Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too would like to join the condolence motion supported by all sides of the parliament and express my sympathy, on behalf of my National Party colleagues, to his former team mates in the Democrats and to the wife and family that he has left. When I came into this parliament in 1988 I sat almost next to Don Chipp and we became quite friendly. I sat there probably until he left. I am not sure whether it was in this house, now that I reflect on it, or in the old house, but I certainly sat one removed from him.

He was one of the characters in parliament. He was one of the men who had a vision. He was a man who not only had a vision but carried that vision into a reality to form another political party, which had great sway in the politics of Australia. He had the balance of power in the Senate and he developed a party that did have a fair bit of clout when he was leader, and when he handed it over to Senator Janine Haines it was still at its top. The party stayed marginally to the right of centre and it had some relevance in the political spectrum of Australia.

Don Chipp had a very full life as a member of a RAAF aircrew, a councillor and a CEO in the Olympic Games. He also ran a doorknock appeal and had a lot of involvement in volunteerism, in putting other people first. He became a backbencher in 1977 and then left the Liberal Party to form the Democrats. One of his ministerial highlights—I suppose it was a lowlight—was when he was Minister for the Navy during the Voyager collision, and he was instrumental in setting up the royal commission. We have heard about his views on censorship, and he abolished some of the censorship regulations and rules and allowed books to go on the market.

I knew him as a decent fellow, a fellow I sat next to, a fellow that you could have a yarn or a joke with and a person we could approach—and we did approach Don Chipp on a number of occasions to see if we could get his support on various issues. One was the maturation of rum, as I recall. The Treasury decided at the time that they would remove the maturation process on rum, and I approached him and he supported us in Queensland. I would like to take this opportunity to wish his wife, whom I knew—I did not know his family, but I recall they were a younger family—support and condolences from the National Party and say to her that he was a good honest bastard, and that is how he wanted to be remembered.