Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (14:02): In 2015 on his 90th birthday Ian Robinson showed a local reporter a black-and-white photograph of the opening of the New South Wales parliament in February 1954. Ian said to the journalist, pointing to that photo, 'Only two of us left.' First, pointing to himself, he said, 'a young skinny kid'. The other, of course, is Queen Elizabeth II. In the New South Wales Clarence Valley the Robinsons were royalty. Ian's grandfather first started farming the land there in 1874. Ian remembered the art of horse-drawn ploughing and the coming of the tractor. He remembered sitting outside on the schoolroom steps, too young to attend class but too eager to wait another year. Thirty-seven years as a state and federal politician sounds like an arduous innings to many of us, but it was nothing to a dairy farmer. Ian Robinson was a born-and-bred oldschool Nat. He was not tribal or visceral about it. He came from the school of politics that valued courtesy. As he put it, 'We believed you should respect your adversaries, as you would never know when you would need them in the future.' Now, perhaps not altogether altruistic, but a timely and a timeless piece of advice for all of us. On behalf of the party that Ian fought so gamely and for so long, I offer our heartfelt condolences to his beloved wife, Florence, his family and friends. At the end of a long life well lived, may he rest in peace.