McKenzie, Sen Bridget

Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (16:02): I rise as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate to thank both the Leader of the Government and the Leader of the Opposition for their honest, kind and very thoughtful contributions. We are at our very best in this chamber when we do remember those past, irrespective of our differences in political persuasions and the contribution that we all seek to make in this chamber on behalf of our nation and our communities. Senator Ron Leslie Boswell AO served in this place from his election as senator for Queensland in 1983 until the expiration of his seventh term in 2014. That is an extraordinary 31 years, three months and 26 days. For 17 of those years, Senator Boswell was Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, a position for which he gained great respect across the political divide. The fact that both the Prime Minister of Australia and former prime minister John Howard both attended his funeral in Brisbane is, I think, testament to the esteem he was held in right across the political spectrum, and what an amazing sight it was to see his former National Senate colleagues Barry O'Sullivan, Nigel Scullion, John 'Wacka' Williams, Peter and Julian McGauran—although, on Julian, we'll never get over that defection in Victoria—and Sandy Macdonald, act as pallbearers at his funeral. Bozzie, as he was known, was a champion of many issues, notably small business, but also primary industries: fishing, sugar, pineapples, tobacco and beef. He was also a champion of the family and of traditional rural and family values. He was a man of faith, a man of conviction. He held firmly to positions on abortion, on euthanasia and on same-sex marriage In taking the honour to participate in this condolence motion, I want to mention a few things about Ron Boswell that were emblematic of his work as a senator and as a person and from which we can all learn, from his long and distinguished career. The first was that Bozzie never sought the heady stratosphere of being a cabinet minister. He turned down numerous opportunities to become a minister when he could have so easily demanded to be one. He did serve four years as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services from 1999 to 2003 and in various shadow ministerial positions, including regional development and external territories, northern Australia and external territories, and consumer affairs. But Bozzie knew instinctively that there was often more power, influence and freedom being on the outside than as a cabinet insider. He could always stay true to his values and closer to the people who elected him by being a troublesome outsider—and troublesome he was. On telecommunications for the bush, on the sale of Telstra, on the sugar industry, on trade, on pharmacies, on banks, and when it came to post offices, carbon taxes and competition policy, Bozzie was troublesome indeed, irrespective of who was sitting on the treasury bench. Senator Boswell also made a calculated but principled decision to rebuff what one might broadly call the lunar right in Queensland. Despite the claims by the Greens and prominent members of the ABC, Australia is not a racist country—not remotely. We're one of the most welcoming countries in the world, where people from every corner of the Earth come to live, to start a new life and to grow, contribute and prosper. But that is not also to say that there are no racists in Australia. Following warnings from former journalist Tony Koch from the Australian about the League of Rights, Bozzie set about investigating and then distancing himself from the group, which had infiltrated the highest level of the Queensland National Party and were moving into evangelical churches across Queensland as well. This was a group that was deeply antisemitic and racist, denied that Jesus Christ was a Jew and had crackpot ideas about social credit and the economy. In a landmark speech in 1988, Bozzie spoke out against the league. For many months afterwards, the retribution was savage, but eventually the churches too recognised that they were being used by the league. Bozzie believed in the dignity and respect of every person, regardless of creed or colour. It's worth noting that later, when he took on One Nation, Bozzie says he 'fought against the party with all the fora available to me as a senator', but in his memoir he writes: 'I did not participate in any attempts to involve the criminal justice system. Hanson's prison sentence was a grave error that only saw her become a political martyr—not a strategy I would ever support.' Bozzie believed that traditional rural values of community, patriotism, property rights, private enterprise, supporting traditional faith and the family, which are all under attack from globalism, liberalism and socialism, were battles enough on their own without having to deal with the conspiracy theories of crackpots. Indeed, leadership in a democracy is not agreeing to every populist theory or current opinion. Very often it is saying what is unpopular but what is also right. A former insurance and paintbrush salesman, Bozzie was a strong proponent of the private enterprise philosophy that encouraged people to run their own businesses, but not unbridled markets. As he said in his maiden speech: The National Party, however, will not and does not support the argument that the market must find its own level, the big must get bigger and the small must wither and die. My party wishes to see private enterprise flourish and grow with all Australians enjoying the benefits which this creates. It was a theme throughout his career. 'Market power is so fundamentally important to the prices of everything we put into the supermarket trolley,' he wrote in his autobiography, co-authored by Joanne Newbery. Early in parliament, working in cahoots, as he so often did with a variety of souls, with South Australia Labor senator Chris Schacht during the Hawke government, Bozzie successfully struck a blow for the reform of the Trade Practices Act, much to the chagrin of his Liberal Party colleagues. Bozzie recalls reminding his Liberal colleagues in the joint party room of a speech by Sir Robert Menzies in which Australia's longest-serving liberal prime minister said: Australian Liberals are not the exponents of an open go, for if we are all to have an open go each for himself and the devil take the hindmost, anarchy will result and both security and progress disappear. Deregulation, Bozzie warned, was not the answer to all problems. He also used the committee system in the Senate effectively, establishing deep connections into regional Australia, where he championed so many causes, including the freedom of Lindy Chamberlain. As the ever-astute John Roskam, former IPA chief, said of Ron Boswell: He is a far more significant figure in Australian politics and public policy than 80 per cent of people who have been a minister. Thank you, John, as always, for your insightful recollections. Roskam compared Senator Boswell with the late Bert Kelly, a long-serving Liberal backbencher whom no less than Gough Whitlam described as 'the most influential modest member of Australian parliament'. Yet, despite this, Bozzie was also a fierce coalitionist. He was a Queensland National and admiring confidant of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen in his younger days, and he recognised the value and the superglue of the combined strength of the Nationals and the Liberals. Yes, it's true that later in his career he worked closely with the Katter party and regretted the amalgamation of the Queensland right-of-centre parties into the LNP, because the Brisbane Liberals had become the dominant force within the LNP, but Bozzie's ways of doing politics was elbows out and spare the niceties, and I think anyone that ran into him or was bowled over by him in the corridors would always recall that he was often carrying lunch on his tie—for afters! I regularly visited his apartment, overlooking the Brisbane River, following his retirement, where advice flowed, as did terrible coffee and biscuits. Yes, Bozzie, I have my riding orders. But he always said to me, 'If you're going to lead, bloody well lead.' Anyone who's been on the end of multiple phone calls from Bozzie when he wanted something knew this methodology very well. If he didn't get around the brick wall in front of him, he'd knock it down. Very often he didn't bother making an appointment; he'd just barge into ministerial offices when he needed something. And he never really retired from politics, giving advice to sitting MPs on an almost daily basis—and many sitting here today will know of the constant phone calls. He also was an influential player behind the scenes. I think of the sacking during question time of former CEO of Australia Post Christine Holgate and the role that Bozzie played throughout that Senate inquiry in supporting Ms Holgate through that period. He championed fairness to the very end, irrespective of who you were. And he wrote newspaper columns, and his last was on his last birthday. It was about betrayal and how much he loved our party. Ron's beloved wife, Leita, died in 2012 and was a driving force behind his career but also a great support to him. After the couple lost their son, Stephen, to a brain haemorrhage, a situation he never got over, Ron and Leita built a high school in East Timor in his honour. It was an act of extraordinary generosity but one of many such acts of generosity that Ron made during his life. They are survived by his daughter, Cathy, who is here in the gallery together with Sophie, who is also here—also Tom and Will and his great grandchildren, Charly and Bonnie, of whom he was so proud. This is not a man who didn't just speak about family values. He lived family values. I would also like to recognise his National Party colleagues Llew O'Brien and Colin Boyce, who he also loved. Bozzie, you were a remarkable man, a great Queenslander, a mentor and a guide. We will miss you dearly. And it would be remiss of me if I didn't encourage you all to buy his book—always a salesman! It's well worth the read. Our party, our parliament and our nation are greater for your service. Vale, Ron Boswell.