George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death, on 9 January 2017, of Emeritus Professor Russell Brunell Trood, former senator for Queensland, places on record its appreciation of his long and highly distinguished service to the nation, and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

This is a day of great sorrow for government senators because our dear friend and esteemed former colleague, Russell Trood, died on 9 January, shortly after his 68th birthday. He had been diagnosed early last year with a rare, aggressive and incurable form of cancer. His death at such a relatively young age has shocked those of us who counted him as a friend.

Condolence motions are always sad occasions, but there is, of course, a special poignancy in a condolence motion in relation to someone who is so fresh in our memory as a colleague with whom we served in this chamber. It is less than six years ago that Russell left us when his term expired on the 30 June 2011. You could almost imagine him walking through the door or rising in his place to make one of his characteristically erudite and memorable contributions. Those of us who were privileged to attend a private funeral—which included both you and I, Mr President, and former senator Michael Ronaldson—and the many of us who attended the memorial service hosted by Griffith University in Brisbane last Friday know just how many people admired, respected and loved Russell Trood.

He was born on 5 December 1948 in Melbourne, but his upbringing was in Sydney. Although his career was crowned by the six years he served as a senator between 2005 and 2011, most of his career was spent in the academy as a respected scholar in his specialist field of international relations. But politics was in his blood—literally. He was the great-grandson of Sir Arthur Rutledge, the Attorney-General in the government of Sir Samuel Griffith in colonial Queensland and one of the Queensland delegates to the 1891 Federation convention in Sydney. That was the convention in which the principal draft of the Constitution was authored by Sir Samuel Griffith. Russell's great-grandfather, Sir Arthur Rutledge, was at his side on that immensely important moment in Australian history.

As a young man, Russell become involved in the Liberal Party in Sydney. He was active in the Pymble Young Liberals. He was educated at the University of Sydney, where he graduated LLB, and began his career as a solicitor. But the practice of law was not for him because his intellectual interests lay in international relations. So he went to the United Kingdom, did a masters in that discipline at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales and, for a time, worked in politics in the United Kingdom. It will tell you much about Russell's political philosophy and values that, when for a year he worked as a research officer for political party in London, it was not the conservative party for which he worked but the Liberal Party. Russell was in the great liberal tradition—the tradition in British politics represented by Gladstone and Asquith; the tradition in Australian politics represented by Deakin and Menzies. He was a thorough liberal. I remember that Russell used to occasionally regale me of the highlight of his career—working as a political staffer in the United Kingdom, with memories of the Sutton and Cheam by-election of December 1972. It was one of the Liberal Party's great victories—when it won a safe Tory home county seat with a swing of 38 per cent. Years later, Russell would himself be the subject of a very famous election victory.

He returned from the United Kingdom to pursue a career as a scholar. He was a lecturer at the Australian National University between 1983 and 1988. Then, in 1989, he was recruited by Griffith University, where he was a lecturer and then senior lecturer between 1989 and 1996. He was the director of the Centre for the Study of Australian-Asian Relations at that university from 1990 until shortly before his election to the Senate, and associate professor of international relations at Griffith from 1997 to 2004, when he was elected to the Senate.

After his time in the Senate came to an end, he returned to the academy. At the time of his death he was the director of the Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations and he was a director of the Griffith Asia Institute. In acknowledgement of his long and distinguished career as a scholar, Griffith University conferred upon him the high honour of Emeritus Professor. While serving as a scholar, he was the author of many specialist works in the particular field Asian international relations and gave his support to many learned bodies. He was the president of the Queensland branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, he served as a member of the national executive of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, he was a board member of the Australia-Indonesia Institute, he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Council and he was a member of the editorial board of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, among many other distinctions.

Politics, along with the study of international relations, was Russell's other love. In the 1990s he became involved in the Liberal Party. That is where I first encountered him: in the branches of the Liberal Party—the Sherwood branch, in fact, in the western suburbs of Brisbane. He served in various roles, including as a member of the Liberal Party state executive, between 1999 and 2003. It was very obvious to me when I encountered Russell Trood that we were like-minded. It was also very obvious to me that he wanted to be a senator, and so did I. We should have been rivals, but we never were. We formed a fast and lasting friendship and, when I stood for preselection for the Senate in 2000, Russell supported me.

In 2001 he ran for the Senate himself in a lower position on the Liberal Senate ticket. And then, in 2004, he won the No. 3 position on the Liberal Senate ticket. In those days in Queensland there was intense competition between the Liberal Party and the National Party, and nowhere was that competition more intense than for the third Senate place—it being reckoned that the conservative side would never win more than three seats. The National Party candidate, someone of whom we had never heard but of whom we would hear much more in the years to come, was Barnaby Joyce.

The Liberal ticket comprised Brett Mason, Russell and me, with Russell at No. 3 on the ticket, and we thought that we were in a race between Russell and Barnaby for the third non-Labor position. It never crossed our minds that both could win, and we spent weeks on end—Russell, Brett and me—travelling around Queensland over the course of that campaign. Those were joyous times, and we were happy warriors. The soundtrack of our campaign was a blend of Russell's fine taste in music and Brett Mason's execrable taste in music, and so it was to the backing track of Bizet, Verdi and The Carpenters that we travelled the length and breadth of Queensland for all those weeks.

I will never forget the night of the 2004 election at Russell's home when it appeared that both he and Barnaby Joyce had won. In his valedictory speech, former senator John Cherry, whose place Russell took, calculated that the difference was 2,720 votes. It was a historic result because not only was it the first and only time that either of the major parties had won four of the six Senate places at a half-Senate election but it was, of course, also the result that gave the Howard government control of the Senate. That will not be Russell's only place in history, but it is a sure one.

In July 2005 Russell Trood arrived in the Senate. He was part of the cohort to which you, Mr President, also belonged, and he immediately made an impact. One of the reasons I think Russell immediately made an impact is that he looked so much like a senator. He was almost everyone's idea of the senator from central casting, but he made an impact through his contribution to debate. I can still hear in my mind's ear that lovely voice. It was polite, persuasive, rich, erudite and plangent. You could hardly fail to be persuaded by what Russell had to say.

He was, in his time here, the best-educated person in the parliament. But he wore his learning lightly. He was gentle. He was generous. He was decent. He was immensely popular amongst government senators and much respected across the chamber. When Russell left the Senate, the then leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Chris Evans, had this to say about him:

Senator Russell Trood only had one term here. In many ways that is a shame because I think he had a lot to contribute and did not get the opportunity to continue to do so in a way that would have been good for the parliament and for the Liberal Party.

…   …   …

I think it was good for the Liberal Party and for the Senate that you were elected … You also behave much more like people's image of a traditional senator.

…   …   …

Rather than being a grubby party politician, he brings free thought, an interest in ideas and a style that reflects that sort of approach. I say that very genuinely. I think the parliament and the Senate have benefited from his academic background and expertise …

…   …   …

… Russell Trood has brought that experience to the parliament and applied it to foreign affairs and international relations issues … to great effect. In a parliament where sometimes we are not known for our interest in ideas, Senator Trood's contribution has been notable for that.

…   …   …

… I have actually found him more effective in estimates than many of you—

addressing opposition senators at the time—

because he has used a more reasonable and less aggressive and inquisitorial style that actually puts you under a bit more pressure than perhaps some of the more frontal assaults some of you are known for … Certainly from the government's point of view Senator Trood is well-respected. We thought he was an interesting and valuable addition to the Senate and he has made a contribution that I think the Senate will miss.

The Senate these days has, I think, suffered a lot. I think its reputation, I am sorry to say, for all sorts of reasons is at a relatively low ebb. I think the Australian people, if they could imagine an ideal of the Senate and what the Senate should be, would imagine that it were a chamber of men and women committed to public service who debate the great issues of the nation politely and passionately, with wisdom, decency and learning. Well, that is what we had with Russell Trood, because that is exactly what he was like.

As a friend and as a matter of principle, he was extraordinary. I will never forget when in 2008 the Liberal and National parties amalgamated in Queensland and an issue arose about the order of the Senate ticket. I was a member of the shadow cabinet. Brett Mason was a member of the executive as a shadow parliamentary secretary. Barnaby Joyce was the Leader of the National Party in the Senate. Russell was a backbench senator. Russell insisted, at his own cost, that the Senate ticket should reflect the order of seniority, even though that had the result of putting him in the fourth position, a position unlikely to be won again—and it was not. That was an extraordinary act of friendship to me and to Brett Mason. It shows the largeness of the person whom we mourn today.

As a scholar and in particular as a scholar of history, Russell was interested in the long run. He could see the course of events not over hours, days or weeks but over years and decades. He was one of the only voices in the coalition party room to oppose the invasion of Iraq. He said, 'Loathsome as Saddam Hussein is, if we displace the regional strongman, that will destabilise Iraq with unpredictable consequences not only for Iraq but for the rest of the Middle East. In years to come, we will still not know how unstable we will have made that region.' With the learning of history, who can say that he was wrong?

In 2008 he was a vigorous opponent of the amalgamation of the Liberal and National parties in Queensland. He said, 'If you fuse the parties, you will create a political space on the right, particularly in regional Queensland, that may well be filled by either the One Nation party or other more right-wing parties.' Who can say that he was wrong? So Russell had a wisdom born both of experience and of deep learning.

For him to be taken from his family, his friends and his colleagues at the academy at such a young age is a cruel blow. I visited Russell in the last couple of months of his life. His courage in the end that he knew was imminent is beyond my words to describe. He did say that he hoped to live beyond 8 November to see the defeat of Donald Trump. So he did not get everything he wished for.

I thank the patience of the Senate for allowing me to express, at slightly longer length than is customary on these occasions, my esteem for a dear friend, a great senator, a person who made this institution better, who graced public life in an exemplary manner and for whose friendship and collegiality we are all the better and for whose passing we are grievously poorer. I extend my deepest sympathy to his widow Dale, his son James, his daughter Phoebe, his brother Arty. I thank the Senate for their expression of appreciation for the life and contribution of this wonderful man.