Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

So we pay tribute to Barry Humphries and his alter egos—what a great Australian. He died on 22 April, aged 89, following complications from hip surgery at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, having suffered a fall in February. A state memorial service will be held at the Sydney Opera House on Friday 15 December, and we will mourn him again then. And we have indeed mourned his passing—people from all walks of life, from prime ministers past and present to everyday Australians. Barry Humphries's alter egos, and some of the things that he did and said, you wouldn't get away with these days. The comedy was typical of the seventies and eighties.

Wagga Wagga, my home town, has a unique link to Barry Humphries. While Wagga Wagga may be known as the city of good sports—and we've produced any number of good sportspeople—it is also the birthplace of one Dame Edna Everage. Not a lot of people know that, but Dame Edna hailed from Wagga. She was born there, according to Dame Edna's autobiography, My Gorgeous LifeI'll just fix my jacket!—and statements made by Edna over the years. She was born Edna May Beazley in Wagga with a sibling who would give birth to the lovable Barry McKenzie. Wagga Wagga recognises and revels in its association with the lovable Dame Edna. Images of her can be found in the city. A large Dame Edna mural graces a building in Cadell Place. It was created for the Lost Lanes winter festival in 2018. So many people go to that. They go and have a coffee at Meccanico and then go round the corner and just marvel at this amazing mural.

The good thing about murals, whether they're in Cadell Place or on silos throughout regional Australia, is that they remain almost vandal-free. Even vandals have the respect to leave them alone. They'll put their daub over every other fence and telegraph pole et cetera, but they leave these sorts of murals alone. Even they have respect for them.

This particular mural was created by Melbourne based street artist Ling, who painted a friend wearing the iconic purple wig and cat-eye glasses of Dame Edna Everage as a playful nod to Dame Edna's place of birth. It's fantastic. If you ever go to Wagga Wagga—and put it on your bucket list at any rate—have a look at this beautiful mural. And it is beautiful. There is also a Dame Edna mural painted under the Wollundry Lagoon Bridge. It's a few footsteps from my Wagga Wagga electorate office. I know some Wagga Wagga residents visited that mural after Barry Humphries's death to pay tribute to his unique brand of humour, which delighted millions and outraged some for more than half a century, not just here but certainly abroad and certainly in England. He had that ability to make you laugh out loud and squirm uncomfortably at the same time. Wagga Wagga has had to share the limelight of Dame Edna with Moonee Ponds, represented by the Hon. Bill Shorten, the member for Maribyrnong. So, that's something that Bill and I certainly have in common.

Sadly, however, when all Australians should have been celebrating Barry Humphries's contribution to Australian culture in his dying days, he fell victim to another type of culture, and that's the cancel culture—and such a shame. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival failed to pay official tribute to this comic legend, despite his pivotal role in establishing the event. I think that's such a shame. There was no official tribute to Humphries on the closing day of this year's festival. It ran from 29 March to 23 April. Of course, relations had soured in recent years following a number of comments made by Barry Humphries.

But culture cancellers can't dim or take away his contribution to Australian life, to our unique Australian culture, whether it's larrikin or whether it's irreverent—it's all of those, and so much more. We should ensure that his legacy and that of Dame Edna lives on. I would like to encourage Wagga Wagga to honour and perpetuate Barry Humphries and Dame Edna in some other way, perhaps by the city council placing a walk-of-honour plaque in Baylis Street, our main street, perhaps by organising a Dame Edna exhibition in the Museum of the Riverina or by naming an award after Barry Humphries at one of the growing number of comedy shows in Wagga. I think this would be a fitting tribute. Farewell, possums.

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