Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

In 1959 Prince Philip visited Kota Kinabalu, my home town, in what is now known as Malaysia but was then part of British North Borneo. Large numbers of local schoolchildren lined up ready to see him pass by. I know that because amongst them was my father, Francis Wong. Following the death of Prince Philip, Dad, who's now 80, shared details of this event with me. He told me that he was one of the La Salle students lining up at Tanjung Aru Beach, a beach I played on. This location was later named Prince Philip Park, and a playground was built where Toby, my brother, and I would play on Sundays. Over 60 years later, Dad still remembers this visit.

In the course of his long life, Prince Philip would have made thousands upon thousands of such visits, thrust into the spotlight following the ascension of his wife to the throne after the premature death of King George VI. At the time of his retirement from official duties, his official engagements numbered over 22,000, and those don't include the ones in which he participated with Her Majesty the Queen. So there would be countless numbers of people in the same position as my father, who vividly recall the time they saw Prince Philip on such an occasion. This is just a small glimpse of the way so many individuals felt a personal connection with Prince Philip through his life and work as a public figure.

Prince Philip first visited Australia in 1940 as a midshipman in naval service, but he eventually became a regular visitor to our shores, visiting us on more than 30 occasions. At least half of these trips were in his own capacity, when he was not accompanying the Queen. Royal visits have maintained an enduring popularity in Australia, but they will probably never again reach the heights of the 1954 tour. This visit, with the Queen, marked the first occasion a reigning monarch had visited Australia, and together they were greeted by unsurpassed crowds. Our population was then around nine million people, and it is estimated some 75 per cent turned out to see the royal couple.

Over these many visits, Prince Philip has been to all Australian states and territories and ventured well beyond capital cities to many regional and country locations. He was present at events through our history, such as the Olympic Games in Melbourne, as my colleague mentioned; the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth; and the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, and he was part of the official opening in all three of these international sporting festivals.

We see reminders of his visits and his life across Australia. His name is recorded as opening such monuments as the Tasman Bridge in Hobart; the Gateway bridges in Brisbane; the Royal Australian Mint, here in Canberra, one of the power stations that form part of the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme; and, amongst others, the Prince Philip Theatre at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, recognising his 1992 visit to the school—named for his predecessor as Duke of Edinburgh—on the 125th anniversary of the laying of its foundation stone.

Of particular resonance to many Australians was his support following times of natural disaster, such as in the aftermath of the Hobart bushfires in 1967 and the visit to Darwin with the Queen in 1977, just a few years after the devastation wreaked by Cyclone Tracy. He made his final royal tour to Australia with the Queen in 2011.

One of the most enduring legacies left by Prince Philip is through the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, a scheme that will continue as a living monument to his commitment to personal growth and development as well as to service. Since first being instituted some six decades ago, it has enhanced and expanded the lives of nearly 800,000 young Australians, and counting. More than 130 countries have adopted the program, with over eight million young people having participated worldwide. Prince Philip rightly regarded the award scheme as his greatest achievement.

Although some associate him with the gilded life of a royal, Prince Philip's life was not always so comfortable or glamourous. As a baby he was smuggled out of his native Corfu and into exile, concealed in an orange crate. He was abandoned by his father. His mother went into an asylum, his dear sister was killed in a plane crash and he was shuffled between countries and schools and languages. It was a life that demanded courage and fortitude. But he went on to become an eyewitness to many of the most significant events of the 20th century. He knew war and peace, empire and commonwealth, turbulence and tranquillity. His life spanned a time that encompassed such great change.

As a child in Malaysia, I saw the legacy of British administration all around me, in the names of places and buildings and streets, in the system of government and in the stories told of that time. As you would expect, there were stories of mixed experience and emotion, of progress but also of limitation, of civil laws but also of injustice. My grandmother worked as a servant to a British family, and I'm a republican. But, regardless of this history or of our views, we respect and honour service, and this was a life of service. During the many decades devoted to his Queen, his nation and the Commonwealth, Prince Philip also became an enduring part of the story of our nation. His visits on many occasions enabled him to form many connections with Australia. And of course his death brings to a close an extraordinary partnership. On many occasions the Queen has spoken of how central and irreplaceable Prince Philip was to her. The Queen once said she owed her husband 'a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know'. Like so many others, I was deeply moved by the image of the Queen sitting alone on a pew at her husband's funeral, the depth of her loss so vivid.

We in the opposition join with the government and all senators across the chamber in making this address to Her Majesty the Queen and in conveying our sorrow and sympathy to her. We extend our condolences to the royal family and to those throughout the country and across the world who mourn the loss of a unique figure in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations.