Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the adjournment debate to speak of Ian Causley. He was a colleague of mine, and he got beaten by two votes for the deputy premiership of New South Wales. Ian started his adult life cutting cane in the heart of my electorate—in fact, where my office is at Innisfail. As a young man, he cut cane by hand. One of the great prides we had in our party in Queensland was that 13 of the cabinet had cut cane by hand as young men. We always loved using this against the Labor Party because none of them had ever worked with their hands.

I visited Ian at his house. He lived on the Clarence River, where his family had lived for, I'm told, 150 years, and I wouldn't doubt it. For a man of great wealth and great power, he just lived in a little fibrolite house—very humble—on the banks of the Clarence River, where his great-great-grandad lived. When I met Ian, I knew him by reputation of course. He was a third ranking minister in the New South Wales government, and I was a second ranking minister in the Queensland government, and we both came into this place around the same time.

Ian, I'm told, owned 600 acres of cane land in Western Australia in the Ord, and he was one of the biggest cane farmers in New South Wales. People think of Queensland for cane, but, if you drive from the Gold Coast to Murwillumbah—200 kilometres—most of the time you'll be driving through cane fields. Northern New South Wales is actually very big in sugar cane.

Ian was chairman of his mill. You've got to understand that farmers all fight and hate each other, so to become chairman of the cooperative mill, the farmers' mill, is a very, very big achievement—and to have been there as long as Ian had been, before he went into parliament. And, when he got out of the parliament, he went straight back into it again.

I don't wish to be negative and I shouldn't be negative, but all the same, my last real memory of Ian—we went out often to dinner of a night here. I should just say that before I met Ian, I checked out, and I was told that he had 600 acres, which is a very big cane farm, in Western Australia. He was one of the biggest cane growers in New South Wales. He owned two hotels. However you measure people, he was very, very successful and highly respected by his fellow cane farmers. He was made chairman of, I think, one of the two sugar mills in New South Wales—or it might have been two of the three.

Ian saw the world the same way that I did. We'd came out of the Country Party, we were much older than the average member here, and we were very much Country Party. The Country Party was founded by John McEwen. He called all the Victorian dairy farmers together for a huge meeting. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there. He was only 28 years of age, and he said: 'From now on all milk will be sold through the dairy cooperative'—Ian knew the story as well as I did; it was legend inside the Country Party—'it will be sold at this price and everyone will get a quota. That's the way it's going to be.' Three or four of them disagreed with him, so he said, 'We're going to halt the meeting, and I'm going to explain it properly to you out the back.' And he belt the living daylights out of all three of them. He came back in rubbing his fists, saying, 'Does anyone else want it explained to them?' From that day forward he was called 'Black Jack' McEwan, very deservedly.

When Black Jack retired from this place, every single rural industry had marketing arrangements which allowed us to have a very acceptable and, I might even say, prosperous living, whether it was the egg industry or the peanut industry or the maize industry or the fishing industry or the tobacco industry or the sugar industry or the wool industry—even the beef industry. Almost all of our experts at that stage went to the United Kingdom and Japan. America was a very important player. But both of those markets were done by an agreed upon price— (Extension of time granted)

I want, in conclusion, to say that Ian left this place soon after the deregulation of the dairy industry. In that infamous day, every single person in our party room screamed that we had to fight it and we had to die in the ditches over it. Well, nobody did. Ian left this place soon afterwards. He retired from parliament altogether. He had enormous difficulty living with it, and, of course, I resigned from the party of which I'd been the standard-bearer in Queensland for 20 years. If you said, 'National Party: say the first word that comes into your head,' they'd have said Joh Bjelke-Petersen. The second word they would have said would have been my name, and that was in poling et cetera. So the profound effect of moving away into a deregulated free marketplace was that. But Ian was a great warrior for us, and it was a great tragedy that he did not lead New South Wales as deputy premier, and a great tragedy that he did not lead here as our leader. I think history would have taken a much different turn if Ian had been there. He was a man who showed great judgement, was a very good Christian—very active in the Anglican Church was Ian—a very tough customer and a very funny bloke. He was great company, and I miss him greatly. He was one of my heroes.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Kennedy for his earthy and heartfelt remarks. Ian Causley was one of the select few who served in not one but two parliaments. Ian was the New South Wales parliamentary member for Clarence from 1984 until 1996 and then won the federal seat of Page and served there until 2007. While, unlike the member for Kennedy, I did not directly share time in parliament with Ian, I knew him well, not least through the vast National Party membership network. I recall his passionate contributions to debate on the floor of state conferences. I'm sure the member for Lyne can back me up there! At federal meetings as well, there was always a contribution with a genuine belief—a real purpose behind what he said. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said.

Ian Causley was also, importantly, a committed local member. The regions mattered to him. He knew his electorate from one end to the other, and, when the boundaries changed, he was out there quickly to introduce himself to his new constituency areas. He knew the people, but, more than knowing the constituency, he understood the constituency—their wants, their needs, their hopes and their aspirations.

The Causley name has long been synonymous with the Far North Coast of New South Wales. Ian was a renowned farmer, but he extended that experience and passion into the industry through directorships and local organisations. He led the Clarence River Cane Growers Association as president. He extended this contribution into the New South Wales Cane Growers Council, and this proved to be a lifelong commitment to the industry. Even after his long and successful service in two parliaments, Ian remained committed to his own industry, serving on the New South Wales Sugar Milling Co-operative board until 2017.

It was a natural progression of his commitment to people around him for Ian to stand for and win preselection for the state seat of Clarence. After four years of opposition, on election of the Greiner-Murray government in 1988, and later in the Fahey-Armstrong government, he served as Minister for Natural Resources from 1988 to 1990, Minister for Water Resources from 1990 to 1991, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries from 1993 to 1995 and Minister for Mines from 1993 to 1995. So we see a lifetime of experience in the primary industries translated into service for industries across the state and, indeed, the nation.

In federal parliament, he served as a respected Deputy Speaker for almost six years until 2007. There was respect that ran across the House of Representatives—across both sides of the parliament. I mentioned that Ian never forgot his personal base, and we can understand something of the effort in representing the best interests of canegrowers in New South Wales when 95 per cent of Australia's sugar cane came from north of the Tweed. On Ian's passing, Sunshine Sugar—which is a partnership between the grower owned New South Wales Sugar Milling Co-operative and the Australian family owned business Manildra Group—offered a tribute, which gives us a very real sense of his contribution and an insight into just what he was like:

The NSW sugar industry has lost a great warhorse, with the passing of Ian Causley.

Having been involved in agri-politics for more than 50 years, Ian was a strong leader and was Chairman of the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative during some of its most turbulent times.

Indeed, they were turbulent times, but they were lucky to have a good leader in Ian to help see them through those turbulent times.

At this time, we mourn his passing with his family members: Craig Causley, Marcelle Turner, Derek Causley and Shane Causley. Ian lost his treasured wife, June, in 2013 after her courageous battle with cancer. He loved her so. The family has requested donations be made to prostate or breast cancer causes in lieu of flowers at this time. Despite June's passing, he did not withdraw. He continued to work in and serve his community, which is a great mark of the man.

Reporting on a function in 2006 to mark his 20-plus years of parliamentary service, the Lismore Echo published a wonderful, iconic photo of him as a strapping young canefarmer, complete with a canecutter in one hand, and a photo essay of his life. The photo was accompanied by a report on his achievements over that time span, and it was a very, very long report. Those achievements extended far and wide across community life, with Ian recalling how he enjoyed mucking in with local small stall holders at Sydney's Paddy's Markets, backing the little bloke—backing the little guy—against a push for redevelopment of their site into an office and residential block. Paddy's Markets stands today, proudly—in fact, not in one but in two locations, at Sydney's Haymarket and Flemington.

At the same time, in 2006, Ian pointed to the depth of commitment we have across Nationals branches—the wonderful people who comprise those branches for the common good. He was asked who should be his successor. His reply was, 'I don't anoint successors,' because, as he explained: 'History tells me it's the kiss of death if you anoint someone, and local branch members don't like someone forced upon them. They have to fight their own battles.' We think of Ian Causley's family and friends at this difficult time. We share their sorrow at his passing, but we also share their great pride and satisfaction from reflecting on his life so well lived—a life lived for others.