Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to rise and pay tribute on this motion to the former member for North Sydney, the honourable Joe Hockey. Many wonderful words have been spoken today about Joe Hockey. He was a member of parliament like no other. He made an incredible contribution to his electorate, to this parliament and to the nation.

I actually resided in Joe Hockey's electorate before he was elected—from 1989. I moved to Sydney to work for the ABC. This was in the heady days of Ted Mack, when an independent held the seat. I lived in McMahons Point, in the heart of Joe Hockey's electorate of North Sydney. From the time that Joe was elected, in 1996, he very quickly consolidated the seat into the very strong Liberal seat that it is today, and we members of the Liberal Party would expect to hold the seat in the upcoming by-election.

Joe Hockey was—and I still find it difficult to think about Joe in the past tense, because it is still with great sadness, and also having resigned so quickly and left the parliament so suddenly. It is with great sadness that I record that Joe Hockey is no longer here in this parliament. He made an incredible contribution from the very early days when he was elected, holding many portfolios both in government and also in opposition, and, of course, in 2013 he became Treasurer. He was a person who never forgot from where came. He was a great family man. He was a great supporter of small business. He was a great adherent to strong Liberal values. If there is one speech that I commend to students of politics, it is Joe Hockey's valedictory speech. I thought it was a wonderful speech. Many of us in the chamber had tears our eyes. It was emotional. It was humble. It encapsulated the great contribution that he made, and it was also brave and courageous.

I want to read one part of Joe Hockey's valedictory speech that really made an impact on me. He said:

All my life I've subscribed to the principles of modern liberalism. In my maiden speech I defined them as protection of individual rights, defence of parliamentary democracy, a commitment to positive reform and equality of opportunity. It's true but it must be said, if you don't have core beliefs then you have no core. When you're asked to make very difficult decisions that have a huge impact on people's lives, without a guiding philosophy, you'll inevitably be indecisive, or worse, inconsistent.

There is no doubt that Joe Hockey was called upon to make some very difficult decisions, and some of those decisions in the 2014 budget did not resonate. But let us not forget—and I do not want to dwell too much on the politics of this—that he inherited an extremely difficult fiscal situation, one in which he knew that we as a nation could not continue to spend more than we earn. As unpopular as some measures were, he took that task to heart, he grappled with it, and he delivered. As we have heard today, most recently from the member for Dawson, some of those measures were difficult. But the former Treasurer of this great country understands that at the moment we are borrowing $100 million a day just to pay the interest, which is absolutely unsustainable. The former Treasurer made enormous inroads into cutting the debt and the deficit. Though there is still more of a journey and it is extremely difficult, he has set us on the path of fiscal repair, and for that we owe him a great debt.

The member for Robertson spoke about the former member for North Sydney as being a great investor in people. For me he was very much that sort of person—warm, gregarious, fun; a great people person. I remember he came to my electorate on one particular visit—in fact before I was elected he visited on four separate occasions—and I took him for a stroll down the main street in Torquay. He was so loved—people loved what he had to say, they admired him and they felt an enormous connection with him. That is one of Joe Hockey's great successes—he has a unique ability to connect with others. I particularly want to pay tribute to Joe Hockey for the many wonderful initiatives that he introduced in this year's budget: the enormous investment in small business; the enormous investment in child care; the difficult decisions that had to be made. As a man who grew up in a small business, who understands the value of hard work, who understands the value of family enterprise, Joe Hockey understands better than most that building small businesses right around the nation can transform us economically.

Joe Hockey, along with former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, was instrumental in making a number of very significant investments in my electorate: as the duplication of the Princes Highway—a commitment first made back in 2010—and the upgrade of the Great Ocean Road, for example. Joe Hockey made the decision to bring an Australian Bureau of Statistics centre of excellence to Geelong. It will open in early 2016, bringing with it 250 jobs. He was incredibly focused on the importance of investing in jobs and growth; that was his job every single day. I spent a lot of time with Joe. I felt he was someone who was a great mentor to me, and I am particularly sad as I felt there were many more years of mentoring to be done. I hope that perhaps, in another way and in another life, that that might continue. Joe was very supportive of establishing an Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre in Geelong to invest in the smart jobs, the jobs that drive innovation, the jobs of the future. In so many ways—underpinned by our free trade agreements, underpinned by agriculture and by food processing across my electorate—he recognised the big economic challenges for our nation. He can look back upon his 19 years here in this parliament, I think, with great pride.

I want to wish Joe's wife, Melissa, all the very best, along with his children, Xavier, Adelaide and Ignatius. Given that we are all going to live longer and work longer, Joe Hockey is obviously still a relatively young man. He has an enormous contribution to continue to make to this nation. I wish him all the very best. I thank him deeply and sincerely for his friendship, his guidance and his belief in me.

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