Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I too would like to add my comments to the words that have been spoken in this place today about Jeannie Ferris. I think it is a mark of Jeannie that we are observing one of the most civilised times that I have seen in this place since I have been here, with people from all sides and corners of the parliament standing up to express warm feelings of their experience of Jeannie.

Mine began in early 2002 when I came to this place and was fortunate enough to be appointed to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, which as we have heard already was a committee that Jeannie was on for her entire time here in the parliament. Jeannie set about training the new senator, scolding when necessary. We have heard of the ‘tut, tut’, but she also had a way of saying, ‘Don’t you dare do that!’, but praising also and giving guidance. To sit and watch Jeannie in operation as a member of that committee provided me with the best training that I could get. She was absolutely fierce in her pursuit of issues in support of Australian agriculture. That has been mentioned here many times today. But she also supported the government steadfastly. She would not let anything get in the way of the support for Australian agriculture, particularly in respect of quarantine issues and biosecurity. It was one of the key issues she supported, particularly in relation to apple imports. I also recall the time when she was concerned about a few things not right in AWI. I can still recall a cartoon in one of the rural newspapers showing Jeannie with her foot on the neck of a particular employee of one of those organisations as if to say she had him pinned to the ground. She was going to get her man and she ultimately did.

There have been many words of support and expressions of the way that Jeannie supported people through particular issues, debates and discussions. At key moments when she could see that you were under enormous pressure or that some things were not going quite right, she was particularly supportive. During some of the conscience debates Jeannie was very aware of the pressure that different people were under, the lobbying that was being conducted and the pressure that was being applied to them for their vote in some of the really important debates that we have had here over the last two or three years. At just the right moment Jeannie would turn up and say, ‘We are proud of what you have done.’ I think Senator Moore mentioned that when she was making her presentation earlier and I have certainly had the benefit of those quiet words of encouragement from Jeannie at a key moment when the pressures were coming from a number of different angles. You knew that there was that level of support from someone who was keeping an eye on what was going on around the traps, and a word of encouragement and support. Sometimes that can be pretty rare in a competitive place like this. So that sort of support was very good.

She also knew how to keep your feet on the ground, mind you, if she thought you were getting a bit ahead of yourself. When I was fortunate to go into the agriculture portfolio, appearing before that famous backbench committee for agriculture, she certainly knew how to make sure you knew your stuff. You were not going to take a piece of legislation through that backbench committee without going through the full circuit. She made sure that you were across your brief and you knew what you were talking about. There was nothing put past that committee.

I did not have so much contact with her on a lot of the other issues that have been mentioned here today so I will confine my comments mostly to the rural sphere. Over her time here Jeannie not only had an interest in rural issues but also really cared about the rural communities. I remember talking to her one day after she had done a trip through western New South Wales in 2003 or 2004. She was telling me how she had been to a black tie dinner in a community where it was so dry that the dams were all dry. They had a black tie dinner to celebrate their way of life on the floor of a dry water storage facility. That is the way she got around. She talked to these communities and she really cared about them. She worked hard to implement programs that supported them, and really supported members who pushed for programs to meet the needs of rural Australia in times of real stress, which we have seen a lot of over the last five or six years. She really put in a strong effort to support rural communities.

I have mentioned that she knew how to scold, and I was the beneficiary of the mother of all scoldings on a very famous occasion. Senator McGauran is not in the chamber at the moment but I recall him indicating to the chamber one day that we had won a vote by one vote. That was the day that the tractors arrived from Tasmania and I was with Senator McGauran’s brother, Minister McGauran, out on the front lawns of Parliament House announcing some funding that we had put together for the vegetable industry. When I got back in I apologised to Julian for causing him some grief by missing the division. He said to me, ‘Don’t worry, mate, I think I took the focus off you following the count.’ The only person whose focus he did not manage to take off me was Jeannie because she gave me the rounds of the kitchen something fierce when she caught up with me. I think it was Senator Patterson who said at the conclusion of that discussion that we all agreed that I would never miss a division again.

As I have said, Jeannie really felt an affinity with people in rural and regional Australia. She really cared for what they were about and what they did. To use the Australian colloquial term that is perhaps the ultimate compliment of some of those real hard nuts out in the bush, she was a ‘damn good sort’. She was someone who cared about people and her community. It might not be fashionable to use that terminology but it is not meant in any other way than as what I would see as the ultimate compliment from a lot of people who are doing it tough and working hard in rural and regional Australia.

My sincere condolences go to Robbie and Jeremy. The loss they suffered in that terrible week is something very few of us can consider. Our thoughts are with them. To Jeannie’s staff, friends and colleagues in the chamber who were very close to Jeannie, I also extend my condolences. It has been a tough time over the last few weeks just thinking that Jeannie will not be back here. So my thoughts are with all those who feel that way. And to Jeannie: rest in peace. We are all going to miss you.