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

Senator Bartlett, thank you, you remember—a concept caught by the phrase ecofascism. It was a speech that attracted a lot of criticism, but I remember Steve Hutchins drew me aside one day and he said to me—he was sitting in fact in the chair probably during one of these debates—'I thought it was a great speech.' I will also, as will we all, remember him with his friend Mike Forshaw, also from the New South Wales Labor right. They were very much a pair.

He fell out with his faction and was positioned third on the 2010 New South Wales Senate ticket—his defeat all but assured. His term would end on 30 June, 2011. In his valedictory speech to the chamber, Steve Hutchins reflected on the battles fought; of his spectacular falling out with the New South Wales ALP and the opportunism of its leaders; poignantly, of his long battle with the cancer that had overshadowed his parliamentary career and which ultimately was to claim him; and of the countless, vulnerable Australians for whom he had always fought the good fight.

Australia is a fairer country because of the battles people like Steve Hutchins fought. It is his family who have been the closest witnesses to his most courageous fight, his fight with cancer, and must now bear the deepest loss. So, to his colleagues and friends who are in the chamber today, I know what you must feel, because I lost a great friend and colleague of mine earlier this year when Russell Trood succumbed to cancer. I know how you must feel and how sad you must be. So, to you; of course to his wife, Natalie; his children, Lauren, Julia, Michael, Georgia, Madeleine and Xavier; and his grandchildren Jacob, William, Edie, Nathaniel, Rorie and Audrey, I express my profound sorrow and to whom, on behalf of the government, I offer my deepest condolences.