Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

I must say this condolence motion brings a lot of memories back for me. John Moore was my local member for many, many years, and he was also my sitting federal member when I first joined the Young Liberals in 1987. I became chair of his local Young Liberals branch. Much of what has been discussed during the course of this condolence motion has brought so many memories back to me. I want to quickly make a few points from my perspective, given that context.

The first is that John Moore came to parliament with a formidable skill set from the business world and also from his community involvement. He did establish a very success stockbroking firm, one of the most successful in Queensland, and he had a deep understanding of finance and a brilliant and logical mind. He also served as a minister in two different governments—both the Howard government and the Fraser government. At a relatively early stage in his political career, he was elevated to the ministry of the Fraser government. Between 1998 and 2001, he served as Minister for Defence.

I want to read a contribution he made during his time as Minister for Defence during an MPI. I won't read the start, where he has, in typical John Moore style, a bit of a stab at the opposition, which was quite delightful, I must say, and brought back a lot of memories as well. I want to quote this in relation to his thinking on Defence. This is from an MPI on 25 August 1999:

A new defence white paper is in preparation and will be released by the government next year. A central element of the government's vision for defence is a lean defence force—one that is not hampered by waste and inefficiency. Our Defence Reform Program is a very important means of achieving such a force. The Defence Reform Program seeks nothing less than the fundamental realignment of the way Defence is managed and led.

I think, just from that short quotation from Hansard, you can see the intellectual rigour he brought to his portfolio in terms of looking at the big picture and looking forward five years, 10 years and 20 years. I think that should really be appreciated.

The next point I want to make is that John was an excellent local member. He was an excellent local member, and he was served by an excellent team of staff. They were very, very loyal to him. I think that says a lot about John Moore—the fact that you can hire such an outstanding team of staff and they stick with you through the high points and the low points.

From the party perspective, he also served as president of the Queensland Liberal Party during some of our best moments and some of our less good moments. He served as president of the Queensland Liberal Party between 1973 and 1976, and I can remember him saying—and Senator McGrath might remember this; our headquarters used to be on Wickham Terrace in the city—when he was president, during the 1975 election, he decided to put a bucket out the front of the Liberal Party headquarters on Wickham Terrace because people would actually just stop their cars and throw money into the bucket because that is how desperate they were to get rid of the Whitlam Labor government. He served extraordinarily well through the best times of the Liberal Party.

Then we turn to his period as president of the Liberal Party between 1984 and 1990, which were probably the most difficult times of the Queensland Liberal Party. From my perspective, that's where you saw John Moore's character at its best. When the party needed him, he stepped up. Those were very difficult times for the Queensland Liberal Party for some of the reasons that have been referred to, and he was a loyal servant to the party and provided leadership to the party during those very difficult times.

So, as a Queensland senator sitting in the Liberal party room, I would like to pay my deepest respects to John Moore for his service to his country, his service to his community and his service in a number of portfolios, and I'd like to pay my deep condolences to his wife, Jacqueline, and their children and family.