Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to reflect on the contributions of a very special woman, Jenny Russell, to the Queensland Liberal National Party. She passed away from a malignant brain tumour on 25 May this year, leaving a huge void in the lives of her family and friends and the community of the LNP. Jenny really did educate me all about regional Queensland, its strengths and challenges, from the very first time we met. That was the nature of her generous soul. I was honoured to have her support and wise counsel to guide me as I have grown, and I am saddened to have lost a mentor and a friend. She was only 66 years of age. The blessing is that I have had the opportunity to know her kindness, her blunt humour and her passion for rural life.

Before I celebrate Jenny, I'd like to say something about the cruel disease that is brain cancer. In my lifetime, breast cancer has gone from being a fatal diagnosis to one that has one of the highest success rates for treatment if detected early. Bowel cancer and skin cancer are going the same way. We even know the causes of these cancers, and we can adjust our lifestyle, to an extent, accordingly to reduce our risk.

In 2017 Health Minister Hunt pledged $50 million from the Australian government in matched funding for the Australian Brain Cancer Mission. Setting a goal like the Australian Brain Cancer Mission is the first step in a journey of successes and failures on the road to finding the cause and hopefully improving treatments and cure rates.

Jenny Russell was, first and foremost, a bushie. Born in 1953, she grew up in Swan Hill, Blackall, in the central west. She was educated at home by correspondence before going to boarding school and then later to university, before she went into teaching. She left teaching and entered politics when she was employed as a research officer in 1983 for the Queensland National Party, beginning what became a long affiliation with the non-Labor side of politics and a strong contribution to regional Queensland.

Her life changed dramatically when her mother Jackie died in a car crash in 1985. Jenny gave up work in Brisbane and took on the partnership of the family's stud and commercial cattle business, restoring it to being one of the state's leading Santa Gerturidis producers. She went on to serve on the Beef Australia board for 14 years until 2018, and she was rewarded with life membership for her work. She was the first female senior vice-president of the Queensland National Party in 1995, a role she thrived in until she stepped aside in 2005. She was honoured with life membership of the Nationals in recognition of her absolutely enormous contribution. Former Nationals President David Russell QC said of Jenny:

From time to time one knows individuals with a razor-sharp intellect and superb judgement. Jenny's generous spirit and commitment to family and community for whom she made so many sacrifices went well beyond the call of duty. It is not common to know individuals with both characteristics in abundance, Jenny was one of these.

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson said of her:

Jenny had a commanding presence and was a wonderfully warm and intelligent person … a gifted conversationalist … I found her one of those people that you genuinely looked forward to seeing.

Regional and agriculture policy development was her passion. She was a member of the Liberal National Party Policy Standing Committee, and a lasting legacy was her contribution to the LNP's 2012 land tenure submission.

Poet George Essex Evans, who was a favourite of Jenny's, put best, I think, the spirit of the women of the west—women like Jenny—in the poem Women of the West:

The wide Bush holds the secrets of their longings and desires,

When the white stars in reverence light their holy altar-fires,

And silence, like the touch of God, sinks deep into the breast—

Perchance He hears and understands the Women of the West.

Vale Jenny Russell. Godspeed.