Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to acknowledge the passing of former New South Wales Premier and federal finance minister John Joseph Fahey. He passed away on 12 September at the age of 75. John Fahey served his state and his country. He served this parliament and the Parliament of New South Wales. Like many good people who have graced this place, John's life started across the ditch. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 10 January 1945, before migrating to Picton, New South Wales, in 1956. He married his wife, Colleen Maree McGurren, in 1968. They had two daughters and one son. Importantly, John became an Australian citizen in 1973.

If public life hadn't ended up calling John's name, he had the beginnings of another career: in rugby league. It was an Irish Catholic nun, of all people, who introduced John to rugby league. Don't worry; John himself described that situation as bizarre. When he was 11, John was coached by Sister Kevin at St Anthony's convent in Picton. She was in charge of selecting the team to play against St Paul's convent, Camden. In 2010, John reflected: 'Here was an Irish nun in full religious habit, trying to teach a group of boys the fundamentals of league, such as playing the ball and six-man scrums, on the concrete playground between the church and the school. It was a blessed relief when one of the team's fathers agreed to take over as coach.'

He reverted to rugby union—the national religion of his native New Zealand— at the age of 13, during his five years boarding at Chevalier College at Bowral. Despite this dalliance with rugby union, he said he learned more about league than union at this time thanks to his portable radio. The winter months at home from boarding school were spent with 'nothing but football talk in the house and drying football gear hanging on the verandas.' I think John knew in his early years the toll that football would take on his body. He said: 'Football grounds were not watered as they are today. Most grounds had a concrete cricket pitch with a shallow covering of soil that became rock hard. To keep the skin on our knees we coated them with petroleum jelly. We would slip foam pads into the sides of our shorts to protect our hips. Is it any wonder my generation turned orthopaedic surgeons into wealthy men?'

After years of playing junior league, in 1964 John played senior rugby league as a centre with the Camden Rams in the New South Wales country rugby league Group 6, first grade competition. He had just begun work as a law clerk in Bankstown for the wage of six pounds a week, but winning a game of footy paid five pounds. The next year he was graded for Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and played 37 lower-grade matches.

It took a failed law exam in 1966 for John to realise he was likely to be a lawyer for longer than a footballer. Although he might have stopped playing league, it didn't stop his love or passion for the game. He still coached, and became the joint patron of the Bulldogs from 1993 until his passing.

As Premier, John cancelled the Newcastle Knights's $3 million debt over the development of their stadium. As he pointed out, Parramatta and the eastern suburbs got their stadiums for nothing; why did Newcastle have to pay for theirs? I might add John wasn't the last premier of New South Wales to provide funding for a New South Wales rugby league team. As Premier, and much to the dismay of his Liberal colleagues at the time, he helped develop WIN Stadium in the Labor stronghold of Wollongong before helping to fund Gosford stadium once he became federal Minister for Finance. John's justification was simple. He said, 'Communities revolve around common interests and pride in their achievements. They need to believe they are as good as any other part of our country. Communities, not governments of any particular persuasion, make Australia the great nation that it is.'

John was first elected in 1984. He became the New South Wales Minister for Industrial Relations and Employment in 1988 and Premier in 1992, taking over from Nick Greiner. His achievements include: the introduction of the Disability Services Act, the New South Wales Seniors Card and appointing the first New South Wales Minister for the Status of Women. John managed the devastating 1993-94 bushfire season, which saw Sydney surrounded and over 70,000 hectares burnt. He might have lost the 1995 election to Bob Carr, but Bob admits that John was a formidable opponent and that public service more than political combat motivated him.

John was a small-l liberal, a true liberal, some might say. After his state election defeat he went on to win the federal seat of Macarthur in 1996 and became Minister for Finance under John Howard until 2001.

John Fahey was a larger-than-life personality with equally large achievements. There were also successes that Australians got to share. Monumental in securing the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, it's bittersweet that John passed away just before its 20th anniversary. After Sydney won the bid on 24 September 1993, he said:

We deserve this one. We got it and now we're going to put on a fantastic games. I remember jumping probably higher than I've ever jumped in my life before.

The TV cameras and Australians don't forget John's jumping, either.

At his funeral service last week, which I was fortunate enough to attend on behalf of the federal Australian Labor Party, Prince Charles, via letter, recounted John's efforts to save him from an armed protester on Australia Day in 1994. Prince Charles shared: 'Coming to my assistance as he so valiantly did on that Darling Harbour stage on Australia Day 1994, John demonstrated not only characteristic selflessness and valour but also the hallmark athleticism of a former rugby league player. I was as fortunate to have him on my side that day as the people of New South Wales were to have him on theirs.' Those are lovely words from Prince Charles.

However, in fact, this particular event and the Holy Cross College, Ryde link John Fahey and me in an odd way that most would not know; that is, through two individuals who were enrolled in Holy Cross College, Ryde in the class of 1988. One of those is Ben Keneally, my husband, and the very next person to him on the official college enrolment book is the person famously tackled by John Fahey that day, in January 1994. Of course, it's not just John and me who are former New South Wales premiers with ties to Holy Cross College, Ryde. The school also helped produce another New South Wales Premier, Labor's Jack Renshaw, who was Premier from 1964 to 1965.

But back to John Fahey. He was one of the first senior Liberals to support an Australian republic, a cause that has now united so many across this chamber, as well as in the other place. After having a lung removed due to cancer in 2001, John announced he was retiring from politics, but that didn't stop his life of service. He went on to be the second president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, from 2007 to 2013. He was Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University from 2014 until his death last month. John's Catholic faith sustained him. He carried his soldier's rosary beads with him, reaching into his right pocket during difficult conversations or trying situations. I'm sure his faith gave him solace following the tragic loss of his daughter, Tiffany, on Boxing Day 2006, when she was killed in a road accident. He and Colleen took on the unimaginably sad but nonetheless, I'm sure, rewarding duty to raise his daughter's children as their own.

Last year, Pope Francis made John a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, not a bad title for a smoking, drinking, rugby league-playing politician, a title which John accepted humbly, saying it made him feel terribly unworthy. While John might have felt unworthy, he was worthy of the title and the fitting tributes that he has received in here and in the other place, in the media and from the public. No-one can say how John might have reacted to such tributes, but we know how he felt about his life of service. Last year he said: 'To have been given the opportunities that I have been given, I count myself extraordinarily blessed.' I will say that New South Wales, our parliament and our country have been blessed to have been served by John Fahey.

My heartfelt condolences go to John's wife, Colleen, to his son, Matthew, and to his grandchildren. In expressing these words of condolence, I add the condolences of the former New South Wales premiers Bob Carr and Barry Unsworth who both spoke fondly and respectfully of John's service to New South Wales and our country. On behalf of the federal Labor opposition, I say, John Fahey, may he rest in peace.