Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to briefly associate myself with the comments and commendations that have been made today of the late David Scott Thomson. I had the pleasure of meeting David only a couple of times. I did not know him particularly well, but I knew him very well by reputation in the North. He was much loved, much respected in the Cairns and Far North Queensland community, in Cape York and in the Torres Strait Islands. As someone who regularly uses the Cairns Airport, I give David Thomson credit for the first lot of work that was done that really started the boom times in Cairns in the mid-1980s. It was during David Thomson's time, as the member for Leichhardt, that the upgrade of the Cairns Airport was commenced and Mr Thomson succeeded in having the government of Malcolm Fraser provide funding to the then Cairns Harbour Board, which then owned the airport.

Mr President, as you may recall, the upgrading of the Cairns Airport in that period of time was really the forerunner to the great boom period that Cairns experienced in the late eighties and early 1990s. Regrettably, more recent upgrades to the Cairns Airport have not, in my view, been quite as successful as those earlier ones but certainly Mr Thomson is well remembered for the boost that he gave to tourism and to the economy in Cairns.

As my colleagues have said, he was also well regarded in the cape and in the Torres Strait. As Senator Boswell mentioned, he worked with the then Minister for Post and Telecommunications in getting the first public telephones installed on the outer islands in the Torres Strait. I understand he took the then Minister for Post and Telecommunications, Eric Robinson, up into the Torres Strait. He was also responsible for taking Malcolm Fraser to visit Burketown, up in the gulf, for their Never Never Get Together function, and that was the very first time a Prime Minister had ever visited the small gulf community of Burketown. He encouraged the federal government to provide funding for the AUSSAT domestic satellite, which ultimately facilitated the broadcast of TV for the first time to remote Australia. He was, as others have said, a real gentleman and, as I say, much loved.

David Thomson's distinguished military career has been well commented upon, and I will not repeat that. He was, though, a soldier and was in the parliament, curiously, at the same time as the late RN 'Duke' Bonnett, who was the Liberal member for the Townsville based seat of Herbert. I remember, as a much younger person in those days, in North Queensland how proud we were of both the political influence of David Thomson and Duke Bonnett and, particularly, their very distinguished service records. I am sure that they would have had many a conversation about military campaigns in their joint time in the federal parliament.

My colleague Warren Entsch fondly recalls many times when David Thomson, in more recent years, would pop in and see him and give him some very helpful advice, which Warren was always very pleased to receive. David Thomson was well regarded in non-Labor circles as being the person to win the seat of Leichhardt back from the Labor Party after 24 long years of Labor rule in that Far North Queensland electorate. He is well remembered in political circles for that. He was a very distinguished Australian, a very distinguished soldier and a very distinguished parliamentarian. I extend to David Thomson's family my sincere condolences on his passing.