Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Wayne Goss was Queensland's Whitlam: a reformer, a decent and an honourable man, a lawyer with a passionate sense of social justice. The barber's son from Inala, born in 1951, he grew up in a housing commission dwelling there in Inala and never forgot his roots. Wayne Swan, the former member for Lilley and former Deputy Prime Minister described him as a leader of 'exceptional quality' and 'breakthrough' leader—absolutely true and completely accurate.

He was inspired by Gough Whitlam and his legacy, and he did so many good things for Queensland: law reform; implementation of improved public administration; overseeing the implementation of the Fitzgerald inquiry recommendations, delivering tangible and enduring action across that area; rebuilding the public hospital system, the education system; improving infrastructure. My good friend David Hamill, the former member for Ipswich and former transport and education minister in the Goss Labor government, said of Wayne Goss that 'he restored dignity to the processes of government'. He reformed the electoral system. He ended the gerrymander, having overcome it in December 1989. I can recall vividly being involved in campaigns in the 1980s in Ipswich, as one of the campaign workers in David's campaign. I remember being there with Ross Platz, the campaign director, as we tallied seat after seat after seat falling in 1989—scarcely believing that we could eventually win. We had enormous faith and enormous respect for Wayne Goss. We many times in many elections the pain and anguish of defeat, but it was always Wayne who had that faith, drive, determination, work, discipline and focus which was required to overcome the gerrymander.

I do pay my condolences to his wife Roisin, his children Caitlin and Ryan on behalf of my electorate of Blair.

Wayne Goss was not an arrogant man, as some have said. He was a shy man and I do recall after he had decided to leave state politics that it was agreed that Wayne would be our candidate in the federal electorate of Oxley. At that stage Oxley covered most of what is now Blair. As David Hamill's campaign director, I recall travelling around the branches in Ipswich. When Wayne was introducing himself, it was quite ironic that he was introducing himself to branch members as a pre-selection candidate in the seat of Oxley, yet they knew him very well because he had been the Labor leader and premier of Queensland.

In my meetings with him, Wayne always struck me as a shy man and a retiring figure. He was not someone of whom you thought hail-fellow-well-met. What struck me many times was his fundamental integrity and decency. I recall in those branch meetings that here was the former premier of Queensland with hands shaking while he was talking to branch members. This was something new for him. He had never been a pre-selection candidate.

It is a great loss. I pay my respects for the current member for Oxley, my good friend Bernie Ripoll, who I think has done a fantastic job for that region. For two terms he was my federal member. Wayne was a great loss to the federal parliament. He would have been a senior minister in a future Labor government, I am sure. He was a man whom I thought really knew where he was going. I recall meeting him in his office on occasions when there were issues of pre-selection concerning my area. This is when he was the opposition leader. He said, 'Shayne, you will know when it is time to leave the law.' I never forgot it, because on more than a couple of occasions I had the opportunity to go into either local or state politics, but I never really felt it was the right time to do it. Wayne's sage advice to a young bloke, as I was in those days—I had a lot more hair than I have at the moment!—was extraordinarily wise. I always respected him because he was someone who committed so much of his time to the service of land rights, representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and being involved in law reform. He was involved in legal aid services in Queensland—establishing them, building them and promoting them—and in delivering justice and representation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

But he had a greater vision and focus. He wanted to rebuild Queensland, which had been left rundown for a long time. I remember former state member for Ipswich West Don Livingstone saying to me when he was elected to parliament in the late 1980s that there were absolutely no road projects or serious infrastructure plans for Ipswich West at the time. The Goss government started to build. They built roads, rebuilt schools and rebuilt hospitals, all vital community infrastructure that had been run down.

There are a lot of people who want to rewrite the history of the period of the Bjelke-Petersen regime in Queensland, and the premiers after that. It was characterised by a comment that David Hamill made about a conversation he had on numerous occasions with Russ Hinze, who, in the 1980s, was actually the 'minister for everything' in Queensland. He famously would drive through the Valley and say he could not find any brothels or illegal casinos anywhere, even though they would all be there on the very sides of the roads. Russ Hinze said to David on more than one occasion, 'Young fellow, you would be a mug if you did not make money out of politics.' So, according to Russ Hinze, conflicts of interest were more confluences of interests. There was an extraordinary degree of lack of integrity and probity in government at that particular time. As the member for Grayndler said, 'If you doubt there was corruption and darkness and despair at that time in Queensland, go and have a read of the Fitzgerald inquiry and read the recommendations and see what Wayne had to do.'

Wayne did in fact establish merit-based appointments in the public service and he supported the work of the Criminal Justice Commission, now the Crime and Corruption Commission. Wayne was broader than that, though. There were so many environmental reforms, the establishment of national parks, the decriminalisation of homosexuality and a whole range of areas that Wayne devoted himself to. He was a runner who took his discipline as a runner and brought it into political life.

Wayne served with distinction after he left politics. When he left politics, he said a famous thing which is reported many times in Queensland media:

Thank you, Queensland. You've been good to me. I hope I've left you a better place.

He certainly did. He certainly left Queensland a much better place. He was a moderniser and a reformer—our Gough Whitlam. He changed Queensland for the better. The member for Lilley was absolutely accurate when he said:

Wayne changed Queensland, the state we love, for the better. He dragged it into the sunlight after 32 years in the darkness.

He will never be forgotten. Wayne Goss is a legend in Queensland and a Labor legend. He has changed our state for the better. I hope that people in other states will look to him as a role model for reformism. It is a tragedy and a shame that he never got to display his incredible talents, character and ability on the national stage here in parliament, but in Queensland we will not forget him.

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