Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death of two former members of the House of Representatives: on 20 April 2010, Andrea Gail West, a member for the division of Bowman, Queensland, from 1996 to 1998; and, on 10 April 2010, William Yates, a member for the division of Holt, Victoria, from 1975 to 1980.

Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to make some brief remarks. It was a great pleasure of mine to meet the local member for Holt, Bill Yates—as he was known to us all—in 1975, when I first joined the party. It was a memorable year, because it was the last year of the former Whitlam government. Bill was a flamboyant man and a man of incredible intellectual rigour, integrity and common decency who has left a lasting legacy in the Liberal Party and one that his family should be enormously proud of.

It brings a smile to my face to remember the first times that I met him, when we were holding local Holt electorate meetings in my family’s home. He was the only member of the House of Representatives who could claim that he had served both in the House of Commons and here in the Australian parliament. As a Conservative member of the House of Commons he was one of the government’s staunchest critics during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis, which saw the downfall of then British Prime Minister Eden. Holding a marginal seat, he was later defeated at the polls in the general election of 1966 and soon thereafter moved to Australia. Putting his marginal seat campaigning skills to the test, he stood for the seat of Holt in 1975 and secured a nine per cent swing to the Liberal Party and held the seat of Holt for two terms. He was a much appreciated, revered and combatant local member and was known to be a very eloquent advocate not only for the constituency of Holt but also here in Canberra. He was also very well known as the beekeeper of the Australian parliament and was known for the hives he kept in the grounds of Parliament House. He used to frequently share his observations on the merits of bees both for the pure honey produce and for the therapeutic effects, if you like, of the bee stings themselves.

It was later, when I entered this place, that I reconnected with him. He had moved to country Victoria to a place called Tallangatta. He would frequently get in touch with me and share his views on a number of subjects, very excited that one of his earlier branch members had ended up in this place. It was at the ripe old age of 82 that he undertook his doctorate in political science. So he did not take his retirement very seriously at all. In fact, rather than enjoying the simpler things in life, he worked very hard until the end. He had good reason to be very proud of his family. His family have great reason to be very proud of his achievements. The condolences and best wishes of all in the Liberal Party, but particularly those of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party, are sent to all his family.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a fellow Queenslander, I want to make some remarks on the sad death only last week of former member for Bowman Andrea West. Andrea West died at a very young age, comparatively speaking. She was born in 1952, so it would have been her 58th birthday later this year. Sadly, she has been taken from us. Andrea West served only one term in the House of Representatives, as the member for Bowman. She was one of the landslide that elected the Howard government in 1996 and she was one of the several members of the coalition parties who lost their seats at the 1998 election. I knew Andrea West reasonably well. She was a well-known and well-liked figure in the Queensland Liberal Party and she had a very long Liberal lineage in Queensland, because she was the daughter of Bill Kaus. Bill Kaus was a member of the state parliament. He was the member for Mansfield throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. So Andrea came from very good Liberal bloodlines.

She was a very generous and a gracious person. She was one of those heroic people who, knowing that they were clinging onto a very marginal seat after the 1996 election, nevertheless strongly supported the GST—the proposal that John Howard took to the 1998 election to seek the people’s mandate. Some of those members, particularly for very marginal seats, must have known, as turned out to be the case, that by supporting the GST—a proposal that had never been successfully introduced by an incumbent government without suffering loss at the following election anywhere in the Western world at that stage—she was imperilling her own future. But she, along with several other Liberal-National Party colleagues, was prepared to put the national interest and her beliefs and her principles ahead of her own self-interest. So she supported this what promised to be a very unpopular measure. She did go down to defeat in Bowman in 1998, but she was one of those people who, although they left the other place involuntarily, nevertheless left with their head held high because she had come into parliament to achieve things for Australia and, at the cost of her own political life, she contributed to bringing about that very beneficial set of policies. That is part of her legacy.

After her defeat Andrea West remained a member of the Liberal Party in Queensland. She was active around the branches in the Redlands area, which was where she lived, and in fact just over 10 years ago, on 30 April 2000, Andrea West was one of the candidates who stood for the casual Senate vacancy which was created by the resignation of Senator Warwick Parer. I was fortunate enough to be selected by the Liberal Party on that occasion from a field which I think it is fair to say was a strong field. Andrea West, as a rival for preselection, was the soul of courtesy and grace and decency.

I am sad for her passing. I am particularly sad that she has died at such a young age. Her legacy, although modest by comparison to longer political careers, is nevertheless a distinct and an honourable legacy of which she and her family can be proud. I am sure that the other four Queensland Liberal senators would wish to be associated with my remarks.