Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to pay tribute to the boy from Boree Creek today. I speak of course of Tim Fischer, a man who served his country in so many ways. He was born in the Riverina and hailed from Boree Creek, with all of its 212 residents. Tim was an example that a kid from the country, and a small country town, can achieve anything. Whenever I speak to school groups who come to parliament from our country communities in the central west, one of the things that I tell them is that it doesn't matter where you're from; you can go and achieve in life whatever you want—and Tim was the embodiment of this ideal.

I first met him when he came to Yeoval in 2014 to open the Banjo Paterson Museum. He loved the work of Paterson. He loved Australia. He loved its poetry and its people. That day he told the crowd about Paterson's contribution to poetry, journalism and also the war effort. The crowd were absolutely enthralled with what he had to say. He was one of those people that folks just wanted to be near. They wanted to come and have a chat to him about poetry, about Banjo, about trains.

His life was a life of service in so many ways. We know that he was conscripted to serve in Vietnam in 1966. True to that ideal of service, he elected to go to officer training school. He served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, between July 1966 and March 1969. Of course, he was wounded at that famous engagement of Coral-Balmoral in 1968. At the time, he referred to his conscription as 'the great door opener', such was his dedication to service in whatever capacity—and that's what he looked upon it as: an opportunity to serve his country, to serve his community, and he did it with distinction.

That service continued upon his return to Australia. At just 24, he was elected to serve in the New South Wales parliament. He then made the transition to federal politics 13 years later, in 1984. This began a 17-year commitment to the people of Farrer, to the National Party and to the Australian parliament. His achievements were well documented. He was truly a man of the people. Some of the things he achieved are well known. Some were spoken of at his recent funeral. One incident occurred in 1986, when a desperate Laotian refugee pulled a hunting rifle at the immigration office in Albury, quite near to his office, creating a siege situation. Tim walked in alone, defused the situation, without a lot of concern for his own safety, spoke to the man and reappeared with the rifle in one hand and his arm around the shoulder of the young man. He was a man of the people. After that incident, it was widely reported that he travelled to Thailand in an attempt to get the man's family out of the refugee camp in which they were stuck.

He was a patient man. He was a kind man. He wasn't without fallibility—none of us are—but he always stayed very close to his community and the needs of the community. All of us in this place could probably heed the way that he dealt with his constituents—the way he engaged with them; the way he made sure they were looked after in every way possible. He responded personally through his correspondence to them, he addressed their concerns, and they loved him for it. When Tim took the leadership of the National Party, we as a party were at a low ebb. I think it's now widely recognised that at the time he ascended to the leadership position he was able to give the National Party a clear and distinct image because of the ideals that he personified. In some ways you could call it differentiation. He certainly had that. People related to it because they could see that he was human, that he was one of them; he wasn't just another politician.

Perhaps his greatest challenge came after the devastating Port Arthur massacre, in 1996, when he and John Howard decided to bring all the states together and make sure, through the National Firearms Agreement, that something like that would never happen in this country again. In some ways, John Howard had the easy part of trying to get that reform through, because he had a city constituency. Tim Fischer had to deal with the folks in the bush. It was very difficult for him, but he did it because he knew it was the right thing. John Howard recalled his support, saying:

He never tried to talk me out of it but he made it plain how difficult it was going to be in certain parts of the bush.

He chose to do what was right—despite, I think, an effigy of him being burnt by the gun lobbyists—and he persevered.

Tim continued to serve his country until 2001, when he ultimately finished his service in the parliament, having resigned from the ministry in 1999. That year, Charles Sturt University awarded him an honorary doctorate, and the citation captured much about his personality. It read:

Tim's life has been about dogged adherence to goals. It has also been about risk-taking, grabbing opportunities and perseverance.

I could add that to me his service was all about his humanity and his dedication not just to the people of his electorate but to the people of his country.

Farewell, Tim Fischer. You left an indelible mark on politics. I celebrate your contribution to the National Party, the Australian parliament and our nation. I extend the condolences of the Calare electorate to Tim's family.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not often that a Labor Party MP gets a call from a former National Party leader, but when Tim Fischer picked up the phone a couple of years ago I was delighted to take his call. Tim was calling to speak about research that I'd done, with Christine Neill at Wilfrid Laurier University, on the impact of the firearms buyback on Australian gun homicide and suicide rates. We had found that over the decade before the Port Arthur massacre Australia had averaged one gun massacre every year—that is, one mass shooting in which there were five or more victims. We found that in the decade afterwards there wasn't a single gun massacre.

Looking at homicide and suicide rates, we found that there was a significant drop. When there aren't guns in the home, domestic disputes are less likely to turn deadly. When teenagers don't have access to a gun they're more likely to resolve their disputes with fists rather than with deadly force. When we combined the homicide and suicide effects, we estimated that the Howard-Fischer reforms saved some 200 lives a year. That means that there are more than 4,000 Australians alive today as a result of those reforms.

We often look back at reform and think that it was easy—everything looks obvious with hindsight. But at the time it was anything but. The member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, and then member for Oxley, now senator, Pauline Hanson both opposed the National Firearms Agreement. While the then Labor leader, Kim Beazley, gave his full support it was clear that Tim Fischer would fight a tough battle in the rural electorates in order to persuade them that this was the correct call.

He recalled a particularly vocal meeting about guns in Gympie in Queensland, on a Sunday afternoon. He said:

… as we pulled up, you could see on the branch of a tree an akubra wearing image of my good self with a hangman's knot. And it was a fierce meeting until a young lady, school prefect, stood up about half way through the meeting and laid it on the line in a way that just completely flipped the meeting in support of a sensible harmonised approach on gun laws … At Gympie it would've been fairly hot … what I did not wear was a gun vest or any form of protection.

He had come to the issue in 1986, when a young man armed with a hunting rifle stormed the immigration department's regional office in Albury, right above Tim Fischer's electorate office. As Tony Wright tells the story, the 29-year-old man with a gun was a member of a refugee family from Laos. Tim Fischer was a Vietnam veteran and he knew something about the Lao community that had settled in Albury. The police advised Mr Fischer not to go in. He ignored them, walked in and spoke to the man for some hours.

Eventually, he reappeared, according to Tony Wright, rifle in one hand and a big arm slung over the shoulders of the young man. He had discovered that the young man's mother, grandmother and brother were stuck in a refugee camp in Thailand, and had made a bargain. Tim Fischer had agreed that he would fly, at his own cost, to Thailand to the refugee camp to see if he could get the family reunited. Tony Wright accompanied him to the camp in Nong Khai. They found the people and spoke to them about their plight. He made the case to the United Nations and Australian immigration officials, but was unsuccessful. The young man who had taken a gun into the immigration department office in Albury moved towns, established a restaurant and saved his money. Ultimately, he was able to get on with his life.

Tim Fischer's bravery in that moment, literally putting himself at risk, reflected his political bravery in facing down the far Right over the issue of gun control in Australia. He saw, in retrospect, that the Port Arthur massacre was Australia's equivalent of the US Sandy Hook massacre. He told Vox in an interview in 2017:

There has to be some leadership. The debate has to be taken into the public square, as John Howard and I did 21 years ago. We managed to get the right legislation through, and the results speak for themselves.

…   …   …

It was very hard work persuading people to surrender their guns. But it was the correct call. I took the argument to the public square, and the Australian people chose to step back from laissez-faire dysfunctionality, which now exists in the USA.

…   …   …

I made the correct call and gained majority support, even in country electorates. I defended farmers, hunters, and Olympic shooters having the right kind of weapon as they go about their work, recreation, and sport. I'm not anti-gun. I'm anti automatics and semiautomatics dominating the suburbs.

Many of the two-thirds of a million weapons that were handed back were .22 rifles that had been sitting in the backs of closets, left unused but still a danger to a depressed teenager or in the presence of an angry spouse. The result was to reduce Australia's gun stock by about a fifth, providing fair compensation for those weapons that were handed back.

I note that, in the US Democratic presidential primaries, Beto O'Rourke has been calling for a gun buyback in the United States—a much more modest form of gun buyback but one which would learn the Australian lesson. Additionally, it would be splendid if there were more US conservatives with the political courage of Tim Fischer who were willing to bear the political cost of making tough decisions in the national interest. In the 1998 election, the National Party did go backwards, did suffer electoral losses to One Nation, but history has judged those decisions kindly. It's recognised the hard work that Tim Fischer did.

When the member for Bennelong, John Alexander, and I set up Parliamentary Friends of Gun Control, we did so with the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, a foundation established by Walter Mikac after losing his wife, Nanette, and his two young daughters in the Port Arthur massacre—an almost unimaginable loss. At that event, Walter spoke, and Tim Fischer spoke as well. He spoke about the United States experience, about the importance of staying strong to Australia's gun reforms. There will be periodic attempts to water down the National Firearms Agreement. But I'm pleased that many of those on the coalition side see this as a proud legacy of theirs.

All Australians should admire Tim Fischer for his moral courage on the issue of gun control. Of course, we on this side of the House disagreed with him on many matters. But, in honouring his legacy, this is something of which all Australians can be rightly proud.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to record my deep sadness at the death of the Hon. Tim Fischer AC on 22 August 2019 and pass on my sincere condolences to his wife, Judy, and sons, Harrison and Dominic, for their very, very great loss.

The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have outlined Mr Fischer's incredible contribution to this place and to the nation as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia; as Leader of the National Party for many years; as the Minister for Trade—most famously, I think, taking his akubra and our Aussie spirit overseas to visit so many countries and friends and trading partners; and also as the member for Farrer. His public service also encompassed serving two tours of Vietnam during the Vietnam War and serving as a state member of the New South Wales parliament as the youngest ever elected Country Party MP in New South Wales. After his service to this place, he also served our nation through his roles at Tourism Australia and the Royal Flying Doctor Service and as Ambassador to the Holy See.

Today I would like to briefly relate two personal experiences with Mr Fischer that I believe, in a small way, demonstrate the great intellect and passion he had for the National Party, his party; for the coalition between the National Party and the Liberal Party; for policy; as well as his care for others and his great enthusiasm for life, which so many people have reflected on in their memories of him.

Some years ago now, while studying at Flinders University, which is in the heart of my electorate, I contacted Mr Fischer to seek an interview with him about the Liberal-National Party coalition, the histories of our party and his experiences as leader. I hadn't met Mr Fischer before and so I wasn't sure whether I would get a response or not. He responded, as I think he probably did with every interview request, almost immediately and generously agreed to an interview. He let me know that he'd soon be travelling to Adelaide and so suggested that we could conduct the interview at the end of the meeting that he was having. So we did. We chatted for probably about 30 minutes, at which stage Mr Fischer said, 'Look, I've got to get to the airport, but why don't we continue the interview in the taxi on the way to the airport?' So I said, 'Fantastic—that would be great, thank you.' We then got to the airport and he was still chatting, so he said, 'Look, why don't you come in and keep interviewing me in the lounge while I'm waiting for my plane?'

Some two hours later I had extensive interview material from Mr Fischer across not just the importance and history of the Liberal-National party coalition and government and his experience but also the future of our parties, how we could keep them strong and what we could do. It's lucky that the interview was conducted in the age of digital voice recorders, because if it had been on tape I probably would have run out, such was the amount of information that he was able to give me. He was so incredibly thoughtful, passionate and enthusiastic. It was an absolute privilege to be able to speak with him.

I just wanted to mention that because he was a staunch coalitionist. He was a great leader of the National Party and he was so at a very challenging time for the party. The National Party had recently, just before Tim Fischer became its leader, gone through the challenges of the Joh for Canberra campaign and a split in the National Party. They were still very much piecing the party back together, and he played a huge role in that. This was in 1990, when we were still deep in opposition and wouldn't come to government for another six years. His leadership in keeping the coalition relationship strong through that very challenging time was a very significant one. We saw evidence of that when we came to government and he became Deputy Prime Minister and worked so closely with the Hon. John Howard to lead both our parties.

The other personal experience with Mr Fischer I wanted to contribute today occurred more recently. In March this year, I contacted him on behalf of one of my wonderful young students in my electorate of Boothby, Fletcher Luscombe. Fletcher and his dad, Adam, who's an incredible community volunteer and contributor, came to see me to talk about Fletcher's research project for his year 11 and 12 studies. Fletcher was very keen to talk to whoever he could about gun reform, as a focus of his research project looking into the leadership that was needed on that issue, the relationships that had to be managed, how they formulated the policy, how they came to the outcome and how they communicated what they were doing to the public, because, as we know and others have reflected, it was an incredibly controversial policy change for the Liberal Party and the National Party to make and to manage with many of their core voters and constituents. Once again I emailed Mr Fischer. He responded almost immediately and said that he would be delighted to assist Fletcher with his studies and with an interview. He suggested that he could be interviewed within the next 48 hours. We made that happen. Mr Fischer emailed me to let me know that. I emailed him back and thanked him most sincerely, and he took the time to wish me the very best of luck for the election and the federal budget—my correspondence with him happened in March.

He was always thinking of others. He was always incredibly enthusiastic about his interactions, his contribution and his experiences. It was quite infectious. I think anyone who had the privilege of speaking with, interviewing or knowing Mr Fischer couldn't help but be inspired by his enthusiasm for life. With the benefit of hindsight, he must have been very ill when he was helping Fletcher, which demonstrates what an absolutely remarkable Australian he was—how caring, kind, compassionate and very generous he was.

I reiterate my very sincere condolences to his family. We have lost a great Australian, but the incredible work that he did, the incredible person that he was and the memory of him will live on forever in this nation.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the chamber today in deep appreciation of the life of the Hon. Tim Fischer, Companion of the Order of Australia. Tim, so well-known as the 'Boy from Boree Creek', lived with his wife, Judy Brewer, and their sons, Harrison and Dominic, on Grossotto, Judy's beautiful farm, ringed by the Mudgegonga Hills in my electorate of Indi for about two decades in the last parts of his life.

I offer my deepest sympathy to Judy, to Harrison and Dominic, and to all of Tim's family, and I join with many thousands of people across my electorate, across Australia and indeed around the world who celebrated the extraordinary life of this extraordinary man and who mourn his loss.

Much has been said about Tim, but I want to focus on just one of his many contributions to public life and that's his influence on agriculture. Tim was a farmer and, like so many farmers, he was curious, committed, observant and a careful custodian of the land. He also took passionate interest in agriculture, and agricultural research and development, to the international stage where his knowledge and wisdom benefited many people in many places.

It was from this interest that Tim became chair of the Crawford Fund from 2001 to 2006 and more recently its patron. The Crawford Fund highlights to Australia and the world the extraordinary value and benefits of robust, inquisitive agricultural research. It advances this value and our awareness of it here and overseas where it supports training for scientists and farmers in developing countries. As it happens, Tim's brother, Tony Fischer, is the coordinator of the Crawford Fund's committee in the Australian Capital Territory.

The world's population is estimated to increase by two billion to 9.7 billion people in the next three decades. Food production will need to expand up to 70 per cent if we're to feed everyone. With limited new arable land available for crop production, dwindling water resources and a rapidly changing climate, science and technology will be critical for global food and nutrition security. Key to success will be increasing yields from crop varieties that produce more from less and our capacity to incorporate these into more sustainable farming systems better adapted to a warming climate.

In 1993 the international Convention on Biological Diversity raised concerns about the conservation of the world's vital crop heritage. The convention led to a global plan of action and the creation of an endowment fund to support crop preservation. The Crop Trust was formed in 2004, and Tim Fischer joined the trust in 2013 serving first as vice-chair of its executive board until 2017. He was then elected board chair and re-elected for a second term in 2018 but stepped down in April this year for, of course, obvious health reasons. At the time of his appointment to the trust, Tim said:

Making sure that diversity does not go extinct is a global obligation, but it is also personal. Biodiversity preservation means food security for our future and our children’s children. It also means building more resilient food systems now, for the families across the globe facing food insecurity and hunger.

The Crop Trust is perhaps best known for managing the Global Seed Vault—or 'Doomsday vault' as it's sometimes called—on the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, 1,300 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. The vault is a long-term seed storage facility built into the permafrost and dense rock so that it has the best chance of withstanding the worst imaginable natural or man-made disasters. These conditions ensure that the seed samples, which many of the world's nations deposit there, will remain frozen even without energy supply. The seed vault represents the world's largest collection of crop diversity. It has the capacity to hold the seeds of 4.5 million varieties of different food crops. It currently holds one million varieties including cowpea, chickpea, rice, oats, wheat, barley, lettuce, eggplant, sorghum, millet, corn and potato.

Australia is an important partner in the seed vault and contributes seed samples from its gene banks. The vault preserves what the trust describes as a '10,000-year agricultural legacy we can't leave to chance'. Sir Peter Crane, chair of the Crop Trust Executive Board, said of Tim when he learnt of his death in August this year:

Tim was a remarkable leader and unique personality—full of wisdom and also good cheer. The Crop Trust benefitted enormously from his passionate support. We have lost a good and true friend.

There is no more important work than producing food to feed us and fibre to clothe us. Whether at Boree Creek or Mudgegonga, or indeed on Svalbard in Norway, Tim Fischer made an exceptional contribution to agriculture and its development.

For the past 15 years, one person who came to know Tim and Judy well was my friend and constituent Joan Simms from Beechworth. Joan met Tim for the first time in 1979 when she was working in the New South Wales Premier's Department and Tim was the member for Sturt in the New South Wales parliament. But it was when each of them migrated to Victoria's north-east that they discovered a deep shared interest in the lives and contributions of two great Australians to our country's then infant democracy. These were the great war general Sir John Monash and the High Court justice and first Australian-born Governor-General Sir Isaac Isaacs, who grew up in Yackandandah and Beechworth in my electorate of Indi.

As Joan remarked to me today: 'Of all his qualities and values, I think it's Tim's ordinariness which connected him and his family to folk from all walks of life. It's true to say we all admired his honesty, persistence, selflessness, dedication and the depth of his interest in so many things. But for me the stand-out was this: at all times Tim acted only for what was best, for the common good, in building our community and our nationhood.'

There is no finer expression of Tim's work for the common good, after his long career in public service, than his leadership of the Crop Trust. Tim Fischer served us and the country and the world he loved with distinction, wisdom, courage and imagination. May he rest in peace.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's an absolute privilege to speak in support of the condolence motion for Tim Fischer. I had the pleasure of knowing and working with Tim not as a member—his departure coincided with my arrival—but as a staff member in this place, during the time I was working for Alexander Downer. I know, Mr Deputy Speaker Zimmerman, that you were working in this House at the same time with the great Tim Fischer. We interacted a great deal, in particular because my then employer, Alexander Downer, was the foreign minister and Tim Fischer was the trade minister. The two of them made an odd couple, the very urbane Alexander Downer and the very earthy man from Boree Creek with his hat.

Tim traded on that, of course. He was anything but unsophisticated. He presented in the simplest manner, but he was the most thoughtful and erudite of individuals. But, above all else, he was extraordinarily capable and decent. He brought many qualities to this place. I think that in 20, 30 or 40 years time he will be viewed as one of the most loved, admired and respected people who have served in the new Parliament House in its first half-century-plus of operation. It was an absolute joy and a privilege. He always greeted us by name. The fact that he knew the staff and paid respect to the staff, I think, was simply evidence of the way he treated everybody in his life and in his electorate.

There are many achievements. I only want to speak of two. One is his service in Vietnam alongside other brave soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment—1RAR—between July 1966 and March 1969 as a second lieutenant. As Tim would often reflect, too many of these brave soldiers would never return. He was himself wounded in the Battle of Coral-Balmoral. He brought recognition of that to this place, but he also brought the sense of dedication, service and humility of the Australian digger to this place. He was a proud representative, but never an ostentatious one, of the veterans' community. There are many members in the parliament who have served, and in particular within the current staff of the parliament, whether it's attendants or whether it's people in all sorts of different roles. Tim honoured every one of them for their service and honoured every one of them through his service.

The second thing, which in a way is a curious juxtaposition, is, following the tragedy of Port Arthur, what could not have been the easiest of paths to take, he stood up for gun control in Australia. This came at enormous personal cost. Many in the rural Australian constituency felt that this was taking away a long-held right to access to guns for work on farms and elsewhere, and Tim worked through this problem. He was absolutely committed to supporting John Howard in that endeavour. It was an achievement of the government and an achievement of the parliament, but, above all else, it was an achievement of John Howard and Tim Fischer together.

When we look for leadership from those who are elected to this place, we find it in that example. It is one of the finest exemplars of real leadership. Real leadership is where somebody identifies something which is in the national interest or an interest above and beyond their own, but, at their own cost, nevertheless they pursue the higher goal. That is what he chose to do, and many lives, I believe, have been saved in Australia because of the decisions of that time. It was the worst of national tragedies. It was the best of national responses by the people, by all of those who were emergency service workers and by our great and wonderful medical community, but it was perhaps most embodied in the nation-changing developments that came and could only have been facilitated by Tim Fischer taking the stand he did and working with then Prime Minister John Howard.

To Tim's family, I want to thank you for lending him to us for quite an extended period of time, but he left here early to be with that family and to return that service to them. And, all of those who knew Tim, whilst we mourn him, celebrate him.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of the Hon. Tim Fischer to our nation. I had the pleasure of knowing Tim Fischer. In fact, before I came to this place, he appointed me chair of what was then referred to as the area consultative committees. They were an organisation that preceded the RDAs, or regional development authorities, that we have now, and I think the ACCs arrived just after the OLMA committees. So my relationship with him goes back some time, and I'm grateful for the invitation that he extended to me to be part of the Central Queensland group, chairing the subcommittee of the then ACC. I then went on to chair the south-west region that went from Toowoomba out to Birdsville.

Next year will be my 10th year in this place, and there have been many condolence motions in this amazing chamber, and people have reflected on many of those. I have not spoken on many condolence motions, but I felt it necessary to come and pay my respects to Tim because he is a man I had great affection for and knew personally—a man who deserved all the praise from a number of commentators on both sides of this House and from the journalistic gallery, the fourth estate. His contribution to this place honours his family, his wife, Judy, and the two boys.

Without going over a lot of what has already been said, Tim's contribution to this country is unmatchable. As a politician, you try and take the best from people and model yourself on others. What resonates most with me is that Tim had a saying that people can smell bulldust coming a mile away. Just being your authentic self was a characteristic that would endear you to the Australian people. I try and do that. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, but nevertheless Fischer did it beautifully. He often was referred to as 'awkward', 'quirky', 'rustic' and many other descriptors, but he just kept on coming.

He started his political career after serving some time in the Army. He spent a considerable time, 13 years, in the New South Wales state parliament and after that made his way into the federal arena. After serving on the backbench, he made his way to the frontbench and then became the leader of the party. Whether or not you were a National Party member, a train enthusiast, an avid bushwalker or a person who lived in regional Queensland, you might have come across Tim Fischer. He was respectfully known as 'Two-Minute Tim' because of his busy schedule—in a regional precinct, he would often just drop in to touch as many people in a community as he could as he travelled through, be it at the pub, the CWA or if he just saw a group of cars. He would drop in, say g'day and give his best, just to let the community know that he had gone through. His name 'Two-Minute Tim' was in respect of the time that he would spend with different groups, just to let them know that he was there and he had touched them.

The other thing Tim had going for him was the workload that he got through. That military training, that military discipline, the work ethic, the code that's instilled in you in the military that you don't let the person next to you down—he brought all those qualities to parliament. He brought those qualities to this place when he represented his constituents. If we, as members of this House, can take those qualities away with us, I can assure you they will serve us well.

Tim, after he finished here, went on to do a number of things, but the most notable was his contribution to Rome, as our Ambassador to the Holy See. Many times I insisted that people in my electorate who were travelling to Rome should drop in at the Vatican and ask for Tim. I said that he would always be up for a personal tour and to look after them. I caught up with him some years later. Whilst he was complimentary about the fact that he got to meet some beautiful people from regional Queensland, he said, 'You kept me busy over there!' But the people returned with only good messages from their personal tours with Tim. If he could not, for whatever reason, give the personal tour, he ensured that one of his staff made those people who had travelled across this planet to the other side of the world feel that they were the most important people. That was the quality of the bloke. He was a man of incredible integrity.

In closing, I acknowledge Judy and the boys, Harrison and Dominic. Thank you for the sacrifice you made, of the time that you would have spent with Tim, so that Tim could spend that time with his community, with the party, with the parliament and with the Australian people. It is you who made a sacrifice. I acknowledge that contribution. Thank you. Vale, Tim Fischer.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand it is the wish of honourable members to signify at this stage their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank the Federation Chamber.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That further proceedings be conducted in the House.

Question agreed to.