Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The last day of sittings in this place last year, 7 December, was a very sad day in the city of Bundaberg, with the passing of a bastion of the local community. Tom Quinn had fought a long battle with cancer and his passing was bittersweet. It was a blessing that he was relieved from his suffering, but his passing leaves a huge void in his family and the community.

Tom made his life’s work giving back to the community. He was a great example of how it is possible to live many lives in one lifetime—if you like, the man-for-all-seasons syndrome. I have previously listed in this place his many professional achievements, but some bear repeating. After a multifaceted career with Qantas as an accountant, corporate planner, aircraft purchaser and consultant, he retired early to Innes Park, near Bundaberg, but was restless to contribute to the community.

In that capacity, he served on the Woongarra Shire Council as a councillor, he was a director of the Bundaberg District Tourism Development Board and a lecturer at Central Queensland University, a campus in Bundaberg that he played a part in founding. He also found time to sponsor an African child from Lesotho. He entered the workforce on a full-time basis again as the manager and chief executive of Bundaberg’s group apprenticeship scheme, called BACAS, which he ran for 10 years prior to its incorporation in BIGA. Many tradesmen owe their careers to the apprenticeships that Tom created for them. He gave leadership to the group apprentices scheme, not only in Bundaberg but also at a national level, where he was international president.

Tom also worked with Lex Rowland and me to bring Burt Hinkler’s home from Southampton to Bundaberg. I might add, he was the one who suggested the name of Hinkler for the electorate I now represent. The Hinkler house is now the centrepiece of Bundaberg’s botanical gardens and has drawn over 500,000 visitors. It is about to be expanded again, with the construction of the $7.5 million Hinkler Hall of Aviation, for which the city has received $4.5 million from the federal government. Next month I will be involved in the sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of construction of this project, and I know Tom will be there in spirit alongside me.

At the tender age of 67 he enrolled at the University of New England, undertook his law degree and passed. Surprisingly, he did this not just for academic satisfaction, as some people do in retirement, but to actually use it. He completed a professional year at the Brisbane Supreme Court with all the young aspiring barristers and was received at the bar at the age of 75. He received few, if any, fees and devoted himself almost entirely to people who could not get legal assistance or legal aid. I understand that he helped more than 440 people in his short career, representing them in the Magistrates and District Court, and of course offering advice. He was enormously helpful to me in one of those intractable cases. He was a remarkable and selfless contributor.

I have met very few people in life who I would really say were at peace with their God, but Tom Quinn was one of them. He had a burning ambition to help people and especially the most deprived. He was a great adherent of the Salvation Army. He and his Salvation Army colleagues Major Peter Pearson and Tom Osborne purchased a derelict recycling plant, modernised it, painted it, landscaped it and turned it into a haven for young people and others with personal problems, poor workplace skills and learning difficulties. The centre was named the Tom Quinn Centre in his honour, and it has become a beacon of achievement, hope and restorative comfort for hundreds of deprived people, especially young people.

His children, Rosalee, Peter and David, should take great comfort and pride in the fact that the tangible and not so tangible legacies their father left will live for many years in the community. Tom Quinn was a father, grandfather, teacher, trainer, councillor, aviation devotee and carer of the poor and deprived. He lived Christ’s injunction not only in theory but in practice: ‘For as often as you have done this to the least of my brethren, you have done this unto Me.’