John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death on 14 March 2014, of the Hon. Warwick Raymond Parer, AM, a senator for the state of Queensland from 1984 to 2000.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep regret at the death on 14 March 2014, of the Honourable Warwick Raymond Parer, AM, former senator for Queensland, places on record its appreciation of his long and meritorious public service and tenders its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

Warwick Parer was genuinely a man for all seasons. He was a man that did it tough in his early life, made a substantial commercial contribution, made a substantial public contribution and, most importantly to him, made a very important family contribution.

Warwick Parer was born in Papua New Guinea in 1936, his family being involved in the timber industry. With the emergence of World War II and the theatre of war coming to Papua New Guinea, he was repatriated to Queensland. Regrettably, his father was one of the first casualties of the Japanese attack on Papua New Guinea, so most of his life he lived without his father. Nevertheless, he did well in his education at Brisbane's St Joseph's Nudgee College and at the University of Melbourne, where he obtained a bachelor of commerce degree.

The name 'Parer' may be known to some people on the basis that one Damien Parer was the uncle of Warwick Parer, Damien Parer being the renowned World War II photographer. For those of us from Tasmania, the name Parer is well known, as there is a hotel establishment on King Island that rejoices in the name of Parer's Hotel. That started off in Crotty on the west coast and was pulled down and reassembled on King Island. When it was burned down and later rebuilt, Senator Parer was invited across to do the official opening.

I know that two of my former Tasmanian colleagues, senators Paul Calvert and Brian Gibson, would also wish to be associated, as they were close friends of former Senator Warwick Parer. I know that Senator Harradine would also want to be associated with these comments. It is indicative of the breadth of friendships that Senator Parer was able to gain in his place here that there were many fine tributes to him when he retired and left this place of his own volition.

Warwick Parer became a member of the Senate in 1984 and, from March 1996 to October 1998, he was the Minister for Resources and Energy, in Mr Howard's first government. That ministry was a natural fit for the man who had a long history in resources and energy and who played a pivotal role in the Queensland coal industry. He was a man with genuine real-life experience. Despite his very strong business credentials, he was not one to seek a handout for business; nor did he ever seek favourable treatment for business. Indeed, way back in his maiden speech in 1985 he said:

… examples of unwarranted and harmful intrusions by government into the economy are legion. I need only mention the distortion effects of featherbedding inefficient industries at the expense of more productive enterprises, of tariff walls and of subsidies to favoured groups. Yet the vested interests which enslave governments, when engaging in their special pleading, can always point in their defence to some other groups in receipt of similar artificial advantages. Such interests need to be exposed to the disciplines as well as the advantages of free markets.

He was a man of great principle who talked straight in his first speech, and that is how he stayed throughout his parliamentary stay. He retired from the Senate at a time of his choosing, having served 16 years. His commitment to public life was motivated by his desire to be of service to his community. Anybody who bothered to have a look at his register of interests would know that there was no need for him to come into this place for any financial benefits.

Warwick's interest in being of service to the community continued following his retirement from the Senate. He undertook the role of President of the Queensland Liberal Party from 2006 to 2008. I know that during that time he continued to be a great source of advice and wisdom to the then Prime Minister, Mr Howard, with whom he enjoyed a very close friendship—another friendship that Warwick Parer gained during his time in this place. After his retirement from the Senate, he was also Chairman of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Foundation. His public service continued, and he was the Chair of the Stanwell Corporation Board until his untimely death.

But Warwick Parer will be remembered for more than just his dedication to serving his country in both the public and the private domain and his tireless commitment to many community organisations. He will also be remembered as a man who was compassionate and grounded. Possibly that compassion and grounding was a result of the loss of his father in that Japanese strife on Papua New Guinea.

Around Parliament House, he was known as a man who did not let partisanship get in the way of friendship. His life experiences—growing up without a father, carving out his own path as an executive with Utah and Australian coal exporters and, above all, experiencing the joy of his own family—meant that he had a deep sense of what was truly important. His friendly, fatherly demeanour would impress all in the coalition as he would enthuse about political issues while sucking his trusty pipe. Those were the days when you were still allowed to smoke in this place. That reminds me of an occasion when an ample lump of ash that he knocked off a cigar and put into some facility or container led to a fire in that certain container and to fire alarms going off. I am not sure if he ever admitted to being responsible, but some of us on this side believed that he may have been. He was part of a generation that had a deep and abiding belief in service and living for others. That is why his service to his party and country continued long after he left office.

Above all those achievements I know that Warwick Parer grew the greatest strength and purpose in life from his family, and he considered them to be his greatest achievement. He indeed credited his calm and affable nature to the stability that comes from a loving wife and family. Today our thoughts are with Warwick's charming wife, Kathi; their four daughters and three sons, Carol, Martine, Helen, Sonia, Warwick, Justin and Rowan; and now the many, many grandchildren. On behalf of the government I place on record our acknowledgement and thanks for Warwick Raymond Parer's lifetime of outstanding service to the people of Queensland and Australia, and we express our deep regret at his passing.

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

I rise to speak today on behalf of the opposition on this condolence motion for Warwick Parer, a former member of our chamber who recently passed away at the age of 77. Warwick Parer served in this chamber for over 15 years, from 1984 until his departure in 2000, as a senator for Queensland representing the Liberal Party. He was a member of Prime Minister Howard's cabinet, serving as Minister for Resources and Energy from 1996 to 1998, and in that role he was a great champion of the industry. It was an industry in which he had extensive personal experience before entering politics. That passion for the mining industry may in part explain why the title of his memoirs was simply Mine.

That book includes a fascinating description of his early childhood in Papua New Guinea in the years before World War II. His father was a pilot who owned an airline company which served remote goldmines in PNG and, when the Japanese Army invaded, Warwick, then just six years old, was evacuated with his mother and siblings to Darling Downs in Queensland. As the Leader of the Government in the Senate has outlined, regrettably, his father was killed in action in New Guinea, which left his mother to single-handedly raise Warwick and his three siblings. Warwick Parer grew up in regional Queensland and graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce.

Warwick Parer was proud of his family and his heritage. He married a fellow Queenslander, Kathi Martin, and moved to Melbourne to begin his career in business. Certainly he had an impressive business career prior to entering the Senate. He founded the Non-Destructive Testing Laboratories, an industrial X-ray company, in 1962; moved on to become the Victorian manager for Philips-Stanford Pty Ltd in 1966; and then became the commercial manager and assistant secretary of Utah Development Company in 1973, a position which saw him return to Queensland. Senators will recall that Utah was a company which was deeply involved in the expansion of the Australian coalmining industry in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to being a senior executive of Utah, Warwick Parer took a role advocating on behalf of the industry, becoming chairman of Australian Coal Exporters in 1976.

He did come to politics later in life and his reputation was as a practical man. He was known for being a straight talker and, as Senator Abetz has mentioned, a prolific smoker. The version I heard was that he managed to set his parliamentary office alight after tipping ashes into his wastepaper bin. But then that may have been augmented with the effluxion of time. His political career culminated as Minister for Resources and Energy, where he oversaw the abolition of the three-mines policy for the uranium industry.

Senator Parer nominated his most significant achievements as minister as including the abolition of the export controls of minerals as well as chairing the first APEC ministers conference in Sydney. He was a keen fishermen, enjoying this pastime with his grandchildren. As his ministerial portfolio also included responsibility for fisheries, he was also able to make important decisions for the sector, including protecting Australia's bluefin tuna stock and ensuring the Navy upheld regulations against illegal fishing in Australia's Antarctic waters.

It is the case that Senator Parer's time as minister was cut short after a controversy over conflict of interest. Subsequently, he decided not to seek to return to the Howard government's ministry after the 1998 federal election. He served on the backbench for a further two years and then resigned in 2000.

After politics he fulfilled a number of important positions in both the public and private sectors, and he chaired, of course, that important review for the Council of Australian Governments of the international energy market which resulted in the 2002 Parer report on energy market reform. He was also chairman of the Stanwell Corporation, one of Queensland's major electricity generators. He was honoured in 2005 by being made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the parliament and for his contribution to expanding export opportunities for the mining industry as well as for energy market reform.

Warwick Parer's passing was sudden and, as always, our thoughts go on this day to his family: his wife, Kathi; their children, Carol, Martine, Helen, Sonia, Warwick, Justin and Rowan; and their many grandchildren.

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion. I also rise to speak as not only a fellow senator of Senator Parer but, more importantly, as a friend. Like many, Warwick Parer's death has come as a huge shock and even more of a shock to his family and those closest to him. I offer them my deepest condolences. May the knowledge that he is remembered by so many of us as a colleague and a great friend be of some comfort to them.

Warwick Parer was a true entrepreneur who fiercely believed in the Liberal essence of what it means to be a Liberal—enterprise, strong national growth. It was to the community's benefit, therefore, that he was also interested in public life and had a strong sense of wanting to contribute his vast experience wrought in the commercial world. That is what drew me to him as a friend, because it was this sense of responsibility for community that informed his goals and his actions in this place.

Warwick Parer was a great asset to the Senate and was in a unique position to hold the resources and energy portfolio as minister from March 1996 to October 1998. He had a distinguished career in the mining industry and could easily have continued to be an industrialist without putting himself through the rigour of public life. Even after he had asked to go to the backbench and he did not want to be considered for a ministry, he continued his work in public life as chairman of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee and as a member of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee before ultimately retiring from the Senate. And he left the Senate, as I think we would all like to, at a time of his own choosing.

Warwick Parer's ministerial role was preceded, however, by shadow portfolios and committee work during 12 long years in opposition. Again, Warwick's commitment to public life during this darker period politically shone through; it is always easier—and my colleagues will agree—to find motivation to strive when in government and everything is on your side. But when you are plugging away day in day out, without acknowledgement, that is a true test of commitment and character—and Warwick Parer had both in spades. He certainly never shied away from the hard stuff. In my former life in the fishing industry, when Warwick was Minister for Resources and Energy, I got to know him well. He understood the issues faced by the industry, particularly the needlessly complex regulatory processes at that stage that had nothing to do with the management of the resources and the protection of the environment.

Warwick was a tough man. I remember being involved with him over the convention for the conservation of southern bluefin tuna. At the time, in my view—and it is a shared view—Japan had a very recalcitrant position; they wanted to have an additional quota of scientific take, so we continued to take southern bluefin tuna. There were plenty in government who I tried to persuade at the time to try to persuade Warwick to move our position just a bit because it seemed to all of us at the time that the world was all about compromise. He said: 'Enough is enough; we're not moving on this. They can't do it. We ain't shifting.' As a consequence, a pretty tough decision at that time in that environment led to the CCSBT being a really meaningful document. Warwick prevented other parties from bringing their own quotas to the table—and it went on and on. They were all really tough decisions, and I admired him very much for that.

I also admired him for his very strong commitment to ocean policy—and I guess that is where we found an affinity. There is much about Warwick's public life that has left a rich legacy—for example, his commitment to the conservation of the Patagonian toothfish in the Southern Ocean. Much of the work that was done there was about everyone visibly seeing the effect. But Warwick said to me, 'Nigel, if we're going to have a sustainable fishery, this is a greenfield site in a real sense and we can get this right.' At the time, I represented a whole spectrum of people for whom, in a commercial sense, that was not everything they needed to hear. People always say bilge comes out and there is this and that happening and there is bycatch. He said, 'We need a fishery that prohibits all of those things.' I said, 'Mate, it's pretty tough to have a boat that does not leak. We've got seals on our propellers'—and all that sort of technical stuff. He said, 'You'll be able to fix that, Nige'—and we did. If you are in the Patagonian toothfish fishery, there is not a hole that runs outside of your boat. There is no bilge; there is no bycatch; everything has to be retained. Because of his toughness and his capacity to negotiate technical matters and state his ground we knew that we would find technical solutions to the problems.

Whether it was forestry policy, fishing, mining or some of the regional forest agreements, Warwick brought common sense to the issue as well as what I would consider to be a very intellectual approach. I certainly admired how, in the most difficult of circumstances, he was able to use those values. He understood the importance of jobs and exports and he was certainly a warrior for working Australians. I can vouch for his absolutely abiding devotion to his spouse, his children and now his grandchildren. He was a champion for Queensland, and a champion for his fellow country men and women in Australia from all walks of life. This was recognised when he was appointed as a member of the Order of Australia in 2005. We have lost a truly gentle man. I can say with a degree of certainty that both sides of politics will mourn the loss of his capacity for friendship across the political divide. He will be missed. Vale dear friend, Warwick Parer.

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

It was with tremendous sadness that I learnt of the death early on Saturday morning of my friend Warwick Parer. There is a sense in which both metaphorically and literally I followed in Warwick Parer's footsteps: metaphorically because when Warwick left the Senate at the beginning of 2000 I succeeded him by filling his parliamentary vacancy, and he kept a watchful eye on my parliamentary career in the years since; and literally as well because as it happens I occupy the same premises in Canberra as Warwick used to occupy—which he shared with, among others, John Howard, Richard Alston, Peter Costello and other notables down the years. So as I trudge back to my place of abode each evening after a weary parliamentary day I am literally following in the footsteps of the former Senator Warwick Parer.

We have heard from our leader, Senator Abetz, of Warwick's early life and how he lost his father in New Guinea in the war and was a nephew of the famous war photographer Damien Parer. He went to Nudgee, that very noble Queensland institution which has been the alma mater of so many prominent Queensland business figures and leaders in other walks of life, and then to the University of Melbourne. He had most of his career, though, as a figure in the mining industry in Brisbane. He was active in the Liberal Party in Brisbane in the 1970s and early 1980s. He was the chairman of the relevant Liberal Party policy committee. He was one of the relatively few senior business people who were active in Liberal Party politics in Queensland in those days. That is where I first met him.

But my first close involvement with Warwick Parer was in fact not in the political world but professionally. In 1991 I was briefed as junior to Cedric Hampson to act for the late Ken Talbot in a most vicious dispute over the control of Macarthur Coal, one of the big Queensland coal companies. It was an enormously bitter dispute. There were hundreds of millions of dollars at stake and a deeply divided board of directors.

The two factions on this board of directors had settled upon Warwick Parer to be the independent chairman and try and bring some stability to the board. I think it tells you everything that you need to know about the kind of man Warwick Parer was that, such was his experience in the industry but such was his reputation for fairness and integrity, both sides of this bitterly and factionally divided board of directors were prepared to trust Warwick to try and bring some stability to that company.

Warwick, by that time, was a giant in the coalmining industry in Queensland. He was, for many years, one of the senior executives of Utah Construction and Mining Company. He was their principal negotiator. It was at a time in the 1970s—as a Queensland senator you will remember, Mr President—that the Bowen Basin and the other coal interests were being established. Warwick was the lead negotiator for Utah in the contracts with that company's Japanese customers. I remember he told me once that, over a period of years, he made at least 20 return trips to Japan a year for several years. He became the leading Australian representative of the industry, and, for that reason, between 1976 and 1979 he was chosen to be the chairman of the Australian Coal Exporters Association.

Mr President, as you know, coal is to Queensland what iron ore is to Western Australia. It is one of the principal economic backbones of the state. In those days, the principal export market was not China; it was Japan. So it gives you an idea of the substance of this person and his importance to the economy of Queensland—and, by extension, of Australia—that he was the leader of that industry who established those contracts and carved out that market.

In 1984, a backbench senator from Queensland resigned from the Senate. An opportunity arose for Warwick to go into public life. I know that he was a very reluctant starter, but the then state president of the Liberal Party, John Moore, put a lot of pressure of Warwick. He eventually, to his enormous credit, agreed that he would go into the Senate. He served in this chamber with distinction for some 16 years.

At the time he joined the Senate he was, I would say, the most significant business person to join the Australian parliament. I would say that, from the industry of which he was a leader—that is, the coalmining and coal exporting industry—this parliament has never had a more experienced or a more authoritative figure. Naturally, therefore, Warwick made that his chosen field. It was the most natural thing in the world that in 1996, with the election of the Howard government, Prime Minister Howard would make Warwick the Minister for Resources and Energy. He served in that portfolio for two years and brought to it all of the shrewdness, sophistication, knowledge and skill that you would expect from somebody of his background.

There was a controversy in 1998—which in no way whatsoever, in my view, reflected on Warwick's integrity—and he stood aside. After the 1998 election he was not included in the ministry. As we all know, when you lose your footing in this business sometimes it is hard to regain it. I think that not including Warwick in the ministry after 1998 was a mistake. I am sure it is a mistake that Mr Howard regrets. By the beginning of 2000, I think Warwick had decided that he had had enough, and, as others have observed, he left this place on his own terms.

In the years since, he made a very significant contribution both to politics and to the community. In the political world, that contribution was most particularly to be seen in his period of service as the state president of the Liberal Party between 2005 and 2008. He succeeded, in that role, Michael Caltabiano, his protegee, who, I am pleased to say, joins us in the public gallery today, and whose presence I would like to acknowledge. It is entirely fitting that Michael Caltabiano, who was so close to Warwick, should be in the Senate chamber today to hear these valedictory words.

It was while Warwick was the president of the Liberal Party that he and his friend Bruce Scott, the member for Maranoa, who was also, as it happened, at the time the state president of the National Party, put their heads together and mapped out the amalgamation of the Liberal and National parties, which occurred subsequently in 2008. Senator Abetz has recited the several other community and public service appointments that Warwick Parer occupied in the years since his retirement from parliament. Indeed, at the time of his death he was the chairman of the Stanwell Corporation.

Warwick was a gentleman of the old school. He was decent. He was avuncular. He had common sense. He was very practical. Although he would have regarded himself as being on the more conservative side of the Liberal Party, he was by no means an ideologue. He was a decent and gentle man who contributed to the parliament from the wealth of experience that he had earned as a significant business figure. All too seldom does this parliament attract to it people who, at the prime of their careers in commerce or the professions, are prepared to come into parliament and give of themselves, and give to the parliament the benefit of the wisdom and experience they have earned in their first careers. So we are indebted to him.

It would not be right for me to sit down without making mention of Maureen Nagle. Maureen Nagle was Warwick's secretary for all the years he was a senator. A lot of coalition senators fondly remember Maureen well. I hope she is listening to the broadcast now. When I succeeded him, she became my secretary. She, with occasional exasperation, helped me through the early steps of my career as a senator as well until her retirement after the 2007 election.

Warwick was very happily married to Kathi. They were a great Catholic family. They had seven children, one of whom, Justin, I knew particularly well. He was a president of the Young Liberals. There were many, many grandchildren, one of whom was a friend of my daughter, in fact. They were one of the great Brisbane families. He was one of the great figures of his time, in his industry, and was a very, very well-liked figure in the Senate and in the Queensland Liberal Party.

In closing, let me extend my condolences to Kathi, to his children and to his grandchildren, and I associate myself with the remarks of my leader.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In supporting the condolence motion of Senator Abetz, I extend my condolences to Kathi and the children. Kathi, of course, will be feeling the loss enormously. She was always a very strong supporter of Warwick through all of his life in the parliamentary sphere that I can speak of, and certainly a lot of what Warwick achieved was achieved with the support of Kathi.

I remember, in thinking about their children, that when I joined the Senate with Warwick, former Senator MacGibbon and former Senator Herron, there were in the Queensland Liberal Senate team 22 children and I did not have any. It meant that, amongst the other three, there was a great breeding line! Senator Parer's seven children certainly contributed to that 22. I had the pleasure and honour of serving with Warwick in this chamber for 10 years, from 1990 to 2000 when Warwick left.

I associate myself without repeating all the very fine words of both Senator Abetz and Senator Brandis about our friend Warwick Parer. I learnt a hell of a lot about the Senate from Warwick in my early days here. I also learnt a lot about Queensland, because Warwick was one who travelled extensively. As has been mentioned, he played a very significant role in the expansion and significance of the Bowen Basin coalfields. That was very important to the north of our state and very important to the Queensland and Australian economies. Warwick certainly played a major role in the significance that the coal industry had to our state and our nation.

Senator Brandis mentioned that Warwick was also an expert on Japanese and Japanese business ethics and procedures at a time when Japan was a very important part of Australia's export economy. Again as has been mentioned, as chairman of Stanwell Corporation he assisted in recent times with progress, attending to some of the difficulties experienced with electricity production and distribution in my state.

Warwick served some time as President of the Liberal Party. As I recall, he was specifically asked by John Howard to come to Queensland and sort out some differences of opinion which were occurring at that time. We do not have factions in the Liberal Party, but at the time there were various people with different views on how the party in Queensland should be going. I am not sure this is official, but I do know, and those of us involved know, that it was John Howard's choice and desire that Warwick might come in as a stabilising influence on the party. He was, again as Senator Brandis mentioned, instrumental in the amalgamation of the Liberal and National parties. I sat on a very small committee that first started looking at the amalgamation issues. Whilst Warwick was a very proud Liberal, he and most of us understood that if we were ever going to achieve anything in the state arena in Queensland there had to be an amalgamation of the Liberal and National parties. It was the work done by him and, as Senator Brandis mentioned, Bruce Scott, who started that process, that led to the amalgamation and, in effect, led to the remarkable victory that the Liberal-National Party of Queensland achieved at the last state election.

I had quite a lot to do with Warwick during our mutual years in the Senate. I was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and in charge of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean when the Patagonian toothfish issue started, as Senator Scullion mentioned. Almost on different sides of the fence in those times, we worked to eventually protect the fishery and remove the pirates that were then rife in the Southern Ocean from our radar. I certainly congratulate Warwick on his role there.

My leader and deputy leader have said all of the things that I think need to be said, and I certainly want to associate myself with the fine words of my two colleague senators. In concluding, I simply indicate that, although I have not checked this, I can say without fear of contradiction that the Queensland Liberal senators who served with Senator Parer during my time in the Senate—that is, former Senator MacGibbon and former Senator Herron—would also want to be associated with this motion of condolence.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today with a great deal of sadness to support this condolence motion. We are mourning the very untimely death of Warwick Parer. I was not aware that he was sick. I saw his death notice in the Sunday paper and I was shocked and saddened. He made a tremendous mark in business, politics, mining and public affairs. He was a good friend of mine. I wish I had listened to his stock exchange tips more often. I remember one of the best pieces of advice I ever ignored—if I had taken it, I think I would now be a very wealthy man. He was a man who would not play the stock exchange because he did not want conflicted interests. It did not happen. He kept away from it.

Warwick played a significant role. When the National Party was at its strongest, its zenith, it attracted a lot of people—but Warwick stayed true to the Liberal Party. I think it was Senator Brandis who said it was quite fashionable for people to come over and join the National Party, but Warwick did not. He stayed true to his convictions. He was a stayer, and he stuck to what he believed in.

Warwick was capable. He made a huge contribution to parliament and country. He did not need to come down here. He did not need to get on a plane every Sunday night, forsaking the seven kids and the grandchildren that he loved. He had a lot of money. He was very, very successful. He did it because he believed in it. He believed that he could make a contribution. This is what is needed in this place—people who have been successful, who have had successful careers and built up industries, to bring their experience down here as he did. It was at a great cost to him because the salary certainly would not have attracted him. He did not need the money. He had a fantastic job. He was prepared to walk away from all that, a successful business career, to serve in this parliament.

Warwick came to this parliament after a very successful career in the mining industry. He joined in 1984, a year after me. I came in 1983. Together we served in those long, dark years. It was 12 years before Warwick became Minister for Resources and Energy in the Howard government when it first came to power. He was a capable minister because he was successful. He knew what to do. He knew what success was all about. He knew how to achieve success.

Warwick began his life in New Guinea in a place called Wau. He was a qualified and certified practising accountant. He became a fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. In 1970 he became associated with the Utah Development Company. I think we should make more of that, because Australia's prosperity depended on the success of the coalmining industry in Queensland and the iron ore mining industry in Western Australia. What prosperity that has brought this nation. It is due to pioneers like Warwick Parer who got in, rolled their sleeves up and went out and opened up the markets firstly in Japan and then China.

Warwick achieved great prosperity for a lot of Queenslanders. My son-in-law works in the coal industry. I know many, many people who work in the coal industry who probably would not have a job in the coal industry if it were not for pioneers like Warwick Parer. He became chairman of the coal exporters association and, again, used that position to open mines right up through the Bowen Basin. For anyone who has not been there, it is phenomenal to go into the mining towns around the Bowen Basin. Mining is a bit off at the moment. It is coming off in price. But it still provides thousands and thousands of jobs to Australians.

Warwick was a member of the Liberal Party. He was President of the Liberal Party. He was asked to take that position by then Prime Minister John Howard. He brought a very pragmatic and successful approach to the Liberal Party and the National Party. His knowledge of the mining industry, the stock exchange, the resources industry and the fishing industry was huge. It was huge because it was based on knowing how to be successful. He brought that success into this place. He worked tirelessly so that the prosperity of the mining industry and the coal industry was shared with many, many people, including, I might say to senators on the other side, many who work in the mining industry and do not support the coalition cause. But they get their daily bread and their wealth from the mining industry.

Warwick continued to serve outside parliament. He brought about the amalgamation of the Liberal Party and the National Party. He served as president of the Queensland Liberal Party from 2006 to 2008. He served as chairman of the energy and transport advisory sector of CSIRO from 2002 to 2004.

For all the benefit that he gave to Australia and all the service that he gave, he was honoured by receiving the Order of Australia in 2005 for his services to the mining industry. He took on the role of chairman of Stanwell Corporation, one of the energy producers in Queensland. His dedication to community service continued in his post-political life. He was appointed chairman of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Foundation.

Warwick was one of those people who I do not think anyone could ever find a bad word to say against. His family meant everything to him: his wife Kathi, his seven children and, at last count, 18 grandchildren—many of them go to All Hallows' School with my granddaughter, where the Parer name is highly respected. I say vale to Warwick Parer. I know how his wife and family must be hurting, and we genuinely share with them our prayers today. I know Warwick would appreciate that.

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In politics, as in life, you never forget those who showed you kindness or, indeed, forbearance when you were young or when you were vulnerable. That is why I will never forget Warwick Parer. Warwick helped me when I was vulnerable: when I first came into the Liberal Party, before my first preselection, when we went campaigning in 1998 and when I first had the great privilege of entering this place. He even had to perform that noble but embarrassing role of ringing me up before my first party room meeting and saying, 'Now, Brett, I better walk down with you, because you might sit on the wrong seat.' He even performed that for me.

Warwick Parer was a gentleman. He was calm, he was loyal, he was decent and he was a man of quiet but significant faith. Yes, he was pretty conservative. That is true. But he did not believe the world was flat either. He had seven children; I suspect that changed his perspective.

He was also something of a straight arrow. I remember campaigning with him in 1998, driving all around Queensland, and he was talking to me about establishing Liberal Party branches on the coast of Queensland. He went into some detail about it and said, 'Of course, Cairns was a bit of a disappointment.' I said, 'Why was that, Warwick?' He said, 'Brett, I started the Cairns branch up but then the swingers got involved.' I went, 'What do you mean, Warwick, "the swingers got involved?'' He said, 'You know, Brett, the people that throw-the-keys-in-the-fruit-bowl-type of swingers. It wrecked the whole branch.' Anyway, it sparked my interest a little bit. He looked at me and said, 'It's disgraceful.' I have to say, he changed the subject and never spoke about the swingers in Cairns ever again. He was a straight arrow and a man who believed very much in commitment. He was a man whose conservative values I always respected.

He was unusual. He would be quiet and he would puff on his pipe. He often did not say much. To me he often seemed more like a gentleman farmer than a politician. I used to say to him, 'Warwick, I think Kathi, your wife, is a more natural politician than you are.' Of course, Warwick agreed. He said that politics did not come easy to him, but he believed he had to do it. It was more—as Senator Boswell, Senator Brandis and Senator Macdonald said—a matter of duty than of performance for him.

Just last year, Warwick published a memoir called Mine. He said, 'All of my life experiences have been interesting and they have been rewarding. But undoubtedly the greatest achievement of my life has been to have a family of confident and talented children, who have each found their own unique strengths and worked to develop those attributes in their own life journeys—seven great Australians.' He later on said, 'If a person does not strive to make this world a better place than when he or she entered it, then that person need not have lived.'

Warwick Parer strove to make a better country. He did that. And I will always be grateful because he helped me when I needed it.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I associate Senator Sue Boyce with those comments as well. Senator Boyce is overseas on parliamentary business. I know Senator Boyce would want to be associated with them were she in Australia.

Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I just make some very brief remarks? I am not a Queenslander, I am a Western Australian, but I found that I had common views with Warwick Parer in various areas when I first came here. He was someone who assisted me and who explained Senate procedures to me. He was an individual who I greatly respected because of his great record in business and his great success in business, as well as his political views, which I found very sensible and very much in keeping with my own views. In addition, I found his knowledge of the mining industry very interesting; of course, I came here from the Pilbara, where the great West Australian iron ore industry is based. We discussed mining issues on many occasions. I found that he was a person who had an outlook very similar to that of people in Western Australia.

I must say I enjoyed knowing Warwick Parer; admittedly at a much more superficial level than the Queensland members. The last time I saw him was at the Liberal Party campaign launch in 2010 in Brisbane, and we had a very friendly conversation there. I simply want to add my tribute to those already on the record: Warwick Parer was somebody who made a significant contribution to the Senate and, in his own way, he was very much a great man, and a great supporter of Liberal Party and its values.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask honourable senators to stand in silence to signify their assent to the motion.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.