in turn benefit all of rural Australia.

During his time as trade minister, Doug secured tremendous results. He negotiated the trans-Tasman Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement, which remains a benchmark for international trade partnerships. In 1979, he was the first Australian senior minister to visit the Middle East and led the way in forming a bilateral science and technology agreement with Saudi Arabia. This was the first of several important trade related agreements that soon followed across the region, including with Iraq, Iran and the Gulf States.

The outcomes that Doug Anthony secured for regional Australia continue to stand strong. He was devoted to ensuring the people who lived in the bush had a fierce advocate in government and someone who would always have their backs. Doug made it his life's work to ensure that regional Australians were not just listened to but were front and centre for all decisions made by government.

I had the pleasure of meeting Doug on several occasions, and he was a true gentleman. Simply put, he represented the core values that underpin the National Party—a man of integrity, decency and unbreakable resolve.

Of course, during the years that he was Acting Prime Minister, over many summers in the late seventies and early eighties, Doug Anthony will always be famous for running the nation out of his caravan on the North Coast of New South Wales. By the time he retired from politics in 1984, it was clear Doug was leaving behind a tremendous career and an enduring legacy of achievements and an example that we all aspire to. Throughout his whole life, he ensured that regional Australians had a voice—a real voice, a powerful voice.

As we honour Doug's memory, my thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Margot, and their children, Dugald, Jane and Larry, and his entire family. He was a true giant of the National Party and Australian politics. With his passing we have truly lost one of our greatest, and he will be sorely missed.

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