Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a privilege to speak today on the condolence motion for Tim Fischer. I acknowledge Mrs Judy Fischer, Tim's brother Tony and son Dominic Fisher here today. When I was state secretary for the National Party in Queensland, Tim had already retired and much has already been said of his career to that point. But he was famous for attending party events, and ending up in the kitchen, listening to the gossips and the news, and he always listened far more than he spoke—a rare and important gift.

After retirement, Tim returned to his great passions—his family, Judy Harrison and Dominic, and farming Boree Creek. He gave fully and selflessly—as he did in every interaction—to charity work, assisting organisations such as the St Vincent de Paul Society, the Fred Hollows Foundation and Autism New South Wales. Tim served as Chairman of Tourism Australia from 2004 until 2007. He was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2000. He served as chairman and patron of the Crawford Fund, an initiative of the ATSE supporting international agricultural research. He was Vice-Chair and Chair of the Crop Trust, and a vigorous supporter of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. He served as national chairman of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He also served as founding patron of Australia for UNHCR, an Australian charity that raises funds for the UN's refugee agency.

Last year I attended the Rural Press Club to hear Tim speak on one of these many passions, and on this occasion it was the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. In his own inimitable way, he made the subject fascinating, and talked at length on seeds, crops, new methodologies and international advances in irrigation. He held the crowd in the palm of his hand for an hour and a half.

Last year, Tim, along with fellow rail enthusiast Everald Compton, visited my parents, Don and Chris McDonald, south of Cloncurry. Everald reported the visit as follows: 'Tim announced at breakfast that he had discovered on Google an old mine and the remains of its railway that operated a century ago in a remote place in the mountains between Cloncurry and Mount Isa. He invited Don to take us out there in one of his helicopters. To make a long story short, we spent a fascinating morning crawling through crumbling tunnels and down old mine shafts, with Tim constantly proclaiming what a great engineering feat it was to have built all this by hard human labour, without machinery all those years ago. He yearned for Australia to revive that nation-building spirit, and asked Don and I to join him in leaving messages in a bottle that he hid in one of the tunnels. He then speculated how long it might take for someone to find it.'

On my preselection to the Senate, and again following the election last year, Tim rang me to congratulate me. The number of people who tell stories of him calling or writing amazes me—how much time and interest he took in so many people's lives. He had earlier offered to provide me with a testimonial for my preselection, but with his characteristic innate understanding of Queensland politics he wryly added that I may not want to use it, given that he was from New South Wales.

Two weeks ago, while walking down the street to Tim's service, a man stopped me and asked me what was going on. Upon hearing that everyone was gathering for Tim Fischer, the man answered simply: 'He was a good man. He did a lot for us and for Australia. He will be missed.' I don't know that I can add much more than that. So thank you for your wisdom, your courage, your leadership, your support and your friendship. It has been an extraordinary privilege to know you. To quote Everald again: 'May there be trains in heaven.'