Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the token New South Welsh person in this debate, I wanted to join others in honouring a great South Australian and to acknowledge the presence of Joan Hall here in the House today. South Australia has played an outsized role in this parliament. It's produced some of our greatest characters and our greatest contributors since Federation, and Steele Hall was one of those people.

As many members of the House know, I'm something of a Constitution nerd, and I first encountered Steele Hall because he is the great academic example of why we can never properly cater for anything in the Constitution. In 1977, we codified the way in which you replace senators when casual vacancies occur. That assumes that somebody from one party who might retire is replaced by somebody from the same party. Almost as soon as that had happened, Steele himself left the parliament, but his party had ceased to exist, and so a new convention was made. I think other speakers have covered many of his other great contributions, but I wanted to add that, and I wanted to add my condolences to Joan and all those who admired a great Australian.

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