Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker—

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the honourable member seeking indulgence?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I am seeking indulgence.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I grant indulgence, could I make a couple of comments. Indulgence is something that the chair can grant or deny, and I intend to grant indulgence on this occasion. It is an unusual indulgence. Each member will have to seek indulgence to speak. Secondly, I note that the Acting Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition were quite concise with their comments, and I ask members to cooperate and to try to be as concise as possible. Indulgence is granted.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I rise today to honour one of my constituents, a man who was a uniter amongst the Australian people, Mr Rick Farley. Rick Farley connected communities and inspired many to follow him in pursuit of social justice for all Australians. The array of people who have paid tribute to Rick over the past week shows the extraordinary way he united usually disparate interests.

On Monday I had the honour of attending the celebration of Rick’s life at St Brigid’s Church in Marrickville, just up the road from my office. It was standing room only. The amazingly intertwined aspects of Rick’s life were all proudly represented. Rick’s partner, Linda Burney, spoke of her time with Rick with such amazing strength and love. She stated that she would miss most the sheer brilliance of his mind—clear, creative, pragmatic, brave and, very often, cheeky. Linda was, as always, an inspiration. In the past five very difficult months since Rick suffered a brain aneurysm, Linda has shown extraordinary courage and love.

Linda has acknowledged that she found it impossible to thank the hundreds of friends and community members who have sent messages of love and support over the past months. Linda did, however, include a few of these tributes in the program for Monday’s service. One said:

Rick’s contribution to Australia, both socially and ecologically, is his lasting monument.

Another said:

He was a fine Australian who cared for all Australians and was able to walk on both sides of politics and society at large.

A stranger to Linda wrote:

I have never met you or your husband though I did hear him speak twice. His intelligence, strength of character and outspoken moral principles enriched my life and gave me extra courage to actively pursue social justice goals. Australia has lost a great man.

There would be very few people, none I can think of more so than Rick, to whom at a celebration of their life people from right across the spectrum would come to pay tribute. People from the Cattlemen’s Union, the National Farmers Federation, Reconciliation Australia and social justice organisations were there paying tribute to Rick. Mr Pat Dodson’s eulogy, sent from Broome and read by his colleague Paul Lane, was quite extraordinary. In part, he said:

Our mate was a champion who carried the vision of reconciliation and justice for Indigenous people in his heart and in his hands ... He delivered where others postured, achieving against the odds, always creating spaces of opportunity where others could follow ... Our mate saw where bridges needed to be built and knew how to make the foundations. Our mate argued over and over again that we needed to use natural resources in a sustainable way, to protect the future of our nation.

If there was a theme running through Monday’s celebration, it was Rick’s relationship with the land. The way he was able to bring together pastoralists’ and farmers’ interests with those of Indigenous people, out of that respect, was quite extraordinary.

But what a life. He was born in Townsville in 1952 but grew up in Brisbane. He did it pretty tough as a kid, losing his father when he was five. He and his sister were raised by his mother, a nurse, who worked long hours to pay for her children’s education. Rick graduated from the University of Queensland with a degree in drama and literature. His involvement in politics while at university was peripheral, finding time to protest against the touring white-only South African Proteas before going to the game the next day.

After graduating, he joined a touring theatre company and went to Nimbin, before heading north to Rockhampton and becoming a journalist with a local newspaper. Rick later worked for Dr Doug Everingham, the Minister for Health in the Whitlam government, and was acting press secretary at the time of the dismissal. In 1976, Rick became the public relations director with the Cattlemen’s Union, a role which, he joked, saw him shift from vegetarian to steak lover, a role which allowed him to move eventually onto the national stage.

Rick became Executive Director of the National Farmers Federation in 1988 and it is this work—skilfully handled on a range of controversial and sensitive issues, notably the negotiation of native title legislation—for which he will be very much remembered. In his usual frank manner, Rick explained his tactics by saying that he:

... always tried to destroy stereotypes and encourage different points of view. That’s why I’ve put farmers in touch with environmentalists and Aborigines. I’ve had differences of opinion on politics with rural groups, but they have been worked out over the years.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Rick Farley had an astute understanding of the political climate in which he worked. He was able to forge a bond between the National Farmers Federation and the then Australian Conservation Foundation—with Phillip Toyne, the then head of the ACF—to form Landcare Australia. Many years on, we can acknowledge that Landcare changed the very way that farming practices occurred and built an alliance which has been long lasting with regard to these issues.

From 1991, Rick was also a unifying voice on the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Those who worked alongside Rick Farley on the council have spoken of the way he would quietly and movingly articulate the need to find a way to share our land. Rick would speak of the need for a just and united Australia.

In this spirit, in 1993, Rick, along with NFF president Graham Blight, negotiated with the Keating government on the native title legislation that followed the 1992 High Court decision on Mabo which gave Indigenous Australians limited rights to the land they once occupied. Other employer groups—miners and the then federal opposition—refused to even come to the table to deal.

In 1995 Rick became a part-time member of the Native Title Tribunal and ran his own land management consultancy business, helping to develop a joint venture cattle enterprise between Elders Ltd and the Aurukun Aboriginal community. Rick’s environmental and native title work was a constant part of the rest of his life. He said his views were shaped by all groups: farmers, conservationists and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. He said, ‘This is my Australia, warts and all.’

I came to know Rick as a neighbour in Marrickville and as the partner of Linda Burney, the state member for Canterbury, which is mainly in my federal electorate of Grayndler. I am proud to say I signed Rick up as a member of the Australian Labor Party, and he joined the Warren branch. He said at the time that he had been a candidate for the Senate here in the ACT for the Australian Democrats. Usually we have a waiting period in the Labor Party for people who have been members of other political parties. In Rick’s case, we welcomed him, and we welcomed him straightaway, because he was a quality human being—the like of which Australia has seen, in my view, very few. Australia is so much the poorer for losing Rick Farley. All Australians will miss him and, in particular, the local community where he lived the later part of his life will miss him. We pay tribute to him. We pass respect to his partner, Linda Burney, to his two children and other family members, and to his many thousands of friends throughout the nation.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek the indulgence of the Deputy Speaker and the Main Committee.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indulgence is granted.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to extend condolences regarding Rick Farley for two reasons: firstly, because of his involvement in the pastoral industry and organisations and, secondly, because he is the first cousin of my wife. Rick’s father and my wife’s mother were brother and sister. Whilst they did not grow up together in a close way because of their separation, they were aware of each other’s progress as children and throughout life.

When Rick Farley joined the Cattlemen’s Union as its executive director, it was a very difficult time for the beef industry. But, as one person who was involved in the agricultural politics of the time, I always respected the way that he was able to pick up an issue, focus on the issue and assist the president and the organisation of which he was director to fearlessly take the agenda forward to government of whatever political persuasion. He never sought favour with any political party when he was the director of the Cattlemen’s Union. As I said, it was a very difficult time for the beef industry, and in many ways he was the right person at the right time to help that organisation gain traction and gain recognition for the cause that the cattlemen of Queensland had on their agenda. At that time I was President of the Maranoa Graziers Association, and in many ways we worked together, although the Cattlemen’s Union was in fact a breakaway organisation from the United Graziers Association of Queensland. More recently, the Cattlemen’s Union, the grazing organisations and the grain growing organisations are all speaking with one voice as an amalgamated body.

He brought that same energy when he came to Canberra as the Executive Director of the National Farmers Federation. At that time, the National Farmers Federation had raised a great deal of money under the farmers fighting fund, which was used to take on some of the unions in relation to the waterfront. Once again, through his fearless approach he was able to take forward fearless advice to the National Farmers Federation and its executive.

Another role that he took on, which in many ways was ahead of its time but later proved to be at the right time, was his focus on land care. I had a great deal to do with Rick because of his decision to focus on the Landcare movement, which was driven as much by Rick as by a very close friend of mine, Jock Douglas from Roma. They took up that issue fearlessly at a time when you might say the farm organisations were rather resentful. Rick and Jock were seen as perhaps not looking after the land when they believed they were looking after the land. But we know now that Landcare is a nationwide movement, and both sides of parliament see the need for the government to make an investment in the sustainability of the nation’s land resources—be they farming lands, crown lands or our national parks. That whole movement of Landcare was an issue that Rick Farley took forward. As a great communicator he was able to send a very clear message across Australia through the organisations that then came on board.

I feel I speak on behalf of the many thousands of friends that he had and associates that he worked with during his life in the Cattlemen’s Union, the National Farmers Federation, the Landcare movement and Aboriginal reconciliation. I know that he did not always make friends wherever he went, but he spoke about and did what he believed was right for the future. Of course, in so many instances what he fought for turned out to be ahead of its time. Rick Farley was a great advocate and a great communicator.

I was privileged to know Rick, and his passing is a great loss to the nation. I know it will be a great loss to his children and his wife. I say, on behalf of rural Australia: thank you, Rick, for what you did. You gave us direction. You were so often controversial, but at the end of the day you were on the right page. The direction you took has put us in a much stronger position today, whether in the beef industry or through the changes on the waterfront. Your work was so important, albeit resisted by the unions, pastoralists and others. Rick always had a focus on what really was right, and often that was at odds with a particular section of our community.

Rick, we will mourn your loss. The tributes that have flowed from around Australia, from editorials in the major newspapers and from the parliament yesterday, are testimony to the esteem in which Rick Farley was held. He was held in the highest regard. To his wife, Linda, and his children, I send my condolences on behalf of my constituents and on behalf of so many people of rural Australia.

Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the House to make some brief remarks in condolence on the death of Rick Farley.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indulgence is granted.

Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike the previous speakers, I never met Rick Farley, but I know and have tremendous respect for his partner, Linda Burney, with whom I am on the Mick Young Scholarship Trust. Linda, like Rick, has the ability to bring people together to work for an outcome to improve the lives of others, and that is a rare and precious gift.

Rick, by his personality, competence, drive, sense of fairness and commonsense, achieved a tremendous amount for his fellow Australians in all too short a life. Every now and then, as the member for Grayndler mentioned, we see someone with those characteristics emerge to drive an issue forward. There is absolutely no question that, because of his position and qualities, Rick was able to bring forward in a litigious sense the slowly evolving concept of customary native title by at least a generation. His work in securing the passage of Australia’s native title legislation has been lauded on both sides of politics.

Equally, Rick’s work in advancing environmental issues has been recognised. As leader of the National Farmers Federation Rick was able to convince farmers that, unless they reformed farming practices, they would slowly destroy their own capacity to produce. The fact that he was able to earn the trust and respect of that body, and its members in particular, is all the more remarkable given his background of having worked for a Whitlam government minister. Again, you can only earn that trust and respect by your inherent decency, dedication, competence and fairness, which Rick clearly demonstrated.

It is all too easy for people in public life to play to their own particular gallery. From all reports, politics within the National Farmers Federation and previously the Cattlemen’s Union, where Rick was, was every bit as challenging—indeed perhaps more challenging, given the reputation of agripolitics—as politics within any trade union, lobby group or political party. Too often we see people trying to obtain and retain power by appealing to extreme elements within their own organisations. Rick specifically did not do that. To the contrary, as has been mentioned by members from both sides of politics, he quite literally took positions at right angles to those within the organisations he led—and lead he did, as has been acknowledged, in the right directions.

As his partner, Linda Burney, said, ‘Rick made a difference.’ He made an incredible difference. His legacy is his achievements, but just as important is the example he set for all of us in public life to make a difference by having credibility and by pursuing issues of merit and decency rather than obsessions with the extreme elements within the bodies that we often tend to be associated with.

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the Main Committee to say some words about Rick Farley.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indulgence is granted.

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rick Farley’s death at 53 years of age is very sad for so many people. I met Rick 26 years ago and I worked with him for much of the 1980s during my time at the Cattle Council of Australia, when Rick was the executive director of a member body, the Queensland based Cattlemen’s Union. I worked closely with Rick during those years, and then even more closely for three years when Rick was my deputy at the National Farmers Federation. He was a great guy to work with. He did really excellent work for me, for which I will be forever grateful.

In those years we called Rick the ‘stiletto man’, because he could always find the sharp end of an issue. I would often take a draft press release in to Rick; he would fiddle around, perhaps with the words in paragraph 5, and sure enough paragraph 5 would end up as the headline in the papers the next day, usually on page 3 instead of on page 23, where it would have been had it been my original draft. Rick had a real nose for issues, and he was a great communicator in that sense.

Rick made his greatest mark, I think, as Executive Director of the NFF, especially with his work on the environment and his involvement with the Mabo legislation. Much has been written and said about those contributions, but I think reference should also be made to the many formative and valuable years of Rick’s professional career spent working with the cattlemen in Queensland. Rick made important contributions in so many areas during that time. He was there, I think, from 1976 until he joined me at the National Farmers Federation, and even then he was of course still representing Queensland cattlemen, amongst other farmers around the country.

I know, from my time with the Cattle Council, of the contribution Rick made to the eradication of TB and brucellosis in the Queensland cattle herd—no mean feat given the gulf country and the difficulty of that issue. He made great contributions to marketing schemes and carcass classification—lots of things that are now taken for granted but which were revolutionary at the time. He made an important contribution to the genetic development of Brahman cattle in particular in Northern Australia, and that has meant many tens of millions of dollars for the Australian economy and cattlemen across the north. He played a very constructive role in the royal commission into the ‘roo in the stew’ meat substitution scandal, which played a big part in making some very constructive changes to the meat processing industry across the country.

But, without a doubt, Rick’s biggest legacy is the Landcare project that he and Phillip Toyne extracted from Bob Hawke. That program has led to even bigger and better environmental initiatives; it trailblazed for a lot of the resources that have subsequently been spent to that end. But, just as crucially, it shifted, shaped and influenced community and farmer attitudes in a very major way towards accepting the necessity of a sustainable agricultural landmass. That is now conventional wisdom and nothing to be debated. It has the full support of, and is understood by, the farming community and the broader community alike.

Rick was a complex fellow and we did not always see eye to eye, but he was unfailingly a gentleman. He had a very fine mind; he was a very intelligent man. He was good company. He had a huge work ethic. He was pragmatic and effective as a negotiator and he was a fine communicator. And he moved things; he made things happen. A lot of people talk about things but do not seem to have the capacity to make things happen, but Rick did have the capacity. We saw that throughout his career, including in the last stage of his career, when he was working with our Indigenous community.

Rick was very catholic in his political affiliations, and that probably explains in some ways his effectiveness on some issues. In the seventies he worked for Doug Everingham, the health minister in the Whitlam government. In the eighties he worked with the Cattlemen’s Union and the Farmers Federation—a mildly conservative group! In the nineties he stood for a Senate seat with the Democrats. However, I will remember Rick as a decent fellow—a talented man who had an abiding commitment to our rural community and our Indigenous community. Rick’s passing is very sad for his wife, Linda; his lovely children, Jeremy and Cailin; his stepchildren; his mother, Joan, whom I know well; his extended family; and also his first wife, Cathy Reade, who was a big part of his life for a long time—and they continued to have a very amicable relationship despite the fact that they moved apart in later years. I extend my sympathy and prayers to all of them. At 53, Rick was too young to die. It is perhaps another reminder that we should all take the time to smell the roses while we can.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the House to make some comments concerning the death of Rick Farley.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indulgence is granted.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia has lost a great citizen who, in his life’s work, showed compassion for Aboriginal people and an understanding of the need to bring together disparate groups, particularly the farming community and the environment community, in working out better and more sustainable ways of using our landscapes. We have lost someone who committed himself to the public interest, over his personal interest, through the course of a very diversified but successful career. His life reflected an extraordinary trajectory for a boy from Queensland.

The tragic events that took place on Boxing Day which saw him confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak and seriously paralysed, sent shockwaves through not only his immediate family and his wife, Linda Burney, but all of us. We were so used to his tremendous communication skills and vitality in the work that he had always done, yet he was struck down in this way. His passing is tragic. I certainly want to pass on my deepest condolences to his first wife, Cathy Reade, to his children, Jeremy and Cailin, to his mother, Joan, and to his partner, Linda Burney, who has had a very difficult period looking after him following his illness and then suffering his sudden loss.

Many speakers—the member for Grayndler, the member for Goldstein and others—have remarked on the extraordinary career of Rick Farley. I reflect on some comments of Phillip Toyne, whom Rick worked with when Phillip was Executive Director of the ACF and Rick was Executive Director of the National Farmers Federation and they both took the Landcare proposal to Prime Minister Hawke. Phillip remarked that Rick Farley was a consummate advocate for farmers and later for Aboriginal rights who, through his work, contributed to the reshaping of Australia. I think those comments are very true. How did he do this? He was a creative alliance builder who used his principled intelligence to try to reach agreements and negotiate outcomes. He was prepared to hang in through the long meetings and through the difficult years for the things that he thought were important. He was both a man of purpose and a man of principle.

I reflect on the work that he has done. During his time at the NFF he did, I think, discover the extraordinary Indigenous heritage in land and some of the still to be resolved difficulties that we have in accommodating the subsequent pastoral industry and its use of Aboriginal lands and Aboriginal people’s claims and titles to their country. It is probably a realistic reflection of the history of the time to note that his departure from the NFF came as a consequence not only of the fact that he had done good work there, particularly through Landcare, but also of him wishing to speak out and to pursue Indigenous interests and the Indigenous cause more fully. And of course that is what he did—subsequently serving with distinction on the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. He was involved as a consultant in a number of important issues, including the resolution of the access to grave sites at Lake Victoria, working with the Murray Darling Basin Commission there, and was centrally involved with the Cape York land use agreement. Later on, he did a lot of work with the mining industry as they resolved Indigenous land use agreements.

His loss will be sorely felt. I think it is undoubtedly a reflection of his character and his contribution that the parliament should come together on this condolence, which I support.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the House to make some comments concerning the death of Rick Farley.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lingiari may proceed.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was saddened very much by the passing of Rick Farley. When he first fell ill in the new year, one hoped that he would recover very quickly, but the nature of his illness meant that he would not and, ultimately, in a very tragic way, he left us. But what he left us with is what we need to celebrate. We need to recall this unique person whose life traversed so much of Australian society, from the urban centres of Brisbane to the heady days of Nimbin, to work for the cattlemen’s association and the NFF and to reconciliation and to be an advocate for native title. There are not too many Australians who would traverse that country. I think it is a tribute to him. It shows a person who was magnanimous.

At the ceremony in Sydney on Monday, his niece Erin recalled that he was also flawed. But he was also loved. At that ceremony on Monday what struck me was the celebration of his life, which was unique, but also the people who were there to celebrate it and to recall—to see in his family this great love for him. Yes, they could be critics, but central to them was his love for them and their love for him. As we travel along life’s journey, how many of us will be lucky enough to say at the end of that journey that we have shared that family love?

So to Linda, his wife, and especially his children, Cailin and Jeremy, I want to express my heartfelt condolences. I also want to express my condolences to his mother, Joan, who was clearly a very strong woman to have raised two young children having lost her husband, when the eldest child was very young, and to have watched them follow their respective paths in life. In the case of her son she has seen that life celebrated in such a fine way in Sydney on Monday. For his sister, Patty, who is a friend of mine and someone I have known for almost 30 years, there was always a spot for him in her heart whatever role he played, wherever it might be and despite whatever differences she, I or anyone might have had with him. There was always that love and respect. Her daughter Erin I thought gave a most insightful view of the life of this uncle of hers, who played such an important part for all of us.

We have heard already about his role in the National Landcare movement with Phillip Toyne. Of course, in the Hawke government, those events were quite momentous. But nothing was more momentous than the arrival, ultimately, of the passage of the native title legislation in this parliament. I was involved in many of those discussions with a whole range of people—my colleague over here, the member for Canberra, and others, and a lot of Indigenous leaders who were working out of my office here in Parliament House and trudging to and from meetings. Initially they were not quite sure what was going to be up with this bloke from the National Farmers Federation. But the government had made an inspired choice in 1991 when they appointed him to the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

It was very clear that this was not a man who had a fixed view of the world but one who was amenable to argument, to understanding and to a belief that things could be different. He was able to bring a great deal of passion to that cause and to bring along with him some of the National Farmers Federation to the table to negotiate a very important piece of legislation. I have to say that I did not always agree with him, but ultimately we arrived at a piece of legislation—and he made no small contribution to it—which has provided us with the capacity to properly recognise for the first time in this nation’s history the rights of Indigenous Australians in relation to their sovereign interest in land.

To that extent I believe that Rick’s role in that was extremely vital. When we reflect upon those people who attended the ceremony on Monday, the number of Indigenous leaders from all over Australia who came to show their respect is I think commentary enough on his success in that regard. It was also a commentary to see those ex-members of the Cattlemen’s Union—Mr Andrew Robb, Mr Ian McLachlan—there to pay their respects to a man who served extremely well the industry they were then involved in, the primary industry sector.

This is a unique situation. I cannot recall another time in the parliament when we have spent such time extending condolences for a person who has not been a member of the parliament and who has not been a major political figure on either side of politics. This is a person who, as we have seen, had a very catholic view of politics ultimately but ended up in his rightful home—the Labor Party.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is where we do end up.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is where we all do end up. It is like the church; we all come back. Maybe not! But ultimately it showed us—and I think it has been demonstrated in the way in which people have contributed to this discussion—that whatever he may have been to each and every one of us, what he left us with was a great number of achievements, and we give him the respect that he deserves as someone who showed the way for so many of us. If, at the end of our own life’s journey, we can look back and say that we were able to bring as many people along with us as he did with him, we will have been a great success.

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek indulgence to speak on the same subject.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fraser may proceed.

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is traditional, in speaking in condolence, to speak of when one first met the person to whom one is referring. I cannot remember when I first met Rick Farley, it is so long ago. I suspect it was when he was working for Doug Everingham, which makes it more than 30 years ago. I found it hard for a while to believe that the person speaking for the Cattlemen’s Union was the same bloke I knew when he worked for Doug Everingham. I do not want to say any more about that except that it did seem a little bit like an unorthodox career path. I had known him a little bit for a long time but I came to know him better when he was Executive Director of the National Farmers Federation and in subsequent years. I can now see the common themes that ran through many of those contributions that, by orthodox analysis, seemed a little bit contradictory.

I will not repeat what was said by the member for Goldstein, the member for Kingsford Smith and others who have really gone to the heart of what made him an effective advocate for many causes that had in common a belief in decent opportunities for Australians, reward for hard work for Australians, protection of the land of this continent and the rights of people, particularly Indigenous people in subsequent years, and their access to that land. One of the significant things about the fact that I cannot remember when I first met him is that, once you knew Rick, you felt you had always known him. He treated you like that and I felt like that. When I think about it, perhaps it is because I have always known him, but I think it felt like that to everybody on virtually their first meeting with Rick.

The work in which I knew him best was on native title. Of course, I knew of his and Phillip Toyne’s role in Landcare—two fine Australians—but I was not in any way associated with that. I was merely an observer of unfolding events. They were events which I supported but in which I had no part to play. From the very first, when many representatives of agricultural interests thought that if they closed their eyes native title would go away, that the High Court had done something with which they could not come to terms and if only they wished hard enough it would disappear, Rick saw that it was in their interests as well as in Indigenous interests and in the national interest. He saw that the High Court had not invented some dictum but had re-established an enduring right that was never going to go away. There were two choices. We could go forward with continuing litigation, High Court case after High Court case, and the law of native title would be established but it would unfold slowly, arbitrarily, expensively and in a manner that made certainty for landowners impossible.

The legislative framework that emerged in the Mabo legislation was not perfect. It has been made worse by some subsequent amendments but better by the evolution of the practice around it, to which Rick made a substantial contribution as a negotiator. But the country is so much better because we were able to negotiate an agreement. No one person can take all the credit for that and certainly not Rick. But he was a major player and it would have been of a lesser character as an agreement had it not been for the role which he played, and it would have evolved less well were it not for the active role that he played. He could see both sides of the argument both because of his personality and because of his unique history that enabled him to make a contribution that almost nobody else could have made. I am always very loath to talk about people being indispensable. Events evolve, nations and history take their course, but it is hard to think of anyone else with the combination of experience and personality who could have played the role that Rick did.

People have spoken correctly about Rick’s role on the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Apart from the commanding heights of it, he was very active locally. I remember meeting him and Linda in an airport on their way to a meeting of local reconciliation groups. This was not some grand public event that he was going to get a lot of publicity for. They put their hands in their own pockets to pay to go to a meeting attended by people who were organising reconciliation groups in local communities. They were not going as leaders, other than as leaders of the local community around Marrickville. That was their reconciliation group that they were representing and they were travelling around Australia to attend that meeting. I admire and respect his role. If that is all he had done he would warrant great acclaim. But others have spoken about his previous role in the agricultural industry—and I thought the member for Goldstein spoke very well about that—and in Landcare, where others like the member for Kingsford Smith have more expertise.

I had another peculiarly close association with him that is not something which one usually speaks of in extending condolences. He ran against my party here in Canberra. Fortunately, for me, it was not the year in which I was a Senate candidate—that was some time before—but I was a House of Representatives candidate when Rick was running for the Democrats. The Senate situation in the ACT is a bit unusual in the way the quota system works. The Labor Party always wins one seat and there is a hot contest for the second between the Liberal Party and all-comers. It is no secret that I was very keen for Rick to be elected on that occasion. The second Senate candidate for the Labor Party was a friend of mine, and I had to keep saying to him, ‘No, you are not going to win. Relax, don’t worry, don’t resign your day job; you are not going to win. We are all working very hard to get Rick elected on our second preferences.’

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It’s the old campaign director in you, Bob!

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Exactly, but it is also called arithmetic. Both Rick and I were reasonably good at it. We knew his chances were a long shot and he did not win. But what a difference he would have made if he had. In some ways what happened to him on Boxing Day would have been even more tragic if he had been elected, because he would have held the balance in the Senate after the last election. He would have been the key player who would have prevented some of the things that have happened from occurring had he won in 1998. There is no doubt that, once he was elected, he would have been re-elected. I regret that he was not. I do not think it was the biggest regret in Rick’s life. I think he went on and did some other and better things—and quite what his relationship with Linda would have been in those circumstances is a very interesting question. But it was, nevertheless, for the nation a great loss—not just because you can imagine the individual decisions made in the Senate that would have been different with that arithmetic but bringing that person into the parliament would have been a significant contribution. We all want to be able to say that, if we engage in public life, we made a difference and that we leave the world better than we found it. There is no doubt that Rick can say that.

I want to conclude—because a lot of people wish to speak—by just saying something about Linda. I do not know the rest of Rick’s family. I share the condolences extended to others but I can only do it formally because I do not know any of the others. But I know Linda very well. I have known her for a very long time—not before I met Rick, because that goes back a long way, but before I got to know Rick very well I knew Linda as a public servant and before that I know she was a schoolteacher. I knew her as a dynamo, as a person who also got things done. I was delighted when she became a Labor member of parliament. I look forward to her carrying on the struggle to which she is and has been committed and to which she and Rick were committed. It will be harder for her now but the need for her work is now twice as great.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek indulgence to speak in condolence on the death of Rick Farley.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indulgence is granted.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The death of Rick Farley was tragic and it was untimely. He suffered a brain aneurysm last year. He was in the process, as I understand it, of recovery only to sustain another tragic accident that ultimately claimed his life. At 53 he was too young to lose. He had so much more to offer and as a nation we do not just mourn him; we are less for his loss.

It was a privilege to have known Rick over so many years. I had many dealings with him both as ACTU President and as minister for primary industries in particular, but then in various parts of my parliamentary career subsequently. Rick was committed, he was courageous, he was caring and he was compassionate. He also believed very much in community. He was not a captive ever of any constituency that he represented; he would always seek constructive solutions on behalf of the groups that he represented. He was fiercely competitive and would always strongly argue his case. He could be irascible at times but over time I came to understand that this was really part of his passion and his commitment—his belief in the cause.

Despite his determination he believed fundamentally in building partnerships, in bringing together the different parts of the debate, in devolving of responsibility and in engaging the community. One of those early partnerships, of course, was Landcare, and many people have spoken about that. It was a movement, a cause and an initiative that still remains today. I think the testimony to any politician or advocate is the extent to which that with which they have been associated stands the test of time regardless of the change of government. Landcare is such an initiative.

Together with Phillip Toyne from the ACF and the Hawke government, Rick was able to be part of developing a proposal for funding sustainable care through community based partnerships of one of our greatest national assets, our land. It was a program which did not just cover the bush; it also covered the city. When it was announced it obtained immediate and bipartisan support. Rick worked also with the Hawke government to produce the nation’s first effective national drought policy—another policy, I might add, which has stood the test of time.

There were many other issues where our paths crossed because it was a time of great crisis in the rural sector associated not only with the drought but also with the serious restructuring issues confronting many rural sectors. Rick was not always easy to deal with but he was good to deal with. He had integrity. If he gave his word, he honoured it. He always had a view; he was always constructive; he always sought solutions.

I mentioned that he developed into, and was very much, a community man. He was also an internationalist. The member for Fraser would be aware of the very strong commitment and support that Rick and the leadership of the NFF gave to the then government—the Hawke government—and its leadership in the Cairns Group and the Uruguay Round, and the fundamental necessity to get, through multilateral agreements, the opening of trade circumstances and opportunities for this nation.

I think the biggest challenge for Rick in his day—and for all of us, for that matter—was dealing with the consequences of the Mabo decision and the native title debate. Here again Rick was a key player. The Keating government, in response to that High Court decision, had determined a three-pronged strategy: securing native title legislation that effected the impact and significance of the High Court decision, dealing with the legalities of the competing land claims and access and use arguments; the establishment of the Native Title Land Fund; and the development of a social justice package for Indigenous Australians. Rick was the negotiator for the National Farmers Federation. The implications for pastoral leases were a huge issue, and he and I had many dealings over them. They were resolved, and they were resolved because he, like us, brought goodwill to the table. Everyone knows that those negotiations were hard. At times they did not produce the perfect result, but they did produce a very good result in the circumstances, and he is to be given credit for the contribution that he made in overcoming what appeared at times to be irreconcilable differences.

When the native title legislation was finalised, he left the National Farmers Federation but he did not leave the issue. He had found a new challenge: the challenge to achieve reconciliation with our Indigenous people. He continued to promote alliances with Aboriginal communities—again, the sorts of initiatives that the member for Fraser referred to by example. He served until 1997 as a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, with Pat Dodson, the father of reconciliation, as its chair. He served also as a member of the Native Title Tribunal. He was, until his death, a member of the New South Wales Reconciliation Council.

Rick also became involved in politics, standing for the Democrats in 1998, a detail alluded to by the member for Fraser. He joined the Labor Party in later years. We were proud to have this warrior for rights and justice as one of ours. As always, he did not necessarily agree with everything we did, but it was always a great pleasure to meet him, engage him and draw wisdom from his continuing commitment.

The nation has lost a true champion. We mourn him. My condolences go to his partner, Linda, to his children, Jeremy and Cailin, and to Linda’s children, Binni and Willurai.

Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I also seek indulgence to speak on this matter.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Canberra may proceed.

Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Many words have been said today by colleagues on both sides of the House—colleagues who knew Rick Farley much better than I did. However, I want very sincerely to extend my condolences. My first recollection of Rick Farley was when I worked in this building not as a member of parliament but as a member of staff in a ministerial office at the time of the development of things like Landcare. I remember seeing from the side the sorts of contributions that were being made by people like Rick Farley and Phillip Toyne, who have been mentioned in this morning’s discussion as virtually a duo. I remember very fondly being quite amazed at the level of dedication of Rick Farley at the time. I had absolute admiration for the effort put in by Rick Farley. He was someone I admired very greatly from a distance and someone I got to know informally at that time. From then on, I have constantly been an admirer of the work he contributed to through his continuing career and up until his untimely illness and death.

The other experience I had of Rick was in more contemporary times. As the member for Fraser has already detailed, Rick Farley ran in the 1998 federal election as a Democrat candidate for the ACT in the Senate. In the ACT, federal elections almost become a personal affair because of the size of the town and because of the fact that we only have four positions in the parliament—two in the House and two in the Senate. So it becomes inevitable that, when you are out on the hustings, you really get to know other candidates quite well. I very much admired the way Rick Farley conducted himself during that campaign. I share absolutely the member for Fraser’s wish that he had succeeded. I was hopeful that he was the one who could break the mould and achieve a second non-government Senate position for the ACT, but it was not to happen. If it had happened, of course, history would have taken a quite different path, not only for Rick but for our country.

I want to endorse the comments of the member for Lingiari, who said that, in measuring our feeling of loss, we really need to measure our feeling of gain—to celebrate the achievements of and the contribution by Rick Farley. I agree with that entirely. In my view, particularly when I think about Indigenous matters in this country, he is certainly leaving for me—and I hope for a lot of other people—a benchmark and a certain measure. We should dedicate a great deal of the move forward in Aboriginal reconciliation to Rick Farley, because of the work he put in, the belief he had and his attitude to the whole of our society, not just to the Indigenous part of our society. He had a view as to how it could all work. He saw the possibilities and the potential. When we consider how we can take Indigenous matters forward in Australia we should have Rick Farley and his attitude to those issues foremost in our minds.

His passing is certainly a loss to our country. To his partner, Linda Burney, whom I know, to his children, to his extended family and to all those friends and acquaintances who knew him so much better than me, I send my very sincere condolences and warmest wishes. It is certainly a loss to them, but it is really also a great loss for our nation and for the potential that Rick Farley would have continued to show if fate had dealt him a different hand. We will mourn the loss of Rick Farley, but we have so much to learn from him. I hope that we all do that through our own sincere contribution to the betterment of our society into the future.

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I too seek the indulgence of the House to make a statement in relation to Rick Farley.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin may proceed.

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The best contribution that I can make to pay tribute to Rick Farley is to tell stories about him, and he would wish that I did so. I did not know Rick for a major part of his life, but I was intensively involved with him on a number of occasions, so I want to put on record a couple of those stories. At Rick’s funeral, Phillip Toyne, who had worked closely with him, described how he and Rick walked into Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s office with an irresistible offer: that the two great traditional adversaries, the environment movement and the National Farmers Federation, would join forces and put forward a proposal for a decade of land care. It was an irresistible offer and Phillip Toyne informs us that Bob Hawke, as Prime Minister, agreed on the spot. As they were walking out of the Prime Minister’s office, Rick turned to Phillip and said: ‘Damn, I knew we should have asked for more.’ I said to Phillip after the funeral, ‘You should have too.’

As it turned out the $320 million, which was granted over 10 years, did grow into a billion dollars, so no great damage was done. One of the reasons this offer was so irresistible is that we had decided to put together what John Kerin at the time called WGES, the world’s greatest environment statement. This was after the Prime Minister had said to his cabinet, ‘Now, it’s very important that we don’t raise expectations about this environment statement that we’re planning.’ So John went out and described it as the world’s greatest environment statement. It involved measures in relation to ozone protection and confirmed the Australian government’s position on a ban on mining in Antarctica. It recounted some work that had been done to save the Tasmanian forests—the Southern Forest of Tasmania and Lemonthyme—that were heading for the World Heritage List but it also very neatly incorporated this decade of land care. It was a privilege, as an environmental adviser, for me to be able to do that preliminary work with both Rick and Phillip so that the Prime Minister was in a position, when he made the offer, to say on the spot, ‘Yes, I agree.’

I decided in preparing for this statement to retrieve the relevant section of the world’s greatest environment statement, Our Country Our Future. It describes, under the heading of Landcare:

A year (1990) and Decade of Landcare (to the year 2000), suggested initially by the National Farmers Federation and the Australian Conservation Foundation, will entail awareness, participation and education programs among rural and urban communities.

During this Decade of Landcare, the Government expects to provide over $320 million for land care and related tree planting and remnant vegetation conservation programs …

That was the $320 million about which Rick lamented, upon leaving the Prime Minister’s office, that perhaps they should have gone higher. That was an enormous achievement on the part of Rick Farley and Phillip Toyne. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the very good work of Phillip Toyne—these two characters, one from the farming community and one from the green community, working together in this alliance to make Australia a better place and to make our land healthier. It was a wonderful achievement of the part on Rick and also of Phillip.

The final story I will tell is that, having got to know Rick quite well—and he was often a bit prickly in his dealings but underneath it all a tremendous person who was always focused on getting good outcomes and decent results for Australia—I got into conversation with him. He obviously had a genuine interest in politics, as was evidenced later by his run for the Senate here in the ACT. But he said, ‘Look, there’s just no way that Labor’s going to win the state election in Western Australia.’ I said, ‘Oh, we will; we’ll retain government there.’ He said, ‘Not in South Australia.’ I said, ‘No, we’ll win that too.’ He said, ‘Well, you’ll never win Queensland because it’s been 32 years.’ I said, ‘No, we’ll win that too.’ He said, ‘You’re kidding yourself; you certainly won’t win all those three plus the federal election in 1990.’ I said, ‘We’ll win that too.’ He said, ‘I bet you don’t.’ I said, ‘I’ll bet you we will.’

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

Greens preferences.

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is Rick Farley; we are talking about the National Farmers Federation preferences, my friend—not many of which, I must say, were flowing our way. Nevertheless, I could not accept that proposition on an even money basis because only one of those four results would need to turn negative and I would have done my dough, but Rick very generously gave me odds of three to one. I think we really deserved about six or seven to one, but he was a pretty tough guy. One by one the dominoes fell—that is, Labor did retain government in South Australia and in Western Australia. The one I was actually really worried about was Queensland because it was 32 years in opposition. Queensland seemed to be saying that they were pretty determined to vote for the National Party and the Libs, but Wayne Goss got Labor across the line very well in Queensland. So the last one was the federal election and we won that too, after losing nine seats in Victoria with the collapse of the State Bank, the tram strike and a few other problems.

Duncan Kerr (Denison, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bolted it in.

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Denison is here. He would be able to inform the House that he did very well on behalf of the Labor Party. He is a very good local member. He is very effective in Tasmania. We had hoped to pick up the seat of Lyons and did not at that stage but subsequently we did. We lost one or two other seats. I think we picked up the seat of Kennedy. The long and the short of it is that Labor won the 1990 election and I got the money. Good on Rick for paying up. He was a man of great honour. I will never do that again—take three to one on four election results. Rick and I had lots of laughs about that subsequently.

When I heard of his aneurysm on Boxing Day it was tragic news for all of us. I had the opportunity of going to see Rick some weeks later. He was in pretty bad shape at that time. He did make something of a recovery but, as we know, that turned out to be short lived. It was an honour to be at Rick’s funeral. Linda, through all of that period, was an absolute tower of strength. She was totally committed to caring for Rick for a very long period. That was what her expectation was, that it would be a very long journey back but that she would be with him all the way. It was not to be. At the age of 53, it is a tragedy for Linda, for Rick’s children and for our nation that he left us at such an early age. He was, and is, a great Australian. He has made an enormous contribution to this continent. He leaves behind a great legacy and inspiration.