Sandy Macdonald (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, like my colleagues, would like to make a brief contribution about the late Jeannie Ferris. Like many senators, I regarded her as a good friend, and I am sure that that was reciprocated. I endorse all the generous things that have been said about her. She was no whitebread politician. She was a larger than life person, a real character, who brought a deal of life experience to this place.

She represented your state well, Mr Acting Deputy President Ferguson. She represented regional Australia well. She represented Australia well, particularly in her role as an outstanding chair of the US-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group, which she built up to be I think the second largest group in the parliament. She was a great lover of America and believed in many of the fine ideals of the American state and its sense of generosity, freedom and commitment to free enterprise. She also represented Australia well in connection to the role she played early last year in going to Iraq to help reopen the Australian wheat trade, which was important and still is. Also, she had a passion for health—which has been talked about a lot today—agriculture generally, social policy and of course politics. She did all of those well and with passion. She was also a great whip and an extremely perceptive and empathetic person, and she was always a great help to anyone going through a difficult time. Nothing that I am saying is new; these are aspects of Jeannie’s character which all of us felt and all of us feel very personally about.

She was also a very discreet person; that is clearly the case. Sometimes she opened the window a little bit on her private life, and there was much that she did in the community that none of us, even some of her closest friends, knew all about. Simply, she was a very good person, a humane person with extraordinary talents and experience. She had a deal of personal charm, which has also been talked about. Like many people with a lot of charm, in my experience, she had her favourites and I modestly think that I was one of those. She liked the country boys, as she called us, and she was a wonderful exponent of country mindedness in the Senate. She had a twinkle; she was attractive; she was always fun. She loved to be the centre of intrigue and attention. You always felt a little buoyed to be in her presence. She was never a dull person. You certainly would not have realised that she was well into her 60s. Every time you saw her, she had the vibrancy and sense of fun and excitement of somebody on the first day of a new and exciting job, and her sense of purpose rubbed off on all of us. I am sure that her spirit will live on in this place and with her friends and family for a long time.

I will finish by saying that three very fine people have died in my time in the Senate. As I am retiring next year, I hope there are no more. Those three people were the late John Panizza from Western Australia, also a whip and an extremely outstanding person who brought a lot of experience to this place; the late Peter Cook, a very outstanding trade minister; and now Jeannie Ferris. When such good people die while serving in the nation’s parliament, it might be a moment to reflect on the many outstanding people who have served in this place. Australia is a great country, and great countries are only great if they have good people who are prepared to serve. It is a pity that not all our fellow Australians necessarily realise that. But with the passing of somebody of the quality of Jeannie Ferris, surely that brings things back into perspective for even the most cynical of our fellows. Godspeed, Jeannie. You were a lovely person and your participation in this institution will be missed. On behalf of Alice and me, we will miss you and we feel very honoured to have known you.