Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak this afternoon about a member of the Labor Party who passed away suddenly at his home on 24 March this year. His name was known to me and to my successor as President of the New South Wales ALP, Senator Stephens. His name was Dr Pat Stevens and he was a general practitioner in Taree, in the Manning region of New South Wales. Dr Pat, as he was known, was held in high esteem by all those in the community and very much loved by those people, particularly of course his family. His wife, Mary, and his sons, Martin, John and James, miss him dearly. He was buried at the church where he undoubtedly was baptised, St Bernadette’s at Krambach.

I raise the subject of Dr Pat Stevens because he was, as I said, held in high regard by the members of his community; but he was also a Labor Party candidate in the year 2001 against the current Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Vaile. Despite the fact that I do not think we have ever represented the North Coast of New South Wales in the federal parliament, Dr Pat did a sterling job in at least making sure that the Deputy Prime Minister had to spend a bit more time in his electorate than he otherwise would have wanted to. I know that the Deputy Prime Minister also held Dr Pat in high regard, and I am sure he has passed on his best wishes and condolences to the family.

Dr Pat led an interesting life. He was only 60 years old when he passed away. But he was from that region; his family had been there for some generations, on a dairy farm. He was also a national serviceman. He was a late starter in terms of becoming a medical student at the University of Sydney, from which he graduated with honours, becoming a doctor in 1975. He commenced his career in medicine at the Royal Newcastle Hospital then moved to the Mater hospital. I suppose one of the things that attracted him to my party and impressed whoever came into contact with him was his concern for social justice, which was able to find full expression in his years as a general practitioner in Moree, where he dealt with some of the very disadvantaged members of our Australian community, particularly the Indigenous community there. He moved back to his own region after that, staying there as a general practitioner until he passed away on 24 March.

Dr Pat Stevens was highly esteemed by his community, and I take this opportunity to advertise, I suppose, to the Senate that a memorial scholarship fund has been set up in his name by the people of the Manning region. Knowing that Pat himself went through some difficult circumstances in the early part of his life—in terms of access to money to be able to continue his studies—they set up a fund to preserve his memory. That scholarship will be available to a student in the Manning region who wants to study medicine at the University of Newcastle. The fund will target students who are from a financially or socially disadvantaged background and who would require financial support to study at the University of Newcastle, and who will hopefully go back to the Manning region afterwards.

Knowing Dr Pat as I did, I am pretty sure that he would have shied away from having anything like this named after him. But he was held in such high regard in the community of that region—and he does not have any chance to dispute it now!—that they want to commemorate in perpetuity the memory of this fine Australian who did a lot for the region. Indeed, he put his passion for people on the line almost daily to ensure that things were righted when and if he was in a position to do so. This scholarship fund has been set up and the intention is for it to operate from 2008.