Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to pay tribute to my friend and my former constituent Leslie John Staines, who was born on 15 June 1940 and who died, after a long illness, on 18 September 2009. A memorial service was held at St Paul’s Anglican Church at Ipswich. Our thoughts and prayers and our hearts go out to his wife, Marlene, his children, David, Beverly and Judith, and their families. John Staines was feared by his political opponents and loved by his political friends. He was respected by all. He was a true believer—the truest. He was Labor. He was union. His life was a life of commitment and loyalty to the party and the movement. To John they were inseparable.

He was a life member of the party, an honour not bestowed lightly or carelessly by the Labor Party. He served with honour, integrity and distinction as treasurer of the Blair federal electoral council, the Ipswich West state electoral council and his own Ipswich and North Suburbs branch of the ALP. He was a delegate to all levels of the party in Ipswich and he served in just about every position on the Ipswich Trades Hall and Labour Day Committee. For nine years he served as a Blair delegate to the Queensland state Labor Conference, easily elected by local branch members each time he stood—indeed topping the ballot in 2007. He was the party’s longstanding campaign director in Ipswich West, serving former member Don Livingstone and now member Wayne Wendt. He was the party’s campaign director in Blair in 2001 and the campaign manager in Blair in 2004 and 2007, with particular responsibility for rural areas.

In the history of the Labor Party in South-East Queensland he was the best and most dedicated ALP campaigner in the western areas of Ipswich and the rural communities of the South Burnett, Somerset, the Lockyer Valley and the Scenic Rim. In his prime no-one could match him. He was simply brilliant at it. If the party had 10 John Staines in each marginal seat we would never lose an election. His boyhood on farms, particularly at Templin, his timber-working days and his long years as an ironworker enabled him to relate easily to people. He campaigned from Merrinbambi to Maroon, from Murphys Creek to Mount Alford, from Ropeley to Ripley, from Boonah to Brassall and from Karalee to Kalbar. He was persistent; he was fearless. He was relentless.

He travelled thousands of kilometres during each campaign—organising, putting up signs, doorknocking and exhorting locals to support Labor at polling booths; he marshalled troops and he fed the troops—all the time in his four-wheel drive with the Labor trailer behind him, often with an ALP candidate in front with him. He was happiest in the middle of a campaign. He thrived on it. He showed up in mobile offices at country shows, with his checked shirt and his old hat and his elasticised boots. He was persistent. He was philosophically honest and he kept all of us philosophically honest.

To Marlene and the family we in Ipswich say thank you; we say thank you for sharing John with us. He fought the fight. He ran the race. He kept the faith. He served till the end. Thank you very much, John Staines.