Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's been a privilege hearing the wonderful condolences that are being made by Jim's friends from not just our party but across the aisle. He was someone who left a mark in so many ways.

Can I begin, first of all, by acknowledging his family. They are the ones who are hurting most of all—to Anne; their wonderful children, Sarah, Erin, Felicity and Michael; and also to the wonderful grandchildren. There are also extended family, some of whom are linked to my electorate. Jim has a brother who lives in my electorate, and one of my favourite volunteers is one of his cousins. I only recently found out that they were cousins. They are all hurting too and will miss him deeply.

It's a wonderful thing when we sit down and put pen to paper for our first speech. We get to think about who we are, what we stand for and what we hope to achieve in this place. It's been delightful reading Jim's first speech again. I read it in preparation for my own, and I've come back to it. Could I begin with his first sentence. He said this:

In those very first words, he was showing that he had no expectations to be there, because throughout his life he never had any expectations or entitlement to anything. He put his hand up to serve others in many different ways, and that included the Senate. He fought so hard to be there.

He was a fierce advocate for party democracy, and that wasn't born out of self-interest, because he was popular with the membership for good reason. It was because Jim knew an important thing: that if you believe in a value—and the Liberal Party believes in democracy—then you must practise it. Jim was from the old school where we practise what we preach, and if we don't practise it then there's a real question mark about whether we believe it. I think he left the New South Wales division in much better shape for having been a fierce advocate for party democracy. There were many other points of this speech that I'd like to just quickly highlight. He talked about his military service and said:

Although I retired from the Army nine years ago, my 40 years as a soldier taught me a lot that seems applicable to parliamentary and wider social life. First, leadership is everything. Whenever we wanted to achieve real effects, even in this technology dominated world, we still turned to the best person. As chief of operations in Iraq, I was at the centre of the most technically advanced headquarters in the history of war, yet we consistently turned to people as people when we wanted to get things done. Human leadership in this age of technology has never been more important, be it in the military or in society.

When we pick up a newspaper or look at our TV—and we had recently in the parliament the first AI generated speech—we must never forget that, despite all of the advances in technology, people are the heart of our democracy and our society. The second thing, he said, was:

… Australia brings its unique culture into its military. Blind obedience to orders or authority does not make good soldiers; nor does it make good citizens. We encourage our diggers to question every order for as long as possible because all of us are a lot smarter than any one of us. But, when the final decision is made by the boss, we expect support for that decision until the situation changes significantly. This ethos and duty, this understanding of loyalty and teamwork in a questioning environment, is something that I intend to personally carry into this house.

And he concluded with this:

I need to say that the only order I ever obeyed without question was 'Duck!'

That's such an important cultural feature of our military. You have a chain of command, and you obey orders on pain of 20 years in prison if it's on operations, but that doesn't mean you follow them blindly. We respect the autonomy and judgement of individuals, even within the military.

Jim then focused on ethics, and that was core of who he was. He said:

Whatever I find myself doing in this great institution, I will work for it to be ethical. Ethics is about consistently doing the right thing, about being secretly beholden to no-one, and, in a political and parliamentary sense, about working for the voters who elected us. In terms of the Liberal Party, it means representing the members of my party and voters rather than disguised narrow … interests.

He said he was 'of no faction', and it was the voters who would guide him. Many others have spoken about the line where he said, 'If opponents don't speak against you, you are probably not standing up for enough.' And he referred to some of the Google images that people might be aware of. Finally, he concluded with this. He had a quote from Napoleon: 'If you want to learn a nation's interests, go to the graves of its soldiers.' He continued:

Many Australian dead have been brought back to Australia, but many still lie close to where they fell. Australia's interests lie across the face of this earth. We are an international nation with worldwide interests. I've visited many battlefields and played cameo parts on some. What strikes me is the consistent performance of Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen over more than 100 years and around the world. Today's soldiers are as good as, if not better than, any we have sent overseas, and much of that is due to our Australian culture and the leadership, training and equipment that accompany them. To me, they represent everything that is good about Australia because they are Australian.

He concluded with, 'I dedicate my efforts in this house to them.' And he said, 'Thank you.'

Jim—his duty is done, and it's fitting that his final words in his first speech were that he was willing to serve others and honour their memory. So we say to Jim: 'Thank you for your service. We will miss you.'

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