Mr MORRISON (Cook—Prime Minister and Minister for the Public Service) (14:09): I move: That the House record its deep regret at the death, on 16 April 2021, of the Honourable Andrew Sharp Peacock AC, a former Minister and Member of this House for the Division of Kooyong from 1966 to 1994, a Leader of the Opposition, a leader of the Liberal Party and an ambassador to the United States, and place on record its deep appreciation for his service to Australia and offer its heartfelt sympathy to his family. Andrew Peacock was a man of great loves, of achievements and of exhilarations. Of course, these extended mostly to his family, but there were so many others: the Liberal Party, the track, the Essendon Football Club. Each of them left him with his share of wins and losses, and near misses also: the 1984 and 1990 general elections, nearly chasing down former Prime Minister Bob Hawke; and the 1974 Melbourne Cup, where Leilani, which he co-owned, was the favourite and appeared to have the race in the bag until Think Big chased her down from the back of the field—as he said, 'A cup lost in the shadows of the post.' He understood the evocation of Kipling: to meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same. Andrew Peacock lived that philosophy. He walked the corridors of this building and, indeed, the one down the hill, confident in his own skin, feeling utterly at home in his own life. It was an easy and a charismatic confidence that others were drawn to, a confidence seen behind the dispatch box; at the track on a Saturday, impeccably dressed, of course, with binoculars over one shoulder, studying the Wizard form guide in his hand; on the tennis court with his mate the late Teddy Kennedy; and networking with the A-listers in Washington, advancing our national cause. Like his old sparring partner, former Prime Minister Hawke, Andrew Peacock had a charisma and a warmth that others were drawn to. He drew on it when he put his hand up as a 27-year-old seeking pre-selection to succeed Sir Robert Menzies in the seat of Kooyong. There have never been bigger shoes for someone to fill. But the 'colt from Kooyong', as he became known—a lifelong sobriquet, ever given in Australian politics—took that in his stride. For decades later, Andrew became a generous mentor to another young, optimistic and forward-looking Liberal candidate and indeed member for Kooyong. I know that the Treasurer wishes he could have been here today, Mr Speaker, to be honouring his great friend Andrew Peacock. At the core of Andrew's beliefs was liberalism and its ability to help people live out the truest expression of who they can be. As he said in his Alfred Deakin lecture: A Liberal society does not demand homogeneity and social uniformity. On the contrary, it relishes diversity. A truly fruitful society is one which promotes a zest for differences. A society which accepts and encourages those differences as a natural expression of individual identity will be more creative, progressive and interesting. It is worth recalling that at the lecture in 1983, a university student brought along her 16-year-old brother to hear Andrew Peacock speak. I understand it was the teenager's first political speech. That night, Andrew Peacock lit a spark in a young Tony Smith, as he did in so many other lives. Andrew Peacock was a member of this House for almost three decades—a minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments. He made history as the then youngest minister ever when John Gorton made him Minister for the Army at the age of 30. He was minister during the Vietnam War. In the McMahon government he was Minister for External Territories, a role he held for just 10 months at the time but a role that reshaped him, our country and our dear neighbour, Papua New Guinea. He worked closely with the late Sir Michael Somare, whose passing we recently mourned here in this place. Andrew Peacock visited PNG more than 50 times. It has been said of Andrew Peacock that he had charm—indeed, that he could charm the birds out of the trees. That is true, but his charm, connectedness and gift for friendships sprang from an ability to see things from someone else's point of view. He said of that time: 'I had to stop and remind myself that I had to put Australia first and not Papua New Guinea first.' He had grasped the 'why' of independence for Papua New Guinea—the pride of a people and the yearning to take responsibility for their own country, and the need for Australia to be not a colonial usurper but a friend to the aspirations of our nearest neighbour, pioneering our view of Papua New Guinea and, indeed, the entire Pacific as family. In the Fraser government Andrew Peacock became one of our most accomplished foreign ministers. He built deep relationships across the region and was ahead of his time in promoting a reorientation of Australia towards our own region. He was proud of negotiating the Australia-Japan treaty of friendship. He was vocal in his denunciation of the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea, despising what he called 'that loathsome regime'. Andrew Peacock was a defining figure in our party, the Liberal Party, during the 1980s and the early 1990s. He led our party on two separate occasions. Approaching the half-century of Menzies's party, it was a time when the policy prescription of the party was being re-examined. At the fulcrum of those times were Andrew Peacock and former Prime Minister John Howard. This, of course, was a great rivalry, but Andrew said that through it all he and John never stopped talking. To Andrew, politics was always about engaging with others. He loved people. It was that ideal, and Andrew's ability to focus on the bigger picture, that made the colt a stayer. It's why Andrew was called back into service in 1997 by John Howard, who appointed him as Australia's ambassador to Washington—and a fine appointment it was. It was a role so suited to a man who felt so utterly at home with our American friends, so deeply ingrained in the importance of that alliance relationship and its foundational value to our own peace and security in this country. Andrew Peacock drew much of his philosophy of life from racing: the 'ifs' of life; learning how to get up after a loss and dust yourself off; and being comfortable with both chance and fate. He loved the line from Les Carlyon's book on racing, Chasing a Dream: If you insist two and two must always be four, if you think what should be will be, if you cannot dream a little, forget about the turf. Andrew Peacock said his life was an endless adventure, and indeed it was—an adventure that saw him discover purpose in politics and achievement, and experience joy in the vagaries of his love of racing and the certainties of love from his dear family. When Andrew passed, his daughters Caroline, Jane and Ann wrote: You taught us to be our best selves, and in both triumph and adversity to keep our heads high. What father wouldn't want their children to be able to say that of them? Lessons for us all. Andrew Peacock was a treasure of our great party, the Liberal Party, and a devoted servant of our great country. To Andrew's wife, Penne, his children and his grandchildren, we offer our gratitude. We offer our condolences of both this place and, indeed, our party, of the government and of the country that Andrew loved and served for so long. May he rest in peace. Honourable members: Hear, hear!