James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

There's been a lot of talk from Labor and the Greens about the so-called Voice, but my party, the Queensland Liberal National Party, won't be taking lectures from Labor about Indigenous voices. The Queensland LNP proudly selected not just the first Indigenous federal parliamentarian, Senator Neville Bonner in 1971, but the first-ever state MP, Eric Deeral in 1974. It took the Labor Party almost 45 years before they elected their first Indigenous representative to federal parliament.

Eric Deeral is best remembered as the member for Cook from 1974 to 1977, but his service to Queensland goes so much further than that. After leaving school at the age of just 13 in 1945, Eric worked as a labourer, a bush worker and a ringer. Through these experiences, Eric witnessed firsthand the severe troubles that Aboriginal people in North Queensland faced, leading him down a path of public service. In 1974, Eric ran as one of the two National Party candidates in a fierce contest in the Cook electorate. After a tight election campaign, Eric was able to fend off six other candidates and become the first Indigenous state MP in Australia. Having had family live in the Hope Vale region of the Cook electorate for over 20,000 years, Eric firstly considered himself an Australian from Queensland.

In his maiden speech to the Queensland parliament, Eric made it clear from the start that he was in parliament not to fight solely for Indigenous Australians but rather to fight for all the people of Cook, independent of race. Eric believed the best way to improve the lives of those living in Far North Queensland was to improve roads and boost tourism to ensure that all North Queenslanders could find work. He fought for more schools and increased access to health services to ensure that the people of Far North Queensland could live happy and healthy lives. He was everything a good local member should be.

Despite losing his seat of Cook in the 1977 state election, along with many of his Liberal and National colleagues, he continued to serve his community until he sadly passed away in 2012. Whether it be serving as the first chairperson of the Aboriginal Coordination Council from 1985 or working with the Queensland government on mechanisms to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' involvement in Queensland elections from 2003, Eric continued his service to fight for the rights of Aboriginal people through a variety of causes and bodies.

Eric's life since his involvement in parliament was one of service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and more broadly to all the people of Queensland. Eric argued against the paternal policies of the Whitlam government, and he deplored the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as second-class citizens. In his maiden speech to parliament, he argued:

The people responsible for handing out cash for no effort are condemning them—

Indigenous Australians—

to oblivion. No man can continually accept hand-outs without losing his initiative and self-respect.

Indeed, Eric Deeral will go down in the history of Queensland and Australia as a staunch advocate for the self-determination rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. He was an Aboriginal elder of the highest conviction who dedicated his life to improving the lives of not only First Nations peoples but all of those in Far North Queensland.

Today we should, and I do, honour Eric Deeral's contribution to the Liberal National Party and to Queensland more broadly, but we also should take his lessons going forward to the modern day. For Eric, despite growing up in the harshest of circumstances and having to leave school and start work as a labourer at the age of just 13, he fought hard against the government treating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people like second-class citizens. He fought for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We must do the same. We cannot separate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our founding document. We must support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not from a place of division and racial separation but from a place of genuine care and direct assistance. In his life, Eric Deeral contributed significantly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to Queensland. His lessons cannot be lost in time.