Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 2 April 2007, of Senator Jeannie Margaret Ferris, Senator for South Australia, and places on record its appreciation of her long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to her family in their bereavement.

Jeannie was born on 14 March 1941 in Auckland, New Zealand, where she spent her early years. In the early 1960s she came to Australia to continue her education at Monash University in Melbourne, where she graduated in agricultural economics. After first working on the Rotorua Post in New Zealand, she continued her career as a journalist in Australia, working in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, before first coming to Canberra in the late 1960s.

During the years that followed, Jeannie worked at the Canberra Times, and as editor of the Yass Tribune. She took pride in claiming that she was the first female newspaper editor in 165 years in rural Australia. She moved on to work in public relations and lobbying, notably in agripolitics. In the early 1980s, Jeannie worked for the CSIRO and she was later the director of public relations with the National Farmers Federation, and corporate affairs director for the South Australian Farmers Federation.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jeannie went into party politics as a senior staff member. She worked with her former NFF colleague, the South Australian federal Liberal member and later minister Ian McLachlan, as well as a number of state Liberal ministers, including Diana Laidlaw, Dale Baker and Rob Kerin. It was during this period—when I was the state director of the South Australian Liberal Party and, from 1993, a senator—that I got to know and admire Jeannie Ferris. Thus when a vacancy arose on the South Australian Liberal Senate ticket for the 1996 federal election, following Baden Teague’s decision to retire, I put to my particular friends and colleagues in the South Australian Liberal Party that we should encourage Jeannie to nominate for the vacancy.

A number of us were attracted to the idea that Baden should be replaced by a good conservative woman, and Jeannie seemed the ideal candidate. My particular group of friends agreed wholeheartedly and it fell to me to call Jeannie to ask her to nominate, with our support. That was one of the conversations I will long remember—Jeannie’s excitement, her eagerness and her gratitude leapt out of the telephone. Jeannie went on to win the No. 3 spot in a very keenly contested preselection—as they always are in South Australia—and on 2 March 1996 she became Senator elect Ferris.

Jeannie had left her position as chief of staff to the then state Liberal minister Dale Baker to contest that election, so she was then unemployed until she could take her seat on 1 July. With an eye for talent, I decided to offer Jeannie a short-term position on my staff as my native title adviser, given my new responsibility at that time for reform of the Native Title Act. Jeannie was very well qualified for that role.

At my urging, Jeannie sought and obtained legal advice as to whether there was any legal or constitutional problem with a senator elect working for a parliamentary secretary. The advice was quite clear that there was no problem. However, in any event, she only had paid employment for less than a week and otherwise worked for me on a voluntary basis. As is well known by many in this place, the opposition nevertheless mounted a full-scale attack on Jeannie’s right to sit as a senator from 1 July that year. Throughout May 1996, exactly 11 years ago, then Labor senator Nick Bolkus attacked me and Jeannie on a daily basis, asserting constitutional doubts about her eligibility. It was a relatively stressful period for Jeannie and a tad embarrassing for me. It appeared Jeannie’s Senate career might be over before it began. Jeannie did become a senator on 1 July but, to remove any ongoing doubts about her status, I had to persuade her to resign from the Senate on 12 July—12 days later—on the basis that the South Australian state parliament would then appoint her to fill the vacancy created by her own resignation. This was a rather ingenious way of removing the doubts Senator Bolkus had created about Jeannie’s status. Jeannie was a little unsure about the wisdom of this strategy but placed her whole trust in me to pull it off. History records that the South Australian state parliament did indeed appoint Jeannie Ferris to fill the casual vacancy on 24 July 1996, thus confirming beyond question Jeannie’s status as a senator—and we heard no more from Senator Bolkus.

This episode did secure Jeannie’s unique place in the history of the Senate. No other senator has ever resigned within two weeks of becoming a senator and then been appointed to fill the vacancy created by his or her own resignation. So you could say Jeannie arrived in the Senate with a bang and kept on banging for the next 11 years. I should report that Jeannie, Nick Bolkus and I subsequently became very good friends, and I do know that Nick misses her as much as anyone else in this place.

I take this opportunity to record my sincere appreciation to those ALP and other non-government senators and members who attended Jeannie’s memorial service in the Great Hall. It reflects the respect for her across the parliament. In particular, I want to acknowledge the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Stephen Conroy, who I think was the most senior opposition member present at the memorial service. I know that, as someone who became very close to Jeannie—particularly through her illness—Senator Conroy was extremely upset by her death.

Jeannie Ferris had ideal training for the job of senator, with nearly 30 years experience as a journalist, public relations officer, lobbyist and political staffer. Her successful Senate career speaks volumes for the virtue of entering the Senate a little later in life, although of course we welcome the occasional more youthful addition to our ranks. Jeannie’s biggest contribution to the Senate was her work as Government Whip for the last 4½ years—in my view, the toughest job in this place, especially in the last 20 months, with the government’s bare one-seat majority and of course the coalition parties’ acceptance of the right of senators to cross the floor without facing expulsion. Jeannie performed that very demanding role with the vigour, discipline and goodwill which so characterised her approach to life.

Jeannie was not only someone whom I regard as my star parliamentary recruit, my good friend and invaluable Senate colleague; she was also my Canberra landlady and cohabitant. Senator Alan Ferguson and I and Alexander Downer, recently replaced by Senator Cory Bernardi, have been renting Jeannie’s Canberra house for nearly 10 years. We have the three downstairs bedrooms and she had the upstairs room. So Jeannie had the very good fortune to have us pay off her mortgage for the last 10 years, to have exceptionally good tenants, to have the government install security to protect the foreign minister after 9-11—they did not care much about me, Jeannie or Alan, but apparently Alexander’s life was worth preserving—and of course to have her house renowned as the most conservative household in the whole of Canberra. It was a pretty good arrangement. I think our three wives took great comfort in knowing that Jeannie was hovering over us every night, keeping a close eye on us. And, of course, we kept a close eye on her. I should mention that our wives have absolutely nothing to fear.

Jeannie was in her prime and was loving life to the full when she discovered, late in 2005, that she had ovarian cancer. In typical Jeannie fashion she was determined to fight the disease and beat it. She had a terrible summer in 2005-06, being treated for that cancer, and she showed tremendous courage and tenacity to return to the political fray in 2006. Having suffered the miseries of the cancer, she threw herself into the cause of improving the way our society deals with gynaecological cancers. She was a key member of the Senate committee of inquiry into gynaecological cancers in Australia, which resulted in the government providing $1 million in seed funding for a new centre for gynaecological cancers to provide education and increase awareness among medical and allied health professionals about gynaecological cancers.

We all thought Jeannie had won her battle with her disease. The magnetism, vivaciousness and charm which had always characterised Jeannie were in full view in 2006. Alas, our optimism was unfounded. About 10 weeks ago she returned to hospital in Canberra, where she remained until she died peacefully early on the morning of 2 April, just two weeks after her 66th birthday.

Jeannie was loved, respected and admired by an extraordinary range and number of Australians, from members of parliament to journalists, from scientists to farmers. When you think of Jeannie you immediately picture that engaging smile, the cheeky glint in her eye, her wonderful sense of humour and her take-no-prisoners approach to life. While we celebrate a life well lived, we do mourn the friendship lost. Saddest of all is the recollection of the enthusiasm that she had for her post-parliamentary life, which she had planned following her decision to retire at the next election. Now that is not to be.

Of Jeannie it can truly be said that she touched the lives of all who knew her. On behalf of the government, I offer condolences to her two sons, Robbie and Jeremy, and to her extended family. In particular, I offer my deep sympathy to her two sons on the extraordinary double tragedy of the loss of their father, Bob Ferris, whom I also knew very well and had known for some 20-odd years, just a few days after Jeannie’s passing.