Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to speak in this condolence motion for Andrew Peacock and perhaps contemporise his career a little, as well as recognise some of the foreign affairs contributions that he made. Andrew Peacock reached across from a political career to a career in diplomacy—something that very few of us manage to do effectively. Andrew Peacock was in the same year as my father at school in Melbourne. There is a bit of a story about that school. In 1838 my family moved onto the land that is now Scotch College and farmed that land for a period until the school was established. My father had a close connection to the school for that reason, and my family followed Andrew Peacock's career.

At the age of four, I was in a very small outpost called Wakunai and my first political recollection of any type was listening to shortwave radio and getting the results of the 1972 federal election in Australia. I remember the oscillation of my parents moods as different administrations were voted in and out. Needless to say, 1972 was a tragedy for them and 1975 a cause of great elation for the tiny island of Bougainville, where I was going to school.

At that time, you were either a Peacock supporter or you weren't. I think if Andrew Peacock were here today he would have a significant online following—an Instagram account to rival the member for Bonner! That kind of following wasn't possible back then, but I think it's not unreasonable to say that we hadn't exactly had among Liberal leaders anyone who would have been a YouTube sensation until we had Andrew Peacock, who had a huge personal following that I remember in the seventies—and I count my mother among them.

Although many willed Andrew Peacock to be not only a leader but a prime minister, I think his greatest contribution came after politics. He took a really strong position against the Pol Pot regime. He visited Papua New Guinea, our nearest northern neighbour, dozens of times. The independence of Papua New Guinea must have been one of the most challenging foreign policy questions for this nation. Andrew Peacock was there at the time of independence, an extremely traumatic period when Australia, in a very short time, withdrew its support for and involvement with that country—many would say too quickly and at the UN's behest. And the result was significant convulsions and uncertainty in the period immediately after. At the time, I was an eight-year-old living in the very remote Southern Highlands administrative capital of Mendi. I recall Michael Somare visiting as I got out of school in grade 3. I used to get down and sniff the turbo engine fumes for something to do in a town of that size in the middle of New Guinea. They were crowding the airport and there was a huge local movement of people tearing up the new Papua New Guinea flag. This is what Andrew Peacock and, to an even more significant extent, Michael Somare faced in convincing that great nation that it could be independent, that it could be free of Australia. Many local people were instinctively desperate to keep Australia connected for a range of really interesting cultural reasons, but it was people like Peacock who would have worked with those PNG leaders at the time to convince them that independence, for better or worse, was the right thing to do—and sometimes you may have to go backwards slightly in order to go forwards. However we judge how it was done, it was achieved with the work of both sides of this chamber and Andrew Peacock doing his very important work politically and, subsequently, in a diplomatic role.

My only other observation is that Andrew Peacock was one of the few Australian politicians who went on to get involved in American politics, and there he also had a significant impact. While I can't say I was a fly on the wall, I can imagine him being congratulated by George W Bush after his election victory. All presidents are surrounded by Americans who support them for obvious reasons. Andrew Peacock would have been one of those people George W Bush could have looked in the eye and said, 'I thank you for what you've done in helping me because I'm pretty sure you're one of the few in this room who aren't here asking me for anything in return.' And I'm sure Andrew Peacock probably said, 'Mr President, I am. I hope you can be a two-term president.' For his achievements in both diplomacy and politics, this entire building remembers Andrew Peacock.

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