Sterle, Sen Glenn

Senator STERLE (Western Australia) (17:23): Very quickly, I'd like to pay my respects to Bozzie and contribute, in a couple of minutes, some fond memories I have of Ron Boswell. When I first came here in 2005, sitting right opposite there was Bozzie, right in the corner like a happy Buddha. He owned that corner, and he owned everyone around him, and I must say it was a pleasure to serve with Bozzie for nine years, until he pulled up stumps in 2014. But I have two very quick memories of Bozzie. When I was brand new and we all got the call, you had to go to Government House—remember when you were brand new and you dutifully got in the car and you all piled over there, thinking, 'What the hell am I doing here?' But I did it, and as I pulled up out the front, I got out of the car with former senator Hutchins, another dear friend, and he said, 'Follow me.' We walked in and there were some lovely young people in Army uniforms and Navy uniforms and Air Force uniforms. They were serving little bits of food— The PRESIDENT: Hors d'oeuvres? Senator STERLE: Hors d'oeuvres—thank you, President. There's Bozzie, this mountain of a man—this was suspender-and-braces days—standing in the room, and in this hand he had a sausage roll and in this other hand he had a party pie. There's this tiny little lady standing there with a plate of spring rolls, and—I kid you not—Bozzie went, 'Huh!' He looked at the sausage roll. He looked at the party pie. In went the party pie as he grabbed the spring roll. I thought, 'Only Bozzie could do that.' And that was Bozzie. Another very, very fond memory is Senate estimates in the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, which I had the pleasure of chairing for six years in government from 2007 to 2013. Bozzie would always come in the back way, and you knew, like clockwork, Bozzie was going to turn up to ask questions around AFMA and fishing. That was his forte. He'd walk passed everyone, bumping chairs as he was coming down the skinny stretch where the staff sit, and he'd go straight to the bickie room with a cup of tea, and he'd get a handful of bickies. Bozzie would come back, and he'd bang every seat as he was on his way back down. He'd fall back into the seat. You would hear this thud, and then you would hear 'ugh!', and he'd say at the top of his voice, while people were asking questions, 'Sterlo'—he couldn't sit next to me and ask; he had to scream from the other end—'have we done fisheries yet?' And I'd say, 'Jeez, Bozzie, you've missed it again,' and the word was similar to 'ugh!', and then there would be a flurry of biscuits flying—he was like the Cookie Monster—and there would be crumbs and everything flying. I'd sit there—every year for six years!—and I'd say: 'Bozzie, I'm only winding you up, mate. They're coming on next.' And he'd say, 'Good.' But I'm saying that there are some very dear and fond memories of Bozzie. Bozzie was an absolute legend. I'm not going to repeat what everyone else has said. What a man. What a unit. What a leader. What a politician. I just tell you what—if I were in Queensland when Bozzie was on the hunt, you might have got me in the Nats! Might have! Might have got me in the Nats! But it was only Bozzie or my very dear friend— The PRESIDENT: We're listening! Senator STERLE: I said 'might have' if I were a young bloke in Queensland back then in '83. My very, very dear friend former senator Barry O'Sullivan. My last memory of Bozzie—I had the privilege of sitting down at that Brisbane institution the Breakfast Creek Hotel, because Bozzie had just lost his wife, and Sully had knocked up a catch up for three good amigos. We spent a Saturday afternoon in the Breakfast Creek Hotel with Bozzie and with Barry O'Sullivan and myself, and—I tell you what—it was a lasting memory. Bozzie, thank you for the memories, mate. Vale.