James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to Tony Messner in contributing to this condolence motion. Yesterday in the House the Prime Minister and the opposition leader put some very poignant comments on the record about Tony's career and time in this parliament. He was a South Australian senator, and, as a South Australian, I want to make a few comments.

I never met Tony Messner, which is quite surprising because I have two quite significant connections to him. By the time I had become active in the South Australian Liberal Party he had moved to the South Coast of New South Wales, but when he was a senator my mother worked for him, and that put her on the path to meeting my father—so it's thanks to Tony Messner that I'm standing before you today in this parliament, so we've got to hold him to account there! Also, Tony Messner served as the Administrator of Norfolk Island, and I grew up for a few years on Norfolk Island—funnily enough, in the late 1980s, when my father was the chief administrative officer over there. So I can connect with his service in Norfolk Island, and my family probably owes my existence to his election to the Senate.

Tony was elected in the infamous 1975 election, which was brought about by the dismissal of the Whitlam government. In no way am I undermining my leader, Mr Dutton, who says that the upcoming election is the most important in a generation—he's right about that—but, boy, the 1975 election was pretty significant for many reasons, particularly for the future of parliamentary democracy. Indeed, we were in a very precarious situation when the Governor-General made the very sensible and relieving decision to dismiss a government that was seeking to govern without the consent of the parliament, effectively committing crimes against the Constitution of our own country. The people of Australia made very clear what they thought about that when they had the chance to vote at the ballot box in December 1975.

I've had the opportunity, being very much a political nerd—that wouldn't surprise anyone here—to speak to a few people that contested that 1975 election, and it is quite fascinating to hear those firsthand accounts of what it was like to be in that contest. It was probably the most dramatic of elections that this country has ever seen—and, I genuinely hope, will ever see. The tension and the division in our country around that election is not what we want in our democratic contests; we want spirited contests but we don't want them to rip our country apart. Hopefully, 1975 is the one and only time we see anything of that great significance.

Tony was elected in that election. He served for 15 years in the Senate. One thing I want to single out about his contribution—and I think we could all pay tribute to him by thinking ourselves about how we can do more and follow his example—is how much he cared for and shone a spotlight on the need for us to do better by small businesses in this country. I feel like I spend way too much time as a member of this parliament in debates around legislation putting more pressure, more restriction, more red tape and more regulation on small businesses. If Tony Messner was here, he would be calling that out at every opportunity. That was what he did through his career, and that is what I think we need to strongly consider in our own careers in this place—how we find opportunities not to put more burden on the small-business sector but in fact to take the burden off the small-business sector and make it easier for them.

The Prime Minister and the opposition leader reflected on Tony Messner's career yesterday and talked about his great policy achievements in veterans' affairs and many other areas. It is beyond question that trying to find ways—many times successfully—to make life easier for small businesses was the great legacy of his career here.

I always thank businesspeople when I go and visit their businesses and they're employing people and being successful. Some of them are a bit surprised, because they're not used to receiving any gratitude from government, but we're so lucky to have the small-business sector taking a risk, putting their capital on the line and employing and giving people a wage so that they can support their families. They're growing our economy and paying the taxes that provide the society that we're all so lucky to enjoy in this country. There is now and there has always been a little too much of a lack of appreciation for the small-business sector in particular, like sole traders and businesses with few employees, who take enormous risk and make this country and its economy what they are. That was something that Tony understood very intuitively. He didn't just understand it; he effectively said, 'While I'm here in this parliament, that's the thing I really want to have as my focus.' We all have things we're interested in and pursue in this building—they're all credible—and it's important that individual members pick up causes and policy priorities and objectives that they want to shine a spotlight on.

But the fact that Tony's was the small-business sector is a great credit to him and is something I want to reinforce in this condolence motion. We thank him for his service to South Australia. As a South Australian Liberal Party member, I thank him for his service to the Liberal Party. He served with great distinction in the true spirit and traditions of the Liberal Party and was a senator in that House, as the house of review. He made a great contribution. He leaves a great legacy. Vale, Tony Messner.

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