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

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement, of no longer than five minutes, relating to the death of Phillip Hughes.

Leave granted.

Australia was shaken last week when one of our fine young sportsmen was injured in tragic circumstances on the field and later succumbed to his injuries. He would have turned 26 last Sunday. Today, in Macksville, his family and friends are gathering to farewell Phillip Joel Hughes. His death in such a public manner, pursuing our national game, has affected many, many Australians and many others abroad.

Phillip Hughes showed his talent on the pitch at a very young age. He played at club and state level and then, aged just 20, received his Australian baggy green. He played for two states, New South Wales and South Australia; he played in the Indian Premier league; and he played for three English county sides, Middlesex, Hampshire and Worcestershire. Phillip Hughes was the youngest player to score twin centuries in a test, before his 21st birthday. He scored a century on his county debut at Lord's.

The reaction to his death has been spontaneous and heartfelt. Phillip Hughes was not only a remarkable cricketer but, by all reports, a modest and engaging young man. The regard in which he was held has been echoed by his team mates and those he played against, both in Australia and across the globe. The circumstances of the injury which led to his death are simply tragically unfortunate. No blame or fault can be laid at the feet of the bowler. Indeed, our thoughts and prayers reach out to the bowler, who was doing nothing other than his professional best. Expert medical commentators have stated how the chance of an injury of this nature having this devastating effect was so remote as to be unforeseeable.

As has been said, in the midst of life we are in death. We express our deepest sympathy to his family on the death of their beloved son. We think of his team mates, who are grappling with the removal from their midst of a gentle, kind young Australian man who loved the country and who had prodigious natural talent. Of all the heart-rending tributes we have seen over the last few days, for me the most moving was from a lady who lives in Macksville and saw him grow up. She said, with poignant simplicity, 'He was a lovely young man.' On behalf of the government, I extend sympathy to the family of Phillip Joel Hughes. May he rest in peace.

John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to speak on behalf of the opposition about the death of Phillip Hughes.

Leave granted.

I thank the Senate and I thank my colleagues for this opportunity to speak on their behalf. Phillip Joel Hughes was a cricketer from humble origins with an unorthodox batting technique but a prodigious talent. He reminded us of a time when sport was less professional, less formulaic than it is today. It is perhaps why his career was so exhilarating. It is perhaps why his death is so sobering.

Phillip Hughes grew up on a banana plantation in the tiny town of Macksville on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales. Country New South Wales has produced and nurtured many fine cricketers, like Charlie Turner of Bathurst, Don Bradman of Bowral, Stan McCabe of Grenfell, Bill O'Reilly of Wingello, and Arthur Morris and Dougie Walters, both from Dungog; from another generation, the products of Wagga Wagga, Geoff Lawson, Mark Taylor and Michael Slater; and, more recently again, another North Coast of New South Wales lad, Adam Gilchrist.

It was in Macksville that Phillip Hughes developed his unorthodox approach to batting, playing against his brother in the backyard. Then, and until last Thursday, perhaps to the purist he never quite looked the part. Where most batsmen step across the crease, weight forward, Phillip Hughes would step towards square leg and look to play through the offside. It is said that his onside shots were blocked by the side of the family home, perhaps the reason he was so renowned for his offside play. Maybe the purists were right—his batting was not from the textbook—but he could play. He could really play. You might question the method, but never the result.

Phillip Hughes was playing adult cricket by the age of 12, and aged just 17 he moved to Sydney to play grade for Western Suburbs. He scored 141 on debut, and so word spread about a country boy with a unique style, scoring big in grade cricket, and that word was heard. Selectors took a look for themselves. A year later, aged just 18, Phillip Hughes was selected to play for New South Wales, where, once more, the talent and temperament overcame tradition and technique. He scored 559 runs at an average of 62.11 for New South Wales in his debut season. He became the second fastest player in New South Wales to score 1,500 in first-class cricket—the fastest was Donald Bradman, a boy from Bowral. At 19, he was the youngest player to make a century in a Sheffield Shield final. A place in the national side beckoned.

In 2009, Phillip Hughes got his break. He was selected to tour South Africa. Against the fierce pace bowling of Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn, he initially faltered, out for a duck in the first innings of the first test, playing an outrageous shot to a short-pitched delivery. He recovered with a steady knock of 75 runs in the second innings. But, in the second test of that tour, in Durban, he emphatically answered those who wondered whether test cricket was beyond him, by scoring a century into each innings, the youngest man ever to do so. There was a refreshing audacity and vitality to a player barely out of his teens against what was then the best bowling attack in the world, boldly hitting successive sixes to bring up a maiden test century. He scored 115 in the first innings and 160 in the second, helping Australia to an unlikely series victory. In the afterglow of those sparkling innings, Peter Roebuck wrote:

He can defend and he can lash. He is going to score buckets. He has figured out the odds, knows the angles, trusts his eye and likes batting. His technique may be homespun but that does not mean it does not work. He has fast eyes, feet and wits.

These were thrilling innings, full of promise, but a less successful Ashes campaign was to follow, where, in the dim light of a northern summer, the English bowlers targeted Phillip Hughes with short-pitched bowling. He spent the next five years in and out of the test side. There were brief hints of brilliance, portents of what many thought would be a long career: a dazzling debut century in a one-day match, a patient hundred against Sri Lanka away from home, a dogged and mature last-wicket stand in Trent Bridge—an epic that turned the match on its head. But he was inconsistent, and at each missed step he was asked to return to Shield cricket to work on his technique and make runs, and each time he did so, patiently and graciously, never envious of the success of others. After all, he was a young man; there was plenty of time. Many thought that Phillip Hughes's patience, grace and talent would be rewarded this very week with a recall to the test side. His death last week reminds us all of our own mortality—how uncertain and tenuous our grip on life can be.

I cannot pretend to have known Phillip Hughes well, having only had one substantial conversation with him, when he came to Reg Bartley Oval in Rushcutters Bay to give of his time and his support to the cricket charity the LBW Trust. I know many who did know him well, and they all say that he was modest, courteous, with no airs and graces—still very much the kid who made the big time and could not quite believe it. Phillip Hughes was a cricketer of immense talent, but, perhaps of greater importance, he was a fine young man. He denied no youngster his advice or his time.

As a family, as friends, as teammates, as the cricket community and as the nation mourn the loss of Phillip Hughes, our thoughts also turn to Sean Abbott and the terrible aberration and impact of just another of the countless balls he would have bowled over many years of practice and play. Of course there was no ill motivation but sheer, sheer, awful bad luck. My hope is that Sean—with the support of friends, family and the cricket community—will continue to play and prosper in cricket at the highest levels.

It is, at best, a bitter consolation that Phillip Hughes died doing what he loved, but it is some consolation. He was 25 years old. He was 63 not out. The scorebook will show he will remain forever 63 not out. The outpouring of grief of his passing is a matter I have not previously witnessed for any other sportsman. It will be apparent to all in this chamber that the death of this young man has reached beyond that moment at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and has reached well beyond cricket. In part, this is because of the quality of the overwhelmingly sensitive and appropriate coverage by the Australian media of this terrible tragedy. I acknowledge the respect that they have shown. I also acknowledge the Australian cricket team and Cricket Australia. They have been magnificent in the most difficult of circumstances.

You do not have to have known Phillip Hughes to have shed tears. I know of many who have wept at the sheer unfairness of his passing. Phillip has not been gifted with all those extra years to define his cricket career and his life. We have with his death an inkling of what it meant to Australia when we lost Victor Trumper and Archie Jackson. Nor should we forget the two young test cricketers who died in wars in Australian uniform, 'Tibby' Cotter and Ross Gregory.

Death should not come to the young. We grieve for who Phillip was and we grieve for what he might have been. Cricket will never be quite the same. What happens now is in the hands of the players, the umpires, the administrators and the wider family of cricket lovers. That is surely as it should be. Cricket belongs to those who love the game. My sincere condolences and the condolences of those I speak on behalf of today go to the family and friends of Phillip Hughes and to all in Australian cricket, and beyond, who mourn his loss.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—On behalf of the Australian Greens, I join with Senator Abetz and Senator Faulkner in expressing profound sadness at the tragic death of outstanding young Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, the 408th Australian selected to wear the beloved baggy green for his country. Today we send our love and thoughts to his family, to his team mates, to the extended cricket family and to the community in Macksville, as we join them in mourning the tragic death, but also celebrating the life, of Phillip Joel Hughes.

Cricket is a much loved national sport for both players and spectators. It brings us all so much joy. But this tragic event brings us an overwhelming feeling of sadness and a coming-together to pay tribute to a wonderful young Australian. The Greens also send our support to Sean Abbott and to all other cricketers around the country. The nation is sending you strength as you reassess your engagement with this great game.

As a mother, I dropped off my son at cricket for years, helped to unpack the bag, wash the cricket whites—going through the whole saga that families go through from one end of the country to the other as they pack up their sons and daughters to get to cricket practice and cricket games. Every time I dropped him off, I never thought that he would die playing the sport that he loved. It does not enter your head as a family as you drop off someone and go through this ritual. No doubt it is exactly the same for families everywhere, including the Hughes family. No doubt, as the family sat in the stands, their great stress for the day was whether he would play well enough to make it back into the Australian team. And by the end of the day tragedy had struck.

I think that is in part why we all find it so profoundly sad—because of its randomness. This tragedy could have hit any cricketing family anywhere, anyone's son or daughter, at any time. That is why we want the Hughes family to know that we care about what has happened to them and we share their grief and send them support. We have enormous respect for Phillip Hughes as a cricketer, but we also want them to know that we recognise he was a much loved son, and we send them our condolence.

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

by leave—I rise to speak today on behalf of the Nationals in this place to remember the life of Phillip Hughes. Our thoughts are with his family and friends and the Australian cricket community on what must be a very difficult day today. Phillip Hughes was born in Macksville in 1988 and grew up in the community playing sport. As with so many young Australians, it was such an important part of his childhood. He excelled at rugby league as well as cricket, before moving to Sydney as a 17-year-old to play for the Western Suburbs grade cricket team. From there, Phil's talent and hard work delivered outstanding results on the cricket pitch. He walked on for New South Wales at age 18, scored a century in a one-day final at 19 and made his test debut for Australia at age 20. What an incredible achievement. What an honour for him and his family it must have been to see him awarded baggy green No. 408.

Phil Hughes was a tremendous Australian who inspired so many young people in this country, not only through his outstanding ability but also because of his down to earth and humble character. He will be remembered by all who new him as a genuine good bloke. The effect Phil's tragic death has had on the cricket community, as well as the broader community in Australia and around the world, shows us the impact this young Australian had already made. The touching tributes that have been flowing in, from our Australian cricket captain, Michael Clarke, from the New Zealand and Pakistani cricket teams who have been playing this week, from junior cricketers and from the wider community, show how much this tragedy has not only rocked the sport but also impacted on us all. It is fitting that the Australian cricket team has retired his one-day number, 64, so we can always acknowledge his special place in Australian cricket. Today is a sad day but also a day to celebrate Phil Hughes's outstanding contribution. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask senators to stand in silence as a mark of respect for Phil Hughes.

Honourable senators having stood in their places—

I thank the Senate.