Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Doug Anthony is a hero of mine and of many people I know. He was a true legend. I have the good fortune to live in the region that Doug represented. The parliament was expanded in 1984. Before that, the seat of Richmond took in many areas of the current seat of Page. When I walk around my region, people still talk about Doug very fondly—the great person he was, the great politician he was and the great representative he was.

I personally come across Doug quite a number of times. As a middle-aged man and an MP, whenever I came across Doug I still felt almost like a teenage boy. I'd be patting my hair down and straightening my coat, because I truly felt that I was in the presence of a legend. He had a very easy smile. He was always very interested in how things were going for you. He had a great love for people and he had a great love for people who had followed in his footsteps and been of service to their community. I loved a line of his that was mentioned at his memorial service last week: 'If you smile at the world, the world will smile back.' That was a lovely motto of his that was said about him last week.

I'm a proud Nat—and the forerunner of the National Party was the Country Party—and I know that you too have a great fondness for the Nationals, Mr Deputy Speaker. We have been around as a political party for 100 years. The UAP was the bigger party within the coalition. There have been other minor parties like the DLP and the Australian Democrats. There are parties that have come and gone while the Country Party and the National Party have been around—and we have certainly been written off a number of times. Doug Anthony and people like him—the way they did the job, the way they represented their communities, and what they handed down to the people who followed after them—are the reason we are here. Doug stands tall within our party, within our movement, along with the likes of 'Black Jack' McEwen and Earle Page. They are giants of our party, they are giants of our story and they are the reason we are still here.

What an amazing story the Anthony family is. The Anthony family isn't just an amazing Australian political story; it is an amazing Australian story. We heard people talk about the family at the memorial service last week. Doug's father, Larry, served at Gallipoli. He came back grateful to be alive—like every person who came back from there alive. From all accounts, he was a very gritty and determined banana farmer. He became very successful at his pursuit, which led him to get involved in the political movement of what he needed to protect. He was a successful dairy farmer. He started representing, and looking out for, farming and agricultural pursuits and, as we know, ended up being the member for Richmond for a long, long time. We all know about Doug's childhood, roaming around Parliament House and the Kurrajong Hotel, meeting all the Australian political luminaries at the time and experiencing the history of Australian politics. It's an amazing Australian political story, the Anthony story, in the sense that we have had three members of the Anthony family as ministers within the respective governments that they represented.

Doug was a minister in the Menzies government, as was his father and as was his son Larry. As has been said, he was the leader of our party. He was Deputy Prime Minister and leader—he was leader for 13 years and Deputy Prime Minister for nine years—serving with three prime ministers. He was the longest-serving Deputy Prime Minister we've had. He was a force, a lot of people say, and I think we still do, more often than not. A lot of people say that, within the Fraser government, Peter Nixon, Ian Sinclair and Doug Anthony as Deputy Prime Minister certainly punched above their weight and got results. They were very highly regarded within that coalition government and made sure it was a successful government.

I was taken with a couple of things that were said at his memorial service last week, because he was—I think the member for Lyne mentioned this before—a political warrior and he didn't shy away from any belief that he had or anything that he thought he needed to advocate for his community or, indeed, our country as a minister or Deputy Prime Minister. I want to quote two things that he said when he joined the parliament and when he left. When he joined, he said, 'We may disagree with a member's political views, but don't let that not prevent us from being friends. I certainly hope I shall be friendly with political allies and political foes as well.' When he bowed out in 1983, he said, 'I have never tried to build any deliberate enemies, although I'll play politics with anybody and I hope honourable members will, but I hope that we can all be fair with each other.'

I think that's a great attitude to go into politics with. While we may sit here—and let's not shy away from this: this is a very partisan place and it should be—this is a place where we debate and argue about the values and things that we need to progress our country, in many different ways. So I don't think we should ever shy away from the combativeness of this place, but I think, behind that, we are all human beings. We are all in this with good intent, and, if you can go away from the chamber and go elsewhere in this house or building and still have respect for each other and the differing views that we have, then it's a better place.

The thing, again, that struck me at the memorial service last week was Doug retired at 54. I'm older than 54 already; I probably don't look it to you, Deputy Speaker Zimmerman, but I am. So, of course, he had a whole life once he left. There were some very moving tributes from his children, Larry, Jane and Dugald. A number of his grandchildren were there and what came across was that none of his grandchildren ever knew him as a politician. They were wandering around the region and everyone talked about their grandfather, and they said, 'That's Pop. He's a great guy.' They never knew that part of him, growing up as children. A number of them said, as young adults, they started to do their own research and understand the political lion that he was. A number of them spoke and a number of them performed musical items, but you could see they all had a great love for him.

The romance he had with Margot is well documented, about how he pursued her for years before she agreed—a great romance, as Larry said, that never died. His children loved him. It was obvious his grandchildren all loved him very much because they just knew him as Pop, a guy that loved them and had time for them when they'd hang out with him on the family farm.

There was another lovely tribute. His birthday was on New Year's Eve. When he turned 70—from memory, it was going into the year 2000—he had a big party. Doug didn't mind a party, but he gave every single one of his grandchildren what he called a confidence coin. If you go onto ABC iview and watch the memorial service, his daughter, Jane, talks about this and what he wrote. He wrote a message to all of his grandchildren when he gave them what he called the confidence coin on his 70th birthday. The essence of the confidence coin was this: believe in yourself. Don't be too cocky, but believe in yourself. And people who have false confidence, if they lie, cheat and they do those types of things, will always be found out. But he said life is a wonderful thing to grasp. Believe in yourself and have that self-confidence. If you ever doubt yourself, take this coin out and say, 'I've got Pop's confidence coin.'

Again, it was a great privilege to be at that memorial service last week. It was a great honour to be there and to get an insight into part of his life that we don't know. When we go to someone's funeral or memorial service, you'll always hear things about their personal life that you didn't know. He was a giant within the movement of the National Party and the Country Party. It was a privilege to be there and a privilege to know him. May he rest in peace.

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