Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak and offer my condolences to the family of Bob Geoghegan, who died on 21 October. Bob was a very well-known member of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party and had been an extraordinary contributor to Maitland and the Hunter region. People like Bob Geoghegan—like so many inside the membership wing of the Liberal Party—are what make the party great, because Bob could have done so many different things with his life. He was a mechanical engineer, and he worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme. He spent so many months and years supporting the Liberal Party in different causes when he could have, frankly, spent that time doing other things. He was a very heavily engaged citizen in the area of Maitland, so much so that at last week's state council meeting the state president, Philip Ruddock, made special mention of Bob's passing. I could sense from the room, where the whole of the state was represented, that Bob had really made his mark and was well known across the state. Bob Geoghegan got involved in the party over 20 years ago, when he first worked with Bob Baldwin—another Bob from that part of the world. During the 20 years that he was involved in Maitland council, he also became deputy mayor.

My own interaction with Bob started in 2016, when I was first running for Senate preselection. Bob and his wife, Robyn, welcomed me and my family to his home at Maitland. I had an about-six-month-old baby at that stage. Bob was a very generous man with his time. I never knew whether or not Bob voted for me; I did not really care, because I did not win that preselection. In the interceding period, he kept in touch with me and I kept in touch with them. When I went through and reviewed my correspondence with Bob after he passed, I found all the different messages over the years where he would send me policy ideas about how we could frame one of our policies or what Labor was doing in the Hunter area. He was such an engaged citizen.

During the 2019 election, I think he had already been diagnosed with cancer but he was still very engaged and very supportive of our candidate in Paterson, Sachin Joshi, who got a very large swing to the Liberal Party. Bob would get in touch with me; he would call me and ask me about facts and stats, and then he would write articles to the local papers. That was Bob right until the end: highly engaged, highly interested and also highly supportive of people like Sachin—first-time candidates. Being a candidate for the first time can sometimes be tough, but he was very supportive and a very pastoral man.

I also want to say that Bob, of course, was a great family man. I did not know his family well, but I have met Robyn a number of times. I know that he leaves behind a very proud family of three daughters and six grandchildren. I am sure that they would be extremely proud of his enormous civic achievements: to have supported so many other people in public life; to have had his own successful career in public life; and to have been a great contributor to the community. At his funeral last week, I know that the Maitland Town Hall was absolutely bursting. My condolences to the Geoghegan family. Vale Bob Geoghegan.